Can someone answer this ? - DPChallenge Forums

03/28/2007 03:43:36 PM · #1

I am printing a 18x22 poster. When I go to imge size in PS I have an image that is...

1296x1584 pixels

Doc. size
18x22
res. 72

Should this be ok?
should I change my res.?

hanneke

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

03/28/2007 03:45:03 PM · #2

DPI 72?

Nope, not enough. 72 is for web, for printing you need (at least) 240 or even better, 300.

03/28/2007 03:46:40 PM · #3

Would I just change the res. in the "image size" box?

hanneke

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

03/28/2007 03:47:31 PM · #4

you can try, but it won't improve the image quality (see for yourself when you resize it)

Ubersteiny

Sigma 35mm f1.4 dg hsm for Canon

03/28/2007 03:50:56 PM · #5

just make sure you use bicubic smoother when you do that

Canon EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM

03/28/2007 03:52:41 PM · #6

Originally posted by noisemaker:

just make sure you use bicubic smoother when you do that

will this give me a pretty good looking print?

downtherabbithole

Canon EOS-30D

03/28/2007 04:15:54 PM · #7

Originally posted by RockBruise:

Originally posted by noisemaker:
just make sure you use bicubic smoother when you do that

will this give me a pretty good looking print?

in short~No

I know it's not what you want to hear but that little dpi setting is what decides the biggest your final print can be. at 72 dots per inch (dpi) your going to have a bad print at that size.
the reason why you can't just adjust it is your trying to make up information that isn't there. you can always go down but it's going to be hard to go up. it will look better if you do it in steps though, add 50dpi at a time.
do you still have the orginal file someplace? that would be your best bet.

sorry for the bad news.

the good news is though, there is one way to get away with it. it will depend on viewing distance. The reason why a bilboard can be printed so big is that you are feet away from it when you see it. if you were up close it would look bad. if this is for a wall portrait put it someplace where when you see it most you are a little farther away from it.

edit for typo

Message edited by author 2007-03-28 16:16:54.

Ubersteiny

Sigma 35mm f1.4 dg hsm for Canon

03/28/2007 04:20:32 PM · #8

Originally posted by gi_joe05:

Originally posted by RockBruise:

Originally posted by noisemaker:
just make sure you use bicubic smoother when you do that

will this give me a pretty good looking print?

in short~No

I know it's not what you want to hear but that little dpi setting is what decides the biggest your final print can be. at 72 dots per inch (dpi) your going to have a bad print at that size.
the reason why you can't just adjust it is your trying to make up information that isn't there. you can always go down but it's going to be hard to go up. it will look better if you do it in steps though, add 50dpi at a time.
do you still have the orginal file someplace? that would be your best bet.

sorry for the bad news.

the good news is though, there is one way to get away with it. it will depend on viewing distance. The reason why a bilboard can be printed so big is that you are feet away from it when you see it. if you were up close it would look bad. if this is for a wall portrait put it someplace where when you see it most you are a little farther away from it.

edit for typo

on a billboard each pixel is like an inch big or something

basssman7

Nikon D500

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

03/28/2007 04:31:58 PM · #9

For all intents and purposes...look at it from the pixels point of view...if you have 1296 x 1584 then at 300 dpi (ideal for printing) you can make a print that is 4.32" x 5.28". At 240 dpi (still pretty good for printing) you get 5.4" x 6.6".

If you are looking at printing a poster that is 18" x 22" at 300 dpi you will need 5400 x 6600 pixels to do it. For 240 dpi you would need 4320 x 5280 pixels.

There is no possible way to uprez a photo file by 350% and get good results even if you use bicubic or even a program like genuine fractals or blow up. You may want to try alien skin blow up to see what you get...but I think you are not going to like the results.

As someone else has said, it also depends on where it will be viewed from. If no one that looks at the poster will be closer than 10 feet to it then you can get away with more. If it will be viewed close up then you will need the proper 300 dpi to start with.

good luck.

Ernie

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

03/28/2007 04:35:17 PM · #10

I do have the originals, they are larger. I guess whenI cropped them the first time I did not set the Res.

I am trying to get a print that is 18x22. It is actually a poster and the actual picture on the poster needs to be as large as possible, while maintaining the aspect ratio. Would you tell me if this sounds right as far as starting with the original.

1. open a new doc. that is 18"x22"
2. roughly get the size that the pic. needs to be.
3. open original pic in a seperate doc.
4. crop pic. to size needed (with my res. set to 200-300)
5. Copy the pic. over to the other doc.
6. Finish the poster, and print.

Sound ok?

thegrandwazoo

Nikon D750

03/28/2007 04:38:11 PM · #11

How are you have the poster printed?

Offset?
Large Format Ink-jet?
C-Print?
Photo Printer?

That will help in determining the best way to go about up-sizing and the dpi needed to get a good print.

LevT

Olympus OM-1

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

03/28/2007 04:39:06 PM · #12

I have a 20"x30"print on my wall (behind a sofa) which I made from a 4MP file, and i love it (and most of people who see it, love it too). So i'd say it's entirely possible, if the quality of photo is good to begin with. I think 300dpi for a poster is a huge overkill in most cases.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

03/28/2007 04:39:13 PM · #13

I normally send everything to winkflash.

thegrandwazoo

Nikon D750

03/28/2007 04:56:40 PM · #14

Well taking the file and making it 200 dpi and interpolating 160% would get you to the size you want printed and I bet would make a fantastic print. I don't believe that it is necessary to make the file 300dpi if you are having winkflash print it. It should look great at 200dpi interpolated. But if it looks like poop it was after all only 12 bucks.

Greetmir

Nikon D60

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS for Nikon

03/28/2007 05:48:32 PM · #15

Originally posted by noisemaker:

just make sure you use bicubic smoother when you do that

I TOTALLY disagree ... I found out why my resized images were so blurred and soft and that was from using this advice.

I personally suggest that you set your resizing to bicubic ... NOT bicubic smoother NOR bicubic sharper ... you can then deal with the amount of sharpening you want to apply to each individual image ... erm ... individually ... after the resizin ...

my two cents ...

LevT

Olympus OM-1

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

03/28/2007 06:07:57 PM · #16

I am using Qimage for my in-home printing now. This is a great piece of software which does resampling and sharpening on the fly after you select the size you want and all other options. They use a proprietary algorithm for resampling which they claim is way better than bicubic, and I tend to agree with that. I used to do upsampling and sharpening myself, but i trust that these guys who wrote Qimage know what they are doing way better than me in most cases, so I let them do it now. Mush faster, easier, and I am pretty happy with the results... Only $50.

L

03/29/2007 09:24:07 AM · #17

"interpolating 160%"

I hope this is not a dumb question. But what is interpolating?

Also could someone explain Bicubic?

BTW, Thanks everyone for the good advice, I think I have actually learned something.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

03/29/2007 09:46:25 AM · #18

Done some research, this looks to be good material, do you agree?

//www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/image-interpolation.htm

soup

Canon EOS-30D

03/29/2007 11:49:04 AM · #19

keep in mind that any defects in the smaller version are going to be accentuated when you enlarge it. if the focus is soft - it's going to be softer the larger you print it - for example.