Who does ridiculously large prints in Denver?

And I mean who does them well and how large will they go? I may have an opportunity to sell a number of large prints in excess of 24x36 to a well-to-do accounting firm in Illinois. Prints this large are totally outside my realm of experience.

Try Photocraft in Boulder.
They can print up to 48"x96" with no problem.

call Brent at Qube

Are we comparing sizes, here?

Duke University, last month, the top one 4 1/2 by 9 1/2 feet, the bottom one 4 1/2 by 7 1/2 feet.

I'm sorry, 5 1/2 feet wide, (48 inches on the prints themselves)

Richard: Does Qube interpolate digital images for you? These are coming from 2mp and 5mp cameras, so I need to get them rezzed up . I was going to invest in Genuine Fractals to do it myself, but apparently it needs a cooler version of PhotoShop than I've got. Depending on how other costs come out, I may just take it all out of my profits, but if I don't have to do that it I won't do too much complaining.

Also I would recommend Ron Landucci at Infinite Editions 303-271-9400. He's great to work with and has forgotten more about Photoshop than I know. He has a bunch of the Epson 9600's and may have upgraded to the 9800 as well. Tell him I recommended him and when's he done laughing he may even talk to you.

You want to take 2mp images up to 24x36? Let us know how that turns out. It'll tell me whether or not my 12.8mp rig can do enlargements you can see from space.

Todd: Potentially, yes, depending on what Genuine Fractals can do. I don't have a list of desired prints from my potential buyer yet, and I'm hoping that the older (2mp) stuff isn't on it, or that at the very least I can talk them into a 16x20 instead. Still after a pass through Genuine Fractals. I figure that there has to be a way to do it. If Kodak can take my 5mp blueberry shot and make it ten feet tall for the jumbotron without any huge degradation, then surely I can do a bit less than that, given the right software.

FWIW, I currently have two 16x20 shots on my dining room wall, both taken with the 2mp. Not the greatest, but not bad at all considering that I didn't interpolate them at all.

I don't mean to be harsh, but...it doesn't matter what software your'e using, 2MP at 24x36 just isn't going turn out well.

Rebecca,

I have Gen Fractals so you are welcome to try an image over here sometime with it but i honestly don't think you'll have enough data in the images for good looking pics of that size. I shoot a 12.8 MP Canon that I think makes nice 16x20's but for my tastes that's about all I can get out of it. For the monster images (40x50) I make on my Epson 9600 I really prefer working with drum scanned 4x5 transparencies. And honestly at that size they are starting to look a little soft (need Tony L's 8x10 )

Hope that helps.

RichieV

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect Jumbotron images are like monitor images, i.e. 72dpi, or something much lower than you'd want your prints to be.

I would suspect that a jumbotron has way less resolution than monitor images (because you are viewing the images from so far away). I think it's just bunch of huge pixels that look ok from a distance. Anyhow, I'd be interested to hear how it turns out- best of luck Rebecca.

I think you'll be okay getting larger prints with the 5MP, but you are definitely pushing it with the 2MP. I'd just be sure and tell your client what to expect with these images in terms of quality. I've had a couple clients wanting 48"x72" prints from 35mm (100F film). I told them that the images should look good from a distance, but that you're really pushing it in terms of size and the images would be noticably grainy when viewed from close up. But they both purchased the images and were very happy with them. One even ordered a second one. I'm sure some photographers would consider this sacrilege. But remeber that there is a big disparity between what photographers consider to be acceptable and what some clients consider acceptable. But as long as you're up front with them beforehand and as long as the client is happy, that's what matters. I even had a client license a 35mm image to print at 6'x9'. I pretty much tried to dissuade them and convince them to at least go with a medium format image. But their lab told them it would be okay and they liked the image so much that they went with it. I offererd a money back guarantee if they didn't like the image, but they never asked for their money back. That being said, if you're considering selling the 2MP images, I'd be completely up front with the fact that it is a 2MP image and even offer their money back if they don't like it.

Hi Rebecca,
I've used SI Pro 2 from http://www.fredmiranda.com/software/ with good results for upsampling. I'm not as conservative as others as far as upsampling images, and have found that going up to 4x as big as the original file (twice the width, twice the height) can produce acceptable results. Also you can print as low as about 150 dpi before you start seeing visible pixelation, possibly lower.
Good luck!

Rebecca,

There are many printers that recommend you just give them the files at native resolution and let their printer software do the uprezing. I've been very satisfied with this approach. So, I suggest you speak with your printer first and then decide if you still want to spend money on buying Genuine Fractals. FWIW, I remember a review commenting that Genuine Fractals worked great when you started out with large files, but had little advantage over simple Photoshop interpolation, if you started with relatively small files.

As others have commented, the client's satisfaction will probably be directly proportional to viewing distance. I understand many billboards have been created from 6MP images. Let us know if YOU are satisfied with the results.

First of all, thanks for all the imput. I wanted to post a quasi-update here. I'm less than a week away from my birthday and there's a good chance a fresh copy of CS2 will be a birthday gift from my parents. So right now I'm on hold to see what happens with the birthday wild card. If I'm right in my hunch, I'll see what the bicubic smoother can do for me. As far as the 2mp images go, I'm not going to let them order anything larger than a 16x20, and they'll be warned that the images won't be tack sharp. I think they won't much care. So far the two she's expressed the most interest in are from the 5mp camera. Anyway, I'm playing the wait and see game for a few days, and then I'll call a shop or two, ask if they prefer to do the rezzing up themselves or whatnot, prices, standard sizes available, etc.