Resolution?

[Healied]

I want to start with a really stupid question or series there of.
I downloaded my shots from a Canon EOS REBEL XT into Bridge without having any idea of what I was doing.

I've just noticed that the resolution was at 72 dpi and I have no idea why it is so low. (I told you this was stupid. It's so basic it's primative - yet I don't know the answer) Shots that I took on lower level Nikon digital downloaded at 300 dpi.

Oh yes - I choose the highest resolution that both cameras had to offer.

I have two basic questions:

1. Why did the camera download at such a low resolution?

2. Can I correct the situation once the photos are in bridge?

2.a. Can I simply change to the dpi (or whatever) to 300 and thus increase the quality of the pictures?

2.b. Can I change it by re-downloading from the flash cards?

Thanks in advance for anyone kind enough to clue me in.

Ed

[jiminyClickit]

Healied, Welcome

When you've downloaded, what are the dimensions of your photos? Something over 20" x 30" ?

[Healied]

Hi Jimminy Cricket;

Yes - the pictures are huge 48 in by 32.

So I can improve the ps in photoshop - good. But can I download them into Bridge at a higher resolution? If so how? Or, where can I find out how?

Thanks for your reply.

Ed

[smc1377]

The short answer is no. 72 is what the camera took the picture in so you're pretty much stuck with that unless you use photoshop to resize the image.

And when you resize the image (by using the Image Size command under the EDIT menu), the key is to uncheck the box next to "Resample Image". Then simply enter in 300 in the Resolution box. Doing it this way will simply size down the image to squeeze the pixels close enough so that it increases from 72 dpi (or more appropriately ppi) to 300 dpi.

Think of it this way. There are 72 pixels per inch. In order to increase that to 300 pixels per inch without resampling (creating pixels), you'll need to squeeze the pixels tighter together thus resulting in a much smaller image inch-wise. The resulting size will be about a 7.5x11 inch image.

[Healied]

Thanks;

I tried your bit and combined with the sharpening feature it did improve the quality but why an 8 meg Canon set to the finest defintion would come out with 72 dpi photos still escaptes me. Especially when a 4 meg Nikon gives me 300 dpi.

Clearly more research is needed.

Ed

[wulf]

Changing the dpi does not affect the quality of the image. All you are doing is changing how small you are asking your printer to print the dots. Within the limits of the printer, smaller dots means a picture you can look at more closely and be fooled into thinking the colours are smooth but at the cost of the final image being smaller.

I am not sure if you can change the dpi output by a camera but it is an easy job in most photo-editing software. However, while the dpi does affect the size and visual quality of the output, it has no effect on the quality of the photo nor what you see on screen (where the number of "dots per inch" depends on your screen size and display resolution).

Wulf