Question about printing

K

Kramer

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Matt
Edit My Images
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I apologise if this should be in the 'printing' forum but I think it may well be a simple question and I am getting something obvious wrong. I am quite new to photography and I took this pic a few months ago
http://500px.com/photo/34036087
I uploaded the jpeg to the site and it looks good there and on my monitor. I then took the picture on a data card to a printer and had a print made that was 12x16cm. It has not come out particularly sharp and I want to try to find out why. I have a few theories which could well be wrong but:
Should I have saved it as a Tiff file and printed as that?
Should I have enlarged the image in Photoshop to the size I wanted to print it to?

What I want to be able to do it print at the 12x16cm size. I have a Canon Eos 550d which, at 18 megapixels should be enough?

Thanks for any help you can offer.
 
Hi, What you see is not always what you get and the reason is simple, your shinny monitor screen unless it is calibrated gives you a false impression of what you are looking at, take into account the light in the room shinning on the monitor another factor of not seeing it correctly.
The best and IMO only way to get prints that print as they look on screen is to calibrate your monitor.
You can buy used older types of calibration devices on sites like Ebay that are easy to use and won't break the bank, again IMO best place for you start in getting it correct.
Someone may disagree with this but if you read up on printing or even search a site like you-tube I bet 99.9% start with stating something to do with calibration!!!
Russ
 
If it's a sharpness issue then the probability is it's due to "ink bleed." For many types of prints you need to "oversharpen" the image to allow for this.
 
Thank you for your answers, this gives me something to go on. JT74, when you say 'the full size image' can you elaborate please as I think this may be something I am also doing wrong and your explanation may help.
 
Kramer said:
Thank you for your answers, this gives me something to go on. JT74, when you say 'the full size image' can you elaborate please as I think this may be something I am also doing wrong and your explanation may help.
Click to expand...

Was the image full size (5,184 x 3,456?)?

Did you save it using Photoshop's 'save for web'?

Check the file properties. It sounds like the image could have been stretched to fit the 12x16 photo.
 
Thank you. I will try all the suggestions and hopefully get it right and thank you for the compliment also :)
 
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