Preping a image for printing.

[Roger]

Since I am very new to DSLR and I have never taken my pictures to a place to have pictures printed other than wall mart that is.

What do most of you do to prep your image before you have it made into a 8*10 or larger image? Do you make changes to it depending on the size your printing and the type of finish you going to print?

Thanks

[MichiganMan]

For the finsih, I don't go anything different. For the print size, I do. I crop to that ratio. I don't trust any lab to crop where I would, an most just center the image. I don't go the 300 pixels per inch or dots per inch either.

If I need an 8x10 from MPix or WHCC (both online) or the local Walgreens drug store, I'll make sure I have the image in sRGB mode, colors and all looks good on my monitor (calibrated, at least loosely), and crop accordingly. Sometimes I am down to 150dpi or 200dpi on the final print size (16x20 or so), but they come out just fine.

[Roger]

Is there a guide to resizeing for printing or somthing?

how does one know what size is for what print?

[Keith]

You crop your image to the size you wish to print. But understand, depending on the size of image you wish, there is limitations. YOu can use interpolation to increase your size of picture if you wish to print large, ie. 13x19, 16x20 or larger........... Important you know which color space your lab uses so you have the same colorspace, this is important as you want the pic to print same as how it looks on your screen. As well for print, you can crop at 240PPI and you wont notice any difference than 300PP, gives you a little more crop ability........

Highly recommend you purchase Q-image, will do most everything for you once you have it set up. Best printing software out there from my perspective and has a great interpolation program on there. YOu can add printer and monitor profiles to it. Not overly complicated and a good guide in how to use it. Very reasonably priced and you get free upgrades for life :)

If any digital photo courses in your area, maybe worth taking a one or two and see what you think.


Is there a guide to resizeing for printing or somthing?

how does one know what size is for what print?

[Roger]

You crop your image to the size you wish to print. But understand, depending on the size of image you wish, there is limitations. YOu can use interpolation to increase your size of picture if you wish to print large, ie. 13x19, 16x20 or larger........... Important you know which color space your lab uses so you have the same colorspace, this is important as you want the pic to print same as how it looks on your screen. As well for print, you can crop at 240PPI and you wont notice any difference than 300PP, gives you a little more crop ability........

Highly recommend you purchase Q-image, will do most everything for you once you have it set up. Best printing software out there from my perspective and has a great interpolation program on there. YOu can add printer and monitor profiles to it. Not overly complicated and a good guide in how to use it. Very reasonably priced and you get free upgrades for life :)

If any digital photo courses in your area, maybe worth taking a one or two and see what you think.

ok, but how do you know if courses are in your area?

[Keith]

pick up the phone? try your local photograpy store, if they arent they may know who did? Look in the phone book? Newspaper ads, be creative :) ok, but how do you know if courses are in your area?

[Jonathan]

ok, but how do you know if courses are in your area?

you can also check out betterphoto.com. I have taken some courses from them and they are very good.

keith or others, have you experimented with different paper finishes on digital? i.e
lustre/ enhanced matte,sumerset velvet,canvas,gloss,satin...

[Roger]

pick up the phone? try your local photograpy store, if they arent they may know who did? Look in the phone book? Newspaper ads, be creative :)

I asked in a both the stores and town and neither offered any and neither offered any information about where I could go other than to say the Twin Cities, which is a good hour one way, to the out side or town, and can take two hours to get through.. So I would rather stay in the St. Cloud mn area.

[Jonathan]

I asked in a both the stores and town and neither offered any and neither offered any information about where I could go other than to say the Twin Cities, which is a good hour one way, to the out side or town, and can take two hours to get through.. So I would rather stay in the St. Cloud mn area.

Seems like you may want to pick up a book then or if you really want a course look online for some online courses
.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/409458
edit: here is a decent link to get things going

[Roger]

Seems like you may want to pick up a book then or if you really want a course look online for some online courses
.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/409458
edit: here is a decent link to get things going

TY for the link.

:)

[Caper]

Local colleges have photoshop courses and also some have photoshop elements courses (cheaper). I started with photoshop elements and bought a book and it was fairly straight forward.

I print mostly at home and only 8 by 10 or bigger. It is cheaper to print at Walmart but you loose some control over the final product.

It might be easier just to print at Walmart since to get better results at home some effort is required (or luck ).

I color calibrate my monitors (need a device $$)
You need to make sure your software is in charge and not the printer drivers.
You need to ensure your printer has enough different colors for good tonal range.
Paper selection makes a difference and on and on.

I have printer nice stuff just by luck but at some point something changed in my drivers and it took me a week to learn how my luck was being achieved. There is no end to the money and time one can spend to try and make a print look it best and it will never truely match your monitor since prints only reflect light.

[Roger]

Ok so I tried this cropping in CS2 and it seems to work fine, but what about resizing the image to 8 X 10 in something like IrfanView? maybe You can do that in CS2 also......

What would be the better approach?