Fine Art Quality Printing

Hi,

I am sure this has been asked before, but wanted to know the latest information on the good Photo lab anywhere in US who make large prints approx size of 20 X 60 with maximum DPI.

Some of the labs i have spoken recently said that they will print only 150 DPI at that size instead of 300 DPI. I have my first few 6 X 17 Fuji Velvia 50 Slides that has been Scanned at maximum DPI on my Flatbed scanner and wanted to print few 15 x 45 or 20 x60 for my home and was not able to find a good lab.

I will be happy if there is any place near DC but willing to send the Digital file to any lab.

Also, What is the best DPI for printing such a large print with out loosing the detail. Attached is the sample picture i would like print which is been re sized for upload purpose.

Any recommondations are greatly helpful.

Thanks
Sivaram

I highly recommend West Coast Imaging for the printing you describe. I would recommend printing at 360 dpi but in some cases I've heard of 240 dpi in large prints giving indistinguishable results from 360.

Get the film drum scanned unless you own a creo flatbed. Do a search here as this subject came up within the last few days. Aspencreekphoto.com or westcoastimaging if you can spend $$$ (minimum order).

Thanks all for the quick reply. It was useful info.

Thanks
Sivaram

You need an outstanding transparency to get what most here would consider quality resolution (300dpi) at a 60 inch size.

300dpi would require some 6000 X 18000 pixels at 20 X 60 inches. That translates to about 2600 ppi (1060 ppcm.) on film. BTW that is 106 l/mm. or 212 lp/mm on your film!

You can relax that nasty reality by a factor of two for 150 ppi on the enlargement if it's acceptable for your viewing but even that requires a resolution on film of about 100 lp/mm.

OTOH you could use an antique lens for some really beautiful effects in color and just not worry about the resolution nonsense. ;)

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

I know of a DC close lab.
Give me till the AM to source it for you...
G

Not knocking your sample, but it doesn't look the sort of image to require extreme dots-per-inch. It's a abstraction of colors and shapes without minute detail (unless minute detail doesn't show on the scan). For that sort of thing, I'd be more interested in a small color proof prior to the big print to make sure it's got the colors and tones the way you want.

If it were a daytime urban scene where you expect to read license plates or signage, or a daytime woods scene where you want to see the bark on the birch at the other side of the big field, then maximum dpi output would probably be advisable.

Nathan Potter -

Thanks for the detail explanation regarding how many lpm i need on a film . I have scanned a 6 X17 Fuji Velvia 50 Slide (56 x 168 mm) on a Flat Bed Scanner at 4400 DPI which came around ~300 Mega Pixel file about 2gb file. I am not exactly looking for 20 x 60 but more of 15 x 45 as the additional space is for borders as most of teh printing services does not have a size of 19 x 49 (with 2 inch Border ).

Since am still amature to the medium format film, wanted to know how big i can print in case i like some picture that i need to print.

Adamphotoman -

Thanks and that would be great.

jp498 -

I know i donot need excellent detail in the attached picture, my question in ingeneral if i need to print high resolution with detail for my future use.

Thanks all for the replies,
Sivaram