Advice Needed!

After spending much time looking through this forum I figured it would be better to just type my question and see if anyone can help. Which one of these scenarios should I choose, are they the same? Is there anything that I am doing wrong here? Goal is to print one 8 x 10 photo.

Scenario 1: Original Image size 3504 x 2336 at 300 ppi. Crop an 8 x 10 area using aspect ratio and enter 300 ppi in the resolution box. Then contrast, sharpen etc. Final pixel dimension says 2400 x 3000.

Scenario 2: Original Image size 3504 x 2336 at 300 ppi. Crop an 8 x 10 area using aspect ratio but leave resolution box empty. Go to image resize where pixel dimension is 1143 x 1429 with ppi of 142.9. Enter 300ppi with resample image bicubic checked. Final pixel dimension says 2400 x 3000. Then contrast, sharpen etc.

Are these two processes going to give me the identical end result? Is one of these scenario better than the other. To me scenario 1 seems easier since it involves less steps. If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.

scenario 2, but increase Pixel by 10% at a time and use Bicubic Smoother instead.

There may be a difference, but doubt if you can see it.

I'm not sure why you need 300ppi for a file you want to print. If you start with a 300ppi image, and crop a section out of it, then that section is still 300ppi. If your cropped area turns out to have a ppi of 300 after cropping, then that's great, but if you crop a smaller than 8x10 area and then stretch that to be 8x10, as long it's 240ppi or more, leave it alone unless you are sending it to a printer that demands a 300ppi file for his specific printer. For any photo inkjet printer (Epson, Canon or HP), 240 is plenty.

As lostdoggy mentioned above, if you do have to increase image size or ppi, bicubic smoother works best.

Perhaps it will help if I show the image. I am trying to enlarge the box to an 8 x 10. In scenario two if I crop it using the 8 x 10 fixed aspect ratio I get the ppi of 142.9 which I believe is to low to make a quality print. Therefore, I resample it to 300 ppi. I am just afraid that I am doing something wrong here and that when I send it in I am going to get back a horrible print. If you can't tell already, I have not made many prints of my digital images. If anyone would like to tell me how they would go about turning the box into a quality 8 x 10 print, I would be most grateful. If it is not possible (quality wise) please let me know.

Option 3. Resize to the ratio you want, don't set the ppi, let the printer worry about it. Labs have always done a good job for me.

I don't see that you've mentioned if you're printing yourself. If so, why not experiment and see which is best. Tim has a valid point if you're sending to an outside printer. Why not check with them to see what ppi they need? This is really a tough call. 142 ppi may be pushing it, but then there is not a lot of fine, sharp detail here. The feathers have some fine detail but is appears to be softer. I've done very acceptable 11 X 14 portraits at around 125 ppi. If you do choose to re-sample to a larger file, use bicubic smoother and size to minimal requirements. Then re-sharpen. I don't see any reason to go to a full 300 ppi file though, probably somewhere around 200-250. Where's Scottes?

I am sending it to an outside printer, bodog. I understand what you are saying, and it sounds right to me. Maybe I will try and PM Scottes to see if has any other advice. Thanks again.

First, Shadow & Highlights, Shadows at 0%, Highlights at Radius 3, Range about 30, and play with the Amount until you pull some more details out of his white feathers. This will mess up contrast, and watch out for a color cast being added to the whites. They should stay white, so either play with S&H color correction or plan on removing the color cast another way (Saturation or preferably Curves).

Then use Option 2, but use Bicubic Sharper to accent all the details, and sharpen correctly.

Since you've got a decent, but not extraordinary, increase in size, Bicubic Sharper will be fine. However, good sharpening will be most beneficial here. View at 50%, radius .7 - 1.0, strength's probably gonna be well over 200%, threshold 0 since it's low ISO. This will catch the details in the feathers. Watch his right shoulder for a halo - expect one, but make sure that it's no more than 2 pixels wide. When it looks good at 50% zoom to 100% and make sure it's not ugly. At 50% it should look good, at 100% it should look a little over-sharpened.

If you clone out the little branches I won't tell, and you should have one hell of a gorgeous print. That's a nice shot.

Thanks so much Scottes, I will give it a try.