Recommend high quality printing service and options

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I am looking into making a very high quality print of my mother and her dog and want it to be a bit special because it will be going on a wall and will be roughly A1 kind of size.

I`m confused by the number of companies and the amount of options of the various print types and finishes.

Can anyone recommend a company and what paper / finish to use that looks top notch ?

Also to prepare the file do i just need to edit the RAW file and save it as a JPEG and send them that as is.

I have a Sony A7R iii 42MP so would prefer a print type that can show the high resolution and detail.

Thanks in advance.
 
Glossy paper will more likely show more contrast and detail than a silk/lustre paper or matt. The colours in the image will also have a bearing as well as the tonal range (blacks through to whites)

Paper type is extremely subjective as is print quality, but if it's going behind glass, things like "feel" won't be such a big issue.

My suggestion would be to start with something like Loxley, DSCL, or Theprintspace and get them to do an A4 or 8x10 sample before you go all in on A1. If you print a section of the image rather than a scaled down version of the whole thing, you'll also get an idea of the detail that will be shown - although doing both is an option.

Edit the raw, and save as a jpeg - yep. If you know what paper it's getting printed on (and by what printer), you can download the icc profile to your computer and then edit the image to get a better idea of how it will look, but that's taking things a step further. If your sample comes back looking ok, you're done. But if the sample comes back looking off colour wise you can investigate ICC profiling. More often than not, if you get a sample back from a company that looks nice with no work, use them :)

Papers like Canson's Platine Fibre Rag and Hahnemuhle's Fine Art Baryta are gorgeous papers that feel and look superb, but they are expensive and I wouldn't recommend them without you at least having seen a print on that paper. It may be that you can't tell the difference between Fuji Crystal Archive and Canson Baryta, or that you prefer the glossy high contrast detail of the cheaper papers - in which case, why pay the extra? If it's going behind glass on the wall I'm not sure you'd see the benefit of it. (An open display though, like a box frame or float frame with no glass is a different story)

That's my tuppence!
 
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Glossy paper will more likely show more contrast and detail than a silk/lustre paper or matt. The colours in the image will also have a bearing as well as the tonal range (blacks through to whites)

Paper type is extremely subjective as is print quality, but if it's going behind glass, things like "feel" won't be such a big issue.

My suggestion would be to start with something like Loxley, DSCL, or Theprintspace and get them to do an A4 or 8x10 sample before you go all in on A1. If you print a section of the image rather than a scaled down version of the whole thing, you'll also get an idea of the detail that will be shown - although doing both is an option.

Edit the raw, and save as a jpeg - yep. If you know what paper it's getting printed on (and by what printer), you can download the icc profile to your computer and then edit the image to get a better idea of how it will look, but that's taking things a step further. If your sample comes back looking ok, you're done. But if the sample comes back looking off colour wise you can investigate ICC profiling. More often than not, if you get a sample back from a company that looks nice with no work, use them :)

Papers like Canson's Platine Fibre Rag and Hahnemuhle's Fine Art Baryta are gorgeous papers that feel and look superb, but they are expensive and I wouldn't recommend them without you at least having seen a print on that paper. It may be that you can't tell the difference between Fuji Crystal Archive and Canson Baryta, or that you prefer the glossy high contrast detail of the cheaper papers - in which case, why pay the extra? If it's going behind glass on the wall I'm not sure you'd see the benefit of it. (An open display though, like a box frame or float frame with no glass is a different story)

That's my tuppence!

Thanks for the advice, yes looking at prices it is worth getting some small prints done first because it would be a very expensive error to get a large print done that we were not happy with.
 
I would highly recommend https://www.tradecanvasprint.co.uk/ who are a sponsor on here and will give you a 10% discount at checkout by using the code TP10

There is a long thread here https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/trade-canvas-print-canvas-product-photos.382984/

They will do prints and canvas to any size you care to order (within their size limits of course) and will send you a set of small samples of all the paper print finishes they supply so you can see what the surfaces of the finished prints will look like.

D
 
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