Good settings for D7i large portrait print?

I am an amateur photographer with a D7i and an Epson 1270 photo printer. I would like to send a really nice looking portrait shot of myself and my ladyfriend to my dad. I want to print it on 13" X 19" matte heavyweight paper.

Now I’m trying to decide what settings I should choose on my 7i for best results (of course, no settings can make up for my own ugliness ;-). I’ll use my tripod, Portrait mode, RAW and the self-timer.

I don’t have an external flash. For lighting, I’ll use the red-eye reduction setting on the pop-up flash, and my 500W halogen torch pointed at the ceiling for indirect light. I will run the files thru the DimageViewer, and then use Paint Shop Pro for retouching if needed.

Any additional suggestions will be appreciated.

Hi.

Remember to "grow" the photo to at least 30 MB. before printing. Otherwise, its going to look pixelated. To do a "perfect" 13 X 19, you need something like 63 MB, and you only have 14. So you have to make up the rest.
ERA

Gerhard Winkler said:

I am an amateur photographer with a D7i and an Epson 1270 photo
printer. I would like to send a really nice looking portrait shot
of myself and my ladyfriend to my dad. I want to print it on 13" X
19" matte heavyweight paper.

Now I’m trying to decide what settings I should choose on my
7i for best results (of course, no settings can make up for my own
ugliness ;-). I’ll use my tripod, Portrait mode, RAW and the
self-timer.

I don’t have an external flash. For lighting, I’ll use
the red-eye reduction setting on the pop-up flash, and my 500W
halogen torch pointed at the ceiling for indirect light. I will run
the files thru the DimageViewer, and then use Paint Shop Pro for
retouching if needed.

Any additional suggestions will be appreciated.

Click to expand...

--
Eduardo.

E R A 2 0 0 0 said:

Gerhard Winkler said:

I would like to send a really nice looking portrait shot
of myself and my ladyfriend to my dad. I want to print it on 13" X
19" matte heavyweight paper.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

First and foremost you will want the highest quality image you can get because any flaws with the image will be magnified. You might try for a 11X14 with this first attempt, the 5MP image will look better at this size rather than scaling it up to something larger.

So consider the following.

• No compression: Shoot in RAW mode or with no compression. This can avoid subtle artifacts or minor distortions especially around the edges of objects. Normally not an issue with smaller prints but more critical for "blown up images".
• Shoot at your lowest ISO setting.
• Lighting and Focus: Be sure you get a well composed image with proper lighting and focus. There is no substitute for a nicely captured image. Digital cameras can be less forgiving in shadows. A properly lighted subject will minimize dithering common in shadows. Use bracketing.
• Digital Editing: Use your digital tools sparingly to adjust the image to be ideal at the targeted print size. (Keep in mind that you will likely want greater than 200 dpi for a high resolution portrait. I print between 200 and 250 on Matte) For example enlarge the image, then do your sharpening. The pros make only subtle adjustments.
• There are some special tools that can enlarge an image that minimizes pixelation. You may want to look into these tools for future projects. An example of one is Genuine Fractals, I believe you can download a demo version.
• The printer and paper makes a big difference in the output. Color on the printout will rarely be exactly the same as what you see on your screen. I'm sure you're familiar with this already.
• You might also consider getting a print made by an on-line service. Comparing this to your own printout can help you decide how what to use with future projects considered critical.

Tom

Eduardo,
Thanks for replying.

To check, I converted 2 RAW files to TIFF using Dimage Viewer and they came out at 28MB.

Then I openend them in PSP and went to Image-> Resize. Their physical size was about 35 X 26 inches which is more than 4 times as large as I will print. So to me it looks like they should be more than large enough. But that does not necessarily mean they will be of great quality.

So to err on the safe side, when it's time to print my portrait shots, I will do this:
a) resize to approx. 19 X 13

b) print a section of that image (a face) on 8 X 10 matte paper to check the quality, and
c) if that looks OK, I will print the big one after that.

I will post here again with the results.

Eduardo de Regules said:

Hi.
Remember to "grow" the photo to at least 30 MB. before printing.
Otherwise, its going to look pixelated. To do a "perfect" 13 X 19,
you need something like 63 MB, and you only have 14. So you have to
make up the rest.
ERA

Click to expand...

