Lab printing

Without getting too technical.


i had a k100d print done at photobox on A3 matt, it has come out perfect and sharp. i resized image to 16" x 12" in photoshop and it automatically put dpi at 167dpi. no resample.

the question i have is how far can i push a k100d pic as in size before it starts to lose quality. as i would like to do a big canvas.

regards

paul marshall

Oh yes there was At Photobox.
If you provide a straight 3008x2008 pixel image they will do the appropriate upsizing for you. You just changed the effective DPI (which does nothing - adds no extra pixels - except from marking that in the image. Photobox just ignore that setting anyway and use the pixel count)

As far as a canvas goes - the resolution is lower than a print. I have a lovely 36x24" canvas printed from the *ist-D (same sensor). For that I did the upsizing myself and added a touch of extra sharpening in Photoshop.

It all really depends on which lab you intend to use as to what you need to do!

As far as how big? Well, as big as you like really. I saw an article on a print on the side of an articulated lorry that was taken with an early 3 mega pixel Canon DSLR. Looked just fine

Matt

thanks matt

i am really looking for tips on getting pics ready for print with photoshop and also a good canvas supplier as photobox canvas is rather highly priced.

paul

Paul,

The "how to" depends on the lab - they all have slightly different requirements.

www.photoartistry.co.uk was the supplier for mine. Delivery is quite slow, but the quality is absolutely top notch From memory I think I upsized to 300dpi at the appropriate size (ie 10800 x 7200 pixels).

Whoever you choose to go with, give them a call first and discuss your requirements and ask them what's best. You'll need to know what resolution, what colourspace, and how to submit.

Personally I favour labs that do nothing to the image (e.g. www.proamimaging.com ) since I have a calibrated system and want to know that no one is going to mess with my file on the way

For upsizing in CS2 I use the "Bicubic Smoother" option, then duplicate the layer and run a USM (twiddle with the values, but I'd guess something like 120%, 1.5 radius, 0 threshold for a big image), change the top layer blend mode to "Luminosity", flatten, convert the colour space and save.

For PS7 there are various upsizing actions, since many feel that incremental size increases are best. See www.thelightsrightstudio.com for PDFs, videos and actions

EDIT: Found the details - it was AdobeRGB colourspace, and 300pixels per inch.

Hope that helps!
Matt