Hello,
Have a basic but hopefully not to complicated question. Im fairly new to photography and completely new to printing. I have been getting some request to get some stuff printed. So heres my question. I want to get some prints from West Coast Imaging. I want to send them a completed file. I know my way around PS but the printing end Im a little hazy about.
Mainly want to try a 16X24 print. Not sure about nuances of sharpening for interpolation. I know proofs are probably best, so I was wondering if you fine people can give me some tips or links to some tutorials on the process.
Thanks so much for all your help
Anthony - It may depend a little on which printer you're having West Coast use (the Chromira vs. the Epsons). It's pretty simple though. Here's my suggestion :
-- Interpolate/crop the image so that it's 16x24 at 200, 300, or 360 ppi, depending on printer and preference.
-- Sharpen the image to taste - usually the image at 100% in PS will look a little "crunchy". I find the 50% view to be pretty close to how the print will look.
-- Now crop a small area or two - maybe 4x6 or 5x7, at 300 ppi - out of the image
-- Get that printed as a proof, before getting the full image printed.
Also, make sure to read through the entire FAQ on the West Coast site. Lots of good info in there. It will give you guidance on what the resolution should be.
Always judge your sharpening level in the 100% or even 200% view. If you want to see the effect on more of the image use 25% or 50%, not any in between percentages. Due to the mechanics of fitting the actual pixels into the available real estate of the screen, anything less than 100% is interpolated and the 25% and 50% interpolations are the only ones that don't do weird things to the image. The 33.33% & 66.67% views will always make the image look 'crunchier' than it actually is. At 100% adjust for the best sharpening without halos then add 50% to the percent setting.
Due to the mechanics of fitting the actual pixels into the available real estate of the screen, anything less than 100% is interpolated and the 25% and 50% interpolations are the only ones that don't do weird things to the image. The 33.33% & 66.67% views will always make the image look 'crunchier' than it actually is.
Just a note to mention that this is no longer an issue with the release of CS4.
Jim--when you say add 50% to the setting do you mean add 50 to the sharpening value or 50% of the value already being used? This can be a big difference. If you mean just kick it up by 50 then if you're at 100 and add 50 then you've increased it by 50%. However if you're at 300 and kick it up 50 then you've only increased it by about 17%. On the other hand if you really mean to increase it by 50% then you'd go from 100 to 150 and 300 to 450. Inquiring minds with too much time on their hands always over analyze the situation--Larry
Posted by Jim Bullard on March 9, 2009 at 11:14 PM
To John, That is correct if you also have a video board that supports Open GL. A very nice feature that was added to CS4 which I don't have yet. I have to find out if my VB supports Open GL.
To Larry, I mean add 50% of what looks good on screen. If the image looks good with 80% sharpening, set the percentage to 120% for printing. You always lose a bit of sharpening in the process of printing. There are also issues with screen resolution VS print resolution but that's kind of hard to explain and I'm not sure how CS4 with Open GL affects that or if it does.
Discussion
5 repliesHave a basic but hopefully not to complicated question. Im fairly new to photography and completely new to printing. I have been getting some request to get some stuff printed. So heres my question. I want to get some prints from West Coast Imaging. I want to send them a completed file. I know my way around PS but the printing end Im a little hazy about.
Mainly want to try a 16X24 print. Not sure about nuances of sharpening for interpolation. I know proofs are probably best, so I was wondering if you fine people can give me some tips or links to some tutorials on the process.
Thanks so much for all your help
Anthony
-- Interpolate/crop the image so that it's 16x24 at 200, 300, or 360 ppi, depending on printer and preference.
-- Sharpen the image to taste - usually the image at 100% in PS will look a little "crunchy". I find the 50% view to be pretty close to how the print will look.
-- Now crop a small area or two - maybe 4x6 or 5x7, at 300 ppi - out of the image
-- Get that printed as a proof, before getting the full image printed.
Also, make sure to read through the entire FAQ on the West Coast site. Lots of good info in there. It will give you guidance on what the resolution should be.
Jim Bullard
Just a note to mention that this is no longer an issue with the release of CS4.
To Larry, I mean add 50% of what looks good on screen. If the image looks good with 80% sharpening, set the percentage to 120% for printing. You always lose a bit of sharpening in the process of printing. There are also issues with screen resolution VS print resolution but that's kind of hard to explain and I'm not sure how CS4 with Open GL affects that or if it does.