Gerhard Winkler wrote:
.

Gerhard Winkler said:

Now I’m trying to decide what settings I should choose on my
7i for best results (of course, no settings can make up for my own
ugliness ;-).

Click to expand...

Leave the cap on : hey ! I'm just trying to help !

And I understand : I had to photograph myself for a pass. I chose the morning, when my eye were still sealed.

Gerhard Winkler said:

I’ll use my tripod

Click to expand...

of course

, Portrait mode

if you must but there a number of things that it won't do for you so... for exemple it will put a blur on the whole photograph by setting the sharpness to 'soft'. This result in a loss of information that won't help when you go in photoshop and try to add some softness using a little more intelligence.

, RAW
Why not...

and the

Gerhard Winkler said:

self-timer.

Click to expand...

Too bad : few people can stay natural for 10 seconds. Try to find someone to press the trigger once you've set up the camera like you want, someone with whom you feel comfortable, better someone that you like. I mean : you'll be dressed, right ?

Gerhard Winkler said:

I don’t have an external flash. For lighting, I’ll use
the red-eye reduction setting on the pop-up flash, and my 500W
halogen torch pointed at the ceiling for indirect light.

Click to expand...

You will be mixing two color temperature. It might happen that the auto white balance will get it right but it usually has trouble with extremes. So you may need to set a custom WB with the help of something white sitting where you both will later. Better still, use the light of an overcast day, when it's not too windy, outside.

Gerhard Winkler said:

I will run
the files thru the DimageViewer, and then use Paint Shop Pro for
retouching if needed.

Click to expand...

I find the digital accuracy extremely hard for us. I mean, I've seen portraits of awfully beautiful young girls made with 5Mp and worse the new 6Mp DSLR and every flaw, every pit, black head, cracked theeth... you can't imagine how much we're all unperfect until you've seen that. So, don't be surprised if you do need Photoshop, many wise selections and all kinds of blur to let only your souls show though in the end.

Gerhard Winkler said:

Any additional suggestions will be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Use the longest zoon you can, up to 150 although 105 is pretty traditionnal.

Depth of field being an ever present problem with digicam of these times, do your best but you may need PhotoShop there too, with a selection of the background that you'll feather a little an then blur a little more.

Others gave you excellent advice.

Most of all. Be happy.

Regards.
--
Jean

Hallo Gerhard,

The image size in PSP is that large, because the default resolution is set to 72 dpi. This resolution is ok for CRT display but is far too low to get a good print. Therefore never change the image size by changing the width and height settings in the Resize dialog box (PSP will just throw away valuable info and the reolution will remain 72 dpi). Always increase the resolution to at least 150 and preferably 200 dpi. This way all the image information is used, just compressed in a smaller image, this way decreasing your image size and increasing your image quality. Try to decrease the image size both ways and compare the results, this will convince you, I am sure.

Good luck!

Herman

Gerhard Winkler said:

To check, I converted 2 RAW files to TIFF using Dimage Viewer and
they came out at 28MB.

Then I openend them in PSP and went to Image-> Resize. Their
physical size was about 35 X 26 inches which is more than 4 times
as large as I will print. So to me it looks like they should be
more than large enough. But that does not necessarily mean they
will be of great quality.

So to err on the safe side, when it's time to print my portrait
shots, I will do this:
a) resize to approx. 19 X 13
b) print a section of that image (a face) on 8 X 10 matte paper to
check the quality, and
c) if that looks OK, I will print the big one after that.

I will post here again with the results.

Eduardo de Regules said:

Hi.
Remember to "grow" the photo to at least 30 MB. before printing.
Otherwise, its going to look pixelated. To do a "perfect" 13 X 19,
you need something like 63 MB, and you only have 14. So you have to
make up the rest.
ERA

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Gerhard Winkler said:

I am an amateur photographer with a D7i and an Epson 1270 photo
printer. I would like to send a really nice looking portrait shot
of myself and my ladyfriend to my dad. I want to print it on 13" X
19" matte heavyweight paper.

