Help with PP and printing shots of people

[Aloicious]

Hey, so I'm not overly experienced shooting people, but I was taking some shots with the family a little while ago, and I got a good one of my sister in law holding her son, my nephew. we both really like the pic, and she wants to have it printed off in an 8x10". however I'm not very well versed with PP specifically on people, and I've NEVER preped a photo for printing. below is a shot out of the camera with no editing (other than cropping to the right size and reducing it to post here), and another one with what I've done in PP with it.

what I'd like is some C&C/suggestions/advice, especially on how to better prep the picture so that it will turn out best in print...the plan is to print it professionally (not off a home printer), at 8"x10", I was thinking 300 px/inch? I'm thinking that will provide good resolution on paper, but any help is appreciated.

here's the original straight from the camera (other than converted to jpg, crop, resize for web usage)

here's the post processing version I did (again this is resized so it is web friendlier):

 

[KmH]

Many good consumer print labs have printers that max out at 250 ppi, like Mpix.com. In fact Mpix bets their reputation on having a 100 ppi minimum limit.

When digital was still the new kid on the block the 300 ppi number produced a print that look as close as possible to a print from a specific print film. Back then, Pro digital cameras had 2 MP.

To have a photo printed at 300 ppi as an 8x10, because of elementry school math, it must have pixel dimensions of at least 8" x 300 ppi = 2400 px by 10" x 300 ppi = 3000 px.

Here is a link to the Mpix Support page about preparing your photos for printing: Mpix.com - Help

 

[Aloicious]

Thanks KmH, yeah I've been working with it at 2400x3000 px in CS4, and thats likely going to be the print size. I just downsized a version for posting up here for any PP tips.

after I posted, I did do some cleaning up around the far left. there was some weirdness around the little dashboard hula dancer thats sitting on the table in the background (in the bokeh). so that looks a little better now.

 

[Tulsa]

I will add that Mpix is great! Best customer service of any internet company I have come across.

 

[michael9000000]

If it were me, I'd crop out the unnecessary distractions (i.e. the Christmas tree decorations) and convert it to B/W or Sepia tones with contrast adjustments for the win...

I can show you examples if you let me edit this photo...

 

[yerlem]

Op, your edit has very strong colours, it makes the baby's head look all patchy and red...I would definitely go with the b&w or sepia, it suits the tranquility of the picture a lot more that the colour version

 

[xj0hnx]

The OP probably figured it out two years ago ...when they posted this thread.