Print recommendation?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I'm anticipating the need for 16x20 and 20x30 prints (wish me luck).
Hopefully my 8MP RAW images will be sufficient; I'm planning stitched
panorams. Going to the location in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, if I come back with the kind of images I'm hoping for, I'm going
to want some art-quality prints.

Any recommendations? (I realize I'm counting my chickens before they
hatch, but I will probably only get one more chance in my life to photograph
this location, and for once, I have a good camera, and some ideas of
where I need to point it.) I want large, matted and framed photos of
this location. I already know where I want to hang them!

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Your 8 megapixels are plenty if you don't crop a lot off. I have a 4
megapixel point & shoot I use besides my professional cameras. I just won
two awards of quality on prints I entered in our state photo group's annual
competition and they were done with that camera. More important that the
camera is how you finish tem. I use Photoshop CS but Photoshop Elements
would do a nice job for you. ( it is around $100.00 compared to $600.00 for
Photoshop) Most pro labs want either a flattened .tif file or a full res 12
level .jpg file. I use the 12 level .jgs since I send my images to the lab
over the net ...via ftp service. There are different quality levels when
ordering prints. You can order custom prints if you need to but I just got a
blue ribbon on another print that was in the court of honor ... and that was
a machine quality print. All three 16"x20" prints were mounted on
gator-foam, which I prefer. Regular mount board bows eventually & regular
foam-core is too easy to damage. I spray all my work with protective spray
lacquer but you can also pay the lab for that. As for matting ... I prefer
to save that money and do a matted look in Photoshop instead. With 8
megapixels I can't see you needing to stitch .. just make a 20"x24" print or
even a 24"x30". Going into wall sizes... I recommend using a tripod and a
cable release.
I hope this helps . Craig Flory

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Craig Flory wrote:

> I recommend using a tripod and a
> cable release.
>

Agree. I'd also do some -field- lens tests and find which fstops work the
best and how much DOF you actually get. Most lenses seem to work best
around f5.6 to f8 and you'll want to avoid fstops that aren't the good ones
for lafrge prints. You can get a preview of what 16X20's will look like
cropping upsampled 16X20 sized 300DPI files and printing portions on 8X10
paper. I highly recomend Qimage for upsampling but there are others that
work good too. I'm also a fan of ultrasharpen but other sharpening programs
are out there as well.

Like he said the post processing is what will make or break them.
--

Stacey