Upsizing pictures for large canvas

[TrumpetPower!]

Resizing is a job for the printer operator. That's what you're paying for.

LOL... do you think there is an operator looking at your individual picture when you send an image to a company like MPIX?  get real!! they process probably over a million images a day.

You get what you pay for.

If you want Walmart prices, you'll have to settle for Walmart quality and customer service.

It should have been obvious from context that I was suggesting to build a professional relationship with the printer operator. A consumer-oriented mega-printer obviously isn't going to do that. If you're unhappy with the quality you get from a consumer-oriented mega-printer, spending five seconds in Photoshop to uprez and sharpen isn't going to solve your quality problems; you need to take your business to somebody who's selling what you want to buy.

Really, your rant is on the bizarre side. If people were comparing the produce selection at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and complaining that they weren't happy with what they were finding...and I suggested they try the local farmer's market (unless they wanted to get into gardening)...would you come back and suggest I'm an idiot because a bit of salt and pepper can really liven up the "fresh" salads on the dollar menu at McDonald's?

Cheers,

b&

[TrumpetPower!]

Printers, just like any other business, the higher the workload, the less personal attention and QC each item will get...

So stop wasting your money on businesses that aren't selling what you want.

If you wanted a 1DX, would you buy a PowerShot because it was on sale and, hey, it's still a camera and it's a lot cheaper?

No?

So why on Earth would you put all that money and time and energy into capture and processing, only to go with the lowest bidder on final output?

It's like getting a dream stereo system...and then plugging in a pair of $10 earbuds to listen to it.

Even some processing, such as CMYK for professional commercial printers...  Changing it from RGB to CMYK on personal computers using photoshop gives a more pleasing look at times for out of gamut processing than commercial printers drivers conversion methods...

If that's the case, then the print shop doesn't have an ICC color-managed workflow. And, in this day and age, that's absolutely inexcusable, unprofessional, and incompetent. Yes, even though it's a common problem.

Might as well complain about a tire shop where the mechanics don't know how to use a torque wrench when putting the wheels back on the car. Would you really go back there ever again?

Cheers,

b&

[awinphoto]

Printers, just like any other business, the higher the workload, the less personal attention and QC each item will get...

So stop wasting your money on businesses that aren't selling what you want.

If you wanted a 1DX, would you buy a PowerShot because it was on sale and, hey, it's still a camera and it's a lot cheaper?

No?

So why on Earth would you put all that money and time and energy into capture and processing, only to go with the lowest bidder on final output?

It's like getting a dream stereo system...and then plugging in a pair of $10 earbuds to listen to it.

Even some processing, such as CMYK for professional commercial printers...  Changing it from RGB to CMYK on personal computers using photoshop gives a more pleasing look at times for out of gamut processing than commercial printers drivers conversion methods...

If that's the case, then the print shop doesn't have an ICC color-managed workflow. And, in this day and age, that's absolutely inexcusable, unprofessional, and incompetent. Yes, even though it's a common problem.

Might as well complain about a tire shop where the mechanics don't know how to use a torque wrench when putting the wheels back on the car. Would you really go back there ever again?

Cheers,

b&

Trumpet,  quite frankly, i dont know your experience or such in the industry, but I do work professionally and I pride myself in professional quality and products...  My lab, Bay Photo, is used by some of the top pro's and frankly, for me, their quality is second to none, even for their economy services...  and also frankly if they were to tell me to send in low res files promising to give me high quality large prints, i'd be skeptical...  Plus, I personally dont mind taking that extra 2 minutes needed to ensure my files are as good of quality as needed to get what I need to get for my clients and my brand. 

