I've realised today I've been a professional photographer for 30 years and never actually printed anything large.
I have an image I'd like to print 3m x 1m (that's 9ft x 3ft imperial).
Any advice about anything I should do to prepare the image, the kind of material I should print onto etc. I'd prefer not to frame it in glass as the weight may be an issue, the cost for such a large glazed frame also. I was thinking canvas however I'm worried about losing detail -or is that an issue I shouldn't be worried about?
I imagine the exercise wouldn't be cheap, so I'd like to avoid trial and error as much as possible, so any advice from experienced members would be very much appreciated 🙏
I've had a couple of large prints about 3ft x 4ft printed. One metal and one on photo paper. It is expensive and the shipping for such a size may require a crate and dedicated truck all its own which can add hundreds to the cost. A mere inch can determine whether or not you pay hundreds more!
Strongly consider the lighting in the room you wish to mount it in. Highly reflective surfaces such as certain acrylics can ruin the viewing experience if there's a large window or television near by.
On both prints, I allowed for color correction (they offered it as a free option) because I didn't trust my own eyes and my monitor isn't calibrated. It worked out well for the first print and not so well for the second print.
Lt.Deadeye wrote:
I've had a couple of large prints about 3ft x 4ft printed. One metal and one on photo paper. It is expensive and the shipping for such a size may require a crate and dedicated truck all its own which can add hundreds to the cost. A mere inch can determine whether or not you pay hundreds more!
Strongly consider the lighting in the room you wish to mount it in. Highly reflective surfaces such as certain acrylics can ruin the viewing experience if there's a large window or television near by.
On both prints, I allowed for color correction (they offered it as a free option) because I didn't trust my own eyes and my monitor isn't calibrated. It worked out well for the first print and not so well for the second print....Show more →
What was wrong in the color correction for the second print?
BobSac wrote:
Hello FM'ers, happy new year to you all.
I've realised today I've been a professional photographer for 30 years and never actually printed anything large.
I have an image I'd like to print 3m x 1m (that's 9ft x 3ft imperial).
Any advice about anything I should do to prepare the image, the kind of material I should print onto etc. I'd prefer not to frame it in glass as the weight may be an issue, the cost for such a large glasses frame also. I was thinking canvas however I'm worried about losing detail -or is that an issue I shouldn't be worried about?
I imagine the exercise wouldn't be cheap, so I'd like to avoid trial and error as much as possible, so any advice from experienced members would be very much appreciated 🙏...Show more →
A few thoughts. Some of which you have perhaps already considered.
Yes, that is a huge print!
Before investing in the full size print, test the resoltuion of the final print by going through the full resizing process for the 3m x 1m print, then printing small sections of it and taping them up to the wall at the anticipated viewing distance.
I’m assuming that you will be sending this out to be printed, and not printing it yourself. To ensure a good, accurate result there are several things you can do. Obviously the first is to work with a quality print shop. Also, if you have your own smaller printer you can generate smaller versions of the print that show how you interpret it and send those to your printer as a reference. You could also consider asking them to produce a smaller version of the print to share with you as a proof before you approve the full size print.
One way to reduce the weight and cost and still cover the print is to use a high quality plexiglass in stead of glass. That’s actually a pretty common solution.
A bare print is lovely and, of course, not subject to the kinds of reflections and potential muting of contrast that putting it behind glass or plexiglass can produce, but it is also more subject to wear and damage if not protected.
In part, choosing canvas is an aesthetic choice that some like a lot and other don’t, so you’ll have to develop your own position on that. Canvas does somewhat “cover up” softness that might be present in such a large print should that be an issue. You could also solve your framing/glazing conundrum by mounting it on a stretcher frame and not inside a traditional frame or under glazing. It is a different look, but some people like it.
(Losing detail is due to choosing canvas is not likely an issue in a print that large. If it is an issue, if anything, choosing canvas can accommodate that better than some other media.)
Canvas is more forgiving than paper, but 9' wide is pretty big! What kind of viewing distance are you anticipating? I have printed 45mp files up to 6' wide on canvas with great success with a viewing distance of 3 to 4 feet.
I usually print my canvases here and go with the framed option...it takes 3 seconds to hang, looks better than bare canvas, and you can't see the edges this way. The folks that I've delivered these to love them.
I second the suggestion to print on canvas and use a floating frame. I’ve made many prints on canvas and everyone loves them. Glare is reduced greatly with canvas.
