why are the pics in my contactsheet II always (very) unsharp (on the screen as on photoprint)

J
Posted By
jjgroot
Jun 10, 2004
Views
216
Replies
7
Status
Closed
It doesn’t matter if I use photoshop 7 or cs. But every time when I go to ‘automate’ and then to ‘contactsheet II’, the proces starts to work.
But I always end up with a sheet full of very unsharp pics, as well on my screen als on my photoprint (hp deskjet 5550).

I work with Mac OS X.
I need to make contactsheets for my work, so it important for me. I couldn’t find any information on the subject, not on adobe.com nor in the several photoshop tutorials that I own.

Please HELP!

Jan (Amsterdam)
Related Tags
pic screen unsharp

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jun 10, 2004
What resolution are you setting?
J
jjgroot
Jun 10, 2004
300 dpi
J
jjgroot
Jun 10, 2004
Well, the resolution of my pics are 300 dpi.
But is there maybe a setting especially for Contactsheet II, where you can choose for a certain resolution?

For example, the pictures I use now, are 10 x 6,67 cm. with a resolution of 300 dpi. When I automate them into a Contactsheet II, the pixels become so big, that the picture looks extremely unsharp.

It looks like Photoshop turned those pics into picures of 1 Kb or so.

I suppose this shouldn’t be happening. Do I do something wrong? Or is this normal?

Jan
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jun 10, 2004
You did select the rez settings in contact sheet dialog box didn’t you? It defaults to 72 ppi.

I just used the default settings on a folder of three and I get very tiny renditions of the 300 ppi tiffs in the selected folder but in 72 ppi in the resultant contact sheet.
EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jun 10, 2004
Yes, in the Contact Sheet II dialog there is a place to set the resolution. You can also set the number of pics per page which affects the size, The fewer pics at higher rez the better they wiill look. Since they are being downsampled make sure Bicubic is set in Preferences as your interpolation method.

See if that doesn’t give you better results.

What are you using them for? They aren’t intended as high quality output; more as documentation. To show to clients and such. We us them at work to track which images were used in partuicular jobs which can contain hundreds or more images so we don’t need high rez.
J
jjgroot
Jun 10, 2004
Normally I just give clients the photo-cd’s. But this client only has an old pentium pc with an average monitor, which loads the pics very slowly.
As I am a weddingphotographer, it is important to see if eyes are accidentally closed and more detailed stuff like that. So yes, it is important to have enough rez.

Thanks a lot, guys! I discovered that my resolution in the Contact Sheet II dialog was set at only 28 dpi (God knows how it got there…!),
so I put it at 300 dpi. And the my contactsheets look great! I don’t know what I could do without you!

Jan
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jun 10, 2004
If you have loading time issues for slower PC’s, you don’t have to use 300 ppi to get decent results for proofing purposes.

150 ppi works fine for viewing on monitors and is enough for printing to inkjets but not to digital minilabs at your local Walgreens. They do need 300 ppi.

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections