Looking for Advice: Printing Vision+ pix

tscott · May 23, 2014

I'd like to print out a shot I took of my father-in-law's farmstead with my Vision+ as a Father's Day gift. Trouble is, I've never really printed out a picture as large as this one. GIMP tells me that at the current resolution and size, it could potentially print out to around 61"x34". This is obviously too large and I'll need to scale it down. Still, I'd like to have it relatively large -- say around 30x20 or so. I can scale and crop to bring it down to that size with no trouble. The thing I'm worried about is the best method to get it printed. I could go with CopyMax or Shutterfly, but am not sure how its going to look at that size given that I'll need to blow around $40 per print -- I want to minimize any misprints obviously.

Does anyone out there have any experience with printing out photos from their cameras at these sizes? Are there any tips you can share?

Thanks,
--tim

Mori55 · May 23, 2014

Can you take your card to staples maybe ??

denofr · May 23, 2014

Kinkos, and if color doesn't matter they will print it out in black and white for about $3.

D_Tshudy · May 23, 2014

tscott said:
I'd like to print out a shot I took of my father-in-law's farmstead with my Vision+ as a Father's Day gift. Trouble is, I've never really printed out a picture as large as this one. GIMP tells me that at the current resolution and size, it could potentially print out to around 61"x34". This is obviously too large and I'll need to scale it down. Still, I'd like to have it relatively large -- say around 30x20 or so. I can scale and crop to bring it down to that size with no trouble. The thing I'm worried about is the best method to get it printed. I could go with CopyMax or Shutterfly, but am not sure how its going to look at that size given that I'll need to blow around $40 per print -- I want to minimize any misprints obviously.

Does anyone out there have any experience with printing out photos from their cameras at these sizes? Are there any tips you can share?

Thanks,
--tim

Tim,
You'll need to spend some time learning about resolution and scale of digital images. Here's a short article to get you started but there's a lot more information out on the web.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/printing-large-photos-the-right-way/

MikesTooLz · May 23, 2014

You could upload the photo on walgreens website, crop and pick print size. and order it for pickup ad your local store.

I know walgreens is not the place any professionals go for prints, but sometimes is good enough for a print. Keep in mind when they make prints the photo's come out a little dim and you may want to brighten the photo up a little to compensate.

use promo code PRINTALL40 to get %40 off all prints until 5/24/2014

The good thing about walgreens is that it will be ready for pickup within an hour and you can look it over before paying. If it prints out to dim, ask them to brighten it up some and reprint. If you don't like the print just don't buy it.

4wd · May 23, 2014

To get good resolution for printing those sizes would be far too large,
I haven't calculated it properly but around 20" on the longest side would be big enough most likely.

streetreporter · May 23, 2014

+1 on Walgreens photo site. You can even print up to 8x10 to a Walgreens closer to your dad's house, but since this is a gift, you probably want to hand deliver it to him. I print pics for people all the time through Walgreens in other states. They just pick them up.

Since this is a gift, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND canvasondemand.com and you can save 45% through Father's Day with the code: FATHER45

We have printed several framed canvas photo prints and they always look amazing.

malacca · May 23, 2014

I'm a professional photographer, and I use Mpix, which is very high quality online photo printing service. They do large prints well and have lots of other products, some are silly.

Mal_PV2_Ireland · May 23, 2014

Is the pic a jpeg or a dng raw file? It will have to be a raw file with a bit of touching up in photoshop to get maybe a maximum print size of 30' x 20' dont mind what Gimp is telling you about size a pic that big would be a mess

tscott · May 23, 2014

Thanks for the tip on Walgreens. I used the coupon code "HANGONWALL" and got 33% off bringing the price of the 20x30 print down to $17. Not bad.

As far as the quality goes -- that's probably the upper extreme for the size I should be printing at. It looks great at arm length, but you can definitely see pixelation up close. I think the next print I do will be 11x14 or perhaps 16x20.

--tim

RedRyderMedia · May 23, 2014

As a reasonable rule of thumb, divide the resolution of your image by 300 and that's a good place to start for printing in inches. A Vision plus image is 4384X3288 would be about 15X11. You can go larger, but you will start to see pixels.

FYI, if you have a Costco near by, they will print enlargements in one hour for less. Drop off the digital file on the way in.....pickup your print when you're done shopping.