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DPI With Don Komarechka Show Notes
Show Resources:
Don’s Photo Geek Weekly Show: https://photogeekweekly.com
Photo Taco – Export for Printing: https://improvephotography.com/41693/photo-taco-export-printing/
Photo Taco – JPEG Compression Levels: https://improvephotography.com/41693/photo-taco-export-printing/
Don’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/donkom
Don’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donkomphoto
Don’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donkomphoto/
Jeff Harmon and Don Komarechka geek out over one of the most misunderstood concepts of DPI or dots per inch.  They talk about how file size, pixel dimensions, and DPI don’t really have anything to do with each other, how Adobe isn’t doing photographers any favors with how DPI is so prominently displayed in Photoshop and Lightroom, and how even the best of pros don’t really seem to understand the concepts.
Two listener questions that represent hundreds of requests to help with DPI:
- I did a headshot for a “program”. I delivered it at 2000×3000 pixels and 300 dpi…..Now I get a note that it is not hi res enough (and not 300 dpi), but this is from someone just relating what they were told by the program people. Shouldn't my specs be “hi res” enough? Not sure what they are looking for
- I have a file that is 17MB and 4480×6720 at 300dpi. Do you have a chart that shows up to how big that can be printed?
Great podcast Jeff. I really like listening to Don also. I had a question about what Don said about his workflow; saving his files as tiff. Maybe I need to listen again but did he say he saves his raw files and then the processed files as tiff or did I hear that wrong??
Also, I looked at Photoshop after hearing about Preserve Details 2.0 as I usually print from Lightroom. I am not sure if I followed his explanation of that feature either. I would be great to have a podcast digging further into printing. Maybe with Brent helping since it appears that he does a lot of printing. I fumble along with my printing and am looking for some good sources of help & direction.
Thanks, Steve
@SteveBlackett, thanks for listening! I think the point that Don was making is that he has two different ways he exports his photos. One is in a TIFF format so that he has an uncompressed, full quality version to use for printing or filling client orders (like the magazines he works with). The other is a smaller JPEG version for sharing on social media.
I like the idea of doing a Photo Taco episode on printing, particularly how to sharpen but also how to do soft proofing. I’ll see if I can get Brent to join me on the topic since he will be much more of an expert on that than me. Printing isn’t something this hobbyist photographers does a whole lot of.
I was disappointed in this podcast. It continually referred to PPI as DPI, which only add to peoples confusion, without a clear and early enough explanation of the difference.
The comment about the image size vs sensor size was completely wrong. The slight difference is due to a border of cells around the edge that simplifies demosaicing algorithms and provides a safety margin for distortion correction. It’s not the same as the much larger increase in image size caused by converting from monochromatic cells to RGB pixels.
Another great podcast. Thank you for adding clarity to the doi discussios.
Another great podcast. Thank you for adding clarity to the dpi discussion.