Complete noob here .... Currently, i have like 10 - 15 pictures that i want to convert it into physical photos(3R or 4R ...)

I have checked the dimensions of the photo in pc are like mixture of

400 x 400 ish
500 x 500 ish
1920 x 1000 ish
2000 x 3000 ish
3000 x 2000 ish
4000 x 3000 ish

I need to know whether all these pictures can be printed out via photo kiosk? to the size of 3r or 4r ?

Please help also, how much would it be? TQ

Your <500px photos will be a squeeze to print in 4R.
Else, others are fine. Go Harvey Norman. It's only rm0.60 per piece.

alright ! thanks man! squeeze means it will look stretch ?

By squeeze, I mean, that it'll look a bit pixelated to be printed with such low res.

In your computer, try to crop the image to a 4:3 ratio.. keeping the shortest edge unchanged. That way, your printed images will not be cropped to what you're not expecting.

eg. 3000 x 2000 image will become 2667 x 2000 (keeping in mind, you can crop to whatever size you want to in the computer at this point)

there's no need to change anything in the 4000 x 3000

This post has been edited by lwliam: Aug 3 2014, 01:22 PM

Let's tackle the aspect ratio first, since this is the obvious problem. The aspect ratio is the ratio of the length to the width of the photo. The aspect ratio of a 4R photo is (6in / 4in = 1.5). For a 3R photo, it is (5 in / 3.5in = 1.43). The bigger the aspect ratio number, the "longer" the photo is.

If your image jpg is 400x400, the aspect ratio is (400pixels / 400pixels = 1.0). It is perfectly square. There is a problem here. Your image jpg is perfectly square, but the photo paper you want to print the image on is not. It is a rectangle. They are different shapes. So how do you print a square image onto a rectangular piece of paper?

1. forcibly stretch the image, to make a 400x400 image become 600x400. Nobody does this. People will become either very fat or very thin if you do this.

2. fit the image onto the paper. Zoom the image until it exactly fits the paper, so that the entire image is on the paper. This will leave white borders on either side of the paper where no image is printed. The size of these borders is exactly 1 inch.

3. crop the image to fit the paper. Zoom the image until there is no blank space on the paper. Obviously this means that part of the image will be "outside" the paper and will not be printed. On a 400x400 pixel picture, you will crop out 67 pixels from the top and 67 pixels from the bottom of the image, if you print it like this on a 4R paper.

Most photo shops will do (3), unless you specifically ask for (2). Or if doing (2), something very weird will happen to your picture. Most kiosks are probably set to automatically default to (3), though you can adjust the "zoom" to anything you want.

If you print a 400x400 image onto 4R paper using the "fit" method, it will be fine, because the picture will print at 100dpi (400pixels / 4inch). If you print it using the "crop" method, it will be 67dpi (400pixels / 6inch). 67dpi will be pretty ugly and pixelated.

500x500 image printed on 4R paper using the "crop" method would be 83dpi. Kind of "soft", might look a bit blur to some people. Others might consider it fine. It's up to the person, his eyes, and the actual image (yes, the contents of the image affects our perception of how sharp or blur it is).

400x400 printed using the "crop" method on 3R paper would be 80dpi (400pixels / 3.5inch). 500x500 printed using the "crop" method on 3R paper would be 100dpi (500pixels / 5inch).

Generally, for small photos at 3R or 4R sizes, anything down to about 100dpi would be good and sharp. Many commercial grade printers and papers are not able to print much better than that anyway. More importantly, most people would not be able to see better than that. Not unless they're staring at the photo at a distance of 2 inches from the eyeballs.

90 to 100dpi, picture would be not as sharp, but still generally acceptable, because viewed from normal reading distance of about 9 to 12inches or more, they still look good (unless you have Edwin Hubble's eyes).

Below 90dpi, photos start to look "not so good". A bit "soft".

Below 80dpi, photos start to look bad even at normal viewing distances.

Remember these dpi numbers are just general guides. They are not hard and fast rules. Exactly how low a dpi you can go, and how much the quality degrades depends on what is on the photo and the person looking at the photo. And the machine you use to print the photo.

