Size for proofs?

[jennifer]

Hi everyone!

When you upload your client's proofs to an online gallery, what size do you make the pics? (DPI, Image quality, etc.)

Also, I am offering a Social Networking Proof Cd, with my logo in the corner of each photo. Clients may purchase it after they've made a minimum purchase.

How should I size the pics on the proof cd, so the quality looks good enough for facebook, but not good enough for printing?

Thanks so much for your input!!

[Jaelene Bryan]

I size for facebook 1.5 on the longest size ppi 400 60% quality. I use LR to resize. for the gallery I leave full size just make 80% quality only upload a better quality if someone orders over 8x10 or bigger size. I am sure plenty do differently.

[jennifer]

Originally Posted by Jaelene Bryan

I size for facebook 1.5 on the longest size ppi 400 60% quality. I use LR to resize. for the gallery I leave full size just make 80% quality only upload a better quality if someone orders over 8x10 or bigger size. I am sure plenty do differently.

Hi Jaelene..
I went to your facebook page, saved one of the images, and printed it as a 4x6. The quality wasn't good enough for me, but I'm afraid that a customer wouldn't have any trouble with it, if they did the same thing.

On the program I use (Aperture 3), the options are:
Image Quality: 1-12
Size to: Original size, Fit within (pixels), Fit within (inches), or a Percent of the Original
DPI: I always print at 300 DPI, and for internet use, I change it to 72 DPI.

What would you suggest? Sorry for so many questions. I just want to get this right. :-)

[Jaelene Bryan]

Personally in my opinion no matter what you do people are going to do this to some extent. You will notice that I rarely put my logo off to the side. I put it over the picture except when it will seriously mar how the picture is viewed. I can't stop it all I can just try to lower the amount. I don't know what you should use as I have never messed with aperture. I can only tell you what I have used right or wrong.

[jennifer]

Thank you, Jaelene. Does anyone else have any input on this subject?

[kennethrodriguez]

Originally Posted by jennifer

Hi Jaelene..
I went to your facebook page, saved one of the images, and printed it as a 4x6. The quality wasn't good enough for me, but I'm afraid that a customer wouldn't have any trouble with it, if they did the same thing.

On the program I use (Aperture 3), the options are:
Image Quality: 1-12
Size to: Original size, Fit within (pixels), Fit within (inches), or a Percent of the Original
DPI: I always print at 300 DPI, and for internet use, I change it to 72 DPI.

What would you suggest? Sorry for so many questions. I just want to get this right. :-)

Seeing those "options" you should use

For the clients: (Online Ordering, not online gallery)
Image quality: 10 (Going higher will just make a bigger file, also most of the time 10 is the perfect number for prints).
Size: Original Size
PPI: 240 or higher

For Facebook or Online Gallery
Image quality 8 (you can go lower but check if the files look good on different computers)
Size: 400x600 (always put a watermark on the image) [ I actually size them at 800 on the larger side I think, because I dont mind]
PPI: 72 pixels per inch.

But if you are selling the disc so they can use it on Facebook and those files have your logo on it you should save it at least 100 PPI. I used to offer this but now what I do is that when they order the High Res disc, I unclude a folder with the watermarked images just in case, also I always upload most of the images into facebook anyways and people can just tag themselves. Even tought I don't get money out of it I get a lot more exposure because every session I do will have a lot of people looking at it, instead of just the ones that order the "facebook" disc.

[jennifer]

Originally Posted by kennethrodriguez

Seeing those "options" you should use

For the clients: (Online Ordering, not online gallery)
Image quality: 10 (Going higher will just make a bigger file, also most of the time 10 is the perfect number for prints).
Size: Original Size
PPI: 240 or higher

For Facebook or Online Gallery
Image quality 8 (you can go lower but check if the files look good on different computers)
Size: 400x600 (always put a watermark on the image) [ I actually size them at 800 on the larger side I think, because I dont mind]
PPI: 72 pixels per inch

But if you are selling the disc so they can use it on Facebook and those files have your logo on it you should save it at least 100 PPI. I used to offer this but now what I do is that when they order the High Res disc, I unclude a folder with the watermarked images just in case, also I always upload most of the images into facebook anyways and people can just tag themselves. Even tought I don't get money out of it I get a lot more exposure because every session I do will have a lot of people looking at it, instead of just the ones that order the "facebook" disc.

