Question about enlarging photo's: I put a few photo's on a flash drive I took with my new canon 6d using a sigma 150/500 lens to be printed, I used picasa to change them a little and...

natureshot Loc: Kirkwood, IL

I put a few photo's on a flash drive I took with my new canon 6d using a sigma 150/500 lens to be printed, I used picasa to change them a little and cropped them. I wanted 8"x10" prints and it would not print them because they told me they would come out grainy the photos were not good enough.
My question was it because I did not shoot them in raw, or did I crop them to much ? I am just learning a little bit about getting off of auto I was using manual setting.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Do you have an original of any of these? If yes, can you upload to this thread with "store original" selected?

What are the file sizes of these shots? (mb, kb)

What resolution setting are you using on your camera? (image quality)

Guillaume_8667 Loc: Madison, NJ

Hi nature shot,

My guess is a combination of 1. you didn't shoot at full resolution and 2 .you cropped them too much.

Canon 6D is a 20.2MPX you can print real big so even if you cropped it you should get good quality.

Go into your camera settings and make sure you are shooting JPEG large or RAW large.

RAW will not decrease or increase resolution. You should have choice of S1,S2,M1,M2,L (from my recollection) for the different resolutions.

Advantage is that shooting in RAW saves ALL the sensor information while shooting in JPEG basically does the post processing work straight in camera and bins all the data it thinks it doesn't need.

Guillaume

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

natureshot wrote:

I put a few photo's on a flash drive I took with my new canon 6d using a sigma 150/500 lens to be printed, I used picasa to change them a little and cropped them. I wanted 8"x10" prints and it would not print them because they told me they would come out grainy the photos were not good enough.
My question was it because I did not shoot them in raw, or did I crop them to much ? I am just learning a little bit about getting off of auto I was using manual setting.

Who told you that they would not print them? At what ISO were they set? Were they shot on a tripod or hand held? If on a tripod was IS off? Too many questions and not enough answers?

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

natureshot wrote:

I put a few photo's on a flash drive I took with my new canon 6d using a sigma 150/500 lens to be printed, I used picasa to change them a little and cropped them. I wanted 8"x10" prints and it would not print them because they told me they would come out grainy the photos were not good enough.
My question was it because I did not shoot them in raw, or did I crop them to much ? I am just learning a little bit about getting off of auto I was using manual setting.

You always have to remember that when you CROP an image, you are literally throwing away the part of the image that was cropped away, it is gone forever. This easily makes a large image way too small to print at the size you may want it to be printed at.

cmc65

MT Shooter wrote:

You always have to remember that when you CROP an image, you are literally throwing away the part of the image that was cropped away, it is gone forever. This easily makes a large image way too small to print at the size you may want it to be printed at.

So , just to be clear on this point, it's a better idea to make a copy of the original and pp the copy,ex: crop, so that this loss doesn't happen to the original?

Guillaume_8667 Loc: Madison, NJ

cmc65, when you edit a picture the first thing you should do is "save a copy of the original". Once you cropped the original and resaved it, there is no going back.

Hope that helps

Guillaume

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

natureshot wrote:

I put a few photo's on a flash drive I took with my new canon 6d using a sigma 150/500 lens to be printed, I used picasa to change them a little and cropped them. I wanted 8"x10" prints and it would not print them because they told me they would come out grainy the photos were not good enough.
My question was it because I did not shoot them in raw, or did I crop them to much ? I am just learning a little bit about getting off of auto I was using manual setting.

If you want to return to shot settings in Picasa in the windows box at the top of the screen there is an undo all edits setting . that will return the photo to original as shot

cmc65

Guillaume_8667 wrote:

cmc65, when you edit a picture the first thing you should do is "save a copy of the original". Once you cropped the original and resaved it, there is no going back.

Hope that helps

Guillaume

Thank you for that reply. The op did state that he might just be beginning to go to another level with photography and the software side is yet another huge thing to learn. It will be a shame for him to loose out on printing these great photos. They are really lovely.

natureshot Loc: Kirkwood, IL

This is a similar photo, 4.5 MB , resolution 72, focal length 494, aperture 5.63, iso 400 , jpeg in manual. Just getting into this so not sure if these are exactly the same but close.

natureshot Loc: Kirkwood, IL

Guillaume_8667 wrote:

Hi nature shot, br br My guess is a combination ... (show quote)

Thank you I will check the settings to see if this helps.

natureshot Loc: Kirkwood, IL

boberic wrote:

Who told you that they would not print them? At what ISO were they set? Were they shot on a tripod or hand held? If on a tripod was IS off? Too many questions and not enough answers?

The iso was 400, yes I had it on a tripod and did forget to shut the IS off. I am new to manual and have been trying different settings, so hopefully I can figure things out. Thank you for helping.

natureshot Loc: Kirkwood, IL

I tried to get them printed at Costco, and it would not accept them when I tried to select them the lady told me it would not print them because they were not good enough quality and would come out grainy. I did enlarge some before from my Rebel t2i with no problem, so I was surprised. I do need to check my settings I have not done that yet. Still learning Thanks for all your help.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

natureshot wrote:

This is a similar photo, 4.5 MB , resolution 72, focal length 494, aperture 5.63, iso 400 , jpeg in manual. Just getting into this so not sure if these are exactly the same but close.

If you cropped this shot so that the bird is as close as the ones in your opening, the file size was probably pretty tiny. Best to try to get closer and not have to crop so much, especially if you want to print 8x10.

I have uploaded to Costco site where it gives a resolution warning, but never had them outright rejected :)

wilsondl2 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

I would go somewhere they will print them. They probably will be grainy. But they will look fine if viewed as a whole picture. Most of the grainy look will be in the background. I would print at least one and see what you think. Or if you want you can tqack it Ofice Depot and have them print it on canvas. Put a few brush strokes in and it will look like art. - Dave