As far as commercial printers... it is what it is... I work with multiple agencies and graphic artists and out of gamut colors is ALWAYS an issue...  personally just on my soap box it's inexcusable how the entire printing industry has not evolved the CMYK printing process...  Epson printers now use 6-7-8+ inks standard just to enhance and broaden the scope of the color gamut output... however, CMYK is the same for the last decade...  and god forbid you need another ink printed with your order, most agencies wont pay the extra cost as it comes out of their bottom line and should they pass the buck onto their client, the risk losing that client.  icc profiles are great but not all commercial printers have them...  Plus, iCC profiles still look best when you do the conversions yourself...  we've tested it where you take RGB straight to their profile vs taking photos from RGB to CMYK to profile...  There's just something better about taking that extra process to ensure the color change the way you want, perceptual vs relative etc...  It's kinda like going from RBG to grayscale vs going from RGB to color mixor, take away color and mixing the channels until you get the look you want... it is that little bit more of control. 

[Aglet]

Awinphoto makes many more good points.

Back when my first digicam was a Canon PowerShot A20 I managed a lovely, very colorful shot of a sports activity which ended up on the front cover of a small national magazine.  This would not have happened without the combined skills of 3 people. (I count myself as one of them)

I first had to uprez and sharpen the tiny 2MP shot to minimum screening rez as requested by the magazine's printer (180 lpi if I remember correctly).  Before submitting the image I conferred with a friend in the graphics industry with a lot of experience.  She had a quick look at the image and altho she liked what I'd done with it, took it and converted it to CMYK and did a little color adjustment to compensate for printing dot-gain, based on her experience and the kind of paper it was going to be printed on.  The colors now looked off to me but I submitted the image, the magazine printed it as supplied, and it looked great!

With all that in hindsight so long ago what comes to mind is that printing, in all its various forms, is as much an art form as photography, with a huge number of variables. Hence, until you're doing all this on your own, find and work with a printing service that's familiar with creating the kind of output you want from the kind of files you supply.

I learned a lot from the first shop I found that was an art-quality printer and did a fair bit of my work there.  It cost me a lot, but they worked with me and created beautiful prints from my sRGB files.  As I learned more about the process I was able to take advantage of lower cost shops for some kinds of work by knowing their equipment and their procedures and adjusting my output files accordingly.

If you want your first big canvas print to go well, I'd suggest finding an experienced art-print shop to help you thru it.  It may cost you more.

Then there's the whole to-varnish or not-to-varnish your canvas..  I get mine varnished by someone who's done a lot of work and research on this aspect.  Resulting finish is very tough and durable, colors are great, and I don't have a mess to clean up at my facility.

[jointdoc]

I did order two different 30"v40" Gallery Wrap canvas prints.  I talked to my lab and the checked the files before printing and I received my order yesterday and they look great.  I probably oversharpened one a little but that is when looking at it from 2 feet.  These will be in a lobby and viewed from longer distances. I found that Photoshop worked very well for upsizing usint bicubic smoother 5% at a time.  It would have probably worked fine not doing it incrementally.  After enlarging and sizing I sharpened and saved as a s-RGB JEG.  I appreciate the input from everyone. 

[Daniel Flather]

I have 24*36s fro my 5D3, converted from RAW to TIFF and off to the printers.  Looks freaking awesome to me, and everyone else concurs. 


No need to make it difficult.

I also have a 40*30 on canvas from a 50D using the same approach, looks great. 

[Tim Larsen]

One of the pioneers of canvas printing was Simply Canvas.  They recommend 100dpi for printing canvas.  I use 100-150dpi all of the time on canvases from Simply Canvas and WHCC, both of which do a terrific job.

My billboard clients print at 6-12dpi, many banner in store like Target, Walmart, Gap, etc are 72-100 dpi on smooth substrate. 

The texture of the canvas and the finish over the top make 100-150 dpi very acceptable.

Here's a link to their 8x10 template.  Open it in Photoshop and see that the files is 100dpi.

http://www.simplycolorlab.com/canvas_psdtemplates/30x40%20%2834x44%20with%20sides%20%29.psd

[Tim Larsen]

Here's another good resources: http://www.geniusprinting.com.au/canvas-prints-blog/?tag=dpi