Help me with large print workflow.

T

The Matt

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,642
Edit My Images
Yes
I am about to send something away to be printed and I want to get as large a print as I can out of it. It'll be printed on maybe semi-gloss or matte paper. The original image is 4272 pixels high which means 14.24 inches high at 300dpi, or 21.36 if I go lower, say 200dpi. I have two questions:

I found an article that mentioned that I could resample to increase the number of pixels I have without reducing quality too much. I can't for the life of me find the article again... How far could I push this without the print being rubbish? I intend to frame the picture, and hopefully if it's big enough it won't be viewed too close.

If I do enlarge with resampling, should I sharpen before or after?

Thanks,
 
If the image quality itself is good, open it up in Photoshop an crop it to suit, you'll easily get an 18x12 print from that in high quality. If you want larger it will need to be a poster print.

Sharpen after
 
Talk to the lab. It's unlikely that you'll be better at resampling it than they are.
 
FWIW ~ I have used Oxford Giclee and unlike other such printers I came across they advised not to do an output sharpening step as they handle it based on the paper used and the quality of the image file resolution. I had a few prints made where they did uprez them and though not major increases the resulting print IMO was great (without checking my records I think the largest increase I had done was where at 300dpi it would natively be 8.5inches on the longest side and I had it printed @ 12inches on the longest side). NB I supplied the files at 300dpi as that is what they needed by default.

So as Jonathan says best talk to the lab and see what they can do to help you get the best out the uprezzing.
 
You sharpen afterwards - always. But be careful, it can be overdone. Review it at 100% (image px = screen px) even if you can only see part of the image at that magnification.

A dialogue with a lab has got to be good, if their instructions aren't explicit.
 
Print is done now! 30 inch by 20. Looks pretty good! Terrified of what framing will cost
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top