Printing And Enlargements

[Ripley]

Just a few questions:

What's the best quality for printing if, say, someone wanted to get a photo you took enlarged? Should I send them a 16 bit image instead of the default 8 bit (I took photos in RAW so can give them 16 bit) and should I covert it to LAB colour in photoshop? The enlargement won't be printed at crappy high street photo booth store either. For an enlargement I'd like a best quality print job so if anyone knows a good place around Sydney, that would be fantastic.

How large can a Canon 30D's print be - it's an 8.2 megapixel camera so how large can it be printed whilst retaining the quality? A3 size? My 30D is pretty new and I've never printed an image larger than your standard snapshot with it yet. I took the photo using RGB channel, not Adobe RGB.

[Luke W]

Just a few questions:

What's the best quality for printing if, say, someone wanted to get a photo you took enlarged? Should I send them a 16 bit image instead of the default 8 bit (I took photos in RAW so can give them 16 bit) and should I covert it to LAB colour in photoshop? The enlargement won't be printed at crappy high street photo booth store either. For an enlargement I'd like a best quality print job so if anyone knows a good place around Sydney, that would be fantastic.

How large can a Canon 30D's print be - it's an 8.2 megapixel camera so how large can it be printed whilst retaining the quality? A3 size? My 30D is pretty new and I've never printed an image larger than your standard snapshot with it yet. I took the photo using RGB channel, not Adobe RGB.

Do all your processing in 16bit, then convert to 8bit as the final step before you print the file (or send the file off for printing).

Do not convert to LAB. Leave the image in RGB mode.

How big? How long is a peice of string?

In general - the larger the print, the further the intended viewing distance. 6x4 snapshots you hold close, A4 prints less close, A3 prints hang on a wall and your stand a couple of feet away, billboard you stqand 20m away from.

As a general guideline an A3 print from a 30D (assuming it's exposed well, sharp and post-processed well) will stand up to close scrutiny). Larger prints are certainly possible - it's just that intended viewing distances need to be taken into consideration.

[Ripley]

Thanks, Luke. What I'll do is when my friend (a DOLer) chooses which one she wants to enlarge, I'll do a test run on our colour printer at work and scrutinise it.

I haven't done much PSing on it, just converted from RAW, cropped and sharpened a little. I find that my new good lens is so good, images don't need much work. Yeah!

[Luke W]

Thanks, Luke. What I'll do is when my friend (a DOLer) chooses which one she wants to enlarge, I'll do a test run on our colour printer at work and scrutinise it.

I haven't done much PSing on it, just converted from RAW, cropped and sharpened a little. I find that my new good lens is so good, images don't need much work. Yeah!

Your results are also going to be highly dependent on the printer at work.

[Ripley]

I'll use the ones the graphic designers use and put it on A3.

[Luke W]

I'll use the ones the graphic designers use and put it on A3.

It's not necessarily going to be as good as what you'll get of a dedicated photo printer on good paper.

[rubiton]

If it was a jpeg image it would be fine at A3 so cant see any problem with amassive RAW (would check if it needs to be saved as jpeg) image at A3 size.