N00b needs help to up-rez photos for big prints...

Hi all,

What would be the best software for uprezzing a photo for an a2 poster or even a 30x20" poster?

The current resolution is 3888x2592. I'm not sure if this is large enough even for an a2 print.

Any help much appreciated, thanks!

By the way, dpi is 350 if that's any help...

There's a good chance what you have will work. If not, try Genuine Fractals.

Well just t give you an idea, here's the photo (click for original size) :

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …otgrapherever/3​041468966/

Somebody's gonna ask so it might as well be me...Any reason you need 350dpi? And what will the viewing disatance be?

Cool shot.

Most here will tell you it will print nicley at 20x30 at the given size, that't close to 150 dpi.

No reason I need 350dpi, that's just the way the photo came out. Is 350dpi too much? Should I down-rez it or something?

The viewing distance will be: just hanging on a wall in a house really. But this has to be perfect because somebody's actually buying this poster from me, it's not for me.

Are you printing it yourself? If not, let the lab upsize it. They know what they're doing.

At your current image size, printing 30"x20" will be at a resolution of a smidge under 130ppi. Unless you intend to view a print that size fairly close up, you could get away with that resolution.

To get up to a resolution of 240ppi in the print, you would need to increase your image to something like 7200x4800. That in itself may degrade the image depending on what software you use to re-size the image.

The pro side to letting the lab handle the upsizing is that they are probably good at it.
The con side is that if you are a control freak like me you want to be involved as much as possible in everything done to your image. If you uprez yourself you also get to sharpen it afterwards. If you want to DIY and have PSCS, read this:
http://www.outbackphot​o.com/workflow/wf_60/e​ssay.html

I would think a control freak would have his own large format printer as well. Doesn't make sense to me to uprez to a standard that might not even be optimal for the lab's machines.

They can probably find out what ppi the lab wants. The one I use wants 300ppi images. It's pretty simple.

cdifoto wrote in post #6712869
I would think a control freak would have his own large format printer as well. Doesn't make sense to me to uprez to a standard that might not even be optimal for the lab's machines.

Budget restraints sometimes clash with the urge to control. I print 90% 12x17 (at home) and 10% 20x28 (about half a dozen a year) which cost me $20 printed on a Durst Lambda Laserjet. At that rate how long would it take me to pay off the cost of the Lambda?

tzalman wrote in post #6713239
Budget restraints sometimes clash with the urge to control. I print 90% 12x17 (at home) and 10% 20x28 (about half a dozen a year) which cost me $20 printed on a Durst Lambda Laserjet. At that rate how long would it take me to pay off the cost of the Lambda?

Well, logically, if you can't afford to be a total control freak, you may as well save yourself some stress and let professionals do what they do best. If they're gonna print it, let them upsize it too. That way they can optimize it for their machines. Most good labs will do that. After all, they want repeat business.

I just fail to see how it benefits to upsize and sharpen an image (not knowing whether you did so well or poorly) then send an unnecessarily huge file over the net to a lab that could probably have done an equally good or better job with the smaller original file. Large prints like that are a bit expensive to go on and on with trial & error, in my opinion.

Printing and Enlargement FAQ

Yup, I am a control freak. The best dpi depends on the printer Epson and Canon and HP all use slightly different numbers. So it is probably best for the lab to do the uprez. BUT you can provide good guidlines for the lab to follow.

1. Color space - find out what color space they generally work in and make sure you do the conversion and check the color. Make sure that your monitor is calibrated and that they have an ICC profile that closly matches your own for the monitor.
2. Make sure That your print is sized and the ratio fits the print size you want without distortion.
3. If you have very specific choices for media get a small sample print first, and see how you like it prior to spending dough on a large print and disliking the paper or canvas.
4. Take the time to download the image prep info from the service bureaus website. Now this is only usually done for highend prints. if you are just making a poster it is not to so tough. It depends on how demanding you are on the quality of the print.
4. Keep in mind that LF prints are easy to damage, tough to mount even for professionals and very expensive to matt and frame if that is your goal. Typical prints cost around 200 and matt and framing can run another 3-400.

If you have any questions let me know I would be glad to help. I have a LF printer and these are just some of the possible issues. Perhaps you can start with an inexpensive poster print.

BTW the nominal dpi for a 20-30 is around 180. Anymore and you get banding and ink buildup that clogs up shadow areas.