16x20 and some noise.

[kimberley]

OKay I need some quick help.

I have a customer would like to arder a 16x20 I have never printed one that large.

Which is the best way to do this? I shot in Raw, step by step would be great......

I finished editing this and when I blew it up on my computer I can see some noise....I have the noiseware, but know really dont how to run this when I run a certain action it looks so plastic( you know what I mean)....what are good setting for a protrait.

I would like to get this out wednesday, any advice would be great.

[jazzdiver]

Hi Kimberley,

I'm no expert on this, but my first question is what size image is your original? I shoot with a Nikon D70 (2000x3008 px) and routinely print images from it at up to 12x16 @300ppi or a little larger, on 13x19 Epson ColorLife Photo Paper using an Epson 1270 printer. I've heard of some folks who say they have had 6 Mpx images printed with very good results up to 20x30 inches by photo labs. I question whether they would pass a viewing test at arm's length, but maybe so for a really sharp image. In any case, I typically, resize my images using the Image Size dialog with Bicubic Smoothing in Photoshop CS2, in a single step (as opposed to an incremental approach). After the resizing, I apply a gentle sharpening via a hi-pass filter technique. Those prints look very good at arm's length or closer, and I feel certain that if I went on up to 16x20, they would look good at a comfortable viewing distance, framed and hanging on a wall.

If you have a photo quality inkjet printer, I suggest you try making an enlargement in Photoshop (or whatever you may be using) and then just print out a small crop of that image in the most critical area to you. You could explore a few different sharpening techniques and print 3 or 4 crops on a single sheet for a side-by-side comparison. I've tried doing that tonight via 4 methods....a direct resize in ACR of the NEF RAW file, and leaving the file size as is in ACR and resizing it via a simple image resize in PS CS2, resizing via Genuine Fractals PrintPro, and another resizing with pxl SmartScale. For what I can tell, all 4 results look virtually identical, so I'd not hesitate to simply upsize via the Image Size dialog in PS CS2. The main thing I noticed and am not certain how to minimize, is what I might called a "mottled look" to the fur on the nose of the tiger in the image I was working with. That may be a media profile problem, as I was printing on a paper I'm not that familiar with yet (Ilford Premium Pearl) and which my custom profile may not be ideal.

Regards,

Daryl

[T1ckT0ck]

In "The Photoshop CS2 Book" by Scott Kelby there is a couple sections that are helpful to how to resize pictures. Since you are on a limited time frame, I can email you the scanned pictures, I would rather not post the copyrighted book. I would type it out but I dont have that much patience...plus there are pictures. I would suggest to anyone to pick up this book though, very helpful on many levels. Just send me an email or PM with you email

[AjP]

I printed 16x20 that I shot in ISO800, AdobeRGB JPG, little noise reduction and it is looks great!!!!!!!!! from original image (just smalll crop)

[Detonate]

Just remember, nobody is going to be examining a 16x20 print under a microscope.

More than likely the noise will be invisible at normal viewing distances.

[Gordon]

Assuming you have photoshop CS2 and as you mentioned you shot in RAW, the best way to resize your images is straight out of the RAW converter - change the output size down the bottom in the workflow section to as large as you need/ can get away with.

Then process/ edit the image and resize it up to what you need using Image size - Bicubic smoother. You need to get to either 16x20 @ 240 or 16x20 @ 300 - depends a lot on how you are printing.

Then sharpen it appropriately for that size/ printer and off you go.

If you have CS2, the multi-step/ incremental resizing approaches mentioned in a lot of books is now a waste of time/ has been replaced with the 'bicubic smoother' option that essentially does the same thing.

[kimberley]

This is the image, I resized for web.....but my other question is I just cant get the color right it looks so green/yellow to me I know that the main color but it looks off...any suggestions

[Detonate]

Probably need to take the highlights down just a tad with the Shadow Highlight tool.

Then you could mess with a Hue/Saturation layer. Maybe take the Yellow's and adjust the hue towards the green side slightly, and bring down the Saturation a tad. Then maybe take the reds up just a hair.

At least that's my thoughts just looking at it.

[Detonate]

Also try making a Selective Color Layer, and then up the black level on the yellows. It will darken them up a bit.

[rwwright]

if this was my nikon raw file, I would change the color balance to daylight shade to get the white shirts whiter. they look a little blue to me.

I would also darken all of the background. I would probably try to do this step by bring in the image two times from raw, once trying to adjust the exposure of the background and once trying the adjust the people. this would also allow you to correct the background to color sunlight and the people to sunlight-shade. you then combine the photos using the best of both (this is a little tricky to do by hand but possible. also you can combine using cs2; file-automate-merge to hdr)

this is a lot of work to get done and printed by wed. (you are using a lab??? or do you have a printer that will print 16x20) if you are using a lab, they can do these corrections no problem but not free.

I think you will like changing the white balance to get the shirts back to white. the skin tones really look good then. (i admit it, i saved your photo and adjusted white using levels. i have now deleted the jpg)

[kimberley]

thanks for all the advice guys, I only have PS elements 2 so I am limited on how I can play..I will try the WB when I did it before it tunred everything very very yellow..I will try so more..

I would love to see what you did and compare it to mine after awhile of playing with this It all loosk the same to me know....

[engstrom]

Originally Posted by kimberley

thanks for all the advice guys, I only have PS elements 2 so I am limited on how I can play..I will try the WB when I did it before it tunred everything very very yellow..I will try so more..

I would love to see what you did and compare it to mine after awhile of playing with this It all loosk the same to me know....

Kimberly, the problem with adjusting the white balance is, as you have found out, that white balance affects the whole picture. You have two very different lights in this picture. The subjects are in shade and the background is in sunlight. The really needs to be processed twice and blended to get the best result, but if you are unable to do that then you could always try adjusting the white balance in beween the values for the foreground and background and then select the background and use the hue/saturation (or even variations) to bring down the yellows and up and greens.

[labguy]

check your p m