Dig Guides

Guidelines for Making Digital Files
for Projection - Critique Images to
Bring to Workshops

It is very important that everyone bring their images in this format. Thus, we are supplying very detailed instructions on how to make the images below.

All images should be 1050 pixels on the longest side and 72 dpi resolution JPEG images. To make those from Tiff or PSD or other format files:

Change the image format to JPEG first, then any other changes cannot be accidentally saved to a file you prefer to keep as is:

1. Open the image in Photoshop, by clicking the File menu and Open, then locating the image and double clicking on it (or click on it once and click the open button on the pop up window that you are in).

2. Click the File menu, click on Save As to open the Save As window.

3. In the Save As window that is open, under the File Name box, is another box titled Format that is actually a drop down list.

4. Click on the down arrow on the right side of the drop down list box and you will see a list of lots of image formats. One of those is JPEG (note that JPEG only works with 8-bit images, so you can only save an 8-bit image as JPEG - 16-bit can be changed to 8-bit by opening Image/Mode and checking the 8-bit line).

5. Click on the JPEG within the drop down list, then click on the Save button in the Save As window in which you are working. You will then get a new window for JPEG Options, with an area in the window entitled Image Options. On that drop down list, click maximum.

6. Photoshop will then convert the image to a JPEG format and save it as such.

The saved image will have the same dimensions as the original image, so we need to resize the image. to 1920 pixels on the longest side:

1. Click on the Image menu at the top of the Photoshop page, then click on Image Size to open the Image Size window.

2. There are three boxes at the bottom called Scale Styles, Constrain Proportions and Resample Image. All three boxes should normally be checked and the drop down list behind the Resample Image should be set to Bicubic (this is a Photoshop built in method of resampling that many believe is superior or at least equal to Genuine Fractals -- in any case, it is generally very good).

3. Uncheck the box for Resample Image (you will notice that the Scale Styles and Constrain Proportions boxes and lines will go darker when you do this). Change the resolution line to 72, a more appropriate resolution for JPEG images. Be sure second box on the Resolution line is already set to pixels/inch before you change the number.

4. Recheck the Resample Image box.

5. In the top area, called Pixel Dimensions, you want to set the drop down lists related to units of measure to Pixels. Then, change either the width to 1050 or the height to 1050 for our purposes (obviously you can change these to any number when resizing for your own purposes). Whichever dimension you do not change, either width or height, will automatically change to the correct size because you have the Constrain Proportions box checked and Photoshop will take care of that part. If you start changing dimensions without constraining proportions, you will start stretching or flattening the look of the image and things will get ugly.

6. You will note that at the top of the Pixel Dimensions area is a set of numbers. The first number is the file size of the image resized and the number in parenthesis is the original file size of the image in MB (or some similar measurement). It will be obvious how much smaller the new file size is.

7. Press the OK button in the Image Size window and Photoshop will resize the image.

8. You can either Save or Save As to keep the image once resized. Please rename the image with letters/words only - not with other characters, blanks or all numbers (they do not work within our program) and please keep the names short (i.e., we don't need 08102005image132GoldenPondSunsetbyAudreyHeimlichmeister; something with 8-10 letters would be better).

The resultant image will be good for projection. Of course, for it to look good when projected, you will have had to make the digital image while using a well calibrated monitor. Our projectors will have a proper calibration.