Upsizing Questions

[jerslice]

Have someone who wants me to prepare a photo for print at 5x7 feet at 300dpi. The original file is off my Canon 40D (10.2MP)...I am not convinced I can prepare a photo that large off that size file and not have it look like crap. Any suggestions on how to upsize?

[PhilDernerJr]

I'm confused as to why you think the output from your 40D would look like crap on a relatively small 5x7? If anything, the standard max output I am used to on Canon DSLRs are larger than 5x7. Can you elaborate a little?

[NIKV69]

If you mean feet that is 60 by 84 inches with 10mp the detail should be ok, I wouldn't say great but Google the charts and check.

[PhilDernerJr]

Oh...feet. Doh.

[gonzalu]

If indeed you need to print at a resolution of 300 dpi, you would need to uprez to 25,200 x 18,000 pixels... not an easy feat by any measure. Now, I doubt it you need that level of resolution... if indeed you do, this is WHY there are scanning backs for view cameras to achieve such high resolutions. Or you could do a multi-row stitched panorama of the scene.

Typically for posters or wall sized output, the resolution is more like 70 or even 50 lpi but you never know. Do you know what the medium will be (the print) and or the application?

at 72 lpi you will need around 6048 x 4320 pixels for a 7x5 sized output.

Bottom line you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT as long as you stretch your expectations accordingly

Some preferred software for the job: Genuine Fractals and Alien Skin BlowUp

[tlabranche]

I have plenty if experience in printing images this large. May I make a suggestion? I would recommend printing to a canvas if possible. The reason is that your image won't be super sharp at that resolution. By printing to a canvas, you will have much more flexibility in the detail.

I use cs5 when I make my posters. I will say that the program will crawl when you size the image. You will want to make the image to fit screen while you level and adjust colors. For sharpening, go into 100%. You will want to over sharpen just a little bit because you lose detail in printing. Otherwise, just treat it as a normal print job.

I use www.onlineposterprinting.com for all of my posters. They are a great company.

[gonzalu]

Timothy, your performance is hindered by your scratch disk. PS is very scratch driven... for large work, I use a RAM drive carved out of main memory with a secondary scratch disk on a 10,000RPM RAID0 array... this gives me almost instantaneous performance no matter how large the stitch. I plan to upgrade the current scratch disk to a quad RAID0 striped set made up of SSD drives and ditch the RAM disk

[NIKV69]

at 72 lpi you will need around 6048 x 4320 pixels for a 7x5 sized output.

Bottom line you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT as long as you stretch your expectations accordingly

Some preferred software for the job: Genuine Fractals and Alien Skin BlowUp

Wouldn't you see a lot of detail loss at 72 dpi though? I know you dont really need to be at 300 but once you get below 240 doesn't quality suffer?

[gonzalu]

Nick, it is directly related to viewing distance. Next time you're near Madison Sq Garden or Times Sq with your Binoculars in your bag give a look to one of the building-sized murals with the naked eye. Then look at it through the binos... It would be better to look at at one foot to see what I mean.

The typical printing process at those sizes involves halftone screens but more recently Stochastic screens produce better results at similar dimensions... the point is that it does not look that great up close but far away, it looks great.

Actually, come to think of it, the billboards on the side of a bus are probably a better way to look at it. Just look at any photo ads on a bus and if you can, try to go really close and see the printing process involved. The ad was most likely shot on 35mm dSLR and printed at around 10 feet wide.

[jerslice]

Manny,
They have only told me that they want it to be up for 5x7 feet at 300dpi. I recognize how foolish it is, but that's what they want. They said they'll take care of the printing on their own. They haven't told me on what.

[gonzalu]

You're up against a challenge my friend... I suggest you do the following:

--Take the image and put it thought your best workflow to get it up to that ridiculously high size... Either using PSCS5 or 5.5 built in BiCubic or try all of them... they come with PS for free
--Try it also with any other Up-res tool you already have. IF you like, I can up-res it for you with Alien Skin BlowUp ... I don't own Genuine Fractals
--Crop a small section (taking care not to re-size again) and print it an 8x10" or even 5x7" section just to see what it looks like printed since it will look like poo poo on screen.
--Also use a PRINTING workflow for sharpening to the target size/resolution. This will help tweak the output as best as possible before submitting to customer.

Good luck. I am really curious what ends up happening in either direction!

[threeholerglory]

if i can find the book i'll share the actual settings, but look for a scott kelby tutorial on upsizing...he talks about how to make poster prints from a 6mp camera without sacrificing quality...i've used it and it works wonderfully, and its all done in PS.