Photoshop question

[MrKeeno]

I have a few questions for you guys that I hope you can help me with.

I am working with my uncle on a small exhibition he is doing, the layout of the text and images is all being done using Photoshop. The exhibition is being displayed on panels that will be printed, with each panel containing 3/4 pictures with text giving details of the picture.

I have a panel that I am working on that contains 4 pictures, when I click on one of the pictures and go to 'image, image size' it gives the following details :

Width :56 cm
Height: 50 cm
Resolution: 300dpi

If I then do the same thing, but with a different picture on the panel it gives exactly the same measurements even though the picture is a completely different size. I am not sure if im missing something? The pixel dimensions also stay the same.

Another thing I wanted to ask in that when I open an individual image from a folder, I then drag it into the panel I am working on. I then resize the image manually to fit where I want it to go, is this method ok? I am just worried by using this method do I somehow loose image quality, the panels will be quiet large when printed so any lack of quality will be really obvious.

 

[simisker]

1. It's not entirely clear, but if you mean you're checking Image Size of each picture while it's on the panel, that's why you're getting the same numbers - Image Size will only tell you the dimensions of the entire active document, i.e. the panel, no matter what layer you select. You'll need to do Image Size on each individual picture file to see its numbers.

2. While your method doesn't offer fine control over the re-sampling, the differences are subtle and probably will not be noticeable unless there's a big difference between 'source' size and 'destination' size. And if there IS a big difference between source and destination sizes, any up-sampling is going to be noticeable no matter what you do.

I hope for your sake the pictures aren't taken from a website; but if so, you may be able to get away with having the panel file resolution at 150ppi, depending upon how physically big the panel's going to be. This effectively halves the destination size of your individual pictures. If you look closely at a billboard advert, for example, you'll see it's really not that high a resolution; but because viewing distances are much greater, it's not noticeable.

 

[MrKeeno]

Thanks for the reply simisker

I would not be doing any up-sampling, all the original images are massive so they are all being reduced in size when they are imported into a panel. I take it this would not result in any quality loss then?

I see what you mean about the image size being the actual size of the image and not the individual pictures within the image, seems strange that this feature is not in photoshop tbh.

Say my original image size is :

Width :10.17 cm
Height: 7.29 cm
Resolution: 2400 dpi

And i drag this into a panel with these properties :

Width :56 cm
Height: 50 cm
Resolution: 300 dpi

The image is a lot bigger than the entire panel even though the cm dimensions are smaller. Is this caused by the dpi being so much larger?

I am a bit confused tbh

 

[simisker]

Yup, you've got it Resolution is a bit of a red herring with digital images; all that matters are the number of raw pixels.

You're very fortunate to have such high-pixel-count pictures to work with! Down-sampling will not be noticeable, so crack on You may have to do a small Unsharp Mask to restore a bit of edge clarity to the down-sampled picture.

For future reference, if you want to know the dimensions of an individual picture within a larger photoshop canvas, select the item to be measured [easiest way is to CTRL-click on the thumbnail of the item in the Layer palette]. The Width and Height are then displayed in the Info palette, in whatever units you've set for the rulers.

 

[MrKeeno]

Thanks for your help m8. I really appreciate it.