What is the best file format to shoot your digital photos with for large format printing?

Question

And then - what is the best way to print them? A home large-format printer? Or professionally? I'm an aspiring amateur.

Answer 1

The best format to shoot in - provided your camera gives you the option - is RAW. That has been called a 'digital negative'. JPEG is a 'lossy' format which means that each time you open it you can loose some of the digital information. That does not happen with RAW, but you will need to do quite a bit of work on the picture before saving as a TIFF - not a JPEG. And shots in RAW format do take up a lot of room on your card.

Answer 2

I assume by large format you mean up to 36 or 48 inches wide. You won't be able to afford a large-format printer, they are in the ten of thousands or dollars. But you can take your files to a service bureau for final output. Expect to pay a certain amount per inch. A print could cost you over a hundred dollars.

You need about a 7 to 9 megapixel camera and you need to keep it on its highest-quality setting. That will create files with high enough resoution not to be pixellated.

If you want to get started smaller, have 11x17 prints made that you can mount and sell. I wouldn't bother to frame them as they will not be archival quality and will eventually fade, so they would be suitable for decorating dorms and such, but you can make a little money that way.

Don't buy anything until you have learned all about image resolution: dpi, megapixels, how digital cameras work.

Answer 3

I would go with high-resolution jpegs - 300 dpi (or higher) will be excellent for printing large format at photo quality.

For price and quality, get them professionally printed. In the long run, it's actually cheaper than doing it yourself if you calculate the cost of photo paper, toner cartridges and the actual large-format photo printer!

Answer 4

The basic rule is that the larger you want to print then use the highest setting you can use to take the pictures on your particular camera.

I use a Canon printer to make working proofs.

When I want to go larger than 8x10, then I send them electronically. This is my favorite site for printing and framing:

http://www.pictureframes.com/scripts/WebObjects/PictureFrames.woa/wa/Print_Frame

Answer 5

photobooks... but 2000 is a huge number... try reducing it... to a manageable number... just one thing, HOW MANY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS DID YOU HAVE??? there are never 2000 photos really... there would have to be a team of 10 doing 200 each... and that would mean they were just shooting at random... no standard wedding would have that kind of arrangement... and even if they DID shoot 2000, you are looking at about max 30% useable... for whatever reason... and quite a few duplicates/triplicates...