Canvas Printing

Hey everybody,

I recently took a photo that's been getting lots of requests for canvas wall prints. I've never printed canvas wraps before and wanted the communities input.

1) At 5925 x 3333 what's the largest canvas I should consider printing? I've tried upscaling them in photoshop and looking at them at a 1:1 ratio up to 48" wide and it doesn't lose a ton of detail - especially for canvas which I assume loses a lot of the finer details.

2) What companies do you go with normally and recommend? I've seen a lot of the 90 off and 85 off coupons and I value a good price, but I'm not putting my name on a piece of art that is below my level of quality.


Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

Image:

The thing with printing on canvas is its very forgiving. You don't retain a lot of fine detail because of what you're printing on. I've printed 30x40 from both 6d and T1i files without upscaling and they look great.

I've used CG Pro in the past. Very nice quality. Both the front and backs are backed so the image is sturdy and will not sag. Check them out.

+1 for CGPro Prints.
Printing that image on metal would be outrageous.

NickWell24 wrote in post #17933804
Hey everybody,

I recently took a photo that's been getting lots of requests for canvas wall prints.

Image:

I find it interesting that folks are wanting to print this image on canvas. Due to the clear and very bold colors, I would have thought that it would look best on metallic photo paper, or else printed directly on acrylic or aluminum.

The people who want this on canvas, are they familiar with all of the different mediums upon which photos can be printed these days? Are they actually choosing canvas because they think that canvas is especially well suited to this particular image, or are they just unfamiliar with the other mediums?

I think that you could go up to 60" easily, and possibly larger, with no problems. This is because the image is really comprised of large areas of beautiful colors with a very 'smooth" feel and subtle gradations between the colors, and really has no fine detail that is of any significance.

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Tom Reichner wrote in post #17935266
I find it interesting that folks are wanting to print this image on canvas. Due to the clear and very bold colors, I would have thought that it would look best on metallic photo paper, or else printed directly on acrylic or aluminum.

The people who want this on canvas, are they familiar with all of the different mediums upon which photos can be printed these days? Are they actually choosing canvas because they think that canvas is especially well suited to this particular image, or are they just unfamiliar with the other mediums?

I think that you could go up to 60" easily, and possibly larger, with no problems. This is because the image is really comprised of large areas of beautiful colors with a very 'smooth" feel and subtle gradations between the colors, and really has no fine detail that is of any significance.

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I agree with Tom, and really think the direct print under acrylic, done on a metallic paper, would be the optimum for this image. Those colours really would suit that type of finish.

Alan

Tom thank you for that input. I am actually new to metallic prints myself, do you have a printer you'd recommend? I am wanting to check prices and order a test print before offering it to clients.

NickWell24 wrote in post #17935524
Tom thank you for that input.

You're quite welcome.

NickWell24 wrote in post #17935524
I am actually new to metallic prints myself, do you have a printer you'd recommend? I am wanting to check prices and order a test print before offering it to clients.

White House Custom Color.

Also, Fine Art America. Although they print on aluminum and on acrylic, I do not think they print on metallic photo paper.

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I've had great results on aluminum from H&H. I haven't used WHCC for metal prints, though I've used them for other prints, and based on that quality I wouldn't hesitate to try their metal prints.

To your original question, most canvas printers require only 100-150dpi at a max. I think it'd be fine at 60 inches wide. And once you get up to that size, nobody's scrutinizing it the same way you do a magazine ad or handheld print, so you could probably scale it up even more, without any noticeable quality loss from any reasonable viewing distance.

Opinion: A good photo that's 5900 pixels wide, print it as big as you want.

The lab that I use for my high end needs is Whitewall.com. They are an international company and have an operation in the US as well as the EU. They are not cheap but the quality is 100%.

Alan

Yeha 5000th post, although I do feel as if ti were a bit of a waste of the big number! Would have been nice in a way if it had been one of my really long thought out ones, just to do justice to the number.

I think it would look great on canvas as well as metallic/aluminium because it would look like a painting. It's not necessarily all about detail but about the effect you want. You don't say what country you are in but as Al said WhiteWall is international.