[Arismac]

G'day all, my first post after many hours of very much enjoying the learning experience that this forum has provided. Thank you all very much.

I have a love of scenery, especially Western Australian scenery. I would like to get a firm like Redbubble to make me some wall large prints in various sizes. Therefore my first rather basic question is what settings do I need to pay attention to in order that my images can be enlarged to poster size. I have got the impression that just about any shot I take will be OK to enlarge but is this correct.

Thanks and cheers
Mac

[atupdate]

The most important thing besides having a quality image to start with is to make sure you don't have to crop the image too much (you will lose pixels). However, you also want to leave enough room around the subject to be able to crop to the aspect ration of the poster size.

For example: The aspect ratio of the image out of the camera is 4x6. If the aspect ratio of the poster is 11x14, you will end up cropping some off the long end when it is printed.

Tim

[asp1880]

- Use a tripod
- Focus carefully
- Use the self timer or a remote release.
- Stop down the lens a bit, eg. to f/8.


Those things should eliminate most sources of blur and unsharpness.


Regards,
--Anders.

[Kerrowdown]

Welcome to the forum, just to add to what the others have said, keep the ISO as low as possible too.

[mcgregni]

I would shoot RAW and make sure my converted saved jpeg has the minimum possible compression applied.

[MJSfoto1956]

ISO speed has the biggest impact on final printed image size. So always use the lowest ISO possible. The other key feature is having an exceptionally sharp (not necessarily fast) lens. IMHO those two are key for printing big. Of course, in low light that means a tripod too.

M

[Na Horuk]

I have got the impression that just about any shot I take will be OK to enlarge but is this correct.

This is not far from correct. I suggest you take two of your best or favourite photos and one that is a little worse and have them printed. Not necessarily at the full poster size, but just to see what happens when you turn a digital photo into a print. But let's get more technical:

What you need: - good lens
- good light
- good settings
- good image file
- good print shop

Lens? Get your sharpest lens. This is usually the fixed focal length lens (aka prime lens, like DA 35mm macro, FA 31mm ltd, DA 50mm f1.8). Some zoom lenses are significantly better at certain focal length, than at another. Basically, you have to use the optimal tool for the job. Focus is important, too. Center single point AF seems to be the most reliable. Feel free to try manual focus, as well. If you have the time, take multiple photos and delete the out of focus ones, keeping only the best
Good light? You need light for the photo to look good, so taking photos at sunrise or sunset, or with a well-thought out artificial light setup is important. This will also help with the next point:
Settings? You will probably want to choose the lowest possible ISO (in this case 100, or 200 if you have highlight correction enabled. You might need to go to Menu and enable the Expanded ISO or Boost ISO or whatever its called) - the lower the ISO, the less digital noise in the photo. Next, aperture. You want to choose the aperture that will give you the look you need. If you want optimal sharpness and a great big depth of field, choose something like f5.6 - f9. f8 is usually optimal. Shutter speed? Hopefully you are using tripod and 2 sec timer (which includes mirror lockup, so there is less camera shake), so the shutter speed doesn't need to be very fast. IF you shoot hand-held, make sure the shutter speed is fast enough for the photo to still be sharp when you look at it at 100%. If you have a relatively slow shutter and are relying on SR, make sure it gets activated before you take the photo. To do this, compose, then half-hold the shutter button for a second until the SR icon shows up.
Image file? If you shoot jpeg, then you need to make sure the in-camera settings are at maximum quality. This means biggest resolution possible (12MP for K-r), and highest quality setting (the number of stars)
in the Info menu). You can enable things like CA correction and others, if you wish. CA correction is usually a good idea. There are a myriad of settings you can edit, like jpeg mode (Bright, film reversal, vibrant, muted,..) (and you can press Info to edit these profiles further), NR (noise reduction should be set to low if you are using a low ISO, but keep the slow shutter NR enabled), shadow correction, etc. Even better is if you shoot raw (dng or pef) and edit the image on computer, doing all those settings by hand. But this takes more time, learning and practice. For the print shop, you will need to export a high quality photo (again, maximum resolution, lowest compression). Don't know if you already do this or not. Just one thing - for printed photos, you usually want to add some more sharpness than usual. You can add this for in-camera jpegs by pressing Info, and then jpeg mode, and Info again. There you can switch between types of sharpening or add more). The photos might look oversharpened on your computer, but will look normal once printed.
Print shop? Some print shops are not very good. They will edit your photo, sometimes automatically without even caring about the results. But some print shops are great - they will leave your photo alone, or ask you for specific changes (like adding sharpness or clarity or "film grain" to hide noise and add texture) that actually make sense based on the image and their printing gear. It is good to go to a real print shop and actually meet the person that will be doing the printing. On the other hand, some people were quite happy with prints they got at big store chains, where you have literally no contact with anyone, just put your digital photos into a machine and pick up the prints later. Never tried it myself

