How large can I go? First time making big prints...

Just an update to everyone who helped me think about this question: the prints are in transit and will arrive at the gallery today! Unfortunately, I won't get to see them until August (the gallery is in Del Rio, TX, and I am in IL) when I can visit in the summer, but the support folks at Mpix were very helpful. Someone even offered to make sure to check the prints personally before they were shipped, so I have high hopes. You all helped me to rethink my post-processing, to look more closely at the the lens I used (16-35mmL--a great lens, but yes, even with a crop sensor the corner details are little muddy), to take the scary step of learning *something* about file conversion (not enough!), and to put "learn how to calibrate your monitor" on my to-do list. Thank you.


I'll give you a real update when I see the prints in person. The true success here is that the images exist in the real world now, for good or for bad.


I don't yet know how to load images that are an appropriate size for this site, so I'll leave a couple of links below to my blog where you might see one or two of the images I chose for the show, as I think someone asked to see some of my images. Please remember I'm a newbie--this show is small and I am still learning what a good image looks like!


Again: thank you all!


http://ghostword.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_17.html


http://ghostword.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_03.html


http://ghostword.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_12.html

Gina those pictures are junk!





Oh no I meant...those pictures are pictures of junk [:P] Nice pictures, I think you have absolutely nothing to worry about, blowing these up to large format posters. I love the colors on your picture.


Your first picture would make a magnificent subject for an HDR photo I think, but I also like it this way.


What's the white rusty building next to it?


Good luck with your exposition Gina, I'm totally confident it will work out!


Jan





Ps: uploading a picture ain't that hard. While typing your picture you just click the Insert Media button and you upload a picture. Max 800pixels wide is preferred for this forum. You could also hyperlink to your pictures elsewhere on the interweb. Good luck

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Originally Posted by Sheiky

Gina those pictures are junk!



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I was quite ready to believe you!!

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Originally Posted by Sheiky

Oh no I meant...those pictures are pictures of junk [img]/emoticons/emotion-4.gif[/img] Nice pictures, I think you have absolutely nothing to worry about, blowing these up to large format posters. I love the colors on your picture.


Your first picture would make a magnificent subject for an HDR photo I think, but I also like it this way.


What's the white rusty building next to it?


Good luck with your exposition Gina, I'm totally confident it will work out!


Jan
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The "white rusty building" is a trailer behind the truck. These photos were taken at a sprawling 20-some acre recycling yard, so there are many mysteries in the backgrounds. As for HDR photography: I haven't the slightest idea how to make images that way. I don't use or own Photoshop--I'm relying entirely on Canon's DPP. It's called baby-stepping!


The gallery owner called last night to say that the images arrived and that they look great, so I'm feeling happy and excited. Thanks for your vote of confidence. I needed that yesterday a bunch.


(I like the colors in these images too! --Thanks.)

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Originally Posted by Gina Franco

I was quite ready to believe you!!

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Sorry if I scared you [A]


I understand about the small area. That makes it hard to do a good shot, so in that case, you couldn't have done it any better!


About HDR...I've made a little comment on the following thread:http://community.the-digital-picture.com/forums/p/3132/25710.aspx#25710


&Iacute; just try to explain the basics of HDR there. Hope you could learn a bit from it. You could download a program like photomatix and use the free trial period. It's not even that expensive to buy. But first you could try out some shots.


With the car you could make the shadows more detailed and maybe even create a little more dramatic colors. If you like that of course.

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Originally Posted by Gina Franco

(I like the colors in these images too! --Thanks.)

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No thanks for that, you made the picture! [:D][Y]

http://community.the-digital-picture.com/forums/p/3132/25710.aspx#25710


THIS link to your thread on HDR is incredibly helpful. Thank you. Your sample images explain a great deal. It reminds me a lot of how strange and beautiful--and artificial--a print that has been made with a lot of dodging and burning in the darkroom can look. I don't know if you can achieve the equivalent of darkroom dodging and burning in Photoshop, somehow (as again, I only own and use DPP), but I know I'm always pointing the camera at high contrast light situations and I do miss being able to burn-in the highlight detail from a negative in order to preserve the detail in the shadows.

Thank you Gina. It was just a test-HDR of some pictures I had left. Maybe I'll post a better version some time. Pictures at that thread aren't really aligned good etc. But I'm glad that you got the idea now. Point is...you could also use the auto lighting optimizer in your camera, which does about the same, but with the cost of loss of detail. So I always turn it off and when I want more dynamic range, I'll just grab my tripod. By the way, it is a good option if you don't have a lot of time and want to take a fast picture. But you can do most of it during post-processing as well. ...if not all of it.


You could also make a HDR with only 1 image, but quality suffers from it. And yes you could do a lot with photoshop and lightroom etc, but you'll never get a high-resolution photo with all detail that is present in a good taken HDR image.


Have fun!