basics about sizing and pixels

<p>help much appreciated, I am supposed to send pictures to this model but have been having troubles since new to lightroom/digital processing in general. </p>

<p>here is the process I do, and my questions are below: <br>

(a) I shoot film 35mm.<br>

(b) Scan on epson at: 24 bit color at 800dpi, sometimes 1200dpi. Although I mostly do B&W I scan in color, I heard this advice somewhere, also I like the "color" of the Trix film, it has this signature color that I like to keep. <br>

© edit in photoshop elements or now (as of few days) in lightroom. </p>

<p>If you have any comments on this let me know. My questions: <br>

- I want to send the model a small picture size because it looks better (less unflattering details, less grain visible). Is there a way to limit the size of the picture to a certain size, such that if she opens it in either software the picture will not be blown up big? I know this sound like stupid but I remember when I was on windows and used to work with elements at some point when I reduce the size of the picture it will open small from any software I use to open.... Would be great in fact if I can even lock the size so that it never open larger than a certain cutoff<br>

- how should I chose the resolution when I export the image to jpeg? it shows me the standard 240 pixels per inch, and I typically chose that. </p>

<p>Thanks a lot. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>You could re-size the photos to 800 or even 600 pixels on the long side, with the short side reduced in proportion, then SAVE AS with a modified or different file name so that the original image is not over-written. With most software this can be done for a batch of photos in one go.</p>

<p>The above response has nothing to do with using Lightroom. In Lightroom, use the Export function (right click on the image.) Go to the Image Sizing section and choose a way to specify pixel size (I prefer maximum long edge) and set it appropriately. Resolution can be set to anything. It's irrelevant and doesn't affect the file size. The concept of "Save As" doesn't exist in Lightroom since you can't over-write the original file by exporting.</p>

<p>It would be better to do some work on the photo first if there are problems with it. In Lightroom, you can use the clarity slider to reduce globally and the adjustment brush set to negative clarity to work on specific areas. You can also go to the Detail panel and use noise reduction to reduce grain.</p>

<p>PhotoShop Elements was mentioned -- and the <em>only</em> action asked about was re-sizing.</p>

<p>OK my message got derailed. My bad if question not clear: <br>

I am working in lightroom 5. Can I make my picture small and lock it that way so that my model does not open it too big (Showing unflattering details)? <br>

On MAc, I vary the size, limiting by size in KB, but no matter what size, when I click on the picture outsize lightroom it shows in the same size, so I think it just loses pixels, but not actual size... </p>

<p>Please see http://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/resize-images-lightroom and other things found on searching for "Lightroom resizing". Or this one might be quicker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y081O47Pt7E.</p>

<p>Someone can always increase size but the quality will suffer as they can't add information. It's not exactly clear what your problem is with the images. You right click on the image, you choose Export, you set the file size in terms of dimension or file size and then you have it. There is no way to prevent someone from increasing an image size but, as I said, the quality won't be better. They certainly won't see things that were in your image. However, as I said above, that is not the way to make sure that details are not visible.</p>

If you downsize photos, "unflattering details" that are too small to survive the downsizing will be lost forever.<br>And downsizing will indeed have that effect. If someone else later decides to upsize the photo, the unflattering detail will not reappear. The photo will indeed not look very good, due to that upsizing. But that's another kettle of fish.<br>So yes: that <i>is</i> a way to make sure that details are no longer visible.<br><br><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17999251-lg.jpg">

<p>I guess my problem is that when I downsize the image, using either of the options (dimensions by pixels of size in KB of file, which I assume are equivalent) is that when they open the image in a mac the image will always show the same size and my model will not understand that this is meant to be a small picture, to be shown only in a smaller format...<br>

it is weird that my default picture viewer in Mac does not care about the size and always shows the picture full screen... </p>

<p>What viewer are you using? Most people use Preview on the Mac as the default and Preview sizes according to the file size. </p>

If both large and small images are larger than the screen you are viewing them on, a viewer may/will resize them to fit the screen using its own resizing method and you will not see much of a difference.

When exporting from Lightroom limit the height and width in pixels - try 600 pixels on the long side - not inches, and set

thevJpeg quality to 80~90%.