Upsampling for larger prints?

[Jason Hermann]

I have an image I would like to get printed bigger than 8x10, but do to the low resolution of my camera and the crop I made its total resolution is only 1212x 1818 @303ppi

Any idea how big I can blow up that image up?

My concern is the loss of the upsampling. You think I can get away with larger than 8x10 ish? or even 8x10? I know the current size is not 8x10 format, but i will rework the image if thats as large as I can go to get a quality print.

I have never printed anything larger than an 8x10 so this is uncharted territory for me.

Thanks in advance,

Jay

[Mr. Pickles]

You could get an 8x12 out of it, but that would be max probably.

It is a hard thing to say, because in actuality it depends on a number of factors including the images subject (really detailed, or soft) and viewing distance. Might help a bit if you put a 1" decorative border round the whole thing and print an 8x12 or 8x10 too...

[Jason Hermann]

Thats a really good call!! I never thought of that

Thankyou

Jay

[Latinbob]

If you use Photoshop, you could download the trial version of Genuine Fractals and see how that does. You get a limited number of up-samples, but there are no restrictions or water marks on the pictures.

You can download the software here: http://www.ononesoftware.com/download.php

I've played with the trial version and it works great. If I had to up-sample a lot, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Bob

[Blinky]

I agree with Pickles (which is really weird), 8" on the short side at 150dpi. The factors he mentions are also true... you could blow it up to 16x20 and it would look fine from 10' away, so long as you sharpened it and upped the saturation some.

Genuine Fractals is a remarkable piece of software that goes well beyond straight upsampling. I've seen images go from 8x10 at 150dpi to 30x40.

[aam1234]

Qimage can help you with that, though I don't have the S/W myself.

[Jason Hermann]

Thanks for the help * I'll look into those software options.* *I think I'm going to try the 8x12 with an inch border of white for now and see how it comes out.* *That software sounds really intersting though.* *If its not to much money maybe I'll look into that.* Almost all of my pictures were taken with a 4 megapixel or less

Thanks,

Jay

[abortretryfail]

I heard there's manual method for up sizing pics by increasing pixel size little by little.
Could anyone enlighten us on that?

[Mr. Pickles]

Upsampling by increasing about 10% each time is a way to do it. But it was the way in PS7 and earlier (I think it was 7). With the advent of Bicubic, Bicubic Sharper, and Bicubic Smoother, the 10% method isn't what it was.

Doing it with Bicubic in one quick jump yields better results than the bunch of 10% jumps.

[craftysnapper]

It also depends on how you are having it printed inkjet print or photographic print, for some reason traditional photographic printers seem to be able to get better results from less pixels, it may be because they use there own upsampling methods.

My commercial printer (Photobox UK )gives a quality advise of a minimum of 1000pixels and 2000 prefered pixels on the long side for a 15 inch print.

I very often have 16x12 and 20x16 done from my E-1 with a 5mp resolution ..of course the quality of the pixels has as much to do with image quality as the amount

[Rense]

If you have some money to spent, please take a look at blowup from alienskin.
It works like charm! We had a 640x480 pixel image at 72 dpi blown up to 110cm wide at 300 dpi and got a very good print out of it.

The 110% upsizing method works like:
1) go to the resize box,
2) figure out how many percent you have to upscale by first typing in the printsize parameters (take a 300dpi)
* *in, say you need it 2 (200%) times bigger
3) you need to do the next step 8 times
4) next type in the widthfield 110% using smart resize and press oke.

the factor 8 from step 3 is calculated as log(2)/log(1.1) rounded to the next higher integer

[busterc1]

I have only done a couple of photos 16x20 Meijer store (3mp cam) all they want is a photo 8x10 300dpi crop and there software does the rest for making it larger

Qimage I do use at home and love it, I can only make 11x8.5 l did a test with and without Qimage and love the added detail Qimage gives if you have the money get it

Mike

[Jason Hermann]

Thanks for the help/ comments

Rense I think I have a copy of that blowup program from Alienskin!! I forgot all about it and never reinstalled it on my new laptop. Wow I feel silly for that 1. I'll give it a try!!

Jay

[Rense]

Jay,
can happen. Shouldn't you be concentrating on the birthday party of your father?

[Jason Hermann]

lol Yes I should But I need large prints also!!

Thanks again,

Jay

[ballentphoto]

Originally Posted by Worm324

lol Yes I should But I need large prints also!!

Thanks again,

Jay

Two things to keep in mind when printing is that you really want to keep the DPI at about 180 you could push it to 160 but I think that you can start to run into problems.

With that in mind the next thing that I do is to add pixels by using Bicubic Smoother and Bicubic Sharper. First thing is to increase the size of the file by 20% larger than you want the target size to be so if you want the long side to be 10 inches make it 12 and increase using Bicubic Smoother. Then resize down to the target size with Bicubic Sharper (10 inches in this case)

[dc2]

I use the Bicubic smoother method and find its great .
First I duplicate the image then resize always sharpen last .
As a general rule of thumb if it looks good on screen it should look good on print.
Think you may be surprised just how large you can go with this method provided the origional pic is of good quality

[danedmunds]

Do you outsource your printing? If so, ask the printer..............they have the expertise and (probably/hopefully if they're any good!!) software to do it effectively. I have had 8mp images from my EOS (12x8 roughly) blown up to 40x30 and they look superb. Give it try because you'll never know otherwise!

Also, if you do print yourself, Fractals is one of the best out there.

[Olyirrisistity]

I'm a newbie in printing and I've got a question, I hope someone can help.

Assuming that for a certain print size, I've got only enough pixels to print at 200ppi. My question is: all other things equal, would I get better result printing without upsampling @ 200ppi, or would I get better result by upsampling it to print @ 250ppi ? In other words, is there any benefit to upsample from 200ppi to 250ppi?

Thanks!