natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

I am soon to a point of wanting to get some large wall prints made. Most print labs I have checked want Jpeg files in an sRGB 8 bit color space. I understand this is fine for smaller prints or web viewing, but I am concerned about the quality of a larger print, say a 20"x 40" for example. When exporting from lightroom, my tiff files run approximately 90-100mb in Adobe 1998 color space. The highest quality jpeg I can export usually runs about 5-6mb in the sRGB color space. These labs claim the eye can't see the difference in the prints, but I'm very skeptical of that. Adobe also has Prophoto RGB which I haven't used. Can anyone enlighten me at all on this topic, and possibly a print lab they would recommend? Also, it will be mostly landscape/nature type pics I will be working with. Thanks in advance for any good advice I get.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Since you say you know more than the professional printers, what do you expect anyone here to add?

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

They are correct, it would work for most files. Trouble would be there when you have a wide space with a gradient of the same color but with a small difference in brightest & darkest parts. In large prints, this kind of 8 bit gradient can turn into steps and would definitely be an eyesore to look at.

Kozan Loc: Trenton Tennessee

Actually, 5-6 MB is rather small. I typically get 25-30 MB, but I'm starting with 47 MB RAW files, then converting to JPEG. And I shoot in sRGB/ 8 bits also.

To only get 5-6 MB for a JPEG, you must be starting with 8-12 MB.

Labs I would suggest is MPIX, Bay Photo, and Nations. But there are other great photo labs out there. I suggest you call one of the lab's reps and talk to them.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

I have been using Adoramapix for some time for large prints on metal. They have done a very good job. I did some super large images, 9’x6’ images from Nikon D5 raw images using ON1 Resize. Good people there who understand printing and color space.

I recently found ezprint who sent me 20x30 prints of 4 of my photos as samples on every one of their papers and metals. I was blown away! I would use them for certain. Make sure that your prints are 300dpi and in AdobeRGB.

Very competitive space. You can get some stellar prints from companies like AP, EZprints, Whitewall and Bayphoto. BayPhoto is owned by a gent who pays attention to detail. All comes down to what you are printing and how you send your images. Small prints, Costco is great. Download their store by store ICC profiles. Larger printed requiring pro quality, use any of the ones I mentioned above and you will be very happy, as long as you give them a high res image in the right color space. Call and talk with any of them and they will tell you how best to send them your images. Even though it is a competitive space, their profit margins are hefty and they typically provide some good discounts. Ask!

pixbyjnjphotos Loc: Apache Junction,AZ

I have used MPIX.com for all my professional printing for several years. I sent them a 6.949mp 14x8 inch (print size) jpeg file of Superstition Mountain in Apache Junction, AZ. The resolution was 300 dpi. I had it printed on a 36x24 inch canvas. Yes there was some cropping because 14x8 doesn't directly relate to 36x24. It was beautiful. I have 20/15 eyesight with my glasses and I had an extremely difficult time seeing any differences in quality, clarity, and color between the the larger and smaller prints. It hung on my living room wall for over 3 years and everyone who set foot in the house commented on how great the canvas looked. I certainly don't see a need in uploading a huge tif file for printing. By the way, MPIX also does wall size wall clings. Have a GREAT DAY!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

An 8 bit sRGB JPEG is ideal for printing, with most processes.

If you shoot RAW, use 16 bit TIFF or PSD or whatever while making adjustments to images... that helps prevent "banding" and other issues. Also do any noise reduction early in the post-process... and do most of your work before resizing the image. Last steps should be resizing (I also use 300 ppi, more than enough for most print processes) and then sharpening. When those are finished, convert to 8 bit sRGB and save as a JPEG.

If you shot a JPEG instead, it can help to convert to 16 bit before doing any tweaks or adjustments to the images... but not as much as if you'd originally shot it RAW (Note: Very few cameras make full 16 bit files. Most produce 14 bit images.... some are 12 bit. Those are interpolated as 16 bit by the post-processing software.)

Confirm with the printer.... There are some processes that can utilize 16 bit or need a different resolution or color space.

natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

I'm trying to learn, I don't need attitudes like yours for that.

natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

If I replied to the wrong post here about attitudes, my appologies.

natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

Not sure what I'm doing wrong because my raw files are about 23mb which is what I use for editing. I can't find any higher resolution setting in jpeg when exporting than what I'm using. What do you use to edit your files? Thanks for your reply.

natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

I just learned something. I did not know lightroom gave the option of exporting jpeg files as Adobe RGB because it automatically switches it to sRGB when choosing jpeg. So I checked and found you can still choose Adobe color space. That should increase my file size significantly. Thanks much.

natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

Actually I have learned in life people will mislead you to increase a profit, therefore my inquiry is to help me make an intelligent decision as to which print lab to use. I seriously doubt all print labs use the same formats for printing as you seem to imply. Your response is ridiculous and condescending. Please move on from any of my future posts as your replies are not needed or wanted. Thank you.

natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

Thanks for the good information.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

The JPEG quality value you select in the output dialogue will affect file size.

natureslight Loc: Winona, Minnesota

Yes, in lightroom I use 100% quality and 300dpi when exporting jpegs. I wasn't aware the Adobe RGB color space was an option under jpeg as switching from tiff to jpeg, it defaults to the sRGB color space, so I suspect that will affect size as well. This is a huge learning curve, so thanks for your input.