Help :) I Need 2 foot x 4 foot photo, I have EOS 80D

[Corryn]

Hello, 

we purchased the Canon EOS 80D a couple months ago and still learning how to use it.

We need an image, 2 foot x 4 foot, for a project we are doing.

I took photos using the raw resolution option and the photos are 28,000-34,000 kb, if that matters.

I am dealing with a salesman who knows as much as I do about photography and is asking questions about the images.

I am asking him if he can put me in contact with their department who deals directly with the photography because I don't know those answers.

I feel like I am in Limbo and I need some assistance. 

I am trying to Google search all types of questions and just cannot find the answer, it's confusing to me.

I work very long hours at my job and cannot take a few minutes out to figure this out, I'm an operating room nurse working ten hour days (besides lunch and I take a nap during that time) and my focus needs to be there. When I have a few minutes I've been trying to figure this out. I've been at it for almost a month and I am beside myself. 

I know I should take a class to learn all this, but I can't even keep up with the day to day regular stuff.

Yes, I'm looking for a new job lol

Can anyone assist me? I appreciate any help!

Thank you

[wq9nsc]

For that print size, to do it from a single image you will want to shoot at ISO 100 or as close to ISO 100 as possible to maximize sensor performance.  You probably also want a tripod for this shot.  Shoot in RAW as you have been doing.

For a 2x4' print, you will need to set up a custom crop factor in DPP so that the image is cropped in a 2:1 ratio.  Make sure to account for this when setting up the shot so that you will have the complete desired image fitting into the cropped version and given the size you want to use the complete horizontal resolution capability (fit the image exactly within the frame side to side).

If this image is going to be something that is viewed up close (most images this large tend to be viewed from several feet away) then you may need to take it as 2 separate images and stitch them together.  There is software which does this seamlessly and Canon at least used to include it with their cameras.  This will result in one image composed of two partial images resulting in a higher resolution final image for printing.  It is imperative that you shoot these in manual mode, preferably with a fixed white balance in post, so that the exposure and tonal rendering of both halves of the stitched final image is exactly the same.  The two images are taken with sliight overlap in the center so that the stitching software can calculate how to perfectly match them together.

You can order large prints online and for best quality, you will want a printing business that uses a TIF file from your photo processing or stitching software.  Be sure and decide in advance what finish (gloss, mat, semi, etc.) you want because that is an important consideration with large wall hung prints.

If there is a photography club in your area, you may find advice and assistance locally.  Your hospital probably has a PR person with at least some photography experience or access to someone who does.  Network! (and good luck).  In your career field, finding a new position shouldn't be difficult given the high demand and lack of supply.  Before I retired from the university I did some work with the college of nursing and that was my favorite group to work with at the U and much nicer to be around than my fellow business professors 🙂

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

"Can anyone assist me?"

I can try.  I used to do what soem people call "couch photos" for high end home owners.  The most important parameter you need to know, this is #1, how far away will it b e viewed? From a pixel peeper to across the football field.  What is the average viewing distance? Second is your camera settings. Raw, ISO 100, exact exposure (I mean exact!, not just close).  And, again most important in camera setting is pin point sharp focus.

The paper you print on, too, is very important. I like Redriver Artic Polar Luster. It comes in 44" rolls. Another is Redriver's metallic papers.

First determine the viewing distance.

[BurnUnit]

Printing, even at smaller sizes, can be a source of confusion. At first it's a little tricky to wrap your head around. But I found it easier to grasp if you can think of a print as a surface area, like a floor or wall, that you need to put tile on. Let's say it's a floor that measures 10' by 8' so the area to be covered is 80 square feet. If the tiles are 1' by 1' (1 square foot) you'll need 80 tiles to cover the area in question. If you decide to use 6" square tiles that converts to 20 by 16 tiles for the long side and short side of the floor. Multiply the two sides and you'll now need 320 of the 6" square tiles to cover the same area.

But now, instead of floor tiles, let's say you're covering an 10" by 8" sheet of photo paper with a bunch of little tiny pixels. The fact that pixels don't really have a fixed size doesn't matter. But to put down a good quality print you'll need something like 200 pixel per inch (PPI) to get the job done, at least on most inkjet printers. That means your image needs to measure 2000 pixels by 1600 pixels for the long and short sides of your print, or a total of 3,200,000 pixels. In other words 3.2 mega pixels.