Different printing machines, using different printing technologies, outputs photos of varying sharpness. If your input image have very high dpi, then the photo obviously looks better if you print on a machine that have high "sharpness" and can output a great deal of details. But if the input image does not have enough dpi to print at the photo size you require, the output from a machine that is less sharp would actually look better.

Oh, for the aspect ratio problem, I recommend that you resize your photo on your computer at home before taking them to the photo shop to print. If you want to "add border" do that at home. Same if you want to crop. At home, you have all the time in the world. At the shop, you might have to rush, with other customers breathing down your neck.

hi,

anything below 1000px on the longest length, usually are considered under 1mp photo. and for a decent good print out, minimun of 1mp is required for 3R and 4R. hence it need to meet at least 1000px and above for the longest length.

so for those under 1000x800 or 800x1000, your photo will look a little soft. i doubt it will looked pixelatte(sharp edges) as the printer driver will automatically soften the image when doing larger print then the allocated pixel.

here a way to see how it will turn out, just open the photo from your pc with whichevery default program, then run it to fit the screen (assume most screen are min 720 display)... the enlargement of the photo from 500x500ish to fit the 1366x720 will look a little soft. that is how the photo might turn out.

Thank you all ! very informative! will try the recommended ways.

by soft u mean that the picture will come out not so colorful ?

ddk, those methods like fit, crop etc can be selected on the kiosk right? please also recommend me a place which i can do this. first timer here ...

Worst case scenario it will be like this

This post has been edited by lwliam: Aug 4 2014, 10:52 AM

I'm not familiar with all kiosks. Don't know if there are those presets. Or they might call them something else.

Worse come to worse, you just zoom until you get what you want, then hit print. All kiosks I've seen so far lets you zoom and move the crop position around. It can be done on the kiosks. But can be a bit fiddly sometimes, especially if you have to use a touchscreen and they don't provide a mouse.

The normal procedure is you go to the kiosk, load your photos, decides on how to zoom/crop, which photos you want to print, how many copies, etc. And when all that is done, you pay. And only then you print.

Pay is step #2. If after sitting there for 10 minutes, you decide that you don't want to print anything, then no need to pay. All it costs you is one wasted trip. Just go and try.

Some kiosks will automatically detect "low resolution" photos and warn you to not print them. This is usually set at 300 or 150dpi (depending on the shop), but can usually be changed to anything the store wants. They usually set it a bit on the high side to avoid customer complaints. From my own experience, pictures can usually be printed down to 100dpi. Below that, it will be a bit iffy. The only way to tell for sure is to print them.

If your photos are very low resolution, and you still want to print them, you can composite multiple images into one photo, or add a decorative frame around the image. This makes the original image print smaller, and hence at a slightly higher dpi. If the staff at the shop is competent, they should be able to explain all this to you. But keep in mind that some retail staff are paid not much above RM900/month, so don't expect them to be all image processing experts. Whether the boss will take the time to explain all these, it depends on how busy the shop is, and the boss's own temperament. Good luck.

This post has been edited by dkk: Aug 4 2014, 12:00 PM

thanks for all the information. just did all the printing from harvey norman. and yes, those smaller pictures, i have to select do not crop option. This made the picture smaller and there are white borders around it.

within 5 minutes i got all my photos printed out. 22 pictures at rm 13.20, all in 4R. reasonable ar?

Yes. That works out to only 60 sen per picture.

"soft" as in, photo will look blur. (opposite of sharp)

Of course. But "soft" sounds nicer to the customer.

BTW
a 4R print is 4x6 inch
6 inch x 100 dpi = 600 pixels
4 inch x 100 dpi = 400 pixels

However, photos from digital cameras usually have an aspect ratio of 4:3.
4 / 3 x 600 = 450 pixels
So the picture will need to be 450x600 pixels = 270,000 pixels

Most cameras probably don't have a setting for 450x600 pixels
The closest will be 480x640 pixels = 0.3 megapixels