#Best photographic prints how to

This is dependent on factors like the media you print on, viewing distance, and personal tolerance. You can certainly upload a smaller megapixel file, and you may not be able to notice an appreciable loss in detail. For example, when I made a 20” x 30” print, I had to make sure the total dimensions of the print was 6000 x 9000 pixels, which equates to 54 megapixels. If you’re making a large print, you may need to “up-rez” your file. To get the maximum detail when photo printing, make sure the uploaded files are set to 300 ppi. Photo by Mahesh Thapa Principle #2: Upload a Well-Edited File For that extra percent, I rely on test prints. I calibrate my monitor using a ColorChecker and it does a great job getting me about 90% of the way there. I love this straightforward advice, which I’ve found to be completely true. They said, “We use X-rite, but we generally find calibration to be imperfect and recommend ordering small proofs to get a sense of where our printing sits in relation to what you see, then adjust accordingly.” I asked Printique if they recommended any hardware monitor calibration tool. Principle #1: Monitor Calibration – How Important is it?

Through their guidance and personal experience, I came up with the following four principles to get you started on making accurate prints. Printique makes hundreds of prints a day so I knew they could provide me with useful information. In preparation for this article, I reached out to the print masters at Printique and got their perspective as well.

#Best photographic prints how to

In addition, perceived color accuracy when photo printing depends a lot on what temperature light is hitting it. For example, daylight will make the print appear cooler (bluer) than incandescent light. Finally, how the print is displayed must also be considered. Will you place the print behind a glass frame, an acrylic frame, a glare-resistant material, or will the print be unframed?įor information on how to color correct in post-processing, check out the 42West article, The Basics of Color Correction. What you see on your monitor is transmitted light and what you see on a print is reflected light. An “exact match” is frankly impossible because, no matter what you do, reflected light is never the same as transmitted light. Let me save you a lot of heartache and tell you that you’ll never achieve 100% accuracy between what you see on your monitor and what you see when photo printing.