Question post/printing

I have been asked to take some property photos for a local business that wants to enlarge them for framing and putting on display in their office. I shoot a Canon 70D and took the photos in both Large jpeg and RAW. My question is what is the best method to get the photos to the printer in the highest resolution for best detail when they are enlarged.

Most of the jpegs are at 6-10 MB and the RAW photos are 25-30 MB.

1. Would the RAW have to be converted and saved as a TIFF and then sent or taken to the printer ?

2. Or would the JPEG be just fine ?


Thanks in advance.

frayne wrote in post #19371244
I have been asked to take some property photos for a local business that wants to enlarge them for framing and putting on display in their office. I shoot a Canon 70D and took the photos in both Large jpeg and RAW. My question is what is the best method to get the photos to the printer in the highest resolution for best detail when they are enlarged.

Most of the jpegs are at 6-10 MB and the RAW photos are 25-30 MB.

1. Would the RAW have to be converted and saved as a TIFF and then sent or taken to the printer ?

2. Or would the JPEG be just fine ?


Thanks in advance.

.
The process that most photographers use that gives the best results in most situations is to edit the RAW files, because those files provide the most latitude in editing. . Then after editing you convert the RAW to a jPeg and send that to the printer.

The largest jPeg setting and the RAW setting should each yield exactly the same resolution - this choice has no effect on how high the resolution is.

What size are the enlargements going to be?

In my view, if they are smallish, like anything up to 30" by 20", then you really don't have to be too concerned much about anything. . But if they are bigger prints, like 36" by 24" and larger, then it is good to give a little extra attention to your editing and exporting. . Ditto if they are heavily cropped.

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frayne wrote in post #19371244
I have been asked to take some property photos for a local business that wants to enlarge them for framing and putting on display in their office. I shoot a Canon 70D and took the photos in both Large jpeg and RAW. My question is what is the best method to get the photos to the printer in the highest resolution for best detail when they are enlarged.

Most of the jpegs are at 6-10 MB and the RAW photos are 25-30 MB.

1. Would the RAW have to be converted and saved as a TIFF and then sent or taken to the printer ?

2. Or would the JPEG be just fine ?


Thanks in advance.

According to specs, the 70D produces images that are 5472 x 3648 pixels. To be able to answer your question, we would need to know the final output size (in physical units like inches). There are general rules of thumb about the print resolution, in pixels per inch, as a function of print size and intended viewing distance. The exercise will be to use all of those pixels in the original image file in the best possible way to produce a print for the intended application.

See: https://www.northlight​-images.co.uk …or-what-viewing-distance/ for an explanation of this interaction.

For example, let's say your client wants to print your images at 36" x 24" to hang on the wall of the office. This is a fairly large print, and it is probably not intended to been viewed from 12" away, but more in the range of somewhere between 2 and 3 ft at an absolute minimum.

The recommended print resolution, in pixels per inch (ppi), for a 2 ft viewing distance is a little less than 300 ppi and for a 3 ft viewing distance is a little less than 200 ppi.

For your camera with a 5472 x 3648 pixel image file, you can simply divide those values in pixels by the value of print resolution, in ppi, to get a physical length of the print dimension, in inches.

5472 pixels / 300 pixels/in = ~ 18 in
5472 pixels / 200 pixels/in = ~ 27 in

To print at 36 in on the long edge at these resolutions, you will need to enlarge your image - this means creating pixels:

? pixels /200 pixels/in = 36 in -> 7200 pixels. Photoshop can do this, as can more specialized software that uses "AI" to manufacture pixels.

If the intended viewing distance is larger, then the resolution requirements decrease - let's figure out what print resolution your camera files support natively to print a 36 in print on the long edge without needing to create more pixels:

5472 pixels / ? pixels/in = 36 in -> ~150 pixels per in

So, you can print at 150 ppi to get your 36 in print - this will correspond to a viewing distance of about 4 - 5 ft, which may be perfectly suitable for the intended end product. In this case, you do not need to enlarge your file or create new pixels.

As with any print, you will need to create the file at its final print resolution and then apply the appropriate output sharpening AT THAT FINAL RESOLUTION, regardless of how you achieved that final resolution. You can send small (4x6 in) sections to the printer to get proofs printed to make sure everything is ok - these small prints are inexpensive and it's way better to do this when you are trying to evaluate your print choices then it is to get a huge print made only to get it back and see that your editing decisions were not correct!

In terms of the output file format, unless there is a compelling reason to do so, your file sent to the printer will likely be a JPEG converted into the sRGB color space. So, when you save the final output print, at the correct resolution and with the appropriate amount of sharpening for the print output device, make sure to convert it to sRGB. As always, consult with the print house you are using to see what their specific requirements are, as they might have different requirements. JPEG is a perfectly fine output format, but there may be file size (in kB or MB) targets that your print house requires, and this might dictate the amount of compression you specify - if not, choose something useful like 85% - 90% quality - this will strike a good balance between file size and image quality. If there is a lot of noise in the image, then the file sizes will be larger for the same amount of compression compared to a less noisy image - in that case, applying some noise reduction to the offending areas of the image will help decrease the file size.

In terms of how you edit the camera files, go with what you are comfortable with - if you shoot and edit raw files, then do that. If you really do not venture into the realm of raw workflow, use the JPEGs. Just make sure that you expose and white balance your JPEG carefully in-camera so that you do not have to make wild color or tonal moves in post on a JPEG file. This kind of exposure conundrum can happen when the dynamic range of the scene is large (indoor/outdoor scene) or there are multiple light sources in an image that have different color temperatures and pose a white balance issue.

Good luck!

Kirk

One can get very large photos made even though the original resolution is limited! I took a 12MPixel image from a P&S, resized it to provide 250 pixels per inch on a 12" x 60" canvas, printed from a 3000 x 15000 pixel JPG file size.
I couldn't locate my earlier post on POTN, so here it is again.

I can't imagine that your clients will ask for anything that a high-res JPG produced from a 70D raw file couldn't easily handle. I'd say the first thing to do is figure out who's doing the printing. Does the client have a place in mind or is it your job to line that up? Either way, find a printer and work with them. They'll either point you to a spec sheet on how to configure your JPG export for the print you're having made, or you may even be able to talk to someone who'll tell you, "for this product, send us this."

Thanks everyone for the sage advice and input, much appreciated.