Enlarging Pictures

[MartinProsperi]

Hi Folks,

I have to print some of my pictures for an exhibition and want them quite large. The largest one is 83cm by 47cm (32,67 inches by 18,50 inches) at 300 DPI. I have enlarged the pictures taken with a Nikon D700, 12,1 mp with Perfect Resize (Genuine Fractals) and at 100% of zoom, the images looks really awful on my screen, but at the size they will be printed, on screen, they looks really nice. So, I would like to know if the images will look nice and sharp like happens on the screen once they become printed.

Please, I need a quick reply from you all, because I'm in a hurry with this. I have to print this Monday.

Thanks in advance,

Mart

[davidh202]

You should be just fine.

just do a test print of a section of one of your files just to prove it to yourself.
 Printed always looks better (resolution wise) than on screen

[MartinProsperi]

Unluckily, I don't have time for a test. The prints must be framed for the end of this month and we have the day of the death and resurrection of Jesus in the middle. And worst of all, I don't have a print to, proportionally, test the stuff plus, the printer shop is at about 800 Km away from my home (497 miles). That's because there is no good printer shops in my state. Also, the prints should be sent by UPS to my home, then to the framing shop and all that before April 28th

Hope you're right with "fine"!

Thanks!

Ø3

[davidh202]

I thought you were printing yourself but no matter.
just make sure you get your "printers' requirements on the files you send them.
If you have good files from the D700 there should be no problem with those sizes from a pro printer..

[MartinProsperi]

Yeah, it's all in rule. Adobe RGB1998, 300 DPI. Should I send them my monitor calibration profile? Who knows in which kind of monitor they see the pictures if they willing to "correct" them

Thanks for the encouragement!

Ø3

[plui]

You might consider sending your printer/service bureau 1 file each of enlarged, and untouched by Genuine Fractals/perfect-resize. I use it as well, but only because my camera is a very old 6 megapixel... Your D700 probably captures at a resolution high enough to output without enhancement to your desired size.  just my .02

[MartinProsperi]

Well... The original picture size in cm is something around 30x45, and I need almost the 300% of that, but it seems that all will be okay with the print. I'm now uploading the stuff for print, so from now, there is no stepping back.

Wish me luck!

Ø3

[shewhorn]

Yeah, it's all in rule. Adobe RGB1998, 300 DPI.

A minor clarification... there is no such thing as "DPI" when dealing with a file. Files deal with pixels so you would be specifying the pixels per inch. DPI refers to the actual number of dots in an inch on an actual piece of paper.

Should I send them my monitor calibration profile? Who knows in which kind of monitor they see the pictures if they willing to "correct" them

Not unless you also intend to ship your monitor to them as well. :-) A monitor profile is pretty useless on anything but the monitor it is associated with. It corrects inconsistencies in an output device and would be of no use to a lab with a different monitor (it wouldn't even be of any use to them if they had the same model monitor that you have).

The best thing to do to get the best results on short notice is to let the lab do the resizing. They'll have a lot more experience with resizing images especially where experience relative to their particular machines are concerned. Now... if you're adding noise to your images or you are using textures in your post processing then that has to be applied after the resize, and after any sharpening that is applied so in that case it's a must. Perfect Resize is quite nice but make sure you have the appropriate settings for your image and image content. It's easy to overdo things. 20"x30" is pretty trivial from a D700 file.

Cheers, Joe

[MartinProsperi]

Yeah, I would like to trust on the lab, but I don't know them, nor I cannot know them due the distance they're from my home (800 Km) and this printer shop is one of the 2 only printer labs that do fine art printing in my whole country. In my state, none of the printing labs are concerned about color profiles, calibration and such, and I live in the second most important state of the whole country, first one is where I'm sending the stuff, that's why so much fears comes to my mind! Just 2 labs in the whole country! I know deducting any stuff from there is a fallacy, but it makes me doubt they will do a better job than me with the pics HOPE THEY WILL!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the suggestions, specially about the monitor's profile.

Ø3

[dgberg]

Yeah, I would like to trust on the lab, but I don't know them, nor I cannot know them due the distance they're from my home (800 Km) and this printer shop is one of the 2 only printer labs that do fine art printing in my whole country. In my state, none of the printing labs are concerned about color profiles, calibration and such, and I live in the second most important state of the whole country, first one is where I'm sending the stuff, that's why so much fears comes to my mind! Just 2 labs in the whole country! I know deducting any stuff from there is a fallacy, but it makes me doubt they will do a better job than me with the pics HOPE THEY WILL!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the suggestions, specially about the monitor's profile.

Ø3

Which is why almost all of us print our own work.
A great reason to start.

[MartinProsperi]

I wish I could buy an HDR Ink 12 cartridges printer and print all my pictures but wow... that's a budget!

Ø3

[bill t.]

If I didn't have a printer, I could not possibly be competitive selling artwork.  Very few pieces of photo equipment yield anywhere near the return on investment you get with a printer.  The ratio of product to investment is almost incredible.

Next time you get a show, think about a printer.  I amortized the price of my 8300 on the first day of the first show where I sold prints from it.

True, it can come down to trading one sort of aggravation for another, but at least you've got somebody to complain to when you roll your own prints.

[MartinProsperi]

I finally get the prints!!! They look just AMAZING!!! The largest one is of 98cm (38,58 inches). All of them looks much, much better than in the screen! The HDR Inks are great! Density and colors looks superb!!! Even the dark areas looks great! No blotchy stuff there. It's just perfect!!!

Thanks to you all people for the support!!!

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