Now I’m trying to decide what settings I should choose on my
7i for best results (of course, no settings can make up for my own
ugliness ;-). I’ll use my tripod, Portrait mode, RAW and the
self-timer.

I don’t have an external flash. For lighting, I’ll use
the red-eye reduction setting on the pop-up flash, and my 500W
halogen torch pointed at the ceiling for indirect light. I will run
the files thru the DimageViewer, and then use Paint Shop Pro for
retouching if needed.

Click to expand...

Hm. I see a couple of potential problems with that setup. For one thing, mixing halogen and flash will give you serious white balance problems, as halogen is a good deal warmer than the flash. Also, using the built-in flash will result in slightly uneven and somewhat boring lighting. In your place, I'd forget the halogen and flash altogether.

Here's what I would do.

• Pick a hazy late afternoon, or a sunny day an hour or so before sunset.
• Pick a nice, outdoor location, with a pleasantly colored but fairly uniform background: greenery, the sea, a wall of rock, a weathered building wall... whatever looks nice and fits the mood you want. Take a look at it during the time you want the picture: ideally, the light should be coming somewhat from the side. The background should be a fairly long way behind the subjects, not right close up -- unless you're using e.g. the weathered wall, where you want the texture of the wall making up a part of the picture. Then dress in colors that'll complement the background. For example, if you have a weathered wall with tans, pinks, and rust-colored areas, blue or cool green clothes will work well.
• Pack a reflector: any large white object will do. You might even have something like that on location. A sheet stretched up on something is perfect.
• Set up the reflector so it catches the sunlight and reflects it back towards where you'll be standing or sitting. This will fill in the shadows.
• White balance manually. IMO this is better than using RAW and white balancing out-of-camera.
• Shoot about 50 to 100 frames carefully off your tripod, varying camera position, pose, and expression. I'd use A mode, medium to long tele focal lengths (85--200 mm equiv.) and a large aperture (except if I wanted the background sharp as well, in which case I'd use a small one).

Personally, I'd use JPG Fine instead of RAW, because I only have 512 MB total in CF, and I find the longer write times in RAW distracting. If you expose and white balance carefully in-camera, there's very little benefit in using RAW.

IMHO natural light portraits are generally much nicer than flash ones. They're a lot more work to do, though, and the conditions are to a degree beyond the photographer's control; that's why most portraits you see are made in the studio.

Petteri
--
http://homepage.mac.com/psulonen/

Thanks all for the great and useful advice you have given me. I guess there’s a lot to consider and to learn.

I live in sunny Southern California, and at this time of the year there aren’t a lot of overcast days. So I think I’ll produce two sets of shots: one indoors, and one outdoors in the late afternoon/early evening hours. I will make sure there is plenty of indirect light, then set the zoom to 100-150 and calibrate white balance before I shoot. I may try Portrait and Aperture priority, and maybe some bracketing with color and exposure – now I wish I had bought the longer remote control cord instead of the short one. Darn. Maybe I can talk my neighbor’s son into pushing the button.

Then I’ll use the best looking ones, save them at 120-150 dpi (that’s the best I can do if I want to stay with the large size print I have in mind) and run a test printout on 8 X 11 to see the quality at that level – trying not to waste too much of that expensive ink. The trick with changing the dpi was completely new to me and I’m sure will come in handy.

I will post again after I have finished. This forum is a great place to exchange ideas and I appreciate all your time and effort.

Gerhard Winkler said:

Then I’ll use the best looking ones, save them at 120-150 dpi
(that’s the best I can do if I want to stay with the large
size print I have in mind) and run a test printout on 8 X 11 to see

Click to expand...

Printing 2560 / 11 = around 230 pi/inch.

Anyway, dpi have nothing to do with printing these days. All printers will resize your images and they will do it very well. Just use a good layout program to make sure that your image prints the right size and where you want it and let the printer bother with dpi, lpi and the likes.

--
Jean

on another note,

I'm sure your Dad loves you, but does he really want a 13"x 19" photo?

He would probably be just as happy with an 8"x10" and it would be easier to frame.

And as someone else pointed out, almost every flaw will be distinct. Your lady friend might not appreciate this.