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What does DPI Mean??


12 years 7 months ago #144155 by LovePhotography
I am getting ready to submit my pictures & Going over the rules & it says that they have to be 300 DPI I have not heard of that before -
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12 years 7 months ago #144157 by Paul F
DPI = dots per inch. They need at least 300dpi for printing, otherwise it may be a poor quality print and they can't have that when printing a calendar.
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12 years 7 months ago #144159 by Baydream
MArcie - If you send them fairly high resolution jpg files, their printer will adjust that. They are trying to avoid low resolution "web photos" or low quality phone photos that will not print well.
Shoot, learn and share. It will make you a better photographer.
fineartamerica.com/profiles/john-g-schickler.html?tab=artwork
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12 years 7 months ago #144160 by Shadowfixer1
There has to be more to their requirements than just 300 DPI. You can size an image to be 300 DPI and it be 1/2 inch by a 1/2 inch or it can be 300 DPI at 16 inches by 20 inches. That is a much different file size. Just saying 300 DPI by itself doesn't mean a lot without the other criteria. The criteria should be stated in minmum pixel width and height. Tell us all the criteria they are asking for and we will advise you as to what to do.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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12 years 7 months ago #144161 by d0wn
Don't worry about it. Just send what you have. Send full res, I am sure the pictures you have is the requirement.
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12 years 7 months ago #144163 by Shadowfixer1

d0wn wrote: Don't worry about it. Just send what you have. Send full res, I am sure the pictures you have is the requirement.

Ignoring someone's exact requirements won't win you many contests. I agree with your basic statement that it should be sufficient, but I don't advise ignoring exact contest criteria.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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12 years 7 months ago #144322 by icepics
I just went thru asking the same thing!! The requirements I'd been given were 300 dpi and max 8", no pixel width or height. Now I know why that didn't really make sense as I learned that any size photo can be done at 300 dots per inch. I guess depending on whose doing the contest they don't know that! The best I could do was figure out that my images were approx. 5x7 so were under their 8 inch max requirement.

I thought the same thing John, that they must be trying to avoid really low resolution images like from a cell phone camera.
Sharon
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12 years 7 months ago #144326 by Maria21
In some cases they are also avoiding extremely large files as well. A computer monitor & digital frame can only read 72 dpi (dots per inch or pixels per inch) Winning a contest is like trying to get a photo published, If you don't follow all the requirements you may be disqualified.
Zerfing's Photographic Imaging
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12 years 7 months ago #144335 by icepics
Good point Maria, they probably don't want huge TIFF files either. I was submitting something to a local art center/gallery in response to their call to artists. It mentioned being disqualified if requirements aren't met; I did the best I could and if it doesn't work out then it wasn't meant to be. There will always be another opportunity.
Sharon
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12 years 7 months ago #144341 by effron

d0wn wrote: Don't worry about it. Just send what you have. Send full res, I am sure the pictures you have is the requirement.


Maybe, and you might get back an unwanted crop................:whistle:
Why so serious?
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12 years 7 months ago #144343 by Shadowfixer1

icepics wrote: I just went thru asking the same thing!! The requirements I'd been given were 300 dpi and max 8", no pixel width or height. Now I know why that didn't really make sense as I learned that any size photo can be done at 300 dots per inch. I guess depending on whose doing the contest they don't know that! The best I could do was figure out that my images were approx. 5x7 so were under their 8 inch max requirement.

I thought the same thing John, that they must be trying to avoid really low resolution images like from a cell phone camera.

The information they gave you tells you exactly what you need to know. 300 D.P.I. x 8 inches = 2400 pixels on the longest side. The shorter side will depend on your ratio and doesn't matter.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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12 years 7 months ago - 12 years 7 months ago #144348 by MLKstudios
As Shadow pointed out, find out what the maximum image size is (in inches) and multiply it by 300 for the PIXEL size. That's all that matters.

Matthew
Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"
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12 years 7 months ago #144372 by Maria21
Image size & resolution are two totally different things. There should be 2 separate specifics for the image size as in under 8" and not to have a resolution at 300. You can have a 16x20 at a resolution of 72... DPI Refers to the resolution. DPI is also sometimes expressed as PPI or Pixels per inches. a Pixel/Dot is equal to a printers measure called a point which equals 1/72 of an inch.
Zerfing's Photographic Imaging
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12 years 7 months ago #144459 by icepics
Should have been... yeah, but there wasn't. But by that info. (which you guys helped me with before) my images were under 2400 per side so the submissions should have been w/in their specifications. Which were about as clear as mud. All I can say now is silence is golden? - no news is good news??

Hopefully Marcie will get hers figured out.
Sharon
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12 years 7 months ago #145195 by Jamie
300 dpi is usually the standard "resolution" asked for in such cases. It's a bit misleading in the sense that many labs don't print at 300 dpi, nor would anyone notice at difference at 285 or 319, etc. Dimension size is something else, such as 8x10, and your dpi could be 300 dots per inch or 250 dots per inch. Some cameras also read at 72 dpi but then your dimensions are extremely large... Either way, when the lab prints it, the conversion/math is done and you're good to go. Basically, in this case, if you haven't resized your original image, say for print or made any drastic cropping, you should be good to go.

To check your dpi and image size, you can open an image in Photoshop, then press Ctrl+Alt+i on your keyboard. You'll see the numbers come up. To see the dimension of the image at 300 dpi (if it's not already showing 300 in the Resolution box), uncheck "Resample Image," then type 300 in the Resolution box. Then, you'll be able to note your image's width and height at 300 dpi. Be careful though, if you don't uncheck "Resample Image," you may accidentally resize your image and that will not be good! :) Of course, don't save anything when you exit and you'll be fine.
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