? re: changing resolution for online printing

[Tiger926]

I am attempting to upload my xmas photos to print online for the first time and I have some questions. Normally I am used to burning images right to CD or using memory card at store lab, no altering at all. Now since we got our new 8mg Panasonic camera, the images are huge and need to be altered as I am wanting to upload to online lab instead of bringing to store.

Here are my questions:

1) Best Buy says that for 4 x 6 prints, recommended resolution: 680 x 1024, but what comes first, width or height? I am using Coral Photo Album and it tells me the width and height, plus pixel numbers, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly. Right now using these numbers it's showing about 35 - 40% of my orginal image, does this sound right?

2) Do photos still look good using recommended resolution numbers? I am worried since I've never altered my images before.

Sorry for all the questions, but my hubby is at work and this is my first foray into online photo printing.

Thanks in advance, Tiger

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

The recommended resolutions are more like "minimum guidelines"

If your photos are larger than the recommended resolution, keep them that way, do not alter them. When you alter a digital image, you lose quality.

If your photos are smaller than that, then you probably won't get a good quality print.

 

[Geoff_M]

Tiger926,

The key factor in printing isn't the absolute number of pixels, it's the PPI (pixels per inch) density. Usually, a PPI of 200 is about as high as you'll usually need, however, you'll often get very good results as low as 150. Using Best Buy's guidelines of 680 x 1024 for a 4 x 6, you'll get at PPI of ~170 (680/4, 1024/6). If you want to go with a PPI of 200, then upload the images at 800 x 1,200 pixels. If you want an 8 x 10, you'd need to jack up the number of pixels to preserve the PPI... say 1,600 x 2,000. etc.

 

[Razor Roman]

1) Best Buy says that for 4 x 6 prints, recommended resolution: 680 x 1024, but what comes first, width or height?

That's definately a MINIMUM resolution, for sure. If you're picture is 4 inches wide and 6 inches high (portrait) then the smaller number (680) would go with the width (the smaller dimension)... if you are in landscape mode, is would be 1024 x 680.

Why do you need to resize the pictures for uploading to the site? Are they not letting you upload them because they are too big? I have a 6.3 MP camera and never had anything get rejected for size from shutterfuly, walmart, kodak, or imagelab

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

And width is always given first followed by height.