In your case you're needing a print that measures 48" by 24". Staying with the 200 PPI mentioned above, your print would require 9600 by 4800 pixels. The maximum image size from the 80D appears to be 6000 by 4000 pixels, which comes up a bit short. But all is not lost.

As Rodger mentioned above, this might be a good candidate for stitching a couple of images together to give you the needed pixel dimensions. But as also stated above the viewing distance for this print is going to affect the printing requirements. Viewed from several feet away 100 or 150 PPI may produce a satisfactory print assuming you're starting with a well focused and properly exposed image, as ebiggs1 pointed out. There is also software that can be used to help maintain the image quality of large, lower resolution image files.

Best advice would be to contact the printer with your print requirements and the equipment at your disposal. They should know the specific needs for the equipment they use.

[ebiggs1]

Cool analogy example but you are confusing PPI and DPI. DPI is a printing term.  DPI, or dots per inch, and PPI, or pixels per inch, both tell us the resolution of an image. However, they're not the same thing.  DPI, the printing term refers to the number of physical dots of ink in a printed document.

So many people say “DPI” when they really mean “PPI” constantly, all the time anymore. To make things even worse Apple, Microsoft and Adobe are all guilty of this improper usage. The important thing to know is when someone says DPI, they really mean DPI and not PPI. If you zoom way in on your monitor you will eventually see PPI.  Yo can not see DPI until it is printed.

The PPI of your monitor and camera is fixed.  They can't be changed.

DPI can be changed. In fact a high quality print might have a DPI of 300, newsprint is usually around 80 DPI and large billboards around 40 DPI.  But here again it isn't all that straight forward because there is no standard size for a printer dot. One printer brand may produce smaller dots of ink and produce a sharper print than a competitor's printer that makes larger dots.

You need to contact whoever is going to make your prints and get the exact specs from them.

[cicopo]

I'll go at this in a different way having recently needed to get a print on canvas that needed to be 36 X 60 inches. Before I start I needed it in landscape which matches my original photo but if you need it as portrait style start with a photo shot that way because you don't want to crop anything away unless necessary. Either way you should be cropping close to but not necessarily right to the wider sides of the photo. I prefer to shoot slightly wider than I want to print & crop as needed, but not severly. As already mentioned you want to start with a RAW file & after your edits save it as a TIF which creates a big file (that isn't compressed in the way it is to create a jpg. 

I've used the free program Picasa to show what I do along with the un edited jpg of the file I had chosen. I created a custom crop setting for your needs & then used it to show what area of the photo you get but that crop box can be higher or lower but it can go wall to wall

.

Once I'm happy with my crop I export the file which is non destructive to the original because it creates a new version including the crop.

[Ray-uk]

It might be a good idea to level the horizon before you crop

[cicopo]

True re the horizon but I did state that it was the un edited jpg. I did level the horizon in the file used for the canvas as well as spend a lot of time removing any CA along things near the sides (created by the wide angle lens used) as well as many other minor exposure corrections to the umbrellas, sand etc. The photo shows the view we see every day while on vacation in Cozumel while eating at the beach club restaurant. It had to be taken early in the morning to reduce the chances the area was filled with hotel guests but on many mornings the umbrellas weren't up & I wanted them in it. I had to try every day I wasn't booked to be diving. 

Also when printing anything large I take 4 X 6 crops in areas which need details & print them. This was rather easy in this case because I only needed crops that were 10% of the total pixel width to have samples at the same resolution the file would be printed at. I do that a lot to check how an image will print before printing the full image. Saves a lot of ink should I have an area that looses the important detail at the desired print size. 

 

[Ray-uk]

That does look very nice.

[cicopo]

Thanks. It did turn out very nice & was my wife's birthday present. I overheard her telling a guest it's the thing she thinks about on nights when she can't sleep and just thinking about it puts her to sleep finally. With that info I went down every day I could while she did her long walk hoping to get a perfect shot. The sun is very strong in the mornings but at the right angle but it did blow out a few areas which careful editing recovered.