Is a scanned image better to work with than a ...

[James_Earl_Jones@adobeforums.com]

image pulled from a cd to the hard drive?

[John_Slate@adobeforums.com]

the image on the cd was probably scanned at some point.

image quality is determined by among other things, pixel count, artifacting, and color content.

there are cheap scanners and expensive scanners...

the same goes with cameras.

your question is way too open-ended to answer effectively.

[James_Earl_Jones@adobeforums.com]

Well i now each file or image is at 25MB, which means absolutely nothing to me.

[John_Slate@adobeforums.com]

how many pixels wide by how many pixels high?

to be used in what size area?

do the math.

pixels per inch.

division.

of course if your cd images were already resampled there is no guarantee of quality.

view at 100%.

do they look sharp?

[James_Earl_Jones@adobeforums.com]

at 100% they look very sharp. i was advised by my lab that i can go all the way up to an 11 x 14 before the quality starts to break up. i was just curious to know if i wanted to increase the ppi, could i do it with affecting the print size.

[John_Slate@adobeforums.com]

300ppi is only a guideline not an unbreakable rule.

Many will say that 1.5 to 1.8 times the screen ruling of an imagesetter output is sufficient resolution.

The type of imagery is also a factor.

Product shots with type need more resolution than soft effect shots.

I would resize without resampling to see what resolution you end up with.

For the average type of image, I wouldn't start getting really concerned until the resolution starts to approach parity with the screen ruling. Not to say that using a 190ppi image for a 175lpi output is an ideal situation, but it will probably be barely sufficient.

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

I almost always scan with more resolution than I need and then keep an untouched copy of the higher res image. I can always throw away pixels but cannot get them back without rescanning.

I generally start at 600 ppi or higher. If it's a photo restoration job I start at about 1200 ppi and 16bit so I have an abundance of pixels to work with for the initial pixel shifting adjustments.

[James_Earl_Jones@adobeforums.com]

I really need to get a scanner than...man!

[Mike_Ornellas@adobeforums.com]

no,

what you need to do is your homework first.

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

Depends on the CD. If it's a high resolution Comstock CD, you'll get better quality.

Mike is right though. :)

[James_Earl_Jones@adobeforums.com]

you on the homework...i just recently bought photoshop: classroom in a book.

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

That's a great book for starting out James.

[Allen_Wicks@adobeforums.com]

PS: Classroom in a Book is excellent.

The source of the CD will give you a big clue. If it is from a reputable source and you paid a fair amount of money for it, 25 MB image files are likely to provide good quality 10 x 12 hard copy images (or larger but for larger you must perform trial-and-error based on each hard copy output device).

If the CD was cheap or free, trial-and-error is best to determine the possible output quality.

Remember that every photo belongs to the photo creator, NOT to you just because a CD is in your hand. A specific use release must exist or you cannot use those images for anything.

[James_Earl_Jones@adobeforums.com]

These images are my images...why wouldn't I legal rights to them? The lab I bring my stuff to is very reputable and do very nice work.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

Of course you have legal rights to your own images: your copyright was established at the moment that you clicked your camera's shutter!

(You can get even greater protection by filing with the Copyright Office in DC but it is expensive and probably unnecessary unless you are going to distribute your images where they could be illegally copied.)

[Mike McBride]

James,
Are you "the" James Earl Jones, actor extraordinaire? Forgive me if your not, I'm not being sarcastic. I've run into several professional actors and musicians in these forums.

Anyway, a quick and easy way to determine at what size you can print your digital file and still maintain "photo quality" is to divide the horizontal and vertical pixel resolution by 300. It's generally accepted that 300dpi (dots per inch) is required for "photo quality" prints, though as John pointed out, this isn't a hard-n-fast rule.

Say your image file shows that its size is 3000 wide x 2400 high at 25MB. (You can determine this by opening the file into Photoshop and selecting "Image Size" from the Image Menu.) By dividing those numbers by 300 you'll find you can comfortably print photo quality images up to 8-inches x 10-inches in size.

Another thing to keep in mind when scanning is the grain of the print or photo. Scans of photos will generally increase the grain, as the scanners fixed pixel count will usually be lower than the photo's grain. The faster the film the larger the grain, and the higher the quality the scanner the more the pixels its CCD will contain.

For the best quality output, the ideal scanning solution is to use a scanner with a high "optical resolution" (over 1200dpi) and be scanning pictures taken with slow ISO film (100 or lower) .

To answer your original question, when I have had my photos scanned at labs and copied to CDs, I've found that they didn't scan at high enough resolutions for decent sized prints. I think labs like Ritz and Wolf assume you want the images on CD for use on a computer, where lower resolutions are acceptable. However, if you want prints from your scans, you're better off scanning them yourself, so you can control the quality by setting the scan resolution yourself. Alternatively, you can find a "Pro" lab that can scan at high resolutions, however this will be costly. Better to invest your money in a scanner and do it yourself.

That's my two cents. Good luck.

Mike

[LRK@adobeforums.com]

Good points Mike. I've done a couple of jobs for the Burt Reynold's museum over the past two years. When the first one came to me, they provided me with a CD with what was supposed to be professional high res photos from Ritz, if I remember right.

When I opened the photos I knew they would never work. The resolution was too low and the images were not scanned right. I went back to the museum and asked for images I could scan myself. There was a huge difference in quality and the jobs turned out nice. Had I used their images it would have been very bad.

So... you can't always trust something just because it comes from a lab.

[James_Earl_Jones@adobeforums.com]

Mike, JEJ is my forum name I am not the actor, although it would be nice. The lab I bring my stuff to is a pro lab and they do scan everything in high resolution. I am just getting frustrated...for example I printed up a 5 x 7 sample print from one of my images, just to see the print quality. The print looked really good hardly any pixels, but if I remember right it was only at like 173 ppi. Whenever I try to increase the ppi my image gets bigger and I can't print it at a 5 x 7. I am very illiterate when it comes to this stuff. I just never thought it would be this difficult. I have a epson 2200 printer and a 17" Apple studio flatscreen monitor not sure if this will mean or is suppose to mean anything.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. JEJ

[Allen_Wicks@adobeforums.com]

You just need to learn a bit about sizing to get decent print resolution [Note that "hardly any pixels" is NOT good enough]. Your Epson SP2200 and good scans should easily print 10x12 true photo quality on "Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper." Most other papers will have much lesser quality.

Just go to Image/Image Size in PS and set the ppi to 240 and the image size to the size you desire while leaving the other settings at

Constrain Proportions: checked
Resample Image: checked, and set to Bicubic.

To send emails do the same thing, except set ppi at 72. For submittalls to most publications, set ppi to 300. general rule is that the Pixel dimensions size number at the top of the Image Size window should not be any larger than your original; if as you resize for printing it increases more than the original your print is likely to be affected.

Note that there can be lots more to this. The above are the primer level directions. You can tweak more as you learn more.

[Tim_Lookingbill@adobeforums.com]

And if you're resizing to all those mentioned by Allen that involve resampling, work from the original for each resizing.