Printing Photos

Lucky23

Hi folks,

If the answer is already on the forum please point me in the right direction but i'm looking for some help with the settings when exporting my pictures to jpeg for print from Lightroom 3.

I shoot in RAW and occasionally do some post processing in Lightroom 3. I've gotten into the habit of exporting my pics to jpeg with the longest side of 800 pixels so I can post them on the forum here. I also generally reduce the quality a bit to keep file size nice and low for speedy upload and I sharpen for screen.

But i've finally decided that i've one or two pics worth immortilising in print for my daily home viewing pleasure and i'm looking into printing some for the first time. When I tried to start the ball rolling with this new venture I went to export and suddenly realised I don't know what the dimensions of the picture should be in pixels to fit a photo frame. Seeing as I only export photos to show here I usually just go longest side 800 pixels and don't put a second thought to it. I know printed photos usually are printed in a standard size like 6x4 for frames so should I then just export my pic 600 pixels by 400 pixels to fit a 6x4 frame or do pixels and inches not correlate?

Also I was going to put the quality to 100% and sharpen for print. Would people recommend these settings or will sharpen for print alter the photo in some way strange pixellated way? Im sure you're thinking "mate it says sharpen for print why would it ruin your photo in some way, are you thick?" but i've zero experience in this area and nothing ever seems to do what it says these days!

All advice for printing photos is welcome, thanks for taking the time to enlighten me!

melekalikimaka

http://www.design215.com/toolbox/megapixels.php

should help

DotOrg

when you export, don't touch the size at all, leave them at the full number of pixels you took them at.

try one with sharpening on, and one with it off and do a test print, will cost you about 20c and then you'll know which you prefer

then go read this:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/und_resolution.shtml
until you fully understand what a pixel is

hope that helps

Lucky23

Brilliant thanks guys!