Reducing a photosize

[CrowMan]

Hello!

I'm trying to scale a product photo to insert it into a brochure for my employer and for some reason the quality is degrading when i do so? I tried to do it without resampling but the photo stays large for some reason (I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding on my end but not what i'm trying to address now). It's likely worth mentioning that the edited source photo is pretty massive [3441 px x 6061 px (11.47 in x 20.203 in) 300ppi] and I need to make it ~.25 in tall to fit properly in the brochure.It's probably worth noting that while I'm editing the photo in Photoshop, the brochure has been produced in InDesign.

I'm struggling and I'm not really sure why because I've only really had this problem when trying to make problems. Thank you, any advice you have is appreciated.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Could you please post a screenshot taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible? 

Indesign can downsample images at exporting the pdf, so unless you are doing output-sharpening what are you trying to achieve here? 

»I tried to do it without resampling but the photo stays large for some reason«

Changing an image’s Image Size without Resampling means changing the Resolution without changing the pixels themselves. 

[CrowMan]

Can you please clarify for me what you mean by this?:

Indesign can downsample images at exporting the pdf, so unless you are doing output-sharpening what are you trying to achieve here? 

By @c.pfaffenbichler

I don't think I'm interpreting it right but I'm not exporting anything from InDesign and there are no PDFs involved. The source photo was 3rd party and I'm exporting the image in photoshop to a png file.

»I tried to do it without resampling but the photo stays large for some reason«

Changing an image’s Image Soze without Resampling means changing teh Resolution without changing the pixels themselves. 

By @c.pfaffenbichler

Also, with this part, I'm still not entirely clear. Even though it maintains the pixel density, shouldn't it cram them into a smaller package? Like If I turn off resampling shouldn't it maintain the 3441 px x 6061 px dimensions but in a ~.25" tall package when I adjust the height (ratio locked)?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

»I don't think I'm interpreting it right but I'm not exporting anything from InDesign and there are no PDFs involved. The source photo was 3rd party and I'm exporting the image in photoshop to a png file.«

I guess I misunderstood. What was Indesign’s role then? 

»btw, the solution I found was to add the drop shadow in Photoshop and export it as a PNG. Then I import it into InDesign and resize it there.«

Or maybe I did not misunderstand … 

I discourage using png for anything print related. 

And again: Unless you are doing specific output-sharpening placing a full res image in Indesign is no problem as Indesign can downsample pixel images for final output. 

»Even though it maintains the pixel density, shouldn't it cram them into a smaller package?«

What do you mean by »package«? 

Changing the resolution without Resampling changes the dimensions in mm/inches/… while not affecting the pixel dimensions, 

»Now that I've maintained quality at scale the drop shadow keeps getting so dark. Why would that be?«

Please post screenshots. 

Transparency in RGB and CMYK can produce different results. 

[CrowMan]

UPDATE: I've figured out how to do this but am now having a separate problem.

Now that I've maintained quality at scale the drop shadow keeps getting so dark. Why would that be?

I try to lighten it and it still gets so dark.

btw, the solution I found was to add the drop shadow in Photoshop and export it as a PNG. Then I import it into InDesign and resize it there.