Transfering photo to shirt

LRussoPhoto

I am thinking about getting some shirts made to advertise photo sales. What I want to do is have one of my images of someone riding a quad put on the back of a t-shirt. Obviously the shirts would be silk screened so the image would have to be made into some sort of siloette or 1 or 2 color image to be screened onto the shirt. Any ideas on how to transfer the image into something like that? I pretty much use Lightroom for all my editing. Would that be something I would do or does the printing company typically do that for me, I just provide them with the image.

Andy

http://www.smugmug.com/prints/photo-t-shirts

LRussoPhoto

Thanks Andy but im not looking for a color print, more like just a one color silhouette.

ziggy53

It sounds like you need to seek out and use the services of a graphic artist. Once you have finished art, that can be printed via SmugMug or any other competent t-shirt service.

If you want to proceed on your own, you may wish to explore image posterization techniques as well as monotone and duotone (etc.) processes and spot color printing. It may require PhotoShop or similar to achieve what you desire to do.

arodney

I've used teeshirt transfers made to be printed from my Epson inkjet and they looked pretty nice and cost next to nothing after getting the shirts. So yes, you can do it yourself if you have an ink jet printer.

LRussoPhoto

Originally I wanted to do just one color but this looks good. The guy riding the quad was a photo that had the whole backround removed. What kind of print process is this?

ziggy53

QuadRacer041 wrote: »

Originally I wanted to do just one color but this looks good. The guy riding the quad was a photo that had the whole backround removed. What kind of print process is this?

Impossible to say with any confidence without examining the products involved.

It does look like background removal and then posterization for the subject. Then graphical elements were added. There are multiple variations of the major theme. The design(s) may have been converted to vector graphics.

From there, I would need to know answers to questions like:

Run length; is this a one-off, short run or production run?
Durability? Is this something that needs durability from laundering and sun damage?
Finish? Do you want a smooth and glossy finish or more fabric-like?
Vivid colors or more sedate and natural?
Any continuous tones?
How much detail?

From your answers to these questions, and more, a particular process might be recommended and you could get cost estimates.

My recommendation at this point is that you find a competent t-shirt service that regularly handles similar projects. When you contact different services, be prepared to answer questions similar to those I posed above.

LRussoPhoto

Thanks Ziggy I will contact a shirt printer.