Printing large?

Hello there,

Well it looks like I have a chance to put some of my prints in a coffee shop in the coming months.

The owner likes the size and layout of of the prints he's using now and more or less wants me to copy that format.

This is where my question comes in. Some of the prints he has now are fairly large, as in 50" on the long side. The rest are still over 16x20 or around there.
I wanted to know if there is a way to tell if you prints would look good printed at that size. I know the best way is to just try, but I don't have that kind of money to just throw down for prints.

I'd be happy to send some full resolution jpeg's to someone that has done LARGE prints & if they could tell me their opinion on them, that would be great.

Also, are their any tips for printing large?

Thanks
Bob

This is what I sometimes do for large prints.

Enlarge your image file to the print size at whatever ppi you'll end up using, being 200 or 250 ppi, then make a crop that is 8x10 at that same ppi and print it. So you'd essentially be taking an 8x10 out of y our 50" print.

Granted you dont' get to see the whole thing, but you'll at least get to see a portion of it at the large print size.

How does the 50" print in the coffee shop now look? From 10 feet away? From 3 feet away? Also remember it's a coffee shop and not a fine art gallery, so it doesn't necessarily need to be perfect when viewed up close.

I agree with HappySnapper - print a small portion of your photo to assess it. It's a much cheaper way to go.

It's my opinion that a well-focused photograph can be enlarged without any worries. I've written about it here - Printing enlargements.

happysnapper is right... an 8x10in costs 50 cents sometimes, and tells you how a detail will look. also, if you get a really large print done, the printer will most likely make a reduced size color proof, plus a section at 100%. that is at least what's happening when I do my 300x150cm prints (10x5ft). but i also have to reduce the size of my files to bring them down to the printer resolution of 300 ppi, so I never had to deal with serious uprezzing.

Printing FAQ.

Thanks for the tips everyone.
That is exactly the information I'm looking for.

tim wrote in post #7233777
Printing FAQ.

Yeah, I ran into this right after I posted the thread

Thanks
Bob