I finally broke down and bought a DSLR, the Rebel XT. I've set the image quality to Fine Large, but when I import the files into PhotoShop 7, the image is 30something by 48 inches at 72 ppi. Is this norma? 72 ppi doesn't seem very fine to me.
It is normal. I haven't figured out how to override the setting in the camera. It doesn't affect the number of pixels captured. As Prashant mentioned, just tell it what you want to print at in your photo editor.
Thanks for the confirmation. I did resample the file just fine. I just wanted to verify that it was supposed to be taking the images at this resolution. Sound like it is.
The 72 dpi isn't a "resolution" it's simply an EXIF tag which determines the display or print size. Actually even the pixel count isn't truly "resolution" - that's another story, but the camera captures images at full optical and electronic "resolution" regardless of the EXIF tag.
If you open the image in Photoshop and look at the dpi, then change the dpi to something like 300 without resampling you will see that the print size diminishes accordingly. This is simply telling the printer to change the "print density" or how close to space the "dots" composing the image for the print. The closer together (higher dpi) the more pixels are printed within a given physical space. The lower the "dpi" the fewer pixels are printed within the same space. Since the calibration is in dpi (dots per inch) you will necessarily have a larger print at 72 dpi than at 300 dpi but the identical overall number of pixels get printed.
So the camera captures using X number of pixel sensors in the horizontal and vertical axis and how large the image appears on screen or in print without resizing or resampling is determined by how closely (pixel density) these pixels are displayed or printed.
Years ago when MacIntosh ruled the desktop publishing and imaging world their monitors (displays) had 72 pixels per inch density. PhotoShop and other graphics manipulation programs adapted it as a defacto "standard" and it's simply remained because it has almost no significance any more. Print drivers determine the print density for the majority of printing jobs and it doesn't matter what your EXIF tag is, they will change it to whatever works best for the particular environment of paper, printer engine and desired print size.
To make a long story shorter - just ignore it. Some of the newer and higher resolution cameras use 180 dpi as the tag but 72 is most common.
Discussion
4 repliesI'd appreciate any input.
Thanks again.
The 72 dpi isn't a "resolution" it's simply an EXIF tag which determines the display or print size. Actually even the pixel count isn't truly "resolution" - that's another story, but the camera captures images at full optical and electronic "resolution" regardless of the EXIF tag.
If you open the image in Photoshop and look at the dpi, then change the dpi to something like 300 without resampling you will see that the print size diminishes accordingly. This is simply telling the printer to change the "print density" or how close to space the "dots" composing the image for the print. The closer together (higher dpi) the more pixels are printed within a given physical space. The lower the "dpi" the fewer pixels are printed within the same space. Since the calibration is in dpi (dots per inch) you will necessarily have a larger print at 72 dpi than at 300 dpi but the identical overall number of pixels get printed.
So the camera captures using X number of pixel sensors in the horizontal and vertical axis and how large the image appears on screen or in print without resizing or resampling is determined by how closely (pixel density) these pixels are displayed or printed.
Years ago when MacIntosh ruled the desktop publishing and imaging world their monitors (displays) had 72 pixels per inch density. PhotoShop and other graphics manipulation programs adapted it as a defacto "standard" and it's simply remained because it has almost no significance any more. Print drivers determine the print density for the majority of printing jobs and it doesn't matter what your EXIF tag is, they will change it to whatever works best for the particular environment of paper, printer engine and desired print size.
To make a long story shorter - just ignore it. Some of the newer and higher resolution cameras use 180 dpi as the tag but 72 is most common.
Lin