Image Resolution Degrades Making Collage.

"Ric Kaysen" wrote in
news:o_B4d.2824$:

Please excuse the beginners question here, I’m rather new to Photoshop. Using PS CS, I’m trying to create a simple collage using layers over a background image. It all seems to go well until I see the finished project printed. The original images were taken with an 8 megapixel camera. The originals look awesome, but when applied to a collage and printed or viewed enlarged on the monitor, the resolution of the individual pictures looks more like taken with a 640 X 480 camera. I’ve been looking for some way to improve the resolution of the component images in the collage, but I’m not getting it. Any suggestions would be very welcome….TIA.

don’t know what your doing exactly but it sounds like a resolution problem, for print the dpi should be a minimim of 200 pixels/inch and the hight the better to the thresh hold of your printer. Screen imagege tend to 72 0r 96 ppi and either become very small or look mushy when printed.

Check resolution in IMAGE menu > IMAGE SIZE > pixels/inch for both pictures.

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"Kingdom" wrote in message

"Ric Kaysen" wrote in
news:o_B4d.2824$:

Please excuse the beginners question here, I’m rather new to Photoshop. Using PS CS, I’m trying to create a simple collage using layers over a background image. It all seems to go well until I see the finished project printed. The original images were taken with an 8 megapixel camera. The originals look awesome, but when applied to a collage and printed or viewed enlarged on the monitor, the resolution of the individual pictures looks more like taken with a 640 X 480 camera. I’ve been looking for some way to improve the resolution of the component images in the collage, but I’m not getting it. Any suggestions would be very welcome….TIA.

don’t know what your doing exactly but it sounds like a resolution

problem,

for print the dpi should be a minimim of 200 pixels/inch and the hight

the

better to the thresh hold of your printer. Screen imagege tend to 72 0r 96 ppi and either become very small or look mushy when printed.
Check resolution in IMAGE menu > IMAGE SIZE > pixels/inch for both pictures.

—
Rule one; Question Everything except rule two

Rule two; Never Question the Wisdom of Rule One

Thanks for the advice.

Ric Kaysen wrote:

Please excuse the beginners question here, I’m rather new to Photoshop. Using PS CS, I’m trying to create a simple collage using layers over a background image. It all seems to go well until I see the finished project printed. The original images were taken with an 8 megapixel camera. The originals look awesome, but when applied to a collage and printed or viewed enlarged on the monitor, the resolution of the individual pictures looks more like taken with a 640 X 480 camera. I’ve been looking for some way to improve the resolution of the component images in the collage, but I’m not getting it. Any suggestions would be very welcome….TIA.

You probably started off with the resolution too low. As Kingdom suggests, it’s best to start with a higher pixels per inch number when you first create your image. 200 or even 300 ppi is a good number. For Epson printers 320 pixels per inch is thought to be a sweet spot.

So you made a boo boo. OTOH – collages can be a lot of work, and you may be interested in rescuing what you’ve done so far. I had to do this once when I realized I’d done an important group shot at VGA resolution (ouch!).

If possible, replace or overlay a few of the more important foreground elements of your collage with higher resolution versions. Flatten the collage, and experiment with Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask to make things look a little better. Don’t overdo it with USM – just get a little more edge. By the same token, with moderation in mind, use curves to bump the contrast, and Hue/Saturation to make sure your colors are reasonably saturated. Reduce the print size a bit – use Photoshop to add a nice matte around the edge using a frame layer and drop shadow.

Each of these moves will make your current result look just a bit sharper. —

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
www.geigy.2y.net

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"Mike Russell" wrote in message

Ric Kaysen wrote:

Please excuse the beginners question here, I’m rather new to Photoshop. Using PS CS, I’m trying to create a simple collage using layers over a background image. It all seems to go well until I see the finished project printed. The original images were taken with an 8 megapixel camera. The originals look awesome, but when applied to a collage and printed or viewed enlarged on the monitor, the resolution of the individual pictures looks more like taken with a 640 X 480 camera. I’ve been looking for some way to improve the resolution of the component images in the collage, but I’m not getting it. Any suggestions would be very welcome….TIA.

You probably started off with the resolution too low. As Kingdom

suggests,

it’s best to start with a higher pixels per inch number when you first create your image. 200 or even 300 ppi is a good number. For Epson printers 320 pixels per inch is thought to be a sweet spot.
So you made a boo boo. OTOH – collages can be a lot of work, and you may

be

interested in rescuing what you’ve done so far. I had to do this once

when

I realized I’d done an important group shot at VGA resolution (ouch!).
If possible, replace or overlay a few of the more important foreground elements of your collage with higher resolution versions. Flatten the collage, and experiment with Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask to make things

look

a little better. Don’t overdo it with USM – just get a little more edge. By the same token, with moderation in mind, use curves to bump the

contrast,

and Hue/Saturation to make sure your colors are reasonably saturated. Reduce the print size a bit – use Photoshop to add a nice matte around the edge using a frame layer and drop shadow.

Each of these moves will make your current result look just a bit sharper. —

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
www.geigy.2y.net

Thanks for the reply and the good advice.