I'm shooting the town for a project at work. They are going to print these as 11x14 and 16x20 enlargements on canvas. I rarely print big enlargements and never canvas. Won't have a chance to do test prints. Using Photoshop Elements what sharpening settings should I use for decent results? These photos will be of places and things - not people.
Equipment used is the Pentax 645Z medium format camera with Pentax lenses. The printer is an Epson large format printer with integrated stand.
Thanks,
barondla
Agree. Use a carbon fiber Feisol with Arca Swiss Monoball for the majority of my shots. It can also help lock down composition. Composition is another place that canvas printing messes with my mind. Have to allow enough image for the wrapped edges.
Thanks,
barondla
You're probably going to get angry at my response. I'm not being critical. Just realistic. I've done the kind of printing you're describing for a living for a long time.
Your question is like, "I'm going to jump out of a 3 story window and land on concrete. I'm want my appearance to be optimal. What technique should I use for pressing my trousers? I'll be using a toy iron to do that."
Absurd expectations, all around. No?
You're going to use a digital MF camera and quality lenses, lock the camera down on an expensive tripod to prevent camera shake and optimize composition. But you're going to use Photoshop Elements to process and output the images, not knowing anything about sharpening, having no familiarity with the printing environment, "won't have a chance to do test prints,"
Call me crazy, but I assume you don't have an ICC profile for the canvas media you're printing to. Do you know what an ICC printing profile is or does? How to use it for printing? Does Elements even accept ICC profiles? (I've worked in Photoshop since 1990, but have never even seen Elements in action, let alone use it.)
And these will be large prints, right out of the gate! No pressure there at all.
You're shooting blindly at a target that may or may not even be in the same universe with you.
If you're insistent on going ahead. Forget sharpening. It won't make an iota of difference, given the parameters you've described. Just plunge ahead.
If I haven't scared you away, I'd be glad to give you concise instructions about at least getting some kind of decent results.
And, yes, you do have to make test prints. If that's really off the table, anything you do will be a crap shoot. You may get lucky. What do I know?
AI says the term is "mesh count" and quotes 36-48 TPI for fine work. So my guess is that a) the prints do not need to be done at large PPIs and b) any sharpening would be best done at the image pixel equivalent of said fine canvas, although I'm not sure that sharpening is needed for canvas print work. Others here should know better than I.
I think that the key words here are "they" are going to print, and if they will be printing on "canvas" which normally has a texture (which tends to look good with unsharpened images and tends to counter any impression of softness anyway) then I wouldn't sharpen at all really past the default settings when opening the raw file. If those sizes are in inches then they are not that big, A3 and A2 really.
You should really ask the guys doing the printing, pretty sure they will be doing it from something like PS anyway, so will probably colour balance and tune the sharpening themselves.
Not angry. Appreciate the info. I need to add some details to my original post. My photos will be printed by a consumer photo lab. Their printer has been set up/calibrated by FujiFilm USA. The lab equipment is supplied and integrated by FujiFilm. The lab is calibrated for Ultra Vivid Canvas and the satin paper I normally use.
My normal post processing uses the Pentax supplied SilkyPix software to convert the Raw files and make corrections. Then a quick run through Elements for sharpening. SilkyPix Raw conversion looks better to me. Photoshop Elements struggles with Pentax reds. I prefer resizing and sharpening in Elements.
My sharpening question was mostly about switching from very sharp Satin paper to the Ultra Vivid Canvas. Canvas looks softer and I was wondering if people normally use more sharpening with it. Test prints are problematic. The printer is only set to do 11x14 and 16x20 canvas, since that is the only sizes canvas hardware is offered in. I might get away with a couple of 11x14 test prints.
I'm doing this as a favor, no money involved. @Rich42 I'm interested in any thoughts and help you want to give.
Thanks,
barondla
Sorry for being a little acerbic with my previous response.
But you're describing a chaotic situation in which you have little control of the output and you're focusing on controlling one image attribute, sharpening, which will have little to no effect on perceived quality, compared with other factors, especially printing to canvas.
It's like saying you've been invited to play violin with an orchestra, you'll have no opportunity to practice with them, you'll be playing an instrument you've never seen or held before, will have no opportunity to tune the violin before the performance, but want to know what brand of rosin to use on the strings to make sure the notes sound the best they can.
And surprise, surprise, this "is a favor, no money involved," implying that using techniques and skills that assure quality results are now a nuisance.
Use whatever software the lab advises. Hope that there's a profile in there that actually translates from the color space of your image files to the canvas substrate/ink combination. Sharpening is not going to be a factor printing to canvas from files such as you're anticipating using. Apply some sharpening or none at all. It won't really matter.
The link to the Fujifilm canvas printing medium gives the thickness as 19 mils (thousands of an inch).
If and only if the mesh size is about the same then it is about 50 TPI. From that, knowledgeable folks should be able to determine an optimum ppi and, from that, whether sharpening is necessary or not.
There is no absolute or mathematical relationship, it's a perceptual relationship at best.
"Sharpening" is an illusion, it's little more that boosted acutance or local contrast across boundaries. Textured paper adds to the effect. The actual acutance of the object itself (water drops on polished cars/small ripples on smooth water) along with our expectation as a viewer based on memory of how sharp we expect the object to be are both equally as important to the overall effect. This is also why photographers tend to over sharpen, because they have an expectation of how good they believe their kit is and need to see that reflected in the photos as a metric they understand.
But it is really just illusion, boosted acutance, or the local contrast between boundaries. You can create a super sharp A1 print with a 2mp camera if you choose the correct subject, and equally fail with a 48mp camera by not understanding it. As long as the PPI of the file is above 150-200 then the print driver/software has enough info to interpolate the info into the pattern for spraying the actual coloured ink onto the paper without really "losing" anything.
