high mp camera?

[shatrocious]

Well, we have just been married (2 weeks ago) and i was told about bookmaker on theknot.com ... im so excited to order books! i ALMOST cant wait for my pro pics to come in hehe
so.. i do have lots of beautiful pics taken by friend, im not sure her cameras stats and what she was using (i know its a $1000+ dig cam - and she had to dump the flashcard every 20 or 30 pics) .. ive had them printed at walmart and they do have some blur. So im trying to figure out how i can use them..

Taken from help page - We recommend using photos taken with digital cameras that are greater than 2 mega-pixels and less than 7 mega-pixels. (Images from 5 mega-pixel digital cameras produce the best results.)

NOTE: Photos taken with a 7 mega-pixel or greater digital camera may print blurry and/or pixilated. We do not recommend you use these photos in the BookMaker software unless they are reduced to a lower pixel setting.

SO - im fairly fluent in photoshop (cs2).. is there a way i can drop down the setting to make these pics print beautifully too?

[irusan]

First, congratulations!!

For your friend's pictures, the first thing you need to do is determine why some of the pictures are blurry. Are the images suffering from camera shake? Were they simply out of focus? etc.

Before building your book, have one of the blurry images printed at Ritz Camera (Wolf) or another camera store (stay away from the retailers like Target or Wal-Mart for this part). Or have it printed at an online lab (I use Mpix).

Have an 8x10 print made. If it is still blurry, the issue is with the picture, not the printing process. Don't use those images (or use them at a smaller print size where the blur will be markedly less pronounced).

If they are fine and you want to down-sample the images in Photoshop, here's how to do it (I am assuming you don't have RAW files but either TIF or JPG):

1. Open the image in Photoshop
2. Go to Image > Image Size... to display the Image Size dialog box.
3. Check the Resample Image box and select Bicubic Smoother from the drop down.
4. Notice that the Pixel Dimensions section at the top is now enabled.
5. Define the new width or height (just one of them and the other will change). You can define the size by either pixels or percentage.
6. Click OK.

Once you re-size the image, you should be good to go!

Rob

[shatrocious]

NOTE: Photos taken with a 7 mega-pixel or greater digital camera may print blurry and/or pixilated.

i figured i was having that problem.
the pics are great on the screen, but they are SO huge... like 40inches.. but only 72dpi

ok well, ill try some of your suggestions and see what i can do with them
ty

[Cruiser]

Use 350 dpi (per irusan in another post). As long as your file size is between 1 and 7 mb, you should be fine. 72 dpi will not print very well. File size is more important than the resolution. For full bleed photos I try to use pictures that are between 4.5 and 7 mb. This is very easily done in photoshop sizing.

[irusan]

The number of MP that can be safely used also depends on your camera. Well, actually, it depends on the size of your camera's sensor.

Digicams (often referred to as 'Point and Shoot') use a smaller sensor than dSLR cameras. Digicams typically have a sensor size of anywhere from 1/4" to 2/3" - roughly the size of the finger nail on your pinky finger. Compared to a 35mm film frame, this is a very small size. So, when digicams started coming out with 8+ MP, the space in which those pixels are placed did not increase. That means the size of the pixels have decreased and the trade off for the increase in MP is a decrease in the quality of the data captured by each pixel (color depth, sharpness, etc.)

For digicams, after 7MP, the image quality does begin to suffer. Despite all the hype by digital marketing companies, you can have too many MP in a camera.

DSLRs, on the other hand, have a much larger sensor size (APS-C); this allows the camera to have a lot more MP without any concern with image quality, because the decrease in pixel size (to accommodate the increase in numbers) hasn't reached the point of degrading the data quality.

There are a lot of considerations and issues involved. That's why people on this forum who are using dSLR cameras are questioning the 7MP limit proposed by MyPublisher - they don't see the quality problem because, for them, it doesn't exist. Digicam users, on the other hand, may see it.

Since MyPublisher can't write a help file to address every camera that their users have, they really have no choice but to figure out the "lowest common denominator" - a size that will work for virtually every camera in use (or file from scanned film).

Just in case you are not yet confused enough, you can start to run into something called 'bit depth'. You can read my post about it here. (http://community.mypublisher.com/jiveforums/thread.jspa?messageID=940ά)

To boil it all down - if you are using a digicam, then set the image size to 7MP or lower to be safe (best to do this in camera but you can downsample in Photoshop later). If you are using a dSLR, then you are probably safe using your images at their native resolution. If you are using a Hasselblad 39 MP MF camera, you probably should downsample.