Thanks for your help, Kenneth. What percent of the original could I size the facebook images to..I thought maybe doing it that way would save time. Otherwise, I would need to do 4x6's and 6x4's separately when re-sizing them. I also sometimes do square cropping when I edit, just for a different look. Hopefully that made sense. lol

[kennethrodriguez]

I almost all the time put in the whole shoot. But sometimes is better to just have teasers. It depends on how many you took. The miminum I put in teasers are 10, the most I had put in have been 32. Just put as many as you feel like. remember that in facebook a lot of people will look at your work and that is why I almost all the time put in the whole shoot. That way people know or "see" my style and the end products. But just put in as many as you would like. But in my webpage I put in the whole shoot, that way people will see a whole shoot instead of thinking that I just selected the BEST images. A lot of people like this because they see consistency in the work as instead of just a few pictures. You can check out my galleries over at www.kennethrodriguezphoto.com to see what I mean.

[jennifer]

Hi Kenneth...
Actually, what I was referring to was when I re-size the images for the clients' cd for use on facebook. Could I use the "option" in my editing program that says "size to percent of original"? If so, what % of the original should they be sized so I don't have to worry about clients trying to print them?
Sorry for all the questions..I'm sure you're busy!

[Elizabeth McConchie]

I upload mine to a right-click protected Smugmug gallery, and I watermark the crap out of them. As soon as I can afford it, I'm going to go to a 100% projection proofing system in the studio.

[terranbayer]

I also use Aperture. My export settings for the low-res online gallery photos are "Fit Within Pixels: 640 x 640 / DPI: 72." This way if it's a horizontal or vertical shot, the widest side will never be greater than 640 and you don't have to size the horizontal or vertical photos separately.

As for printing them... I find that there are few people out there who care about the quality of an image that they print on their own for free. Most will just print it off of their home ink-jet, not take it to a lab. As photographers, there's really no way we can police the issue, we can only hope they don't show the blurry print to all of their friends.

[jennifer]

Originally Posted by terranbayer

I also use Aperture. My export settings for the low-res online gallery photos are "Fit Within Pixels: 640 x 640 / DPI: 72." This way if it's a horizontal or vertical shot, the widest side will never be greater than 640 and you don't have to size the horizontal or vertical photos separately.

As for printing them... I find that there are few people out there who care about the quality of an image that they print on their own for free. Most will just print it off of their home ink-jet, not take it to a lab. As photographers, there's really no way we can police the issue, we can only hope they don't show the blurry print to all of their friends.

Yay! Another Aperture user. :-) So, you're saying I shouldn't worry myself about the people who are desperate enough to print low res photos? Like you said, my worry is that they will display them or something for other people to see. Oh well..I have better things to think about, I guess. lol Thanks for your input!

Have you ever used the plug in for Aperture called Border FX?

[terranbayer]

We can worry ourselves to death trying to stop people from printing and displaying our low-res/watermarked proofs, but if people want to have a print without paying for it, there's no way we can stop it. Think about the days of film when photographers would give hardcopy proofs... people could scan them or photocopy them. I've seen plenty of photos in frames that have a big "PROOF" or number written in big red marker across them. When it's free, people don't care.

I watermark my proof images and save them at low resolution but I've come to the conclusion that there's nothing I can do to stop it completely, so I'm just going to stop worrying about it.

I have not tried Border FX for Aperture. If you try it, let me know if it's any good!

[jennifer]

Originally Posted by terranbayer

We can worry ourselves to death trying to stop people from printing and displaying our low-res/watermarked proofs, but if people want to have a print without paying for it, there's no way we can stop it. Think about the days of film when photographers would give hardcopy proofs... people could scan them or photocopy them. I've seen plenty of photos in frames that have a big "PROOF" or number written in big red marker across them. When it's free, people don't care.

I watermark my proof images and save them at low resolution but I've come to the conclusion that there's nothing I can do to stop it completely, so I'm just going to stop worrying about it.

I have not tried Border FX for Aperture. If you try it, let me know if it's any good!

I really like Border FX. I don't use Photoshop, so it has allowed me to create the watermarks I needed.