# Exporting jpegs for your clients.



## ecphoto (May 14, 2012)

I normally process my images raw in light room the export to JPEG at 100% quality and the default dimensions. 

I'm not a pro yet by any means, but I try to be as professional as possible.

I'm shooting my sister-in-law's wedding next month and even though I'm not charging I want to give them as much of a professional experience as possible.

What I'm wondering is the following:
Do you resize the images or keep the original dimensions(after any crops) ?

Do you provide the same images in multiple sizes?

Do you add any sharpening at export?
Or reduce image file size / compression?

I ask this because I have no idea what's expected.


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## 12sndsgood (May 14, 2012)

i'm guessing you havnt agreed on anything before hand? that might be the first place you start. ask her what she wants perhaps


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## ecphoto (May 15, 2012)

12sndsgood said:


> i'm guessing you havnt agreed on anything before hand? that might be the first place you start. ask her what she wants perhaps


 
No we have not, it's a new experience for all of us. More or less I want to know what others usually do when giving someone their pictures on a DVD with out any prints.


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## KmH (May 15, 2012)

Your T2i (550D) makes photos that have a 3:2 aspect ratio which is the aspect ratio of a 35 mm format image frame.

Many popular print sizes have aspect ratios of 7:5 or 5:4. So, to get a 5:4 aspect ratio print from a 3:2 aspect ratio image, some portion of the 3:2 aspect ratio image has to be cropped away and discarded.

If this is all new information to you, the photographer, imagine what it's like for whoever you give a DVD of images to that is not a photographer, but that tries to get prints made.

The next issue is how pixel dimensions (resolution) relate to electronic display and to print size.

For electronic display, most image display programs will automatically resize a digital photo so it fits on the screen. Reducing the pixel dimensions is a common tactic used to limit the size that prints can be made.

When a print is made the resoultion of the image determines how big a print can be made.

Your T2i makes 5184 x 3456 pixel photos when large is the mode selected. At 100 pixels per inch (ppi) a 51.84 inch x 34.56 inch print of the photo could be made (5184 pixels divided by 100 ppi = 51.84 inches - the pixels cancel leaving only inches).

The same 5184 x 3456 pixel photo printed at 300 ppi would be 17.28 inches by 11.52 inches (5184 oixels divided by 300 ppi = 17.28 inches) 

Most professional wedding photographers (not the fauxtographers) charge a lot of money for full resolution images on a disc, in large part because they only provide fully edited images on the disk. They usually also limit the pixel dimensions so the B&G have to get big prints through the photographer.


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## Big Mike (May 15, 2012)

> Do you resize the images or keep the original dimensions(after any crops) ?


Yes.  I tend to crop most of my images so they end up being different sizes.  I resize so that all the images are a consistent size.



> Do you provide the same images in multiple sizes?


No, I just give them 2:3 images but I do explain that 8x10, 5x7 etc. are different ratios so the prints won't look just like the digital images.  And if they have any issues, to contact me for prints.



> Do you add any sharpening at export?


Yes.  Proper sharpening is a 2 or 3 stage process.  Input sharpening, 'artistic sharpening' and output sharpening.  One of the great features of Lightroom is that it automatically tailors the output sharpening to the size/resolution that you are exporting as.  



> Or reduce image file size / compression?


I've been saving at one or two levels down from full quality.  This greatly reduces the size of the file, but don't hurt the image enough that anyone could see the difference.


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## ecphoto (May 15, 2012)

KmH said:


> Your T2i (550D) makes photos that have a 3:2 aspect ratio which is the aspect ratio of a 35 mm format image frame.
> 
> Many popular print sizes have aspect ratios of 7:5 or 5:4. So, to get a 5:4 aspect ratio print from a 3:2 aspect ratio image, some portion of the 3:2 aspect ratio image has to be cropped away and discarded.
> 
> ...



I tried printing photos through Mpix the other day. It was the first time with this camera and it was never an issue with the two previous DSLR's I've owned so it threw me off a bit lol. It makes a lot of sense now, when you give someone the processed jpegs your export at 300ppi then?


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## ecphoto (May 15, 2012)

Big Mike said:


> > Do you resize the images or keep the original dimensions(after any crops) ?
> 
> 
> Yes.  I tend to crop most of my images so they end up being different sizes.  I resize so that all the images are a consistent size.
> ...



Sweet I can already apply some of these to my LR workflow. Thanks bigmike


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## DiskoJoe (May 15, 2012)

ecphoto said:


> I normally process my images raw in light room the export to JPEG at 100% quality and the default dimensions.
> 
> I'm not a pro yet by any means, but I try to be as professional as possible.
> 
> ...



answers in bold above. 

really your only need to resize for printing if it is not going to be in a 3x2 format. Say for like a head shot.


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