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Author Topic: Enlarging w/Lightroom  (Read 5902 times)

MikeMcMahan

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Enlarging w/Lightroom
« on: March 28, 2011, 01:52:43 pm »

Just purchased Lightroom 3 and one of the first projects that I have been asked to do is create a 36 x 54 poster print for my grandson's bedroom.  I have a Sony Alpha 10.2 megapixel camera, image size 3872 x 2592 pixels in RAW.  I am new to doing such a large image and am not confident that I could get the image quality for this size image from my camera, but want to try.  My basic question comes from the way Lightroom resizes images.  It can only be done on export, much different than in Photoshop where there is a simple dialog box and you just adjust the size and PPI that you want.  I also understand that to do something this large that enlargements should be done in smaller incremental steps rather than just jumping to the finished size at once.  Question is:  in Lightroom, can I export the image to an enlarged size with desired PPI, then import that image, and then resize again a little larger, doing this sequence in a number of steps until I get to the desired final size?  I would NOT use JPEGs to resize but rather TIFFs, and then save the final image in either PSD or DNG depending on what the lab would like to work with, maybe a JPEG if they prefer.  Or am I missing something and there is another way to enlarge in Lightroom?  I am thinking the final image should be at least 200 PPI or so.  The files will get really large beyond that.  Does Lightroom interpolate or resample to add pixels like Photoshop, or is the process and thus the results different?  Last question:  if this can be done to satisfactory quality, do I do all of the Lightroom developing on the RAW image out of the camera, then enlarge, or do the enlarging first, then developing.  My logic tells me to do the former for a variety of reasons, but my logic may not be correct.   I am hoping someone can give me some sound advice on how to do this.
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Schewe

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Re: Enlarging w/Lightroom
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2011, 02:17:21 pm »

Both Lightroom and Photoshop can do an excellent job of upsampling. In Photoshop you use Bicubic Smoother. In Lightroom it has an auto adaptive upsample (based on Bicubic Smoother) that could arguably do a slightly better job. In this day and age, you don't want to use step upsampling as that will overly soften and image.

The odds are you are going to have a bit of a difficult time upsampling to 36"x54" from a 10.2 MP camera. That works out to be about 500% increase. You would need an absolutely perfect original image for that sort of enlargement. 400% is the largest I've done successfully. See: The Art Of The Up-Res which outlines the process for Photoshop.
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MikeMcMahan

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Re: Enlarging w/Lightroom
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2011, 03:26:56 pm »

WOW!  What a great resource and thanks for sharing your expertise.  It took me a while to read and I am going to print it and really try to absorb the details.  However, I am unable to have access to all of those special software tools.  Lightroom is it for me.  Can I do some of the sharpening and grain detail in Lightroom, or is it not up to the task for this project?  Also, please explain the 400% a little more, I am confused.  On page 4, concerning image resolution for different size prints, 180 to 240 PPi is appropriate for the larger prints.  I have been using 200 PPI as a goal for my project.  So at my native resolution or 3872 x 2592 pixels, at 200 PPI that is 19 x 12 inches.  Going to 36 x 54 at 200 PPI is only 300%.  Am I looking at this wrong?  You said it was 500% and that is true for 300 PPI.
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Michael3442

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Re: Enlarging w/Lightroom
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2011, 09:39:27 pm »

I'm very interested in how this works out; please keep us informed. Thanks!
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