All my pictures are becoming blurry when converted to TIFF files from CR2s. The prints from the images are blurry as well. I called the print shop and they recommended a minimum of 350 or 360 DPI, but cannot give a clear answer. This is the third time attempting to print pictures but the result is usually the same. For example; a sharp RAW image (100% zoom on 26" wide-screen), 5:4 crop at 2036 x 2545 pixels is converted to a 254 DPI image at 2032 x 2540 pixel 8-bit TIFF. It is scaled to fit a 10" x 8" print with no enlargement or pixel stretching. The result, a blurry mess unfit for print. Another try; 2036 x 2545 pixels converted to a 350 DPI image at 2800 x 3500 pixel 8-bit TIFF scaled for a 10" x 8" print. Still blurry and the fine lines at 100% zoom are fuzzy and indistinct. What should I do and why is this happening? Sometimes they come out sharp if the output resolution is less than or equal to the native cropped size. The camera equipment is used properly but converting RAWs into TIFFs for printing is the problem. DPP thinks DPI (Dots-per-inch) and PPI (pixels-per-inch) are interchangeable when the file output size is determined. I tested it with a few pictures and a higher DPI results in larger print output even if the image size is less than the print. Canon should read this the next time they write programs. Programs used: Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) 3.4.0.0 and Gimp 2.6
Is there a question in there? or is this a rant? edit: sorry, this reason is you are saving to an 8-bit tiff, then resizing. Try this, crop to 5:4. save to a jpg at the highest setting and do nothing else. got to the printer and order an 8x10 print.
The original 2036 x 2545 pixel picture with no resizing will be sent back to the print shop. If the aspect ratio is correct then the DPI settings on their computers shouldn't matter. Thank you for the help Jumeira_Johnny, the results of the test print will be posted later and hopefully it will be just as sharp as the source file.
The new prints are done and theirs no improvement at all. Anyone know any good books on making professional prints? I really need to stop trying and start thinking about why this is happening.
I would do this, should solve a lot of problems your running into. Set to 2400 x 3000 pixels at 300 dpi . Be sure to set your DPI before you change your WxH or it will change your desired output WxH. Do this from the RAW file in DPP, or to save a headache crop it in DPP to 10x8 then do the above. Hope that helps
If your shooting RAW, your dpi should already be 300. Why are you messing with it? Just crop and send it out.
Digital Photo Professional mislabels the DPI as PPI. Down-scaling and up-scaling the "DPI" does not fix the problem either, it creates more confusion. Their is no scaling options either so it must be linear. The real DPI is hidden somewhere else in the program but the menus don't show it. The problem is my software is limiting my ability to edit files without manually figuring out the entire project on a graphing calculator. Right now the last thing I want to see is another print and will not be making any more for a long time. Thanks for the help everyone but I don't want to pursue this anymore until things calm down a little.
Do you have Photoshop at your disposal? Otherwise perhaps try with the GIMP and see if you can set the DPI... Why TIFF? If anything you should take the images from RAW into Photoshop go to image size and set the DPI to 360 (and not mind the size just let it auto-calculate the resulting size). And then save it out as a highest quality JPG. This should be doable in the GIMP as well... If the printers says they print at 360dpi then try to match that. The crucial part is always to try to match their printing DPI at an interval that doesn't create interference. Meaning that if you match it 1:1 then it should be tack sharp... But honestly I can't see why this should give you such qualms... I would try another print shop in a case like this. Edit: I'm not even sure I understand your question...?! Is it DPP that outputs tiffs that are blurry on your screen? In such case throw away DPP. Or stay clear of TIFF and see if it does JPG better. Or is it the print shop that does it wrong? Then try another one (with a JPG )
erm What exactly are you expecting? You are obviously resizing the image beyond its captured pixel depth, therefore loosing quality... and you expect a good quality print? its like resizing a 100x100(pixels) image off google to 10000x10000(pixels) to be printed on an A1 sheet and expecting to be able to see clean crisp details. Your just going to end up with a complete mess of sludge. You can either print smaller; 2036 x 2545 works out to be 6.7 inches by 8.4 inches at 300dpi, or try some colour half toning to counter the low resolution. so basically - printers print 300 pixels for every inch for optimum quality, so in order to print at 10x8 inches you need an image that is at least 2400 pixels by 3000 pixels, anything lower and it will be stretched...
To be clear, are you using the crop tool in DPP, then using DPP to convert the file to an 8-bit tiff? Or are you converting the image to an 8-bit tiff, then cropping and resizing in GIMP? If you are cropping, then converting in DPP, you can set the image to 8x10, 300dpi during the conversion. Feel free to convert to jpg or tiff, it shouldn't matter. There is no need to throw away DPP, as OleJ suggested. I've converted a great many raw images using DPP, and I've never had a print suddenly go blurry. The print shop suggested 350dpi because there is some thought that 300-350dpi is the minimum resolution to get a quality print, for a certain definition of quality. Personally, I think there are a number of other factors that come into play, and I personally have made 16x20 prints using 72dpi jpgs. To be honest, the lab should be able to print a decent 8x10 with 150dpi, never mind 350. Can you post any screen shots of your process - the raw in DPP, the resulting file, etc.? I'm curious how much cropping you're doing, and how much of the image is being re-sized. Also, just out of curiosity, what camera are you using? -monkey
I'd actually say that generally anything over 300dpi is overkill really, unless you're inspecting it very closely most people won't notice much if any difference once you hit that level of quality. As supermonkey alluded to, 150dpi will give fine quality prints in most situations. If it's a normal photo printing shop that is doing the prints for you then you shouldn't be messing around with the dpi of the files you send them anyway really. Just send it at the original resolution and they will scale it to fit the size of print you've asked for. The dpi might end up as 283, or 348, or any other number within a reasonable range, but their printer will cope with this just fine and you'll get far better quality prints than trying to send them a file with "the right dpi".
