Published and an enlargement conundrum

andy1868

andy1868

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Andy
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Hello film shooting friends,

As the story goes, this month i had a photo published in Lancashire Life magazine. This was a big deal for me as i've never felt my pictures have been very good, so it was nice to get some recognition :) I had entered it into a competition and they'd printed it as "one of the best entries so far" kind of thing, which was nice. The grand prize is £5000 which will do nicely!

Now my problem is that my grandma has seen it printed and would like it enlarged to go on her wall. She never said how big but she demonstrated with her arms and it was A3, perhaps even bigger. My problem is that the JPEG i have of it is only 1908 x 1272, how much better off will i be getting it enlarged from the negative as opposed to getting the JPEG printed? my other issue is where would i get such a service from? i've tried ringing my local wilkinson camera shop but it seems to be constantly off the hook :shake: i can try later on again or perhaps pop into store. are there any that anyone can recommend?

all help is appreciated, i've never done any of this before so any guidance would be just splendid :)

and last but not least, the photo itself :)

4887785887_205e76b563_z.jpg
 
Well - i'd give these guy's a shout... my local pro. lab. - will be able to either do a proper traditional print for you, or re-scan the negs on a pro. quality scanner (Imacon 949 iirc) and output digital stylee...

Not cheap - but hey, it's your Grandma, here... surely she's worth it :)
 
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If it's 35mm I think you might not be happy with an enlargement to A3 size. I think that's about 16x12 and from what I've read you'll be pushing the resolution of 35mm at that point (depending on how close you want to stand to the print of course).

I think you might be better off with a high resolution scan up to 4000dpi and print it digitally.
 
andy1868 said:
She never said how big but she demonstrated with her arms and it was A3, perhaps even bigger. My problem is that the JPEG i have of it is only 1908 x 1272
Click to expand...

That works out at roughly 115 dpi. It's a bit on the low side for a large-ish print.

Rather depends what distance you're going to be viewing it from. It may be acceptable for A3 at most viewing distances (i.e. several feet). Close up may look a little ropey though. 300 dpi would be recommended for getting up close and personal at a distance of 6".

Then again, if she's your grandma (and anything like my parents who are in their mid 70s) looking at it from a distance of six inches may be a little beyond her faculties by now :)
 
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As above I think, go for the hi-res negative scan and digital print.
 
At 16"x12" remember that you will have some cropping of the sides as its got a 1.33:1 aspect ratio and the film itself has a 1.50:1 ratio. What about 15"x10"? That has no cropping and is only slightly smaller than A3 and from a couple of enlargements I've had to that the grain is not massive or anything although I was shooting on ISO 100 film. Looked pretty good actually.
 
depends on how good her eye sight is !

12x16 from 35mm should be no problem.

I dont know if they do from film, but DS colour labs print A3 for £1.05 from a digital file. worth a try from the jpeg you have for a quid plus post (y)
 
splendid! thanks for the replies chaps. tbh i think she was looking at something alittle bigger than A3 even, so perhaps i'll have to sacrifice some quality for her but there you go :) i'll get a good scan and get it printed digitally i reckon :)
 
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