Printing help.

[ShutteredEye]

I have a .jpg image that is 1110x1700 pixels at 200 ppi. How large of a print can I have printed and maintain photographic quality? This will be a gift for my future inlaws, and I really want it to come out nice. 11x14 would be great, but quality is more important than size at this point.

Thanks for you help!

 

[ShutteredEye]

TTT for the weekday crowd.

 

[Rob]

Ideally prints which you are going to hand-hold should be around the 300dpi mark, as this is approximately what the human eye/brain accepts as smooth.

Therefore with that image you're theoretically going to be able to manage something around the 6x4 to 7x5 area. The res sounds like a scanned 6x4 photo to me?

If you printed at 11x14 ish then you'd be down to 100dpi which would be a tad low really.

Suck it and see though, as it depends on the image content as to whether the grain is acceptable. Sometimes a really grainy image can work better, so have a go and see what happens.

If you want to e-mail the image to me, I'll print it and mail it to you if you like?

R

 

[Big Mike]

You could up-sample the image in Photoshop, if the quality is good enough to start with.

 

[ShutteredEye]

Ideally prints which you are going to hand-hold should be around the 300dpi mark, as this is approximately what the human eye/brain accepts as smooth.

Therefore with that image you're theoretically going to be able to manage something around the 6x4 to 7x5 area. The res sounds like a scanned 6x4 photo to me?

If you printed at 11x14 ish then you'd be down to 100dpi which would be a tad low really.

Suck it and see though, as it depends on the image content as to whether the grain is acceptable. Sometimes a really grainy image can work better, so have a go and see what happens.

If you want to e-mail the image to me, I'll print it and mail it to you if you like?

R

Thanks for the info, exactly what I was looking for. The scan is from the camera shop when they developed the film, so it may just be a 4x6 scan since that's what I had printed. I'm going to be pretty ticked if thats the case since I paid 7 bucks for that.....

Sure I'll email you the image if you want to try your hand at printing it. Let me know what your costs will be, I can send you a check to help cover your costs.

 

[ShutteredEye]

Update:

Alright. Spoke with Wolf Camera. They can do a high res scan on the negative, up to 19.6 mb compared to the 1.3mb scans they use standard.
Which is exactly what I'm looking for. Now, here's the kicker.

They want $15.99 for one image!!!

:evil: :evil: :evil:

Grrr!!

 

[Rob]

That's actually not too bad a price. It's going to take them a good twenty minutes to do it - hi-res scanning of negatives will probably take 5mins+ just in the machine. Then they've got to check it's the right one, burn it onto CD etc.

If you compare the cost to how many customers they could have served in that time, it's not too bad.

Still, your picture should come out pretty well by comparison to using PS to up the size and sample numbers.

It would (probably) be cheaper to get them to enlarge from the negative to the size you like?

 

[ShutteredEye]

That's actually not too bad a price. It's going to take them a good twenty minutes to do it - hi-res scanning of negatives will probably take 5mins+ just in the machine. Then they've got to check it's the right one, burn it onto CD etc.

If you compare the cost to how many customers they could have served in that time, it's not too bad.

Still, your picture should come out pretty well by comparison to using PS to up the size and sample numbers.

It would (probably) be cheaper to get them to enlarge from the negative to the size you like?

You're probably right. It just underscored to me how badly i need to go digital being of less than deep pockets right now. The initial outlay will hurt, but it will pay for itself quickly.

Yes it would be cheaper to enlarge the negative, but I wanted to do some post processing on the image. It's color right now, and I want to convert it to black and white, adjust the contrast, and clear some skin blemishes.

 

[Big Mike]

I have my film scanned by the lab when it's developed. It's much cheaper to get it done at this time because the film is scanned as it runs through the machine. Then they cut it, and give it back to you. If they have to scan the film after that...it can only be done a few at a time.

Of course it's not a hi-rez scan. The files I get are 1840 X 1230...basically a 4x6 @ 300 DPI. However, I have had nice 8X10s printed from these files...even after cropping.

 

[ShutteredEye]

I have my film scanned by the lab when it's developed. It's much cheaper to get it done at this time because the film is scanned as it runs through the machine. Then they cut it, and give it back to you. If they have to scan the film after that...it can only be done a few at a time.

Of course it's not a hi-rez scan. The files I get are 1840 X 1230...basically a 4x6 @ 300 DPI. However, I have had nice 8X10s printed from these files...even after cropping.

I usually do this too, at $7.29 a pop (add that to the cost of developing/printing and initial film purchase, and you're at almost $20 a roll--hence my desire to go digital at this point.) This particular image came out at 1700x1110 at 200 dpi.

 

[Mumfandc]

Update:

Alright. Spoke with Wolf Camera. They can do a high res scan on the negative, up to 19.6 mb compared to the 1.3mb scans they use standard.
Which is exactly what I'm looking for. Now, here's the kicker.

They want $15.99 for one image!!!

:evil: :evil: :evil:

Grrr!!

If you want the very best scan from a piece of film, drum scans are usually the answer. And if you think $15.99 is too much, be prepapred for the price of a drum scan. Drum scans require careful inspection of your negative, then they do a tedious process of cleaning and mounting your negative on a clear cylinder with some sort of fluid/oil. They can scan up to 10,000 dpi OPTICAL resolution.

Take a look at pro labs like:

www.duggal.com
www.westcoastimaging.com
www.aandi.com

Figure, an "acceptable" drum scan from a 35mm frame would run around $35...and that's pretty cheap. Medium/large format films can run +$100...for ONE image.

A cheaper alternative which delivers results close to drum scans (but are so-called "virtual" CCD drum scans) for MUCH cheaper are "IMACON scans". I have sent some film to www.lightroom.com for scans on the Imacon scanner. usually $35 flat rate for most film sizes.

Otherwise, I use the Nikon Coolscan 8000ED film scanner for free at my college, which comes close to the Imacon. It has 4000 dpi optical resolution...so if I scan one of my 6x7cm films at 100% (@ 4000dpi)...my files are usually 8,000 x 10,000 in resolution. But that's usually just a master file which is downsampled later.

 

[Big Mike]

I usually do this too, at $7.29 a pop (add that to the cost of developing/printing and initial film purchase, and you're at almost $20 a roll--hence my desire to go digital at this point.) This particular image came out at 1700x1110 at 200 dpi.

That sound pretty high to me. Especially if they are using a digital printing machine (most shops do). They film is scanned whether you want a CD or not...all they have to do is put in a CD and burn the files. (at least I think that's all they have to do)

Check around for a better price. I only pay $4-$5 CDN extra for the CD and I could get it cheaper if I went to Cost-co, Wal-mart etc.

You could even ask for develop and scan only...saving you the cost of prints. Some places only charge $2-$4 for developing...but some charge more for that and less for the prints. At my usual place it's only an extra buck or two to get the prints included with develop & scan so I usually get both. However, like you, I'm itching to go digital.

Another option would be to get yourself a good scanner and just scan the frames that you want to edit in the digital realm.