?How to Maximize File size?

Albert Dickson

I know this is probaly super basic but I don't get it. I shoot Nikon 10.2 and 6.2 megapixel cameras. My 10.2 mp camera produces 15.5MB raw files. When I convert to Tif files they are around 25 to 32MB. A custom print house I was in today said i needed a 100MB file to produce a quality 24x36" print. How do I generate a file of this size from my D200 and PS CS3? Do I simply resize the file in CS3 and in doing so arn't I trashing the resolution? I've always printed my own stuff up to 16x20 with no problem. I just wanted to go a little bigger and get a much higher quality finished product form a professional custom print house. Can you guys enlighten me? Thanks.:scratch

jfriend

Albert Dickson wrote:

I know this is probaly super basic but I don't get it. I shoot Nikon 10.2 and 6.2 megapixel cameras. My 10.2 mp camera produces 15.5MB raw files. When I convert to Tif files they are around 25 to 32MB. A custom print house I was in today said i needed a 100MB file to produce a quality 24x36" print. How do I generate a file of this size from my D200 and PS CS3? Do I simply resize the file in CS3 and in doing so arn't I trashing the resolution? I've always printed my own stuff up to 16x20 with no problem. I just wanted to go a little bigger and get a much higher quality finished product form a professional custom print house. Can you guys enlighten me? Thanks.

The way I read this, this custom print house is just full of baloney. A 32MB TIFF file with 10.2MP is capable of producing a very high quality 24x36 (if it's a quality image to start with). There is no reason to manufacture more pixels just to blow it up to 100MB.

If the printer requires a specific ppi and doesn't do high quality upsizing themselves in the print rasterizer, then they should tell you exactly what ppi is required for the printer they would print a 24x36 on and you can upsample it to that exact ppi for your desired print size.

See http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality for Smugmug's min recommendations for pixel resolution vs. print size.

It sounds to me like you need a different print lab or somebody at that lab who knows what they're talking about.

Art Scott

this has actually been gone over a lot...but...in my opinon you may ned a different print house.....and you can also uprez in cs3 using the 10% method ( I hear that adobe has really improved the uprez ability from past versions, since I still use cs I also swear by Genuine Fractals and their latest version ( again I am caught with 2 older versions 3.1 and 4) ).....I prefer to uprez all my large prints by doiing a simple resize in PS by canging the dpi to 300 and then taking that file into GF and uprezing (a 1 step process) to the size of print I want and save as a #12 jpg....this has produced some really great 30 x 40 prints (at what could be called 8x10 quality).....one thinf GF suggests is todo all PS work except for sharpening and do that after the uprez....if you go to ON ONe software and download their trial version you can uprez and save upto 20 files, this is full software nothing that doesn't work, until you have saved your last file then you must buy to uuse again.....for 20 large files you can't beat free.....be sure to preview before saving as long as you don't save it doesn't caount against you.

Did I mention I am getting fantastic 30 x 40's off jpg not tiff.......I just do not have the room to save tiffs.

good luck.

Albert Dickson

Thanks alot Guys. This is exactly what I thought. I followed up with some other folks who use this outfit (Media Specialties, Boise , Idaho) and they tell me that they get excellent work from them and that the guy I spoke to is an old diehard medium format film shooter who is not the guy making the prints and doing the proofing. I feel better and will be checking the prints closely that I've ordered ( They are pricey). Thanks again. Albert

SloYerRoll

jfriend wrote:

The way I read this, this custom print house is just full of baloney. A 32MB TIFF file with 10.2MP is capable of producing a very high quality 24x36 (if it's a quality image to start with). There is no reason to manufacture more pixels just to blow it up to 100MB.

If the printer requires a specific ppi and doesn't do high quality upsizing themselves in the print rasterizer, then they should tell you exactly what ppi is required for the printer they would print a 24x36 on and you can upsample it to that exact ppi for your desired print size.

See http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality for Smugmug's min recommendations for pixel resolution vs. print size.

It sounds to me like you need a different print lab or somebody at that lab who knows what they're talking about.

The lab your going to now has NO IDEA what they are talking about. Makes sence that it's an old skool dude. I bet he;s a knowledge master when it comes to MF shooting though!

If the old salt NEEDS a 100MB file. Just Make a bunch of b/g copy layers, save the file as tiff, make sure to include layers in the tiff. Then give them a 100MB file.

FYI SIDE NOTE:
One of the main reasons tiff files are so much larger than even psd files is that a tif file writes every pixel down as a color value. So if a pixel is perfect white (255 x3) it will wirte that data regardless. WIth a PSD file, it takes that pixel and knows it's perfect white and only writes that it's perfect white which appearantly takes up much less space than writing the color value itself.