Large Prints with the Rebel XT

[trunfio]

Kurt, I believe what you are saying, but I don't understand what one has to do to get a print that large. I have shot exclusively with 35mm and medium format film and am just getting into digital shooting with a 10MP D200 and good glass (usually primes).

 

I don't understand what the workflow is required to get that large. I currently shoot fine jpg and have been happy with all my mail order prints so far at 11x14 and smaller. But now I want to go bigger like Marcello. Can I just send mpix the original fine jpg and get back a 24x36 that looks real clean??? or do i upsize with alien skin blowup and sharpen, etc?? Confused....

[malbuquerque]

I know this question depends on a variety of factors and I don't expect a

definitive answer for it, but does anyone have experience with making large

prints to be framed and displayed on the wall (home use, not gallery display)?

 

I have a Rebel XT (8 megapixel) and an image shot in JPEG at its highest

resolution. There is a lot of motion blur on the image that gives it an abstract

effect, so sharp details are not a big deal in this case. Ideally a size of

36"x24" would be desired.

 

How large of a print would you roughly expect such an image to produce

acceptable quality to be displayed on the wall in a typical home? Are there any

specific recommendations on how to prepare it for printing (i.e. upsampling,

sharpening, noise reduction, etc)?

 

Thank you in advance for any feedback.

[ronaldo_r]

</p>

Depends where you print. I.e, whether the printer would upscale the image for the print size in pixels.

</p>

I would upsize myself before giving it to the printer. One can use Photoshop for this (Resize, set the desired Pixel dimensions @ 300ppi). Many recommend doing doing this in 10% increments.

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/learn/resize/"> -> Read this. </a>

[kurt_holter]

A few years ago when I was shooting with 6 megapixel digital SLR cameras I had several photos reproduced at four by six feet in dimension for wall displays in a shopping mall. You could walk right up to them and view them at close distances and they held together beautifully.

 

My theory has always been that with good glass and good technique, the pixel count of the cameras one uses isn't necessarily the major determining factor in how big one can reproduce an image and get great results.

 

Looking at that particular set of photos validated my theory. Especially since then I've had no reservations about delivering very large finished photos of any of my shots to a client. This includes billboards and bus wrappers.

 

Given what you've said about the characteristics of your particular photo, I'd think you could go way bigger than 36x24 with it if you are so inclined.

 

How you prepare it will depend upon your printing vendor and their specific requests for optimal results. In the case of virtually every really big print, billboard, or bus wrapper I've ever had made from a digital file, I've delivered a "best" quality jpeg generated from a raw file at the camera's native resolution. The printer takes it from there.

[patricklavoie]

Dont need any other special plugin to upsize; CS2 image size is way OK for the size you ask. It is better to upsample yourself than letting anybody do it for you generaly, but if you ask the question, maybe in that case someone ohter than you should do it : )

 

As for Billboard and Bus side, it is not realy someting you can compare because you only need a 35ppi fro billboard anda 100ppi for bus side...so even if its not taht precise nobody will see it. But for a 24x36 print on a Epson you will need a minimum of 150ppi file, or to be secure a 200ppi file.

 

So Yes you would be able to print a full frame image uncropped, but with your 8million poixel camera you would need to resample data using image size, adding some sharpen in the end, and sometim i like to add myself a bit of BW noise at around 70% just to remove the bluriness of the pixel.

 

Hope i am clear, but if you are new to digital, it must sound pretty non sense to your ears! best thing to do, buy a good book; REAL WORLD CS2 could help you to start.

[beauh44]

Hi Paul,<P>

 

I'll take a stab with the second part of your question.<P>

 

<I>I don't understand what the workflow is required to get that large.</i><P>

 

You can simply use Photoshop's Image>Image Size command. To increase the size of the image you would make sure the "Resize Image" box is checked. You'd then enter either new "Document Size" or "Pixel Dimensions" according to the size you want. Click OK or press Enter. That's it!<P>

 

Photoshop uses a technique called interpolation to resize images and there's another option in the above-mentioned dialog box giving you choices on the method to do it. (It's in the drop-down box beside the Resample Image check-box) Most people use "Bicubic Smoother" to enlarge their images and I believe Adobe recommends that as well.<P>

 

