Preparing for my first Prints - Size Questions!

Hi all,

I've not used commercial printing facilities before, but would like a few pictures printed to give as gifts. My images are 4272 x 2848, which at 300dpi is 14.24 x 9.493 inches. The nearest standard size for prints and mounts at most places I've seen seems to be 15 x 10". What's the wisdom regarding scaling? I'm usually very particular about processing and sharpening my images exactly to the final output size. Is it customary for the print shop to scale your images up to the nearest size, or do they just leave a white border at the edge if the picture is smaller than 15x10"? If I do go a bit bigger, should I resize in Photoshop, or let the Lab autofit for best results?

How about if I wanted to end up with something twice as big on the other hand? Is it common for you guys to scale an image up in Photoshop to something bigger than the original (but re-interpolating and sampling to remain at 300dpi)? If so, do you get good results with the final print, or is there a noticeable lack of clarity?

Finally, there seem to be lots of output options such as Poster print, Aluminium, canvas, Satin, Matt, Acrylic, etc. What are their relative merits and how do you choose between them?

I realise these are a lot of questions. I would appreciate any input at all on the above as I'm just starting with this and have little prior knowledge.

thanks!

I have relatively little experience doing large prints, but I can say that the labs I have worked with wanted me to upscale so that what I gave them (at 300dpi, I think) matched the output dimensions of the paper (meaning when I looked at the image properties in photoshop, my image was, say, 16" x 24" @300dpi. After I upscaled in photoshop, I applied an output sharpening that was appropriate for the size of the image I was printing (now THAT is a tricky subject; read Fraser's writings on the subject). It looked a little crunchy on screen at 1:1, but in the print, at a normal viewing distance, the end result was fabulous.

Thanks, that's interesting to know. In my case I think going from 14.24 x 9.493 inches to 15 x 10 is so minimal I might be better off just leaving it and instead using the clone tool to extend the edges and blurring it to create a 'bleed' margin. On the other hand maybe the effect of upscaling to this minimal extent is completely negligible? I'm sure most of it is in the mind.

I encountered this just recently, I was away in the UK and had one of my photo's blown up and printed (digitally). I found just a graphics printer, they print promo banners invitations, canvass prints etc, Using light room I exported image as jpeg at 1080dpi,their digital printer prints up to 14000dpi (cant remember exact figure) and I specified a custom scale maintaining aspect ratio, it was pretty simple process.

FYI it was printed on to high quality paper with a silicone type ink (from memory), i was impressed with result.

As for quality for 300dpi i would not know how it will turn out, maybe ask the printing firm for their recommendations or requirements first.

Please note I am new to photography so there may be a better way !

you do NOT need to have it printed at 300dpi. I have an old school 10 year old Canon 1Ds and when i had a few metallics printed at Miller's, they were 16x24 and the dpi is at like 160. They turned out AMAZING!

the ROES software they use (and I am sure this is true at WCI, Bay's, Aspen Creek, etc) would give you a disclaimer when the dpi was too low for a certain print size.

Also remember the aspect ratio on cameras. I believe Nikon and Canon are 4:3, so 8x11, 8x10, 11x14, 16x20, etc are not native ratios (you can thank the digital P&S cameras for this), so when you try to print at these sizes, you will notice that you will loose quite a bit from the original file.

Qimage (and Capture One or something for Mac?) is great for up-resing w/o degrading the image too much. I haven't printed anything that large that would warrant using this, but my buddy uses Qimage and loves it. I am VERY picky abut my images (as you can see from my website ) and prints, so I can attest that 150 dpi is very good!

HBOC wrote in post #13987838
I believe Nikon and Canon are 4:3,

Canon and Nikon DSLRs are 3x2, mirrorless cameras are 4x3.

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #13987855
Canon and Nikon DSLRs are 3x2, mirrorless cameras are 4x3.

That is what I meant

OK, so I got my prints back, and they are superb!

I used http://www.dscolourlab​s.co.uk/ in Manchester and they had a pretty good web interface for uploading. I chose the pro service where you submit your work pre-processed in the correct size and colour, although there is another option to have it auto-corrected and scaled to fit. In my case though I used Perfect Resize 7 software to scale up and kept to 300dpi for maximum sharpness. The prints were done with Fuji Frontier 570 printers on Lustre paper and I will definitely be using this again. I highly recommend this service.

The one caution I would advise is to calibrate your screen the best you can. I spent some time doing this, and I also installed the Fuji Lustre paper Colour Profiles in my Macs and PC, however the prints still came out a touch too dark. In future I will turn down the brightness on my monitors even more to match the result of the printed image. This way I can get the original processed to the right brightness level.