Rob

[Cruiser]

Rob, you should write a book...

[irusan]

Thanks - I feel like I have ;-)

[shatrocious]

haha ... oook... yes.... *nods slowly*

um
well since this was my wedding that i want to make a book from, i was not taking any of the pics.. my friends cam is a dslr im pretty sure.. its a Canon Rebel
I dont think she knows much about her camera yet, i think she is still learning... i believe, if possible, she needs to move her DPI up and her MP down... yes, i can print a LIFE SIZED poster of myself but ..... my 4x6's are all blurry.

I just got my pro photogs pics today... im not mega impressed. my friends pics are just as nice. I only have printed copies from the pro... im going to BEG him to give me the digital negs... i hope he will.
If not - i have scanned all the prints from him already.. i dont think its going to make my book very pretty tho :(
fingers crossed... im going to play around and see how i can make things look
thanks for the help guys

[irusan]

Sorry, I get all focused when I write stuff and sometimes "geek-out". Occupational hazard <grin>. As for taking your own photos at your wedding, mine will be coming up sometime in the next year and we've already had that "discussion". I've been told that I can choose: be the groom or be the photographer. The delay in answering didn't go over too well :D

Anyway, on a dSLR, you can't change the number of MP that you shoot at. An 8 MP Rebel will always shoot 8 MP. The ability to change that is a 'feature' of digicams only.

If the pics are blurry at 4x6, they are not going to be crisp and clear at a larger size, unfortunately. From the sounds of it, I would guess that the blur was caused by human hands at the time of picture taking. If that's the case, there's no fix available in any piece of software - regardless of what TV tells us :-)

Sorry to hear that you're not happy with your photographer's pictures. Are you sure, though, that you were sent final images and not a set of proofs. It's amazing what a difference there is between the two.

One word of caution, though; assuming you reside here in the USA, scanning the pictures and using them is actually illegal - photographers have the copyright from all images they take and they have to explicitly (in writing) transfer copyright to you. If that doesn't happen, then you are infringing on (c) and both you and MyPublisher can be held liable.

He probably won't just give you the digital negatives. He might though if you let him know you are disappointed in the images. Before you contact him, read your contract with him. There may be some form of compensation or concession allowed if you are not satisfied (for example, I always include a portion in my contract to allow my clients to say they are not satisfied and what my responsibility is)

If he won't give them to you (and really, prepare yourself for the fact that he won't), offer to buy them in lieu of any kind of album or book. If you ask to buy the non-retouched files, it should be cheaper because it's time he doesn't have to spend doing post-production. But, if he's already done post-production, he may include that in the price he asks for the files.

However, read your contract first and approach him in a friendly and polite way. If he treats you with respect and politeness, see if there isn't some kind of compromise. After all, wedding photographers (more than any other type of photographer) depends on word of mouth referrals. Even if you don't like your images, if he steps up and tries to make things right, he can still salvage the relationship with you.

Rob

[shatrocious]

OK
well
im a small-town-canadian-girl. Small-town enough that my photog is actually my 2nd cousin, and we didnt actually pay for services, he traded services with my parents.. haha..
he didnt do any retouching.. i had to healing-brush out my pimple

im pretty sure he will give us the negs... or that he will let us buy them.
i should be able to make an impressive book once i get my hands on those..

[irusan]

Oh. Well if it's a second cousin then you may want to consider using a two foot section of garden hose filled with sand to help convince him <grin>.

Where in Canada?

[shatrocious]

haha
im way over on the eastern edge... New Brunswick... we are the same geographically as Maine.. but the people say Eh instead of Ah

i dont know the 'right' way to share pics.. but heres a couple if you are interested
we had beautiful fall colours.. (im gonna post them a couple different ways so that i can see what happens.. you might have to c/p the links :D )

http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd165/shapatwedding/Wedding/?action=view&current=n572090400_1453826_9544.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd165/shapatwedding/Wedding/n572090400_1453821_7689.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd165/shapatwedding/Wedding/n572090400_1453788_7365.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd165/shapatwedding/Wedding/n572090400_1454280_8200.jpg (http://photobucket.com)