If you've never worked that large before, I suggest incrementally stepping up by doing progressively larger test prints. Tile your image and print one or two highly detailed sections at 100% scale on small A4 sheets using several different papers. That's the only way to judge loss of detail at scale.
Then try complete prints at 1/3 scale 100 x 33cm on your final 2 or 3 paper choices. Once you're satisfied there, choose your final paper for a full scale print.
Also, you may get more responses by moving this question to the post processing & print forum.
jeffbuzz wrote:
If you've never worked that large before, I suggest incrementally stepping up by doing progressively larger test prints. Tile your image and print one or two highly detailed sections at 100% scale on small A4 sheets using several different papers. That's the only way to judge loss of detail at scale.
Funny story. I once did that (the prints on small sheets) to persuade a potential client to NOT license one of my photographs for an advertising campaign. They (a British retailer) had identified a nice photograph of some blades of grass that they want to reproduce for placement in store windows at something like 6’ vertical sizes. I really did not think that the image they had in mind would work, but they wanted it… until I showed them what it would look like at that size. ;-)
It has worked the other way, too. Another potential client was interested in a monochrome photograph that I had made with a handheld APS-C camera much earlier in the digital photography era, and they envisioned a hangable print that would be 44” tall, made from a moderate crop of the original 16MP image. I had my doubts that this was going to work, but I was willing to give it a try. So I did some of those smaller area prints from the upscaled image and both I and the client decided that this DID look good — excellent even in this case — and I had a sale.
A story about the largest thing I’ve ever licensed. I have an old stitched panorama of the base of trees in a coastal redwood forest. I was contacted by an architectural firm that wanted to include an 18’ long version of this long and narrow photograph in their offices in San Francisco. Because it was a stitched panorama (maybe 10 frames or so?) it would work and we consummated the deal. Literally one week later I was contacted by another designer working with someone putting together the design of a high-end retail establishment near a national park about the same image. They want a slightly different crop (taller aspect ratio) but it would be 31’ wide!
gdanmitchell wrote:
Funny story. I once did that (the prints on small sheets) to persuade a potential client to NOT license one of my photographs for an advertising campaign. They (a British retailer) had identified a nice photograph of some blades of grass that they want to reproduce for placement in store windows at something like 6’ vertical sizes. I really did not think that the image they had in mind would work, but they wanted it… until I showed them what it would look like at that size. ;-)
It has worked the other way, too. Another potential client was interested in a monochrome photograph that I had made with a handheld APS-C camera much earlier in the digital photography era, and they envisioned a hangable print that would be 44” tall, made from a moderate crop of the original 16MP image. I had my doubts that this was going to work, but I was willing to give it a try. So I did some of those smaller area prints from the upscaled image and both I and the client decided that this DID look good — excellent even in this case — and I had a sale.
A story about the largest thing I’ve ever licensed. I have an old stitched panorama of the base of trees in a coastal redwood forest. I was contacted by an architectural firm that wanted to include an 18’ long version of this long and narrow photograph in their offices in San Francisco. Because it was a stitched panorama (maybe 10 frames or so?) it would work and we consummated the deal. Literally one week later I was contacted by another designer working with someone putting together the design of a high-end retail establishment near a national park about the same image. They want a slightly different crop (taller aspect ratio) but it would be 31’ wide! ...Show more →
Hah, love hearing these stories. You have an incredible body of work on Flickr!!
BobSac wrote:
Hello FM'ers, happy new year to you all.
I've realised today I've been a professional photographer for 30 years and never actually printed anything large.
I have an image I'd like to print 3m x 1m (that's 9ft x 3ft imperial).
Any advice about anything I should do to prepare the image, the kind of material I should print onto etc. I'd prefer not to frame it in glass as the weight may be an issue, the cost for such a large glasses frame also. I was thinking canvas however I'm worried about losing detail -or is that an issue I shouldn't be worried about?
I imagine the exercise wouldn't be cheap, so I'd like to avoid trial and error as much as possible, so any advice from experienced members would be very much appreciated 🙏...Show more →
It's not as hard as you might think it is
Most of my poster sized i printed from 8-10mp aps, years ago before I knew much about pp. I followed usm directions off a good photography site one time on an ~8x10 print, but haven't bothered lately, just normal sharpening (although I try to get things sharp and put tons of effort into accurate focus.)
Thanks for your replies, advice and just generally the time you spent to help me, much appreciate it.
I have printed before, but the largest was A1.
I have also had my images printed this large, but I have not handled the printing process myself.
