Question on Cropping Dimensions and Prints

[rumrak]

I am a little bit confused on high cropping when keeping original dimensions and doing larger prints.

Eg. I have a 7.2MP image at 3072x2304, now if I zoomed in and did a crop to fill the frame and select keep original photo dimensions then the new image will also be the same 3072x2304. Now if I took this new higher cropped photo in to a print lab to be done at say 11x14 at 200PPI would the print result be just as good or close to that if I had the original printed with no cropping? granted when you zoom/crop in you loose detail but as long as the new cropped photo still looks good and crisp viewing on the PC screen.

If I did the same crop using no restrictions it would greatly lower the dimensions of the photo clearly not able to be printed to that size at 200PPI, which is were the confusion is.

[Medley]

You've left out too many variables for us to give an answer that isn't pages in length.

What software are you using?

What is the specific size, in pixels, of the area you want to print? (the "greatly lowered dimensions" size)

Answer those two questions, and I can give you more help. For now, know this:

1) an 11x14 print requires an image that is 2200x2800 pixels. Anything smaller will mean a loss of quality. Anything smaller than about 2050x2650 means that you don't want Photoshop (assuming you're using Photoshop) to do the resizing without help. Anything smaller than about 700x900 pixels is probably a lost cause- for an 11x14 print anyway.

2) A photo that looks good and crisp on the screen means nothing when it comes to print quality. It's all about the size of the print, and the number of pixels. You can make a 640x480 print look good on screen, but the print quality suffers at any size greater than about 2 inches by 1.5 inches.

- Joe U.

[rumrak]

Thanks Medley, at the time I wasn't sure how to describe what I was thinking

Hopefully this is a bit better to understand what I mean. Mainly what I was referring to is if the original photo is 3072x2304 then you crop using "use photo ratio" in photoshop, you are cropping part of the picture out but the end result is the same dimensions so the confusion came from how can cropping parts out end up with the same amount of pixels? to me that says lower quality and that extra has to come from were so does it recreate its neighbor pixel the same to make up for it? but every were I see when going to print quality is jugged by the photo dimensions. So wondering if using original photo ratio option when cropping is a bad idea and giving a false sense of quality and making choosing print sizes harder for that cropped version.

Edit: Also when you say anything smaller then XX I don't want to use photoshop. So when I want to be doing larger prints that require me to lower the PPI to fit the quality based on my 7MP should I be getting one of those photo enlarge softwares like reshade that I seen posted here earlier and use that for setting up my prints rather then cropping in photoshop for better print quality?

[Medley]

OK, I'm assuming you're using CS3, because CS2 doesn't have a "use photo ratio" option. I can see how that would be handy, but not if it's resizing the image. However, it may be that Photoshop is just magnifying the view, rather than actually resizing. You can check this by going to Image> Image Size both before and after the crop. Look at the pixel dimensions in both images. If the dimensions are the same, then yes, photoshop is resizing the image and yes, I would recommend that you not "use photo ratio" for this reason- unless there's an option that allows you to turn resizing off.

You are correct in the second part of your question as well. When you increase the size of an image by more than 10%, you generally get better results by using a plug-in. Two of the best ones out there are Genuine Fractals, and Alien Skin Blow Up. Both have 30 free trials. My advice would be to wait until you've gathered a dozen or so images that you'd like to enlarge for print, then download both trials, and make two sets of prints. That's really where you want to see the difference- in the print.

- Joe U.

[rumrak]

That Genuine Fractals looks good I also Just downloaded the trial for another Photozoom Pro2. Now to just learn them a bit and find out which one will work best.

Thanks again for your help