SmugMug vs Adorama 72DPI vs 300DPI.

[Silverstangs]

I've been using Adorama for my prints, mainly the large one. I finally decided to use Smug Mug, which is not too difficult. I was working on the pricing, and noticed that they will only allow certain sizes to be printed, mainly the smaller stuff.

With Adorama, I have the DPI set to 300, which allows me to still print up to 16x24 inch. On SmugMug, it's limiting me to 5x7 as the largest image. For those of you using SmugMug, are you using the default 72 DPI and uploading the images like that?

[Snarfy]

If you are getting prints made at 72dpi, you might as well just run down to Kinko's.

[Silverstangs]

That's exactly the thing, I want min of 300, but it seems like the only way I can get a 16x24 print, I have to use 72dpi. I must be missing something, or doing something wrong in the conversion.

[Silverstangs]

AAARrRRRGGG

I gotta reprocess about 500 images.. dang it.. the badness was turned on in CS2 somehow.

[FerrisPhoto]

There's really not a huge benefit to uprezing a large print to 300dpi. You could easily get away with 200-240dpi for a 16x20, or larger. I use smugmug, and have never had an issue with large prints, although, I upload the exact print size, and resolution for the print I want. Do you have a pro account, or are you just using the standard?

The other issue, you should always uprez using Resample Image "Bicubic" this will give you the most accurate pixel recreation, as it samples neighboring pixels. If Bicubic is giving you blurry enlargements, it's most likely that your photo is somewhat soft in the capture phase.

Just my two cents worth.

Mike

[imported_Marc Kurth]

I'm sure that people will disagree with me based on their own experience, but I am unwavering in what I have learned after prepping my files for large and very large printing for highway billboards:

1) The RIP’s used by today’s commercial printers will do a far better job of feeding their printer what it needs, than rescaling with any normal Mac/Pc based software. Always leave the file in its native resolution when having prints done on a commercial printer and the let the multi-thousand dollar system do its job of rescaling.

2) Rescale as required for inkjet printing, but I have found products that perform much better than PS Bicubic. Try the old reliable standard: Genuine Fractals or my own favorite - S-Spline used in Photozoom from Benvista Software.

If you want to try out your ability to produce clean files for large prints at a very, very low price.

http://www.elcocolor.com/poster_special.htm

At these prices, go ahead and try one file rescaled with PS and leave the other at it’s native size. You will quickly see what I mean.

Marc

[Silverstangs]

Thanks for the tip... looks like I have a new source for big images.

[imported_Marc Kurth]

The other part of my post is actually more valuable :-)

Getting a handle on these systems work will help avoid misunderstandings, like assuming they were going to print at 72 DPI. Keep in mind that some of the best commercial printers print at 240-250 DPI, so they will actually downsize a file that someone arbitrarily upres’d to 300.

[SmugMug]

Originally Posted by Silverstangs

I've been using Adorama for my prints, mainly the large one. I finally decided to use Smug Mug, which is not too difficult. I was working on the pricing, and noticed that they will only allow certain sizes to be printed, mainly the smaller stuff.

With Adorama, I have the DPI set to 300, which allows me to still print up to 16x24 inch. On SmugMug, it's limiting me to 5x7 as the largest image. For those of you using SmugMug, are you using the default 72 DPI and uploading the images like that?

I am not sure of what you mean that SmugMug "will only allow certain sizes to be printed, mainly the smaller stuff" ?

If you upload low res images, we only allow you (actually show up in the cart) to sell or buy images that will look good at that resolution.

I am not sure where you got the 72 DPI number, as we definitely request more. We print absolutely stunning photos up to 30X40 size. Here is our print catalog: http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog.mg

This is a really good help page: http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality

We would love to hear your direct comparison with Adorama vs SmugMug. In fact, I would give you a free year of SmugMug if you made a nice side by side gallery of the exact same prints uploaded and purchased.

Thanks,
Markham