As far as the size of the resulting print and shipping is concerned, I'm lucky enough to be able to transport it myself rolled up in my vehicle, so I'm not too concerned about that.
Yes 3m which is almost 10 ft long is a significant width, it's for a space in my living room above a sofa which is almost 5 m wide. For a long time I've been looking for a print that would work in that area with an aspect ratio of roughly 2:1, 16:9 would also work.
Mitchell, you raise a good point and I think a highly reflective glossy stock or anything that has to go behind glass won't be suitable for the environment it'll be hung in. My home has lots of glass either side of this wall that will cause reflections that will make viewing the image frustrating.
I've thought about it and I think canvas is the only choice, unless there's a solution I'm missing. I can make a frame myself, probably out of hardwood, likely 20x20 mm square, wrap the canvas around this frame and staple the canvas to the frame. It would be light, strong, easy to hang and adjust and affordable and only approximately $50.
As for the cost of the print, I've been recommended to a printer and they have quoted AUD500 (USD330) to print a 3x1m (That's roughly 10x3 ft) on canvas @ 600 DPI. To me that sounds very reasonable.
Roaming Scott, most of the time it would be from a distance of 5 to 8m (16-26ft).
So I would think 600 DPI on canvas would be sufficient?
Ambient Mike, the image is quite old, however, if I remember correctly, it was captured with a Nikon D800E at close to base sensitivity with decent glass at a close to optimal aperture, so while it is slightly cropped and heavily processed there is a significant amount of detail and minimal noise, one of the reasons for choosing this particular image. The other is the subject matter and the fact that it suits this elongated aspect ratio (imo).
I'll attempt to upload a couple of images, one of the image to be printed and another of the space I'd like to hang the resulting print in.
Again, I very much appreciate everyone's efforts guiding me through this newish process.
BobSac wrote:
Any advice about anything I should do to prepare the image, the kind of material I should print onto etc. I'd prefer not to frame it in glass as the weight may be an issue, the cost for such a large glazed frame also. I was thinking canvas however I'm worried about losing detail -or is that an issue I shouldn't be worried about?
Canvas can be quite sharp, but it has the texture of the weave overlaid on top of it. For a large print, I don't think it's an issue but ultimately it's subjective.
Metal might be an option as well but that is limited to 8'. There are also various forms of paper prints laminated onto a hard substrate (mdf or dibond). Acrylic can also be done that large but it will weigh a ton.
A final option might be to split the print into a triptych or similar.
I've got a few mountain vista panos that I've printed that large for corporate installations. Bare canvass works well so long as it's not in direct sunlight. Mine are 200MP+ files, though, so I didn't worry much about what I was losing to uprezzing (very little) and the canvass (more, but still insignificant for the presentation). If I were you, I'd investigate some software solutions that would make getting your file in shape to printed that large a bit easier. Topaz, I believe, makes something specific for this.
Side tip: If you decide to stretch the canvas yourself, its a minimum three person job, but you'd be best off with five.
I have several landscape photos printed big on foamcore (the cheapest option printing companies like Saal Digital or Whitewall have available), the biggest 112 x 63 cm, and some of them hang in my home for 4 years now.
The print quality is perfectly good and hasn't degraded over the years, it doesn't glare at all (very important), and the fancy-free style suits me just fine.
Our architectural firm regularly includes environmental graphics in our projects. Often these include large scale photography. The largest photograph we have done recently was 12' x 75', although we have done larger images. To get images to that size, we have had the best success with Gigapixel. It takes a little bit of practice to find settings that work best for you. In general, we minimize denoise and sharpening to avoid the "plasticky" look. Gigapixel has a max pixel count along one edge of 32,000. At 300 dpi, your 3' x 9' image would have a long edge of 32,400. You can res the image down without any real loss.
The 1m (3') dimension gives you a ton of options since this is easily accommodated by any of the larger Epson/Canon roll printers. Pretty much any standard media can be fed through the if that's your desire. I have a local printer who has printed similar sized images on Epson Premium Presentation Matte for me. My recommendation would be to find a local art print house to work with. Most are willing to run test swatches to confirm resolution and color prior to printing the full size image and you can select your paper/media.
Second, you might want to consider having your image mounted on a backing like gator board or some other lightweight backing that won't warp. It would also allow you to have a simple frame around it without glazing.
EDIT: I just did a quick google for options in Melbourne and it appears you have a few options. If it were me, I would probably start with this firm: https://fineartprintingstudio.com.au. Although I don't see their address and prefer working with people directly.
