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Camera Equipment

Tips for Photographers

How to get the best photo prints

Whether you are shooting on an iPhone or a Hasselblad or anything in between, here are some tips to get the best quality prints. As with all of our tips pages, these are just suggestions and we can usually work around anything.

Resolution

Unlike most online print shops, we do not limit the resolution or size of files you can send us - so please send the file in its original full resolution. Even if it seems like overkill for the size you are printing.

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If your files are lower resolution - don't artificially upscale them before sending unless you are using advanced upscaling tools like Topaz Labs Gigapixel AI which often gets much better results than upscaling in Photoshop. If you send us a file that is too low of resolution for the size you would like to print, we will try this and a couple other upscaling methods to determine which one will get the cleanest prints.

Color Space

Process your image in 16-bit in a larger color space, such as ProPhoto, Adobe RGB, or even CIELAB. Adobe apps tend to default to the smaller 8-bit sRGB color space, but you are losing out on some of the wide range of our printers if you stick to that.

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Note for printing nerds that send us files in CIELAB: by default, we will convert them to 16-bit ProPhoto before printing using Relative Colorimetric rendering intent with Black Point Compensation disabled.

Analog

We can digitize film negatives and slides, if that is your preferred medium. Note that we cannot develop negatives, but once they are developed we can digitize them, no matter the size or format.

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For this process, we use the same camera and lens that we use for most artwork digitization, along with the pixl-latr system to create high resolution digital negatives with excellent dynamic range and all the flexibility of a RAW file.

File Format

Its usually best to send us files in the native format of your editing application, such as Photoshop or Affinity Photo. Next to that, its usually best to export a 16-bit uncompressed TIFF in a wide-gamut color space, such as ProPhoto or Adobe RGB.  If you choose to export as a JEPG, please set the Quality to 100%

Noise and Sharpness

Especially for larger prints, digital noise and lack of sharpness in the original images can become more apparent. By default we check all photos for possible issues with these areas, and if needed we will run them through Topaz Labs suite of programs.

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