First Wall Size Enlargement (A1)

[Geoff]

Ok...I think there will definately be some sceptics who will reply to this thread, however I will go ahead, cautiously. I just did a trial enlargement (A1) down at my local Harvey Norman (yes)...using the following Epson Pro 9600 printer. The girl down there appears to have quite extensive experience both in photoshop and printing in general and she was happy to preview my image on her PC monitor so we could do some colour adjustment together prior to the print job being processed. I am AMAZED at the result and as an experimental thing she said she wanted to try the JPEG and if I wasn't satisfied in ANY way whatsoever she'd re print it in TIFF...anyway, I am absolutely blown away with the quality of the image and I know that my client will be too!! Skin tones, light and sharpness are awesome. WHen I have another one to print I will try it in TIFF and see if there is any noticeable difference. Anyway, just thought I'd share this very positive experience with you all. Epson claim the print life is 100 years, pity we won't be around to tell. HEre is a photo of the printer, it took about 15mins to print.

[birddog114]

Geoff,
Normally on these printer, people uses TIFF format to print.
Buy one and use it inhouse

[boxerboy]

Geoff,

What was the damage to your wallet?

Cheers
Peter

[Nnnnsic]

One of the great things about printing large is that you can print at a lower dpi (like 72) because the image isn't going to be viewed close up.

[johndec]

Questions,questions What HN? Name of the employee of this organisation that actually knows ANYTHING about their products

What else umm? How much? Can you post the image you got enlarged? Did you interpolate it at all? What was the DPI at A1?

Gee, did the maths and A1 is 16 times larger than A4 (had to take my shoes off as I ran out of fingers ).

[sirhc55]

The dpi of this machine is amazing at 2,880 x 1,440

[ajo43]

Wow, I'd love to see it in person.

I've got some questions too:

1. what method did you use to enlarge
2. was the original in nef
3. what was the final dpi
4. how big was the file you took in to be printed
5. and most importantly (as johndec said) which HN and who was the employee.

Thanks and well done.

[johndec]

*BUMP*

Hi Geoff, I know you've had a BIG day (lucky bugger ) , but hopefully you'll get a chance to reply here soon.

I'm dying to see the answers to some of the questions asked here

[kipper]

Printer? That looks more like a plotter

I've got a HP Plotter at work, shame it won't do good A0 prints

[leek]

Printer? That looks more like a plotter

I've got a HP Plotter at work, shame it won't do good A0 prints

We had a large scale HP Plotter on the last project I worked on... The girls used to call it Harry Plotter...

[Geoff]

Geoff,

What was the damage to your wallet?

Cheers
Peter

More than I should have paid, but it was Hardley Normal Prices....

[Geoff]

Wow, I'd love to see it in person.

I've got some questions too:

1. what method did you use to enlarge
2. was the original in nef
3. what was the final dpi
4. how big was the file you took in to be printed
5. and most importantly (as johndec said) which HN and who was the employee.

Thanks and well done.

Photoshop to enlarge- very easy.
Original WAS in NEF yes.
Final DPI - not sure, but I will endevour to find out.
The TIFF file was 17meg, JPEG was 4.8
Harvey norman Balgowlah.

here is the image --->

[sheepie]

What did it cost?

ta

[Geoff]

What did it cost?

ta

Too much (HN prices - go figure)

[shutterbug]

Geoff, what type of paper was it printed on?

[big pix]

nice one geoff
I have been printing on a Espon 7600 for 9 months and have changed to a G5 imac just before xmas. The quality that I have been getting has been fantastic, but as I have had my new screens profiled I now need to profile the stock that I print on, so what I see on screen comes out of the printer, looks like a spyder pro2 purchase to keep all in check.
When all the colour profiles are built I will let all know how the new colour prints done with the new profiles compare to the old colour prints

[ozimax]

Big Pix:

I am getting a little annoyed with my tiny iBook 800mhz (640mb ram). Although the osX works flawlessly, it takes ages to open an NEF file. Sometimes I have highlighted 10-12 nef files to delete and accidentally hit enter! Then it's a long, long wait. The G5 must be awesome for graphics?

See ya,

Max
Coffs Harbour

[ozimax]

Geoff,

Did you ever get to try a large print from a tif file, and was there any outstanding difference from the JPEG?

Max

[Nnnnsic]

Ozimax, it probably depends on the level of compression used on the jpeg or even possibly the jpeg format.

I'll always use TIF to print large from, especially if I've done a lot of PP work in PS.

[ozimax]

Thanks, I'm saving straight from raw to tif, does any compression come into play here? (I'm not sure how much PSD files compress?)

Max

[Nnnnsic]

 PSD files tend not to compress in my experience with them, and because of the extent of layers it can allow, are a better format to use when working with a whole ton of editing, PP, effects, etc.

However, you never submit a PSD to a print-house...

[flipfrog]

geoff:
beautiful family!

[jonnydee]

Nice one Geoff! Glad to hear you can print at A1 and it still looks good, got a few landscapes I wouldn't mind printing BIG

[Nnnnsic]

Depending on how big you want to print, replace the A in the metric system with a B.

[ozimax]

Am off to get a poster printed tomorrow (30"x20"), will see how it turns out. We have a photo lab here in Coffs, they have heaps of different printers etc and seem to know what they're doing, hoever, I'll wait until the finished product to comment.

I am using using a PSD file and will then save it to TIF, burn to CD (approx 50 mb) and take it in for processing.

http://www.ozprintshop.com/

Max

[Nnnnsic]

Make sure to flatten your layers when converting to TIF.

I've seen a few places that charge extra for having to work with images that have layers.

[ozimax]

Actually the fellow did sak that I not flatten the TIF file so he could make adjustments if necessary, at no cost. Seems a nice bloke, will have to wait for final print to see if I will use them further.

On that score Nnnnsic, how many printers etc have you tried. I have tried different Kodak shops, HN and independent places and at present I think the best colour for smaller enlargements, at least here in Coffs, is the Agfa at Big W. Seems strange that the cheapest place has a good product. I sold a 12x8 surf print yesterday and it was sensational.

Max