Need Help uploading for prints

[Liz]

Someone referred me to Winkflash to get prints made. They are inexpensive and 99 cents to mail first class/priority going out within one business day - no matter how many prints you order. My friend said the prints are excellent so I'm giving it a shot.

I uploaded 13 images to my album to place an order. It was a "drag and drop" kind of upload. It took over 20 minutes. I uploaded them directly from the CF card with no post processing because I want to see what they look like directly from the camera (out of curiosity).

Questions:
**Should I have edited/changed the size first? Does it always take that long (I have Verizon DSL)

**For the next time - when I do post-processing first - what settings do I use to save for uploading for prints - image size - resolution - file size.

A real "newbie" question - but I never did this before - I usually take prints to Walmart and they figure it out.

thanks!

Liz

[DownByFive]

In my experience, one should always get prints made with the highest quality files they have, and in your case, it sounds like you uploaded your best (uploading tiffs would be a nightmare...). The time it took sounds about right for a large upload, since upload speeds are much slower than download speeds (probably about 1/4 as fast with DSL, my very rough calculation is that your upload speed is ~500kbps, pretty good). I think that unless you are getting really big prints made, you should be fine just saving your jpgs at 100% quality and then uploading them. You probably could even get away with a much lower quality, but I don't know why you would need to do that. Just try to make sure that your cropping is as close to the print size ratio as possible, otherwise you risk getting stuff cropped out of the picture that you didn't plan on...

[another view]

Depends on how big the prints are. If you're uploading files directly from an 8mp (correct?) camera then they're a lot bigger than they need to be. It'll take longer yet from a USB 1.1 (as in not USB2) card reader. You could save a lot of time by downloading the photos to your PC and then sizing them to the print size because USB1.1 is slowing you down here.

300dpi is safe and you can probably get away with a lower resolution like 240dpi, but that's not too much of a savings unless you're talking about big prints like 16x20. I open the file in PS and then save to 4" by 6" at a resolution of 300dpi in the Image Size window. When you upload these files from your PC to the web with DSL it will happen much faster.

[Liz]

Thanks for helping me out here. To say I'm "technically challenged" is an understatement when it comes to specific details of set up for printing. I'm used to setting it up for the internet but not printing.

Thanks.

Liz

In my experience, one should always get prints made with the highest quality files they have, and in your case, it sounds like you uploaded your best (uploading tiffs would be a nightmare...). The time it took sounds about right for a large upload, since upload speeds are much slower than download speeds (probably about 1/4 as fast with DSL, my very rough calculation is that your upload speed is ~500kbps, pretty good). I think that unless you are getting really big prints made, you should be fine just saving your jpgs at 100% quality and then uploading them. You probably could even get away with a much lower quality, but I don't know why you would need to do that. Just try to make sure that your cropping is as close to the print size ratio as possible, otherwise you risk getting stuff cropped out of the picture that you didn't plan on...

[Liz]

Thanks Steve,

The files are being uploaded directly (from the CF card), yes.

One question. When I type in 4x6, the rest of the numbers (resolution, etc) change. Then when I put in the 300dpi, they change again. Is this the way it's supposed to happen? If not, what should I do? And what does "resample" mean? Sorry to sound like a newbie. Thanks again.

Liz

Depends on how big the prints are. If you're uploading files directly from an 8mp (correct?) camera then they're a lot bigger than they need to be. It'll take longer yet from a USB 1.1 (as in not USB2) card reader. You could save a lot of time by downloading the photos to your PC and then sizing them to the print size because USB1.1 is slowing you down here.


300dpi is safe and you can probably get away with a lower resolution like 240dpi, but that's not too much of a savings unless you're talking about big prints like 16x20. I open the file in PS and then save to 4" by 6" at a resolution of 300dpi in the Image Size window. When you upload these files from your PC to the web with DSL it will happen much faster.

[another view]

Is this the way it's supposed to happen?

Yes. Photoshop fills in the numbers in that window automatically, but you're changing most of them anyway. When you first pull up the re-size window in the image, it may be set up for a really large print size at 72dpi (that's how my Fuji is, anyway). I'll change it to 1800 x 1200, then it will lower the print size and stay at 72dpi. Then I tell it I want 4x6 at 300.

Think I've got this right - someone correct me if I'm wrong - resampling happens whenever you change the resolution of an image. I think basically what happens is that if you have an area that was, say 10 pixels by 10 pixels and it's now two by two, Photoshop has to figure out what to make that smaller area of - kind of average it out from what was in the original area. I'm sure this is a very simplified version of what actually happens - but it's over my head! ;)

[Liz]

Thanks again!

OK......I think I finally "got it." I appreciate you're taking the time to explain all this. I always have difficulty figuring this out.....thanks for helping out.

Liz

Yes. Photoshop fills in the numbers in that window automatically, but you're changing most of them anyway. When you first pull up the re-size window in the image, it may be set up for a really large print size at 72dpi (that's how my Fuji is, anyway). I'll change it to 1800 x 1200, then it will lower the print size and stay at 72dpi. Then I tell it I want 4x6 at 300.

Think I've got this right - someone correct me if I'm wrong - resampling happens whenever you change the resolution of an image. I think basically what happens is that if you have an area that was, say 10 pixels by 10 pixels and it's now two by two, Photoshop has to figure out what to make that smaller area of - kind of average it out from what was in the original area. I'm sure this is a very simplified version of what actually happens - but it's over my head! ;)

[Peter_AUS]

This is a reason why people shoot their images in RAW format and use the raw converting softwares to create the image size they want and resolution they want for printing from within the raw converting software. It takes the guess work out of working out the numbers. But that is another learning curve as well.

[Liz]

Thanks Peter,

Yes, hopefully someday when I have just a little more time, I'm going to try RAW. It takes me a while to learn new things. So, I have to put that off until I know how to do the basics with this new camera. It is different than the 300D, and there is a learning curve with it.......so when I get through this...........

Liz

This is a reason why people shoot their images in RAW format and use the raw converting softwares to create the image size they want and resolution they want for printing from within the raw converting software. It takes the guess work out of working out the numbers. But that is another learning curve as well.