Need help with editing for print
 

I searched but what i was searching didn't land me what i was looking for. I have never printed my work before and im about to buy a printer but i have no clue how to size my images. If i want to print say an 8x10 do i just resize image in photoshop to that number? Also what about resolutions and pixel dimentions? I had read or heard at one point that if your going to print you should have your resolution at 300 and 400 for poster size prints. Sorry if this seems like such a simple answer but sometimes when you don't know it seems like the hardest.

CJ,

Be glad to help you. I am a professional wedding and portrait photographer and over 95% of my work is printed. I want complete control of my editing and cropping.

The original file out of the camera is never exactly where I want it cropped. Besides I also will retouch or post process the image. I always size or crop my images in Photoshop to the largest size I am going to print of that image and always make it 300dpi. I print the smaller sizes from the big file. I perform this with the crop tool in PS. Set your height and width and the resolution in the options bar. If I am going to print a 8x10, I res it up to 2400x3000 pixels, thats 8x10 at 300dpi. If I am printing a 24x30 I res it up to 7200x9000 or 24x30 at 300dpi. I res it up BEFORE retouching so it is easier to retouch and I don't make mistakes by retouching a small image and then resizing it up to a wall portrait size that will show all my mistakes. It takes a better computer to handle the file sizes when you handle it this way but it is worth it in the long run. I save the file in PSD and JPEG at 12 compression. I send the JPEG file to the lab.

Labs will print your file on machines that range from 240dpi to 300dpi. I have not heard of a portrait lab using a machine at 400dpi but there may be one out there. 300 dpi or resolution will work perfect. Anything that has 300 lines of resolution to the inch will appear as continuous tone to the human eye. That is why you don't see the dots that a digitally exposed paper uses in today's printing. Sorry I can't help you with an in house printer. I don't print anything in house. I was wasting too much paper and it cost me a fortune.

Hey michael thanks for all the info for real helps a ton. So what is the best paper to use when printing for color photos and the best for B&W or is there one paper to works good for both?

That is like saying what is the best fruit to eat?
For my portrait work I have the lab use Kodak Endura E Surface. It is the usual standard and is good for most subjects. I have one lab that actually uses B&W paper for the B&W prints. But personally I like the Metallic paper. For watercolor prints I use Elegance Velvet Cotton Rag. I don't use any ink jet prints at all.

in traditional printing (ie offsett) regular sized stuff like 4x6 and upwards was generally around 300dpi.

Billboards and such are actually printed at around 72 dpi, I've printed one for a printer I used to work for at 40dpi. Why? You're not viewing them at an inch away, so more dpi results in more ink being wasted.

Generally the larger you go in size, the smaller dpi is used as you will be viewing them from further away.