help--salon session, trying not to freak

lizzard_nyc

Evening all,
had my first official shoot on Sunday, 7 hours of shooting.
3 8gb memory cards for a hair salon, for her website, facebook as well as to blow up images for her salon.
I will post more on the details later.

For now, since I normally print through smugmug and I don't have a printer, I sent a test shot to my sister and her husband, both graphic designers to print, but they can't! they say it's tiny!!!

This is the shot


here is my smugmug album w/ the one test shot.
http://lizzardnyc.smugmug.com/Other/grace-tests/17344358_VngCjP#1317792926_8dfmhTz

They asked me to change it in LR3 from jpeg to tiff, as per their advise--I was under the impression that photogs here in people and weddings did jpeg! So advise on that.

Also how large can I get a good print out of this shot?

Also when exporting from lr3 I changed my resolution PPI from 240 to 300 and from 16 bits to 8 bits (I was advised to do this, but I don't understand why or what that does).


I need some guidance please.

Svennie

For photo shoots I never shoot JPG only: always RAW-JPG. This way you get the most information from the sensor and have full control over the output. Did you shoot in jpg-only?
A RAW photo uses 16 or even 24 bits per channel, giving 65536 values per channel (16bits). 8 bits gives only 256 values. JPG is 8 bits RGB (16m colors, compressed). So, converting it from 16 bits to 8 bits, you loose information. That's why the graphics designers prefer 16 bits uncompressed TIFF.

Another question: you shot at ISO 1600 with a shutter speed of 1/3200. It looks to me that you could have easily shot this at iso 200 (100 even with the 5D?) with the 50mm. Was this intentional?

lizzard_nyc

Hi and thank you.
Yes it was a freak accident, I had an anxiety inducing moment during the shoot where I couldn't figure something out on my 5D which I got a few months ago as opposed to my E620 which I've had for two years. Anyway this is one of the first shots I took during this panick moment.
I'm not concerned so much w/ the ISO etc. because most of my shots were taken at Iso 200 aroudn f4.5.
This is one where I made a mistake, but it happened to be one of the first I processed and wanted printed as a test shot.

Yes I shot all RAW.
Originally it was exporting at 16, but I was asked to change it to 8 PPI. I think this was because I sent the photos after downloading through several programs the file got seriously compressed, so my brother in law was having me change things to experiment.

technical issues aside, which I did fix in short order, how big can a file this size be printed? and again just verifying, I should continue to export at 16 ppi correct?

thank you so much.

Svennie

lizzard_nyc wrote: »

technical issues aside, which I did fix in short order, how big can a file this size be printed? and again just verifying, I should continue to export at 16 ppi correct?

Cool, you have raw, so process this in PS/LR or whatever at maximum depth (16 in your case). Then save it as an uncompressed TIFF@16 bits and you'll be fine.

Maximum print size depends on the required quality. A billboard at 50m up in the air requires less quality than a billboard viewed from a distance of a meter

Art Scott

Is 1867 x 2800 the full sized image or did you down size before up loading to your gallery......
that figures in around 5mp and with a touch of help from Genuine Fractals (Perfect Resize now),
even at 1600 iso, you might could get 20x30...since we can't see the original on your test image.
I have made 40x60 out of 6mp shots but they were at iso100.......


As to jpg or tiff......all files for printing go to my professional Printer as jpg......none of the printers
I have contacted or work with want tiff as they are too large to store until printed and if the file is
properly exposed and processed JPG will be just fine........even Bay Photos takes jpg.....you can
only upload jpgs to your Galleries.........


I am not understanding why your brother in law and sister can't print this.....I know they say it is very tiny,
which again baffles me.....Isn't the 5D somewhere around 20mp?? Curious how this file got sooooo small.

Svennie

Art Scott wrote: »

As to jpg or tiff......all files for printing go to my professional Printer as jpg......none of the printers
I have contacted or work with want tiff as they are too large to store until printed and if the file is
properly exposed and processed JPG will be just fine........even Bay Photos takes jpg.....you can
only upload jpgs to your Galleries.........

For direct printing jpg is fine indeed. Graphical designers usually request the tiff file if they intend to process it further.

I am not understanding why your brother in law and sister can't print this.....I know they say it is very tiny,
which again baffles me.....Isn't the 5D somewhere around 20mp?? Curious how this file got sooooo small.

The 5D is 12.8mp. So the image here is either cropped and resized or just resized.

lizzard_nyc

Svennie and Art--thank you!

I am however now a little confused.
I am uploading my images to smugmug, but she is also going to get some high res images on cd. She is going to give them to her graphic designer friend who is doing her website and also for posters for her wall.
So should I do jpeg or tiff?

So smugmug takes only jpeg--ok so as to avoid confusion, can I not export them all as jpeg at 16ppi?

Art--the confusion might be that I screwed up when I first sent the original file to them.
Once I sent them a tiff at 8ppi and 300 resolution they had no problem.

Also yes, I cropped the image.

This is a trial by fire for me--I am learning as I go.

Svennie

Put the high-res jpg on smugmug and put both versions on CD (jpg + TIFF). This way they can select whatever they need ;-)

CookieS

Most labs are using Jpgs to print, Just Put on the CD the RAW file with your finished HIres Jpg. Even at 8x12 @300 dpi *8 bit willl be fine. they can still print much larger if they want from that file.( depending on the intrerpolation they use)

"export at 16 ppi correct" NO this is wrong. ( ppi, dpi refers to printing, and the resolution) Im confused where you get 8 or 12 ppi. dont you mean 8 bit .? at 300 ppi/dpi