Resolution

[Sab]

Hi Bob,

With regards to resolution, is there a big difference (in real life terms) between say 1800 lines and 2000 lines of (strong/perfect) resolution. To what degree does this affect print quality?

I hope I have the terminology correct.

Many thanks

Sab

[Bob Atkins]

A change in resolution of 10% isn't something you'd notice in small and medium sized prints. For those even lower resolution would be OK. Where you would see a small difference is if you make large prints or severely crop your images.

[Crazy zou]

Hi there, I am interested in the same topic, but my question is if the for example if the photo is 1 MB or more and I need to make the size smaller in Kb so that I could put them on a CD, not only for storing but to be able to print them as well, what percentage of pixels should I use? Putting in mind that I do'nt want the resolution to be affected and I need to put let's say 500 photos on one CD.
Thank you

[Bob Atkins]

Compressing a file will lower image quality overall, so everything will suffer to some extent, including resolution.

I really can't give any numbers because so much depends on the subject and the resolution of the original image. My only comment would be to reduce file size as little as possible if you want to maximize image quality. If you are storing images on CDs and running out of room, my best suggestion would be to change over to storage on DVDs, which have much higher capacity. I recently replaced a DVD burner on my PC and I think the new one cost under $30, so cost shouldn't be an issue.

For under $45 you can get an external DVD burner that connects to your PC/laptop/netbook via a standard USB connection.

Samsung USB 2.0 DVD/CD burner

[Crazy zou]

Hi Bob, so wht u suggest is that insted of putting them on a CD, I use DVD's, since these photos will be printed and not just stored?
So, if I do that, then I don't have to reduce the image size? I am using Lightroom 2.6.1, and I reduce the W and H and use 300 resolution, so if  I use DVD instead, I could leave the photos with their original sizes when shot??
 
This would really save time for me and I would guarantte the quality I guess,
Thank you .

[Bob Atkins]

Assuming the system used by whoever (or whatever) prints the photos can read DCDs, then storing on DVD makes more sense if you don't want to reduce the file size.

A DVD has a capacity of abouit 4.8GB, so you could store 480 10MB image files on one DVD (approx).