Preparing an image for a poster-sized print?

[FlipsidE]

Hey all,

I have an image or two that I'd like to get printed at 20x30 so that I can start making my walls look less sterile. So, I plan to use mpix.com as I've heard good things about them, but how do I prep the photo before sending it to them to guarantee the best print?

Should I send the best I have after a slight photoshop edit to clean it up a tad? At that point, it is rather small still...maybe half the size or less than what is needed for a 20x30 print. Or, should I try to increase the size to 20x30 myself and upload the photo to mpix and ask them to print it.

My main concern with upping it to 20x30 first is that a 20x30 JPEG image at high quality will probably end up being a 55MB to 60MB file.

Any ideas?

Thanks

FlipsidE

[chris.bailey]

I recently had some huge (6' x 5') prints made up which came out fantastically. My workflow was as follows:

1) Convert from RAW into PS.
2) Tweak levels and do the odd bit of de-spotting
3) Upsize using Extensis Smartscale (but you could do the trick of upsizing in 10% increments)
4) Sharpen quite heavily (I actually went a bit too far)
5) Save out as 300dpi tiff.

Mine were 600mb or so each so it was save to DVD and post.

i.e. the workflow should be as simple as possible as even the healing brush re-touches I did showed when they were blown up 100 times

[FlipsidE]

I followed the same process exporting the RAW to a TIFF instead, touching it up, and then blowing it up to 20x30 using an increase of only 10% at a time until I got there. Unfortunately, I don't think I would enjoy uploading a 460MB file to mpix.com nor do i think they'd like it sitting on their servers. I *think* I can send it in to them via CD. A 460MB TIFF would fit on a CD w/out a problem, though I do hate waiting for it to get there.

Thanks for the info. At least I know I was doing it right :)

FlipsidE