印大相、油畫相製作 FAQ
Professional Photo Printing/ Fine Art Printing - FAQ
We are the experienced specialist who can turn your file into wonderful art pieces, but we can't always solve file problems for you. This FAQ can help you avoid common mis-conceptions & problems to get the most out of our quality productions.
Of course, we always carefully check the files & info, so you may just need some basic understandings & be confident to our suggestions when problems are found.
| 1 |
What should I pay attention to, when choosing a file? |
| - |
Image resolution has to be sufficient. Attention: many mobile apps (e.g. whatsapp) will downsize photos by default. |
| - |
Print & file aspect-ratio must be the same. |
| - |
Subject or people (also logo & signature) shouldn't be too close to the edge, or part of them may be covered by the photo frame etc. |
| - |
Enlarge the image to “100% crop" to check for defects, e.g. blurring, excessive noise, sensor-dust or undesired facial expressions. |
| 2 |
How to know if a file has sufficient resolution? |
| - |
Unit of resolution is dpi – dot per inch. Resolution isn't always in direct proportion with file size, but jpg below 2MB is likely inadequate for large-size printing. |
| - |
E.g. If you want to print a photo at 30” width, and your file width is 4500px, print-resolution is 4500px / 30" =150dpi. |
| - |
It is usually good enough if image resolution reaches 120dpi, while 72dpi is the bottom-line. Higher is always better, and nothing can be done if file-resolution is too low. |
| - |
Large photos are meant to decorate a space, and view at some distances (unlike reading a book at 30cm), if you have a large wall to decorate, don't make the common mistake of choosing small size to favor very high-res. Consider bigger sizes to make the wall less empty, as long as resolution is still good enough. |
| - |
It is a common mistake to read the "resolution" straight-forward in Photoshop "image-size" dialog-box, WITHOUT adjusting document-size WHILE keeping the same pixel-dimensions. |
| - |
High-res doesn't always mean sharp, a high-res image can be blurry due to digital-zoom, camera-shake, out-of-focus, poor lens etc. Always enlarge the image to “100% crop" to check for defects. |
| - |
We don't recommend customers to sharpen their files as it's too easy to over-do it, we may do it for you in a subtle manner, if needed. |
| - |
It is length:height proportion of the image. |
| - |
E.g., if long-side / 3 x 2 = short-side, it is 3:2; if long-side / 4 x 3 = short-side, it is 4:3 |
| - |
It is 3:2 for 135-format, APS-C cameras; 4:3 for 120-format, 4/3 and most smartphone cameras. |
| - |
Print & file aspect-ratio must be the same, otherwise part of the image will disappear in the printout (red area shown below) |
| - |
If there's aspect-ratio mis-match we will give suggestion, but we can't crop photos for customers, as it will alter image composition, which is a matter of preference, or aesthetically uncroppable |
| - |
In most types of printing including some borderless photo printing, a few mm of the file-border won't appear on the print, this disappeared area is "bleeding-area". Professional designers & photographers must know this limitation and avoid placing important subjects near it. |
| - |
Our giclee-printing can print without "bleeding". But during framing, image-border will still be lost/not viewable because it is covered by the frame rabbet or passe-partout (or trimmed/folded away in some frameless-style products), we call it "frame-bleeding". |
| - |
Therefore, the viewable-size of a framed image is usually smaller than the original print-size. |
| - |
Placing important subject/ logo/ signature away from the border (lower-left) so that they won't be covered by the frame (orange border of the lower-right). |
| 5 |
Is the color/brightness of the print accurate? |
| - |
Giclee-printing is well-known for its wide color gamut and high color accuracy when the print-operator is an expert, and high-quality print-media is used, which is our case. |
| - |
But oversimplified speaking, most monitors aren't accurate, so that a color-accurate print-out may look different. Since monitors emit light and with high color-temperatures, color-accurate printouts mostly look darker and warmer. |
| - |
Generally speaking, if the brightness of an indoor-use monitor is set higher than 50%, very likely it is seriously too bright to be used as print-reference, it can also hurt your eyes. |
| - |
Monitor accuracy can be achieved by using a high-quality monitor & calibrating with a spectrophotometer in a PROFESSIONAL way. |
| - |
Color-management is very complicated knowledge, overlooking just one keypoint or without real experiences can cause misconception. Trust that we are PROFESSIONAL when we raise a problem. |
| - |
If we judge that the brightness of your image isn’t good enough, we will provide suggestions/ solutions. |
| - |
Special note for B&W photos: the color tone of B&W photos from different era/companies/printing machines/papers are likely different, this can be very apparent if displayed side-by-side. |
This is an oversimplified version of our FAQ, please find the more detailed versions HERE. |
