Sizing images for projection

[purplehaze]

Hi, all. Hope the weather today is better where you are.

I am needing to export a bunch of images of my dragon boat team for inclusion in a slideshow that will be presented at an upcoming anniversary celebration. We will be using whatever projector is provided by the venue. What export parameters would be optimal for large screen projection purposes? Thanks in advance for your help.

[xpatUSA]

Hi, all. Hope the weather today is better where you are.

That it is, Janice:

I am needing to export a bunch of images of my dragon boat team for inclusion in a slideshow that will be presented at an upcoming anniversary celebration. We will be using whatever projector is provided by the venue. What export parameters would be optimal for large screen projection purposes? Thanks in advance for your help.

Others would help you better than I, but I wouldn't worry too hard about those. I would say that the image pixel size need not be huge - especially if the viewing distance to the screen is a good few feet ...

[Manfred M]

Janis - the projectors will scale to the native resolution, so it's a little bit like asking what the size of the computer screen the images will be displayed on; the screen drivers take care of those details. 1920 x 1080 is a fairly common screen format. All of the projectors I've used use the sRGB at best.

Manfred

[Geoff F]

I do a similar thing to Manfred.

Projectors will automatically resize but you can help to get the best possible results by resizing in advance using better quality software. And maybe a little bit of careful sharpening after resizing.

Common projector sizes are a height of 720 or 1080 pixels. I tend to also use a resolution of 72 or 96 ppi but this doesn't really matter. Ideally, the starting point of your images will be above these sizes. It is only when you have images which are significantly below these dimensions that you can find problems. Also, as Manfred mentioned, use sRGB colours. Some of the more sophisticated alternatives may develop colour problems when projected. As can happen with internet viewing.

I have been in situations where I have had to donate images for projection along with other peoples photos and mine, which had been resized and slightly sharpened, were quite noticeably better than images from other people.

[pnodrog]

As they are for inclusion in a slideshow I assume someone else is generating the slide show. To keep up with technology I would suggest sending 4K sized images (3840x2160 longest sides) and letting the slideshow editor downsize them if needed.

P.S. A lot of venues on this side of the world no longer project but use 55" or larger screens for display and now usually 4K.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Ted, Manfred, Geoff and Paul. I finally finished processing everything on the weekend and am ready to export. About half of the stuff was in old Aperture libraries that I had converted and needed reprocessing. I am impressed by how much the latest version of Capture One is able to recover from under- and over-exposures. Almost makes me regret some of my deletions.

[Jim A]

Looks like you have got the answers you need, Janis. Our club used to always insist that the vertical be a maximum of 1080, however since buying a more up to date projector a while ago this was changed to 2160 (x 3840). As far as I know, most, or all, of the other clubs in the country, including the national body are still using 1080 pxs vertical.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Jim. It looks like the venue has state-of-the-art equipment, so I used the larger dimensions. The person who is putting the slideshow together seems pleased with the selection.

Here is a sample of some of the images I sent her:

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We are a team of breast cancer survivors celebrating our 25th year this June. Our youngest members are too young, and the oldest just turned 90.