Size Reduction

[Tumber]

I am curious as to how to reduce the size of a 10mb pic to a 5x7 without cropping but still have decent quality. I know of a couple of ways to do this, but any tips on this would help. I do use Lightroom 2

[Photo-John]

I am curious as to how to reduce the size of a 10mb pic to a 5x7 without cropping but still have decent quality. I know of a couple of ways to do this, but any tips on this would help. I do use Lightroom 2

Hmm - interesting because of our last discussion. Because resizing is something I always do with Photoshop. But the basic rules are the same no matter what program you use to resize.

1) Know the final output resolution
2) Resize to your final dimensions at your final output resolution
3) Apply unsharp mask for the final output

That's the basic recipe. There are infinite variations and ways to finetune your results. For instance, if I have a really big file I might resize in steps rather than in one big whack. That gives your software a chance to reinterpolate and preserve detail and tonal blends. I think that's probably one way Photoshop is better than Lightroom, too. In Lightroom I think you'd have to save a multiple copies to resize in steps. In Photoshop you'd just resize a couple of times and then save.

Does that answer your question or did I leave stuff out? This is a good subject so ask away

[gahspidy]

I use lightroom 2.5 and Photoshop CS4. I do almost all of my resizing for web display as well as general printing with LR.
First off, I'm not sure what you mean by "without cropping" The image from your DSLR is not a 5x7 aspect ratio and so some cropping will have to happen to achieve that format.
I find that LightRoom does a fine job resizing even large files to any format. I am not sure if it does not do it in steps as John suggests.
I selct export in LR and then enter the desired physical dimension and resolution. You can also apply a basic sharpening of which I find the Standard setting to work best most often. It has a setting of sharpening for either screen use or print so select accordingly.
For web display, you will want to output to srgb colorspace, but for print I personally use the PhotoPro colorspace.
If you need the 5x7 format, first crop it to 5x7 in the Develop module as you like and then output that image to your desired size.

[OldClicker]

I am curious as to how to reduce the size of a 10mb pic to a 5x7 without cropping but still have decent quality. I know of a couple of ways to do this, but any tips on this would help. I do use Lightroom 2

To get into what you are really asking even further:

A 5x7 inch image could have a 10mb file size. The file size does not determine the image dimensions (or visa versa).

If you mean 10 Mpixel, this could also be 5x7 inches - it would just have to be set at 535 dots per inch (DPI).

If you want it to fit both dimensions to the edge on a 5x7" print and you are shooting a camera that has the standard 3:2 output, the long direction will have to be cropped to the correct ratio.

If you are staying in the digital world (web, etc.), the inch dimensions have no meaning. Stay with a pixel size (like 800x575).

If you are printing a 5"x7" print, you also need to know the DPI of the printer - such as 240DPI. You can then easily get this from LR2.5 by:

- EXPORT
- In 'Image Sizing' - Check the 'Resize To Fit' box. Select 'Width & Height'. Change the units to 'in'. Enter '5' and '7' and enter your printer resolution (i.e. 240 DPI).
- This will export the file to the folder you tell it to with the dimensions no greater than 5"x7".
- If the ratio is not 5:7, it will be smaller than this in one dimension leaving space at the edges. Note that if you send this out to print (or maybe even to you own printer), they will not leave the space, but will crop the photo to fit.

Hope this helps.

TF

[Tumber]

Wow!! These have been great helps and easy to do!!

[drg]

I am curious as to how to reduce the size of a 10mb pic to a 5x7 without cropping but still have decent quality. I know of a couple of ways to do this, but any tips on this would help. I do use Lightroom 2

That you specified a 5x7 size I am going to guess that you want to make one or more prints. In this post I am not going to address the whole sharpening debate other than to say be sure to evaluate the technique you use at full size on the monitor.

Look in the Print Module and you will find templates that will let you take the edited image (the work you performed in the Develop Module) including selecting the 5x7 cropping rectangle in that module and optimize its output to your printer. If you are doing your own printing directly from Lightroom let the printer manage the color unless you have a very well integrated system with ADOBE PS - CSx.

If you want to print elsewhere, there is the print to jpeg option also available from the Print Module that works essentially the same way as does the Export menu output. Print module has better controls than Export and provides visualization/WYSIWYG.

There are various features including the 'nameplate' that can be used to provide a far more complex and 'fancy' watermark or copyright statement than the default Lightroom output. (link below)

One feature of using Print that is often overlooked is that it will include crop marks or scoring lines if you need to print multiple copies per sheet or on a roll printer that help a lot to get the photograph properly cut. It can even be easily set it up to let you have borders for mounting or display.

There are several posts that might help including these:

Creating jpg files in Lightroom

Advanced Watermarking

If I can help you more please ask!