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preparing iPhone 12 pro photos for print using photoshop

New Here ,
Jul 16, 2021 Jul 16, 2021

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Hi!  I'm just starting to find my way around photoshop.  I have an iphone 12 pro and would like to sell some of my photos as digital prints on Etsy.  My problem is when I import my photos to photoshop, the dpi shows up as 72.  I know I can change it to 300, but will I truly retain photo quality that way.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Jul 18, 2021 Jul 18, 2021

@nautilusnine wrote:

My problem is when I import my photos to photoshop, the dpi shows up as 72.  I know I can change it to 300, but will I truly retain photo quality that way.


 

The photos have a specific width and height in pixels, 4032 by 3024 pixels for the standard iPhone 12. There is no inherent ppi value at the sensor, so the camera might not embed one in the images. If an image has no ppi value, Photoshop and Bridge assume 72 ppi. This might be where the 72 ppi value comes from — it mig

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Community Expert ,
Jul 16, 2021 Jul 16, 2021

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"...the pixel per inch setting you assign your web images is irrelevant..."

https://www.photocascadia.com/the-72-ppi-web-image-myth/

Digital image "Quality" is basically determined by Pixel dimensions.

Export an image at 1ppi and again at 1000ppi - You will not see a difference in the exported images on your screen!.

 

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 17, 2021 Jul 17, 2021

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Do you have Apple ProRAW turned on?  There must a zillion web pages about it, but I guess this will do as good as any

 

BTW  Image size and dpi has been the number one most confusing thing thing for members of my old camera club for as long as there have been digital images'',  As your first reply has mentioned, pixels are king. dpi just controls how densly those pixels are spread over a given print size.

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New Here ,
Jul 18, 2021 Jul 18, 2021

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That is my concern.  I will be selling these prints in specific print sizes-so doesn't dpi matter in that case? Sorry, I am such a newbie.  I am old and technologically challenged-my question must seem so lame!

 

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New Here ,
Jul 18, 2021 Jul 18, 2021

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Also, no, I haven't shot in Apple Raw-I thought it took up a ton of storage space on my phone.  If you can send me a link to a tutorial for a beginner I would appreciate it-I have tried to find something to help and I have not been successful.

 

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Community Expert ,
Jul 18, 2021 Jul 18, 2021

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Here are a couple of suggested sites. Note there is very little reference to PPI.! It is all about the PIXEL DIMENSIONS of the file you send to be printed. You need enough Pixels in the file for the print size intended-

Pixels per Inch - for Print Size

PRINTING and PPI

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 18, 2021 Jul 18, 2021

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@nautilusnine wrote:

My problem is when I import my photos to photoshop, the dpi shows up as 72.  I know I can change it to 300, but will I truly retain photo quality that way.


 

The photos have a specific width and height in pixels, 4032 by 3024 pixels for the standard iPhone 12. There is no inherent ppi value at the sensor, so the camera might not embed one in the images. If an image has no ppi value, Photoshop and Bridge assume 72 ppi. This might be where the 72 ppi value comes from — it might have been a number the software threw in there because there wasn’t a number in there.

 

Now, PPI does matter in printing…a lot. But where many people trip up is that ppi means nothing on its own. It only means something in the context of the physical size of the image. PPI is pixels per inch; someone mentions 72 or 300 ppi and that is supposed to mean something, but it doesn’t yet, because you have only one of the two numbers you need: The pixels. The other number you need is the inches. How many inches long do you want to print that? When you can state both pixels and inches, now ppi means something. For example:

 

If a standard iPhone 12 image is 4032 by 3024 pixels, and we say 72 ppi, what does that mean? If we divide 4032 by 72, we get 56. That means the 4032 by 3024 pixel image is 72 ppi if you print it 56 inches long. But you probably don't want to print it that long, so 72 ppi is not a useful value. How about you want a print that’s 10 by 8 inches? OK, let’s divide 4032 pixels by 10 inches…we get 403.2 pixels per inch. By stating our intended physical print size, 10 inches, now we know the image will be over 403 ppi for a print 10 inches long. That is great, because the common guideline is to aim for 300 ppi for a print.

 

How big can the iPhone 12 image print at 300 ppi? 4032/300=13.44. If you want to make prints at no less than 300 ppi, the iPhone 12 images can be up to 13.44 inches long.

 

But the 300 ppi guideline is just a guideline, and it is for a close viewing distance, on excellent paper, and assuming the image is properly sharp (no motion blur, misfocusing, etc.). If the image will be viewed from a distance like a poster or billboard, or it is a little blurry because your hand shook while taking the picture, or it wasn’t focused properly, or you’re going to print on a cheap matte paper, then a lower ppi value such as 250 or 200 ppi might look just as good as 300 ppi.

 

So in short, don't get too hung up on the exact ppi value you see at first in software. The most important thing is that you understand what ppi value is actually going to be useful given the image and type of printing and viewing (300? 200? 150?), and understand that the final ppi value is determined by how many pixels you are spreading out across how many inches. In other words, how much are you scaling the image at print time. Larger print sizes result in a lower ppi value because of the math above. If it works out to 300 ppi at 13.44 inches, if you print it 30 inches long it will be about 134 ppi. Spreading the same number of pixels across a larger print size in inches.

 

If you want to play with those print size vs ppi calculations, you can do it in the Image > Image Size dialog box in Photoshop, with the Resample option disabled.

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New Here ,
Jul 19, 2021 Jul 19, 2021

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Thank you, this is exactly what I needed to know!

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