I recently shot some senior portraits.
I am using Photoshop to edit the photos.
I intend on burning the photos to a disc to give to the person so they can then take it to the place of their choice and have prints made.
These are my questions:
1) I have been saving the files in PSD format. Will WalMart/Target/etc. digital photo kiosks be able to open a PSD or should I save it as something else (like a jpeg)? I am concerned about losing image quality if jpeg is my only option.
2) Should I burn the disc as a data disc so it can be opened by these computers, or something else?
3) Are there any other issues I should be worried about? I just recently got my nice digital camera...I used to shoot everything in film and negatives were a lot easier to deal with...much more universal.
Thank you very much for any help/advice anyone is able to give.
I'm far from an expert here, so YMMV.
I would think that you could burn both on a CD, unless you're talking about huge files and a bunch of images.
Might take a bit longer to burn 'em all, depends how many you need to do.
Dunno about degradation from psd to jpeg.
How good are WalMart/Target prints?
Not running them down, but if the equipment isn't that sensitive, maybe it doesn't matter.
Are your customers going to be printing really big?
you should be able to use a batch process to make them all jpg. just watch your compression and use little as possible. your true image quality comes from your original file, the camera which is usually jpg unless you are shooting tiff or raw. so you are going from jpg to psd to jpg anyway. the key is when you save out max out the quality bar to reduce compression. also the walmart printers aren't the greatest but for what you are doing they will be ok. the best thing to do is to work with camera shop that has a true photo subdye printer so you can save the color profiles in photoshop. that way every photo printed will look correct.
this is from the walmart website (http://photos.walmart.com/helpuploading#supportedfile). not sure how much difference there is when you go in to the store and do it....
Supported File Types
When you upload photos, you can upload the following types of digital photos:
* JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg, .jpe)
* BMP (.bmp) (BMP not supported for Mac uploads)
* Zip file (containing JPEGS only) (Zip not supported with QuickUpload from a Mac)
Any digital photo you upload must have an ending that matches one of the above file types (e.g., niagarafalls.jpg).
Whichever type of file you use, the copy you upload will be converted to JPEG format before it's added to your account.
Thanks for the help guys- I am shooting RAW and not converting them to jpeg in any process to save the most quality possible.
I know WalMart isn't the greatest, but I don't have access or money to find a studio that can print higher quality.
I do a decent amount of pictures for people and so far, that's been working. If anyone has any suggestions as to where to go, I'm definitely open. Kinkos and WalMart just aren't doing it for me anymore;) The equipment isn't super sensitive, but you can definitely see a large amount of pixels if the quality is too low.
Nothing huge for photo size, I can't imagine them going anything bigger than an 8x10, so the pixelation isn't a HUGE issue unless the jpeg is super low quality to begin with.
The files aren't HUGE, but they're a few mb per photo and there is probably ooooh...50 or so of them.
I just want to make sure that they are decent quality when printed and that the disc is as close to universal as possible so they don't have problems printing them.
Can you tell me how to batch process them so I don't have to go through and change the format on everything individually?
Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it.
The later versions of Photoshop support batch processing. What version are you running?
BTW the best printing I have gotten was from a little independent photo shop in a strip mall...didn't charge any more than the big chains but he did a far better job.
What everyone here is not mentioning is image resolution.
Your JPEGS need to be 300dpi (dots per inch) if you want them to look any type good when they print.
A 72 dpi (internet/on screen resolution) image will show pixels, guaranteed.
A 150 dpi image is OKAY for laser/inkjet printing.
For PHOTO printing, you want 300dpi.
Here is a decent guide on the basic principles of Image Quality:
http://www.bestprintingonline.com/resolution.htm (http://www.bestprintingonline.com/resolution.htm)
She shot in RAW, so they are going to be high DPI - so unless she changes that - it's not a problem
If you save them to jpg, just use the maximum quality setting and you should be fine for walmart. For the customers discs - just save them jpg files - unless they as for RAW or other format. For folks who don't have access to image editing software file formats besides jpg are beyond their scope to deal with on their own.
there are any number of on-line sites which will process your digital images for you. i dont have any FHE, so you would need to look around. i bet there is one out there that will fit your needs.
Are these 65+ Seniors or High School Seniors? If it is a the former, you might take an extra step and get these printed out for them - I have not used them but snapfish and shutterfly allow you to upload the pics and have them delivered. It looks like you can pick up Snapfish prints at Walgreen and some other pharmacies. I looked online for a list of supported formats, but didn't find anything - if you are going with 4x6es, I think any format compatible with the service you use would be fine...
I have whatever the most recent version of Photoshop is, I don't know what the numbers are on it off the top of my head:)
High school senior and a very picky mom, so not 65+ :)
I have had a lot of experience with photos, but like I stated earlier, I'm new to digital, I've always used film.
I USUALLY have the prints made for people, I'm wondering if that would be easier in this situation, but the mom is also a little flaky and has changed her mind about a lot of things so far, so I'm at the point now where I'd just like to get them DONE but still in good quality etc.
I'm going to take everyone's advice and convert them to the highest quality jpeg that I can and burn them that way.
Thank you very much guys!!
Quote from: il d00d on June 12, 2009, 08:20:25 AM
Are these 65+ Seniors or High School Seniors?
Good question! [cheeky]
JPG formatting is most commonly recognized for reading the images and doing minor edits. So stick with that unless you're doing anything with
transparency then you'll need to save the files as PNG's. I always use PNG for my master files and then export the final product out in jpg format.
Good luck!
Good choice shooting and editing in RAW format. No loss there due to JPEG compression.
Everyone is right here in saying that you can batch process all of the images to JPEG. When they get saved, you can specify the "Quality". I believe you want 12, which is all the way to the right on the slider in photoshop.
If you are serious about digital photography you might want to consider Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom)) as it is a great tool for dealing with photos. At least download the free trial and try it out. You should be able to bulk export all your RAW images VERY EASILY with Lightroom as it is built to do that kind of stuff. When dealing with digital, it is not the individual edits that take the time, it is dealing with the hundreds of images you take on any given shoot. The workflow stuff in Lightroom or a similar product will make you so much more productive.
Alternatively, on a Mac, you can try Aperture. I use it for my photos and really like it.