| Photography Forum: Photography Help Forum: |
 |
Q. What print size is A4?
Asked by Allison Kuznia
(K=562) on 9/10/2006
|
I shoot with a Digital Rebel on size LARGE. I operate a part-time photography business (www.allisonkuzniaphotography.com) and this is what I shoot with. The manual says that with the Quality set to LARGE, it is size A4. My question: what size, in inches, is A4 when I get a photo printed? I want to get good quality up to at least an 11x14 size.
Should I be shooting on a RAM setting instead? I tried that once but it took FOREVER to upload them to my computer and open them up in Photoshop.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jeroen Wenting
(K=25317) - Comment Date 9/10/2006
|
A4 is roughly 20x30cm (in fact it's about 10% larger in area). In Europe in fact you won't get prints from a regular lab that are A4 size but only 20x30cm.
Computer printers here though are generally geared for A4 size paper, which is an international standard for office documents, with the USA one of the few countries in the world not observing it.
This causes major headaches for companies doing international business with the US (or worse, having offices both in the US and outside it) as they need to take special measures to make sure everything prints nicely both on the world standard and on US Letter, which typically is longer but narrower by just a bit.
You should ALWAYS shoot at the highest possible resolution your camera can handle and not worry about print size. You can always set that afterwards in your post processing software as it's purely a software setting that has nothing at all to do with the actual image data itself.
If your computer can't handle those files, you should get a faster computer ;)
You should also always use a fast USB 2 CF reader rather than your camera to read the images from the card as it's bound to be faster and connect that to a USB 2 port on your computer (rather than a USB 1.1 port).
Or better yet get a Firewire card reader and connect that to a Firewire port (which any modern computer will have).
Lastly, you will want to get something better than the camera you have now if you're going to play with the big boys.
It's very definitely a lowend consumer device, not up to the pressure of professional use and especially the better manual control you will want in the near future.
So better start saving for that 5D (which will give you even bigger files).
|
|
|
|
Dave Holland
(K=13074) - Comment Date 9/12/2006
|
I don't own a Rebel so I can't say much about that advice to get a new camera. However I am humbled by the fact that most cameras today are far better than the skills of the photographer using them. Certainly that is the case in my circumstance. Henri Cartier Bresson shot with a rangefinder, a device that would be considered a lot weaker than cameras of today. I have always held the notion that extra dollars go toward glass, not so much the bodies. It is humbling to note that pictures that win photo contests are often made with consumer level equipment. If you feel that a better camera is necessary, then go for it. Just don't expect to shoot better pictures with it.
|
|
|
|
Jeroen Wenting
(K=25317) - Comment Date 9/12/2006
|
I don't mean to say the Rebel can't produce decent images, just that it is mechanically inferior and thus will not be up to the rigors of extended professional use outside a studio environment.
There's a reason many pros use F3s and F4s still, they're built like tanks and can take a beating that would leave any other body a handful of extremely expensive plastic shards (and the Rebel is flakier than most).
|
|
|
|
|
