Help! Need to make a wall mural sized image...

Someone wants to buy am image and turn it into a 8'x6' wall mural. I took the shot with my 5D2, and my OOC image is 78''x 52" @ 72ppi. How should I resize it so that it can be printed in that size? Or can I? The original is a large jpg, not a RAW...

You should work with the printer to decide if the image you have can be successfully printed at that size, and then let the printer help you convert the image for print to their specifications. When I say "printer" I mean the person or company rep, not a machine.

The 5DmkII gives you 5616 × 3744 pixels to work with. That's more important than raw v JPEG for this particular issue. You can usually upres with Photoshop or a third party login-in like Genuine Fractals - or let the printer do it for you if they do that kind of thing.

Maybe someone on the forum in your area can recommend a printer that can work with you to do your job.

I'm assuming you aren't going to just ship this out to Walmart or something....

kirk

Thanks, Kirk! I just got more information from the customer - she is an interior designer and what she wants is a hi res digital download. She will then make a transparency that will be put on glass for a room divider in an office. So what I need to know is how how big to upres the image in photoshop so that she can download what she needs.

She will down the image from my smugmug site. Here is the image - it is currently 4770x3180.
http://www.photosbykas​.com …7#!i=1777529287​&k=Xs4jJ5k

When you open your image in Photoshop and select View/Actual Pixels then you are viewing it at the resolution of your monitor, which is about 100 pixels per inch (ppi). So for your 4770x3180 pic you are viewing what would be a 47.7x31.8 inch image.

Assuming you are happy with your actual image quality, then you could use the Photoshop Image/Image Size function to "enlarge" the image. Just figure the dimensions in inches and multiply them by the ppi you would need. For what you're talking about you could just keep the ppi to 100, I'd suppose. So 8' = 96". At 100ppi, your long dimension would be 9600 pixels.

However, you have a problem in that an 8x6 image will require cropping at the long dimension. Your image is at the "native" aspect ratio of your DSLR, 2:3, meaning that if enlarged it would produce a 6x9 image, not a 6x8. So you have to figure out what you really need here!

I wouldn't enlarge it, I'd leave it for the lab to do. Just send them the processed jpeg at the original resolution. If they complain and ask for more pixels then upsize it in PS.

Do nothing. The previous post about leaving it at the original resolution is the best. Do NOT artificially step the dpi using Photoshop. The printer has the best algorithims to make the print the sharpest.

Dirty little secret: pixels don't matter. Pixel counts sell camera bodies but almost ANY print bigger than an 8x10 is a approximation of a small digital file. I'm amazed at the people that ramp up dpi to 300dpi in Photoshop somehow thinking they're making the picture "sharper" or "bigger" or "better". Doing so is merely an algorithm - a guess - that manufactures more pixels from fewer pixels.

I have 20x24 tack-sharp enlargements from my old 8MP Canon 20D, not a pixel in sight. Sent to Miller's/MPIX at 72dpi from the original file. For every amateur that screams they need the latest-and-greatest 8billionpixel body, I show them my enlargements.

Ok - so I can process the original image - not resize, and at 5616 × 3744 pixels that will be ok? Even though the 5616x3744 is at 72ppi?

The embedded ppi is completely irrelevant. Read this.

5616 pixels / 98 inches = 58 pixels per inch in the final print. That'll be fine for this sort of thing. I have a 70ppi 50" print that looks great, a cropped image from a 5Dc.

Thanks Tim and everyone - I really appreciate it!

tonylong wrote in post #14294604
...However, you have a problem in that an 8x6 image will require cropping at the long dimension. Your image is at the "native" aspect ratio of your DSLR, 2:3, meaning that if enlarged it would produce a 6x9 image, not a 6x8. So you have to figure out what you really need here!

I'm going to crop it and upload it, but I'm having a dementia moment about the dimensions. Is this a 5x7, 8x10, or 11x14 type crop? ( I've done the math before, but right now I just can't make it work..)

Well, a 6x8 pic is in the 4:3 aspect ratio. It's a common aspect ratio for P&S/compact digicams.

You may not have a crop "preset" for that aspect ratio but it's pretty simple to just type in the dimensions, "6x8", "3x4", whatever!

Thanks, tony - I figured it out...