Oh, and 2 sec timer with tripod can help a lot, too. Make sure the tripod is stable. Don't even walk around it for a couple seconds before and during the exposure. Lens hood can help a lot, as well.
One thing to keep in mind is that the poster should not be viewed up close. There will be some limits due to the required DPI. K-r photos bigger than 40cm will (most likely) not look detailed and sharp up close, but might still be acceptable from a regular viewing distance
You can just look at the photos you already took and zoom in to 100% to see if they are sharp, detailed enough for a print. OR you can just go and make a test print. Making one poster print is not too expensive these days, and can be a valuable learning experience

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Last edited by Na Horuk; 10-07-2015 at 06:34 AM.

[mattt]

You've got great tips above for making most of your sensor, but do you have a realistic expectation of what the resolution of a poster size print should be?

Sensor size = 4288 x 2848

typical printing resolution = 240 dpi

17.9" x 11.9" is the maxium size print for best results.

Viewing larger sizes is most often done from a more distant position, you can achieve larger print sizes with a decrease in image quality balancing that with expected viewing distance. Think of a poster advertising in a buss shelter. Looks pretty good driving by at 50 kmph, but when sitting inside the shelter you might find that the image is pixelated. A quick google around looks like graphic designers doing poster prints can go as low as 100 dpi provided viewing distance is expected to be sufficiently large (greater than 5'). With your Kr that is getting over 3.5' wide.

[MJSfoto1956]

17.9" x 11.9" is the maxium size print for best results.

This is simply not true. My daughter is a professional lifestyle photographer based in SF and I've printed her 12MP D700 images to 24"x36" -- great glass and low ISO will let you print WAAAAY beyond the "pixel resolution". Once you go to higher ISO you will see your print size gets smaller and smaller until the biggest you would want to print it is 4"x6" -- regardless of the number of pixels.

Michael

[mattt]

Read further Michael, I said exactly that.

[TedW]

A lot of good tips here. As far as what lens to use; I have had some great results with the DA 18-135 if you stay in the 30-35mm range and stop down to around f8. The DA 35 is a very sharp prime for not a lot of money but not as wide as you would sometimes like. My favorite by far though is the old manual focus K28mm f3.5. The colors are beautiful but what sets it apart for me is the excellent sharpness across the whole frame a f8. Because of this it is perfect for stitching several photos together to create an ultrawide photo. They are not common but can be had for $150 or sometimes less. Sharp, sharp, sharp.

[Aksel]

... stitching several photos together to create an ultrawide photo. ...

If You need large prints, then stitching several photos, is the way to go for You (with K-r).

[Arismac]

Thank you all so much for your input. I use Corel PaintShop Pro for image editing but as with my camera knowledge I am only a bit above beginner. An eBook mentioned in the forums which was written about the K-x has proved very useful.

I will try and post in the correct forum next time. Thanks again.

[Aksel]

...I use Corel PaintShop Pro for image editing ...

Here is Microsoft ICE - it's free:
Image Composite Editor - Microsoft Research

For panoramas/stitching.

[Arismac]

Thanks Aksel but I am afraid that leads to yet another unfunny joke by MS. You try to install Ice and it says you need to install "Visual c++2013 ..." So you do that and Ice can not see that it has been installed, so you go round and round and round until you give up. Using Windows 10 BTW.