Printing to canvas (60" x 40")

[sly677]

I want to get a print made on a canvas to put in my living room wall (double ceiling), so it's fairly high up and would be viewed from about 10 or 13 feet away. The size of the print that I want to fill the wall nicely would have to be 60 inches wide and 40 inches tall.

I shoot a nikon D60, and I believe the photo I have chosen is 3872 pixels x 2592 pixels, and will not be cropped. The image does have a fair bit of noise in it. I am working on the final post processing of the image, but this is where I'm a little bit hesitant and unsure of what/how to do.

I have NEVER printed anything to canvas or anything of that size before.

How would it look on a canvas this size, does canvas hide noise at all or should I run the image through noise reduction software?

Should I Unsharp mask any part or all of the image? If I do use unsharp mask how much is enough/too much? (keeping in mind that the image would be 5 feet wide)

Thanks for any advise

 

[Big Mike]

A lot of it depends on the specifics of you image. Solid dark colors might show more noise than anything else.

I do believe that the texture of the canvas can hide some flaws like noise and lack of resolution, and even more important, you'd be unlikely to see tiny flaws from 10 feet away anyway.

As for sharpening...again, it depends on the image and on your person taste for it. I'd say to add some, but not too much....if that helps as all. :er:

I have a 50" x 30" gallery wrap canvas hanging in my living room. It was printed from an 8MP Photo (Canon 20D) and it does show a lack of resolution when viewed closer than 18" or so, but from any further back, it looks spectacular.

 

[sly677]

Thanks Big Mike, the image I have is a foggy winter evening with the silhouette of a tree as the subject. It has a strong blue cast, I have linked it to an older post below.

Your print looks awesome, great shot. Where did you have it made if you don't mind me asking?

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ill-c-c-your-work-you-beginners-welcomed.html

 

[Big Mike]

Your photo does look a bit noisy, and the solid blue areas might show the noise more than a busier picture might.

Maybe try running some noise reduction on just those areas, rather than on the whole scene. Although, with careful tweaking, you might be able to do it with a global noise reduction.

I had mine done at Technicare. https://estore.technicare.com/
They are the pro lab I use for just about everything and luckily for me, their head office is here in Edmonton. The do have other branches, their closest one to you, being in Winnipeg. I've been told by a few photographers that their canvas printing & mounting is the best in Canada, although I can't confirm as I haven't tried one from any other lab.

 

[tango943]

Nice info!!

 

[blpanther]

Of course it depends on the photo itself - idea is that sharpening is not visible - doesn't degrade the image. I will also work on the copy, not original image, do sharpening at approx 50% view which is usually close to the print size. I would always work with the smallest radius i.e. about 1 and try to increase the amount to approx 100-150 and see how it affects the image in different areas.
For printing on canvas sharpening is very important, as due to canvas texture photos naturally look less sharp. One even more important note - do not enlarge the resolution of your photo artificially i.e. do not be tempted to type 300dpi and resample (!). If your photo has effective resolution of approx 100 dpi at your desired size leave it this way.
For canvas anything around 100dpi is enough, above 150 dpi you wouldn't really see that much of improvement anyway. Bu forcing higehr resulution you will destroy the sharpness of your photo and details even more...
More info on our website...

 

[KmH]

Be aware the numbers quoted above are ok, just substitute ppi where they used dpi.

Dpi and ppi are not the same thing, and cannot be correctly used interchangeably.

As to your editing questions, only attempt to edit the photo if you still have the original RAW data file and then be sure to duplicate the Raw data file and edit the duplicate file.

If you are not skilled at editing have a smaller print made of the edited photo, like a 16x24, for evaluation before you commit to printing 60 x 40 on canvas. Both a print and a canvas will look substantially different than what the photo looks like on a computer monitor.

To that end, noise reduction done improperly will delete detail, and a photo must be sharpened differently for printing, than for computer monitor display.

 

[rpm]

also the obv thing, take into account viewing distance too.

 

[uplander]

I've had photo's from my Canon 40D printed at 36x54 on premium paper with great results. I have access to a superb proofing printer. On glossy paper ( which shows just about any imperfection) I was amazed at the resolution, sharpness and detail.

Canvas tends to hide imperfections and your file size matches mine 3888x2592, I think you'll be okay 36x54 is just a bit smaller than 40x60.
BTW the 3888x2592 pixels 1/1 in inches is 36x54.
That's the reason we printed that size.
The next project is to see how large we can go before the file really suffers.
This time it will be on an HP inkjet printer that can handle 120x144 in.
The printer is the latest HP offers and only cost $3,500,000.00

 

[LessP84]

I purchased a medium size canvas 11" x 14" Photo On Canvas print. I am so impressed with the canvas quality. Got better results from CanvasTouch.com Just my opinion. They let you return anything if you are unsatisfied.

 

[MLeeK]

Where are these posts from years gone by coming from???

 

[Buckster]

Where are these posts from years gone by coming from???

Probably from the similar threads at the bottom of every page. Or, for a first time poster like this, from a Google search.

What did they search and why that landed them on this thread? Hard to say, but the possibility exists that whomever they're saying does a good job or has a good product or something like that could be a clue as to their intent.