| With Digital Photography, you can have much | | | | the "Document Size" box). This tells you how big |
| more influence on the final outcome than was | | | | your image will be. Typing relevant figures in the |
| possible when film was the only option. Back then, | | | | boxes can alter all pixel Dimensions and Document |
| you concentrated on the photo, and the | | | | Size values. |
| developing lab did the rest. Nowadays, it is not too | | | | So, when applying these digital photography tricks, |
| difficult for the photographer to take a few easy | | | | how do you know which ppi figure to use? Well, |
| steps that can have a positive effect on the | | | | standards have been established, with the |
| completed printed photograph. Resolution is key, | | | | accepted ppi for photographs in the publishing |
| and the digital photography tricks below will help | | | | world being 300ppi (high-quality publishing and |
| you understand how to apply this correctly, using | | | | professional work). At home, a photo quality ink |
| Adobe Photoshop or similar post-production | | | | jet printer will give excellent print quality at 240ppi. |
| application. | | | | For a picture to be viewed from a yard or more |
| Digital pictures are made up of millions of tiny | | | | (maybe a framed wall print) even 150ppi will |
| squares, known as pixels. How many pixels an | | | | suffice. By the way, if you are using an image |
| image has determines the resolution, and | | | | purely for use on a computer screen, or the web, |
| ultimately the quality, of the picture. A typical 6 | | | | just a low resolution of 72ppi is required, because |
| megapixel camera will take a shot of 3000 pixels | | | | of the way screens behave compared to actual |
| by 2000 (multiply the two, and you reach the | | | | prints. |
| 6MP figure). Knowing this, we can now turn an | | | | In summary, you can see that print size does not |
| image into a small or large print, depending on | | | | mean much until you have the ppi figure to go |
| how tightly, or loosely, we spread the pixels out. | | | | with it. For example, by simply altering the spread |
| For example, if we were to place 300 pixels into | | | | of pixels, a 7 inch by 5 inch print can be created |
| one linear inch, our final image would be 10 inches | | | | from any digital image. Therefore, if you require a |
| wide, by 6.66 inches tall. | | | | 7in by 5in print at 240 ppi, you know you need |
| With your chosen photograph open in Photoshop, | | | | 1680 (7 x 240) by 1200 (5 x 240) pixels to |
| for example, its pixel dimensions can be found by | | | | produce it. You can play around with the values in |
| selecting the "Image" button and choosing "Resize" | | | | the "Document Size" box in Photoshop to see the |
| and "Image Size" from the dropdown. Once you | | | | effect it has. Apply these simple digital |
| know the pixel dimensions of your image you | | | | photography tricks next time you need to print |
| simply divide the width and height (both shown in | | | | images, and you will ensure they are of the |
| the "Pixels Dimension" box) by the image | | | | desired quality before you click the "print" button. |
| resolution (i.e. the pixels per inch - ppi - shown in | | | | |