Determining the correct pixel size for scanned photos

[QuiltyMom]

I recently scanned a few albums worth of photos using a scanner I wasn't familiar with. The result is the photos were scanned so large that they're hogging space on my computer. I need to go in and fix each and every one to something more appropriate. I'll be using them to make a family history album for my family.

For example, a 3"x2" photo is 5048x3508 pixels. Yeah, huge. I need to get them down to a reasonable size, and I don't know what that would be.

Any help will be most appreciated! Thanks.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

My personal opinion is that that size is just fine. Any photos that I have scanned or had scanned, I appreciate having them with a large number of pixels. You get more detail to the photo than if they are scanned with a smaller number of pixels. I even have my cameras set to take large pixel size photos.

You can always adjust down when scrapping but enlarging a photo with a small pixel size doesn't always look as nice. Yes, AI can help in enlarging those photos but the crispness of the large pixel photo is even better.

If you don't want them taking space on your computer, put them on an EHD or thumb drive.

Again, just my humble opinion.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

I agree with Rene. I always scan photos at the highest available resolution. IMO, storage (EHD/USB) is pretty cheap.

 

[angiekey]

For example, a 3"x2" photo is 5048x3508 pixels. Yeah, huge. I need to get them down to a reasonable size, and I don't know what that would be.

Hi, Jan - the answer to your question really depends on how big you want to print these photographs.

If you're planning on including them on layouts where the picture will only be 3" x 2", you can downsize it to 300 pixels per inch - or 900 x 600 pixels. That will print adequately at 3" x 2".

If you want to use the photographs at 4" x 6", you'll want their size to be 1200 pixels by 1800 pixels. (Personally, I wouldn't go smaller than this.)

At their current scanned size, you can print them as large as 16.8" by 11.7" (Take the pixel size and divide by 300 - 5048/300=16.8 ... that tells you how many inches it'll print at 300dpi, which is what most photo printers work with.)

If it was me, I'd probably downsize them to roughly 2400 x 3000. That would let you print as big as 8x10 without loss of image quality.

What are you doing to resize and save your images? Don't do them one-by-one - look at the Batch function in Photoshop to have it automatically process all your images in a single folder, or use Adobe Bridge to do something similar. It'll save you SO much time...!

 

[QuiltyMom]

The thing is that I don't want to keep them that large. They're gigantic. I just need to find out what a good size is for things that will be used at size or smaller.

 

[QuiltyMom]

Hi, Jan - the answer to your question really depends on how big you want to print these photographs.

If you're planning on including them on layouts where the picture will only be 3" x 2", you can downsize it to 300 pixels per inch - or 900 x 600 pixels. That will print adequately at 3" x 2".

If you want to use the photographs at 4" x 6", you'll want their size to be 1200 pixels by 1800 pixels. (Personally, I wouldn't go smaller than this.)

At their current scanned size, you can print them as large as 16.8" by 11.7" (Take the pixel size and divide by 300 - 5048/300=16.8 ... that tells you how many inches it'll print at 300dpi, which is what most photo printers work with.)

If it was me, I'd probably downsize them to roughly 2400 x 3000. That would let you print as big as 8x10 without loss of image quality.

What are you doing to resize and save your images? Don't do them one-by-one - look at the Batch function in Photoshop to have it automatically process all your images in a single folder, or use Adobe Bridge to do something similar. It'll save you SO much time...!

Thank you for this! It's exactly the info I was looking for.

I use Artisan Historian for all my photos. And yes, I'll need to do them one by one. I do have PSE 2020, but I have no idea how to use it. I've been finishing up the albums I've started in Artisan so I can start fresh with PSE, but I haven't had the time to scrap in about 18 months (eek!).