Professional photo enlargement?

[eyeon]

Hi all, a piece of mine was recently accepted into a fairly prestigious juried photography exhibition, and I would like to ask your advice about professionally enlarging the image.

The photo was taken with a Canon 40D and so the image is 3593px x 2395px (at 360ppi), exported from Lightroom as a 16-bit uncompressed TIFF with ProPhoto color space -- so there is definitely some color and pixel information there to work with... and I would like to upscale the image to 30" x 20". I am just curious if any of you have any methods or software recommendations or anything that might be useful to really do this enlargement as well as possible.

I do have Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom 2.

I look forward to your responses. Thanks!

 

[MisterMe]

You have the software applications that you need. This is, however, not a software application issue. This is an issue of choosing the right printer with the right driver and ensuring that they are properly calibrated on photographic paper. Obviously, you need a wide format printer than can produce high-quality output that is 20"-30" in width. Look into the printer/plotter offerings from HP and EPSON.

 

[Westside guy]

Or, save a few hundred dollars and send to MPix for printing.

 

[Hmac]

White House Custom Color is another company you could upload to for printing. Their web site has a lot of info on how to get a 20x30 print that will meet your expectations, and if not, they will happily talk to you on the phone to guide you through the process.

 

[mattw126]

I am just curious if any of you have any methods or software recommendations or anything that might be useful to really do this enlargement as well as possible.

I'm sure you've heard of this, but you didn't mention it in your post, so I will, as it is the technique I use. You can use the Image Size function in PS to increase the size of your image in increments of 10% with bicubic smoother selected at the bottom of the dialogue box. For whatever reason the '10% Technique' works as well as any other enlarging algorithm. I have seen real world and magazine comparisons of this technique side by side with an image enlarged with Genuine Fractals and the results are almost identical. I recently enlarged images taken with a D2X to 44 x 64 to create a 40 x 60 gallery wrap. After enlarging to that size, I also ran it (along with others over 11 x 14) through Noise Ninja, though you probably shouldn't need to take this extra step. Congratulations on your acceptance.

 

[ajpl]

A simpler way is to simply 'enlarge' in the RAW file in ACR by upresing. Better than Genuine Fractals and much easier than the out dated and faffy 10% increment nonsense. A single enlargement with correct interpolation does as good a job. I tested this the variations out a few years back and was very surprised by how good ACR was as enlarging the RAW file. If I can find the examples I'll post them. No time to redo them at moment.

Plus is there actually any real need? With big images people stand further away and low resolution is actually less of an issue than with smaller prints/magazine work.

 

[mattw126]

much easier than the out dated and faffy 10% increment nonsense.

Sorry, if I don't understand what the kid's are saying, but I know when you're going up to 44 x 64, it works. Maybe, ACR can do just as good a job, which would be great. I would have to see a side by side, but unfortunately I don't have the time to play.

 

[compuwar]

Hi all, a piece of mine was recently accepted into a fairly prestigious juried photography exhibition, and I would like to ask your advice about professionally enlarging the image.

The photo was taken with a Canon 40D and so the image is 3593px x 2395px (at 360ppi), exported from Lightroom as a 16-bit uncompressed TIFF with ProPhoto color space -- so there is definitely some color and pixel information there to work with... and I would like to upscale the image to 30" x 20". I am just curious if any of you have any methods or software recommendations or anything that might be useful to really do this enlargement as well as possible.

I do have Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom 2.

I look forward to your responses. Thanks!

Let whomever is going to print it upsize it. RIPs will do a better job for a specific printer than Photoshop does for the generic case. Go with a pro lab and they'll be able to get contrast/color right as well. I like Delano Color Imaging in Kansas, but any pro lab should be able to handle this.

 

[ajpl]

Sorry, if I don't understand what the kid's are saying,

Maybe if you looked in an English dictionary! Here's a defintion - with translations for other languages too.
http://www.answers.com/topic/faff


Your method was deemed to be a good way 10 years ago. Time has passed and software such as Photoshop has improved a little since then.
You need to get 'with it' with software as well as language.

I would have to see a side by side, but unfortunately I don't have the time to play.

Annoyingly I was looking at the shot where i tested this a couple of days ago and now cannot remember where it is. I know exactly where original is, but not where the test comparison is.
I was amazed at how good, the upscaled RAW file was. Looked better than 'correct' size.

 

[termina3]

Maybe if you looked in an English dictionary! Here's a defintion - with translations for other languages too.
http://www.answers.com/topic/faff

I'll be impressed when you cite the OED…*until then, psh.

 

[ajpl]

You have to sign in to OED but there are plenty of reference to what is in OED. It's a fairly common word in the UK.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition
Aticle 26665

faff Brit.
informal
¦ verb spend time in ineffectual activity.
¦ noun ineffectual activity.

Origin
C18 (orig. dialect in the sense 'blow in puffs', describing the wind): imitative.


Whereas the OED defines ‘faff’ as
"To fuss, to dither. Often with about"

 

[termina3]

You have to sign in to OED but there are plenty of reference to what is in OED. It's a fairly common word in the UK.
[…]

I'm impressed. I was kinda joking, but that doesn't degrade the wow-factor of actual research.

 

[ajpl]

I found the images where I upresed an 8.2MP 20D shot to 17.5MP using just ACR in one pass. You can also go the other way if you want smaller images.
I also tried Genuine Fractals and the 10% method at same time. The quick, easy and free ACR method produced the best quality.
I was amazed at how good a job ACR did.
Never tried this with my 5D as I've never needed to.