Increasing size on a photo for print
 

I shoot my shots at the largest filesize jpg and at fine quality on my 10.2 mp cam, photoshop loads them as size 12.907in x 8.64in or 3872px x 2592px at 300 dpi

Now obviously when I crop the photo to make the image the way I want, the size will be smaller. Would 12.907 x 8.64 be the biggest I'll be able to print at high quality?

What if I love a photo so much that I want a big print of it. Is it common for photographers to sacrifice the quality a little for a bigger print?

Would you be able to tell a big different in sharpness if you went from 12in to a 24in size poster?

Thanks!

The tighter you crop a photo, the more you give up on the size you can print at. I would need to find an exact resolution to print type chart to know specifics. Of course it helps if you compose and shoot keeping in mind what you'll what to print. Also, you may want to consider shooting in RAW format. You can do more than you can with those JPG's.

If you really need or want to upsize an image for printing large, check into Genuine Fractals.

http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2

Try Qimage it is a great printing software and does a great job of upsizing prints.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

I don't have a photo in mind yet. But I'm looking at the big blank walls in my new apt and really want something impressive whether it be something big or some smaller series of photos. So I'll be on a hunt for something neat to shoot that would look awesome on my wall. I haven't really looked at all the formats avail on my cam, so I'm hoping RAW is on there so I can try it out. I took one of my original images, and doubled the size and the picture still looked really sharp. But of course it would be a mystery of what it would look like printed. This resolution to print type chart, I don't understand what that is....is that something depending on the printer and the type of paper?

wow, $160 for a plugin. I need to pay off my camera first. lol But that does look quite impressive! I just might not be ready for that yet. I like free. lol

Ooo yeah! Much more affordable! Gonna bookmark it for when I need it in the near future and it happens to be payday. Thanks!

Well, it's more than just a plug-in. :-) It's actually a program that uprezzes images without noticeably losing resolution or sharpness. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) gives it their top BEST rating and recommendation. That's why I mention it when someone is wanting to upsize at maximum quality. Just something to remember when you're ready to make the move.

for large poster-sized prints, and where the resolution isn't quite as picky as normal photo-print processes (due to the increased viewing distance), try some of the inkjet printers. I use perfectposters.com.

Their website will tell you how large it will go without degading, and it is a lot larger than processors such as MPix and other photo-printers will go. But then, it IS inkjet. Which I find more than suitable for posters.

I use the enlargers in PaintShop Pro for the very few times I've needed to enlarge for printing.

RAW will not affect resolution, it WILL let you compress a bit less and therefore get a better pic when printed large, but most printers go by simple resolution (at a particular dpi/ppi) when they determine what pics they will print.

It seems like an impressive program. I definitely would like to look into this later when I have the dough. Thanks for the rec!



Has anyone used a printing company like Ritz/Wolf? I saw they do huge enlargements and print to very big sizes, but it doesn't say the process. I wonder if they use a program like Genuine Fractals that they can run customers photos through in their enlargement process.

Oooo I'll check that place out! Thanks!

and
I wouldn't think the resolution of the printer would be less than the resolution of the image, would it?

If you're going to be printing up at 24" or so, your not going to be printing it yourself anyway (unless you've got a really expensive printer), so I wouldn't worry about it. Just use mpix or perfectposter and let them deal with the upsizing. Most of the big printing companies use Genuine Fractals or something similar, so you don't have to.

yes, i'd have someone else do the printing. I didn't know if I should enlarge it myself and then have it printed. Or send it off and have them enlarge it to the size I want and then print it.

For inkjet I normally reduce the dpi to 100-150...the printer starts flaking out at large files. At 100 dpi your image will resize to 38.72 x 25.92 inches and at that size you will really notice little difference. Processing on photo paper is another story but for me thats too expensive. :undecided

I would keep original jpg or psd files of the images you may want to enlage, the ones that really would look nice large.

Stephanie,

You don't need anything more than Photoshop. I think the algorithms PS uses are better than the other programs anyway. I use the crop tool to size to the largest print I am going to make for my customer at 300dpi. I send the lab a copy of my PSD file in jpg format saved at the highest setting 12. Then I let my lab print the smaller sizes from the larger file. Down sizing a file is easier on your file than up-sizing. I want exact control of the cropping. Letting others up-size the original file may not get the exact crop you want due to cropping perspectives.

I always size it up FIRST, so I can retouch that bigger file size. If you retouch the smaller file and then enlarge it to say 24x30, like the other programs they are talking about, then you will see the mistakes you made in your retouching even bigger.

How do you know what your print will look like? If you want to see what you will see on a print you can zoom the file to 33% zoom and that is almost exactly what you will see when the print is made. If you can see something at 33% or 50% then most likely you will see it on the print.

I didn't think about resizing first before retouching, but that definitely makes sense. Thanks for the advice!
Yay, i'm feeling a bit more confident about this. :)