Print Sharpness.

AnCatDubh

You got yourself a gazillion mega-pixel camera, and you picked up a really sharp prime and the results at f5.6 are amazing when you review them on screen and zoom in at 100%, so you're basically rockin it. And you leave in a batch of your rockin images to be printed/developed and well..... they turn out ok, but the sharpness just isn't there that you thought you had when you looked at them on screen.

Now this *alleged* sharpness issue tends to be mini lab type prints - the fuji frontier gear to be a little more specific. But I'm not knocking mini lab prints - for the relative cost they are surprisingly good and for your 100 6x4's you aren't going to run to a fine art printer (sorry, steve ) I'm thinking there is some limitation to the mini lab type of equipment to take a large amount of image data and compress it onto a small format print (but that i'm only thinking that, i don't know that to be true).

I'm basically wondering - to get best results going from a gazillion megapixel image to a 6x4 print (or any other print size), is there some preparation that will yield a 'what you see is what you get' (or nearly).

Some people have indicated that they sharpen one way for screen and something alternate for print. I'm wondering what people are generally doing to get the best results.

Thecageyone

My experience with labs [also fuji] is that my images come out a tad darker on paper than they do on screen. I only ever go for matte and I've printed up to 10" x 12" - quality has always been very good, apart from that darkening issue. So now I'm thinking I should brighten my images before I transfer to card for print? Or should I have to?

I've not noticed any sharpness issues yet, and I have printed off numerous images via photo-labs.

I do wonder about the darkening thing though - is it my monitor is off? or the lab is ignoring my settings and just ... printing according to a preset?

stcstc

ideally work at the native res of the print system

and sharpen when its at correct size

oh and go to a lab which is looked after, and the people know what they are doing with it

stcstc

cagey

there are lots of factors, but generally its your monitor when prints are dark

the big issue with most of the lab type printers is get consistent prints

Thecageyone

I know little about labs, but all i can say is I have found remarkable difference between them. There's a photo-specific establishment in a certain shopping centre I frequent, and they are less than useless for getting anything above an 8" x 6" print. And you can tell by them when you go in that they could not care less about how your prints turn out.

On the other hand, there's a pharmacy/photo centre in the same building, who have a much better lab set up, who do actually seem to care about your images. They're cheaper and do a range of sizes perfect for general print/framing. If you wanted anything beyond, well, you'd see stcstc wouldn't you?

I like matte prints, I'm more comfortable handling them, they give images a bit of a kick [IMHO] and they're no more expensive than your usual glossy. Place i go to does a 10"x12" for less than a fiver.

stcstc

12*10 is not a standard size out of a digital camera, 12*8 is

i do them for not much more than a fiver too


there are sooooo many variables in running the mini lab to keep it consistent

sineadw

What I do is find out what resolution the printer is working at (if they don't stare at you like you have two heads when you ask...) Gunns is 300 ppi so I guess that might be a good place to start if the people in the mini labs don't know (Fire is 200 ppi, college printer is 360 - it can be a bit of a guessing game). If the image is 16 bit, convert to 8. Resize to 6 x 4 in photoshop WITHOUT RESAMPLING the image, then sharpen at 100%. Sharpen is always last, and always at 100%.

That should get you there or there abouts

stcstc

one thing to be aware of is resizing without resample will produce results bigger than the native res of the printer

the theory behind using the native res of the printer is that you avoid rounding errors generated by the printer

but at the 6*4 size it shouldnt be to evedient

its only when ya get above say 16*12 or so then the errors become more obvious

s

sineadw

I meant changing the ppi to 360 (or whatever) without resampling I turn it off when changing ppi (my images import at 240) and then hit ok, image size and turn it on again to change the actual print size. Sorry AnCat - forgot about that bit :rolleyes:

stcstc

you can change them in camera raw to 360 too, if you click the link looking details at the bottom of the camera raw screen

i belive you can also set it as a preference in lightroom to always use 360

hoganpoly

sineadw wrote: »

What I do is find out what resolution the printer is working at (if they don't stare at you like you have two heads when you ask...) Gunns is 300 ppi so I guess that might be a good place to start if the people in the mini labs don't know (Fire is 200 ppi, college printer is 360 - it can be a bit of a guessing game). If the image is 16 bit, convert to 8. Resize to 6 x 4 in photoshop WITHOUT RESAMPLING the image, then sharpen at 100%. Sharpen is always last, and always at 100%.

That should get you there or there abouts

by sharpening do you mean unsharp mask at 100% in ps excuse my ignorance

sineadw

No, I mean viewing at 100%, and not just the preview window. Image sharpness can change drastically when viewed at smaller percentages. I read why a while ago but I can't find the page now.

Steve - I don't use LR when preparing prints. Can you set that in camera raw for PS to import at 360?

Never mind - found it in workflow options