From few of the tutorials I read about rendering, they suggest render the final piece at least twice the size of the desired image with DPI at around 200~300. I kind of understand why you would do this and it's because it holds more information, right? My question is, once you get this final render, and try to size down to the size you want using photoshop etc, I just don't see any improvements in details or quality from the images that are rendered in regular dimension. I reduced the size by 'Image Size' option under photoshop using either bicubic sharp or smooth, but, once it's processed,I am losing alot of information from the original. Is this the correct way to resize the image? If it is, then I just don't see if it's worth the extra time to render at large size. Please someone enlighten me?

I believe they suggest rendering so large if your'e going to be doing some postwork on it such as painting clothes or hair... Nancy

in printing, you usually use at least a 300 dpi image. If you're just going to use it on screen only, then go ahead and stay at 72 dpi. Doug

I see, So am I correct in assuming that reducing the image size in photoshop will result in loss of quality?

Also, some also suggest not to render smaller than the size of the preview pane, why is this? I guess I am just confused about how dimension effects the quality of the picture, if at all.

it might be more correct to say reducing the image size in photoshop results in loss of "detail" I'm not sure about your other question.

many times i render my pics at 2048x1536 for the simple purpose of having i never postwork though, but i do it, just so later if i want a larger pic i'll have it, and not need to rerender the old scene

So am I correct in assuming that reducing the image size in photoshop will result in loss of quality? Not necessarily. If you're doing postwork, reducing the size can actually make it look BETTER, more "blended", hide little weirdnesses that are artifacts of the Poser renderer (such as the jaggedy edges that pass for "aliasing"). Reducing it TOO much can, indeed, cause loss of some detail, but it depends a lot on what you're working on as to how much will be lost and if it will even matter. bonni

I render my images large because when I paint clothes or do some other postwork it's so much easier on a larger image. I also render them at 300 because I sometimes offer what I make for print, but if I wasn't postworking or if they weren't for print, I'd stick with a 72ppi res and a smaller size, to save time for the render and save space on my machine... ;)