There are 3rd party software products that claim to do a better job at "up-rezzing" your images. I'm personally not convinced they do a better job than what's built into Photoshop but there are, I'm sure, those who'd disagree.<P>

 

There are also some who say it's best to increase image size incrementally - in 10 percent steps. Again, I think the jury is still out on that one. I have tried that method and could tell absolutely no difference in the final product than doing it in one fell swoop with "bicubic smoother" in Photoshop.<P>

 

No matter which method you choose the last thing you'll want to do before printing is sharpen the image because up-rezzing will smooth things out quite a bit.<P>

 

<I>Can I just send mpix the original fine jpg and get back a 24x36 that looks real clean??? </i><P>

 

I suspect - but admittedly don't know for sure - that Mpix would prefer to do it themselves because if you up-rez the image first you'll be uploading a *huge* file. I would ask them first but I'm pretty sure they'll say that it's just fine to send them the original and let them take care of it. They'll color correct and sharpen it too if you ask. BTW, I believe Mpix prefers the sRGB color space. If you're unsure, in Photoshop, select Image>Mode>Convert to Profile then sRGB. Good luck!

[gdanmitchell]

I use an XT and I'm fairly sensitive to image sharpness in prints, though not obsessive. (In

other words, I don't expect view camera quality from a DSLR, but I do expect something

quite good.)

 

I have done what I consider to be quite good 18 x 24 inch monochrome prints with images

from my XT. My feeling was that they held up very well to viewing from typical distances

and even to close inspection. An experienced photographer would probably be able to

detect that the fine detail is not as apparent as it would be from an image captured into a

larger format; when I inspected closely I could tell. That said, these prints looked quite

good at this size.

 

I did not shoot jpg. I shot RAW with the camera on a tripod using mirror lockup and a

remote release. I have a fairly careful sharpening process that I follow, though there is

nothing sacred about it compared to processes that others might use. (I do a first pass

with the smart sharpen feature in PS, a second pass with somewhat different settings

using unsharp mask, and then another touch up after resizing and uprezing.)

 

Normally I would be hesitant to go beyond this size, though it really depends upon

expectations and upon the nature of the print. With the image you describe it would seem

that absolute sharpness is not going to be a major issue, so I wouldn't be surprised if you

could make a larger yet good print.

 

When I'm trying to determine how large an image will "go" I often go through the entire

process and then print a small section of it at the enlarged resolution first. I hold it or tape

it up somewhere at about normal viewing distance and inspect it. This gives me a good

idea of whether or not it will hold up.

 

Dan

[malbuquerque]

Thank you all for the responses. This is very valuable and helpful information. I will experiment with some of the steps that were described and will give the large print a try.

[howard_slavitt2]

Marcelo: Some tips based on about 10 years of using Photoshop, and studying it: (1) I'd recommend purchasing photokit sharpener for sharpening. It can be downloaded. On my own, I had developed various sharpening techniques over the years. Photokit sharpener is by far the best sharpening program/technique I've used, or read about. It also has a good section in the manual on uprezzing and sharpening workflows. (2) I uprez in Photoshop after having down a round of capture sharpening using photokit sharpener. For larger print sizes, I find that bicubic "normal" (neither smoother or sharper) works best. YMMV. (3) Most practiced printers who uprez biw recommend adding noise at the final stage when you uprez to give texture, grain, or the appearance of resolution (although noise in reality would only degrade resolution). You can do this in photoshop using the noise filter; I'd recommend gaussian and monochromatic and in only very small amounts. (4) Many people, myself included, now believe that the 10% increment approach -- often called stair-step interpolation or something like that -- gives no benefits. I'm in that group.

[greg lockrey]

This print was made from a five year old Olympus e-20 5 mp camera.<div></div>

[robert lee]

"There is a lot of motion blur on the image that gives it an abstract effect, so sharp details are not a big deal ... size of 36"x24" would be desired."

 

No problem. Just be sure to upsample the image before submission to print. This is to ensure that you maintain control over the smoothness of tonality transitions. The resampling algorithm in the target output device may do a great job, but it's better to not be surprised.

 

Also, you'll want to preview the print before you commit. Just get 4x6 prints of key sections of the upsampled file at 1:1 crop.