Print Set Up Help!

LiquidOps · January 25, 2005

So i've finally got a couple photos that I am truley happy with. I would love to send these off and have them printed professionaly. 8x10 to begin with.

I am looking for some help in how to prepare these images for print using PS CS. Also, who should I go through? What should I keep in mind?

Here are the images

Thanks in advance,

Steven

LiquidOps · January 26, 2005

Did I manage to wind up on everyone's block list or do I need to stand up and wave my arms to get noticed?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steven

cletus · January 26, 2005

LiquidOps wrote:

Did I manage to wind up on everyone's block list or do I need to stand up and wave my arms to get noticed?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steven

I read your post (great pictures by the way) but I'm afraid I haven't sent any Photoshop work out to a professional printer, so I don't have any advice to offer

LiquidOps · January 26, 2005

cletus wrote:

I read your post (great pictures by the way) but I'm afraid I haven't sent any Photoshop work out to a professional printer, so I don't have any advice to offer

Thanks for the reply Cletus (it's a start)

I know i need to bump up the DPI or something and crop it for a certain size or something... i have no clue... I just know that I have some stuff to do before sending...

I'm also curious as to who to send it to... hmmmm...

Thanks for stopping by

Steven

mercphoto · January 26, 2005

In my opinion, people worry too much about the exact settings to use for printing. I attended a rather excellent weekend of classes from the Rocky Mountain School of Photography last weekend, and they went over preparing for print. Here is what they recommend:

Go into Image Size, turn off resampling, and set the resolution to your target resolution. For an Epson printer they recommend 360 dpi, or 240 dpi. For all others they recommend 300 dpi. Click ok. This does not change the image at all (because resample was set to off), but it does adjust the size. Your image is now probably too small.

Now you need to make the image bigger. So go back to Image Size, click on resampling (bicubic smoother is highly recommended by them). They recommend you up-sample 10% at a time. Set the size from inches to percent, and enter 110. It was suggested that, due to the oddities of binary mathematics, that 112.5% would be a better choice (which is 1/8 th larger). Who knows. Click ok. Continue to do this until you get too big.

When you are too big, undo the last step so you get one step too small once again. Now go back to Image Size, and instead of percent, go back to inches, enter your target size, and click ok.

Now you have an upsampled print the exact size you want.

If you're not doing fine art printing I see no reason to do this. Crop the print to the proper aspect ratio for the print size you want. Don't uprez the image. Send it off to your lab, such as Smugmug, EZPrints, etc. LET THE LAB'S COMPLICATED RIP SOFTWARE DO THE UPREZZING FOR YOU.

I've been very happy with results in that manner. Don't make this more complex than it needs to be.

mercphoto · January 26, 2005

Probably more important than anything when it comes to printing is making sure you have the color space correct. Most labs want prints in sRGB space, which I recently discovered myself. But check. Then have Photoshop convert the image to the color space wanted by the lab.

LiquidOps · January 26, 2005

mercphoto wrote:

In my opinion, people worry too much about the exact settings to use for printing. I attended a rather excellent weekend of classes from the Rocky Mountain School of Photography last weekend, and they went over preparing for print. Here is what they recommend:

Go into Image Size, turn off resampling, and set the resolution to your target resolution. For an Epson printer they recommend 360 dpi, or 240 dpi. For all others they recommend 300 dpi. Click ok. This does not change the image at all (because resample was set to off), but it does adjust the size. Your image is now probably too small.

Now you need to make the image bigger. So go back to Image Size, click on resampling (bicubic smoother is highly recommended by them). They recommend you up-sample 10% at a time. Set the size from inches to percent, and enter 110. It was suggested that, due to the oddities of binary mathematics, that 112.5% would be a better choice (which is 1/8 th larger). Who knows. Click ok. Continue to do this until you get too big.

When you are too big, undo the last step so you get one step too small once again. Now go back to Image Size, and instead of percent, go back to inches, enter your target size, and click ok.

Now you have an upsampled print the exact size you want.

If you're not doing fine art printing I see no reason to do this. Crop the print to the proper aspect ratio for the print size you want. Don't uprez the image. Send it off to your lab, such as Smugmug, EZPrints, etc. LET THE LAB'S COMPLICATED RIP SOFTWARE DO THE UPREZZING FOR YOU.

I've been very happy with results in that manner. Don't make this more complex than it needs to be.

Wow... that was more help than I ever could have imagined. Thank you so much for taking the time to help a n00b like myself.

I will try this when i get home. This is some great info..

Thanks again,

Steven

snapapple · February 11, 2005

LiquidOps wrote:

Wow... that was more help than I ever could have imagined. Thank you so much for taking the time to help a n00b like myself.

I will try this when i get home. This is some great info..

Thanks again,

Steven

Hi Steven,
Do you have a Smugmug site? If not, you really should get one. It's so inexpensive, there is no reason not to. I upload my pictures to my Smugmug site in their full size if I expect to order prints. That way I know they have a high enough resolution to print well. I check the size in Photoshop first, then order the appropriate size from Smugmug's order list. Sometimes I crop, and sometimes I don't, so the size will vary. Smugmug has a size for full frame digital shots.
When I plan to buy frames, I try to stay with standard sizes. (Cheaper that way) I recently framed a few with double mats. Those custom cut mats were more expensive than the frames. Anyway, I set my crop to 8x10 and 250 pixels resolution or 11x14 and 250 px. With a mat, these look nice in a 16x20 frame. I recently framed a 16x20 print with a mat in a poster sized frame. It cost me almost $100 at Michaels and they were having a frame sale. :uhoh

I always keep my photoshop setting at sRGB color space. I have been very happy with the color and clarity of the prints from Smugmug. I did find that one print with a royal blue background came out more purple from Smugmug. So, I would watch the magenta in your pics. It tends to get more exagerated in the printing. They also use a little unsharp mask on everything, so don't oversharpen. Their prices are good and service is fast.

BTW I love the two shots you have here. Especially the colorful sunset. Very nice work.
And just a tip. Try to keep a positive mental attitude. Always look for the good side of things. If you get one good shot out of 100, hey, it's better than none. And sometimes a good crop can salvage something out of a bad composition. Remember, think positive.

Oh, I don't have a digital SLR camera. I shoot with an Olympus c5050z. I used to use a nice Canon SLR film camera with a Tamron 35-135 zoom lens. Also have a wide angle lens. I miss using these. My camera doesn't go wide enough at all. And, I love to shoot landscapes. I also yearn for a better digital camera, but I can't afford one right now. I'm just happy to have 5 megapixels so I can print large.

I have just kept shooting and shooting since joining this site. I learn more about my camera all the time. I have found that I can do more with it than I thought. Practice with composition and lighting. Get those two things right and your pictures will be great. Feel free to look at my Smugmug site. It's got the good and the bad. You may be able to notice the improvement since I joined this site. The feedback from the gang is invaluable.

Good shooting!

Print Set Up Help!

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