How big can I print?

This is one of the most common questions we get and the answer differs every time.

There are a few factors at play:

• the megapixels of your camera
• the quality of the pixels & photograph itself (is it in focus, good exposure, etc.)
• what is the viewing distance of the finished print ( if the print is going to be seen from a farther distance you can get away with a lower dpi when printing)

Printing is finding the perfect combination of all these factors. Each photograph is different and we are more than happy to review this information with you at the office!

Calibration

With the digital age we are in, we are constantly looking at photographs on screens. While computers and the internet make sharing our photographs much easier, it also means no one is seeing the exact same thing as you are on your screen.  The brightness and colors can range from monitor to monitor, which can also completely throw off your print matching. Usually monitors right out of the box are too bright and have a default color profile, which can be fixed with calibrators. And then there are the Ferraris of monitors that have their own calibration system built in! Properly profiling and calibrating your monitors will give you reduce editing time and a more realistic no-surprises representation of final print.

At the office we go the extra step and have our printers calibrated to our monitors, so what you see is what you get! If you ever want to view your images on our screens before we print we are happy to set up a time for you to do that or if you are not local we can send you test prints to see what we see.

Things we DO recommend:

• Eizo monitors
• NEC monitors (spectra view series)
• Spyder calibration systems
• i1 Display Pro Calibration
• calibrating your screen monthly

Things we do NOT recommend:

• editing on a laptop
• editing on an iMac
• keeping your brightness to your screen turned up too high

Dodging & Burning

While we use photoshop on daily basis to create beautiful digital images we also love using traditional darkroom techniques to create the best fiber or RC print we can. Almost every print we make requires some dodging and burning. Here is a brief explanation of dodging and burning:

---

BURNING IN

This is where a portion of a print is too bright after the main exposure. The majority of the print looks good, so additional exposure would make it too dark. To fix this you add additional light ONLY to the bright area. To do this you cut a hole in cardboard or use your hand in a cup shape to project a beam of light back onto the paper AFTER the main exposure. This happens a lot in skies or if a heavy flash has been used. We also use burning to add a vignette to an image.

Some of our burning tools

---

DODGING

This is where a portion of a print is too dark in the shadows after the main exposure is made on the enlarger. To fix this during the exposure you hold back or shade the problem area with a dodge tool (a piece of dark cardboard or plastic on the end of a thin metal wand). The time using the tool varies depending on how dark the problem area is during the main exposure. It is very important to keep the dodge tool in motion during the exposure, this helps feather the effect and makes it blend into the rest of the photograph. We usually use dodging in shadows to bring out texture in the print. You want to have a rich black but you do not want to block up all of the shadows in the image to achieve the rich black!

Some of our dodging tools

---

An example of darkroom dodging and burning from Fstoppers

If you want to learn more about darkroom editing we recommend checking out this post on FStoppers Website

---

Tech Blog: Colorspace, File Formats and Untagged Files

Have questions about digital printing? How to get images to us? What type of file to send? We have tried to start simply and move onto the more complex questions. If you have questions regarding any of this or just want to review the process with us, please call or email us! First things first… You can upload us files here and you will see this screen from Hightail. You can drag and drop your images for upload to us.

Do I send Jpg, tif or psd? Raw?

You can send us any of the above. We have provided some details below about the difference between each type of file.

Raw are the proprietary file from the camera manufacture. Some examples are: Canon (.crw, cr2), Nikon (.nef, .nrw), Sony (.arw, .srf, .sr2), Pentax (.pef, .ptx).  Raw files hold the most data from your digital camera and are the easiest file to adjust exposure, contrast, white balance and other fine tuning. We can edit your Raw files however this requires an editing charge.

JPG is best for web use, but still can be printed from if it has high enough resolution and was saved at a high enough quality. (80+ in Lightroom, 10+ in Photoshop).

PSD is an Adobe Photoshop proprietary format. It can handle all of Photoshop’s features, but has some compatibility issues with non-Adobe products and Lightroom. PSD has a 2gb files size limitation.  Due to the compatibility and size issues, PSD has been (or should be) replaced by TIF by most photographers.  We prefer TIF.

TIF is one of the most universally accepted formats. It can be opened by most image editing and page layout software. TIF supports all the same things as PSD and has a larger file size limitation (4gb).

Ultimately, just send us what you have and we’ll figure it out. Got layers, send us those too. We can always provide assistance with your files or if you want to sit with one of our Digital Technicians and review files in person.

OK, so a tif  file, 16bit or 8bit?

Either one is fine. Whatever works for you.

What color space should I sent it in? AdobeRGB98, sRGB, ProPhotoRGB

You can send us files in any of these color spaces. You should be working in either AdobeRGB98 or ProPhotoRGB to begin with. sRGB is meant as a web colorspace, anything you upload to your website or facebook should be in sRGB.

As far as AdobeRGB98 or ProPhotoRGB goes, it could go either way. ProPhotoRGB is much bigger than AdobeRGB98 and can produce more colors. However, you must work in 16bit with ProPhotoRGB otherwise you can end up with posterization effects (banding). The other down side to ProPhoto is it includes imaginary colors. Yes, I said imaginary colors. They (Kodak) made the ProPhotoRGB color space so big that 13% of the colors included do not exist in the real world and are not visible colors. This can lead to color issues when printing. Some colors will become over-saturated or will be estimated to its nearest in gamut color and can cause banding. Even the best printers in the world can’t print imaginary colors.

AdobeRGB98 is larger than sRGB, is easily printable by commercially available printers and includes no imaginary numbers. Its not perfect, nothing is, but it is the standard most of the photographic world uses.

If you have a gray scale file, that is fine as well. Gray Gamma 2.2 will do just fine.

What about CMYK?

Leave that to the offset printers. If you send us a file with a CMYK colorspace we will convert it to AdobeRGB98.

What about an untagged file?

If you send us a file with an untagged colorspace you will get a call from an angry elf… just ask Ron Cowie. Again, you can just send us what you have and we’ll figure it out. Following our recommendations makes it easier, but we are happy to help in whatever stage you are in!