Question About Resolution Quality In Artwork

#1

Hey all. My question is about resolution and the quality in art, mainly with Photoshop CS. The technique I would like to fin out about is what does it mean when artists say that they start their projects in low rez format, then to add fine details, they up rez their project? By “up rez”, do they mean change the pixel size of the image, or increasing the resoluton size? I know that the final product of their art is either in 72 ppi or 300 ppi, but when they start with detailing, do they bring it to like 600 ppi?

I do apologize if im ranting, but I am very confused. I am tyring to add major detail to my artwork because it looks too blurry.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

#2

The ppi in 300 ppi stands for “pixels per inch” (dpi or “dots per inch” is used also). Look at an inch. It’s always the same. 300 dpi just means you stick more pixels into an inch than when you use e.g. 72 ppi.

600 dpi is print rez for b/w images (no grayscale). 300 dpi is for grayscale and colour. 72 is the resolution on your monitor and your TV, although an “inch” of your 'puter monitor depends more on your monitor settings than the dimensions of an actual inch.

Pixel dimension is how much you have of your picture for real. Resolution’s just there to show you how tight you’re going to squeeze it.

#3

alright, but what resolution is used to make fine details on pictures, like scratches and dents?

I look at so many pieces of artwork online that were done in either Photoshop or Painter, and I notice how much detail is put into their pieces. When I try to add detail onto my art, it ends up looking blurry, and not sharp looking at all.

#4

I never change the dpi of my images, but I do increase the size of them as I work. I’ll sketch something at 1000 pixels tall, and then slowly increase the size as I add more details. I do this mainly because it’s hard for my computer to handle big brushes (which is what I use when sketching). How big are your final pieces? I work at 300 dpi usually, but my pictures end up over 4000 pixels long/wide… sometimes up to 6000 pixels. That is how you can get fine detail, by working on a larger canvas. And if you increase the canvas a great deal, then the edges will become blurry so you may have to go back and refine the edges.

#5

I usually start on a bigger canvas than nedded and downsize it, personally.
I start whit big brushes at 25%, then use smaller and go to 50% and then even smaller at 100% on my bigger paintings. Maybe this would work for you aswell :slight_smile:

#6

I mostly work directly with 300 ppi, but I’ve heard of others who begin with a lower ppi and then resample later - which means you keep the size in inches or cm, but instead of 72 or 150 ppi, you set it to 300 ppi. Normally, (If I’m not wrong ?) this should blur the things a bit, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What you will need to do afterwards, would be to rework some areas that you want more detailed.

Personally, I find that too much sharpness allover kind of kills things … and I also find that the only way to REALLY know what your image looks like, is to print it out. Some details that you thought you had to work more on will perhaps not even be perceptible once printed out. I often - say at least five times - print my WIP and scrutinize it to see if I forgot some details.

As Navate, I also add more and more canvas to my images. Sometimes it’s quite impressive really ! It starts out with about 2000 x 2000 and ends up the double or more. I keep on adding canvas all the time ! As a professional photographer, I have a very huge Epson tracer and of course I can’t resist printing bigger and bigger … pssst : please don’t tell my husband !

#7

lol alright, i think i know what my problem is. From what everyone is telling me here, I have to change the image size / canvas size. What I have been doing is I have been using the zoom in / zoom out tool. Im assuming that im not supposed to use the zoom tool, and just use the image size properties?

Maybe thats why mine is so blurry when i zoom in, cause by using zoom, everything looks more pixelated, and not refined. Am I right, or does zoom have the same effect as image size?

#8

Normally, you shouldn’t zoom in more than 100 % although sometimes for very small details you could use 200 %.

However, zooming in and out does not at all affect the size of your image. If you want to change the size or resolution of your image, it’s in image size in PS. Don’t pump up your image too much though here, because it will get blurry and loose definition.

If you want to add more canvas, you have to do it in Resize Canvas. I’m sorry if the terms I used aren’t exactly the right ones - I have a French version of PS for the moment.

#9

xanarchistx

Of course you are supposed to use the zoom tool, otherwise Adobe would not have included it. You can zoom in to add detailed information. Afterall, zooming is much easier than resizing your image.

What you must not do is try to determine the crispness of your image in the zoom mode, because zoomed images (magnified) has got to be more fuzzy than the unmagnified one.

For those artists whose computer is not so modern and powerful, they can start off their work probably at 75 or 150 dpi for sketching and blocking in colors. A smaller image makes less demand on the hardware and easier to work with. When they are ready to add in details (wrinkles, eye lashes etc), they will resize the image to a higher resolution like 300 dpi.

#10

You’ll find out this for yourself, but you use ‘image size’ to enlarge or shrink your image. (Which means that Photoshop calculates more pixels for you.) ‘Canvas size’ adds room to the edges.

Going smaller always works, going bigger means that you loose detail. Try resizing an image up and down to see what happens.

I’d suggest that you peruse the documentation on Photoshop Help. All this will stick better in your head if you find it out for yourself. Separating pixel dimensions and resolution was a big headache for me as well when starting out, but it is one of the main things to understand with digital images.

Another one would be colour space (e.g. RGB or CMYK), and yet another thing is that what you see on your monitor isn’t necessarily what you have for real. Check out ‘Histogram’ in the help section. (I’m sorry if this is not correct, but seems like you’ve entirely missed that section of the Photoshop experience.)

#11

:rolleyes: Just to be on the safe side: not only is zooming easier than resizing, it doesn’t change the pixel dimensions of an image.

Say you have a 200X500 px sized image. You zoom to 1600%. The image still is 200X500 even though it seems larger than your 1280X1024 screen. Zooming is like looking closer, it does not resize the image.

#12

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