If you shoot on a digital camera, or make
your own scans and want us to make prints from those files
- here are some tips to make the image quality as high as
possible.
The original file needs to be big enough
for the print size. We prefer to print all work at 300 dpi
(although we can print at 240, 220 or 200 dpi if your file
is smaller).
When shooting, set your camera controls
for maximum size and/or quality and save the image as a RAW
or TIFF file. JPEG files are compressed and this can reduce
image quality. Shoot at the lowest ISO setting you can for
the light conditions to minimise digital 'noise'. If possible,
use a tripod for the sharpest possible original. Turn off
all in-camera sharpening. If you use a 6 megapixel camera
this will give you a TIFF file size of about 17mb. At 300
dpi this prints at about 10"x6.5" (3000 pixels divided
by 300 x 2000 pixels divided by 300).
The good news is that files captured on
most digital cameras can be considerably increased in size
and still produce quality prints. Open the file in Photoshop
- go to the image menu and select image size. Set document
resolution to 300dpi, check the resample image box and select
either bicubic or bicubic smoother depending on your version
of Photoshop. Type in the print size dimensions you want and
hit OK. Don't worry if you want to crop, that comes next -
resize for the biggest dimension of your final print. Your
image will then be interpolated up to the new size. Zoom in
to 100% and examine a critical piece of the image. If you
are not happy with the quality try resizing at 240dpi. As
a guide, I have successfully 'sampled-up' and printed files
from a Nikon 6 megapixel camera at 20"x16". (...continued)
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