Question:
Hi guys.
My partner is a bit of a whiz when it comes to PC's and has used a program to make a magic eye picture of his now deceased Dad using all his existing digital photos of him. I know he wanted to get it enlarged into a poster but didn't bother because of the cost and has now forgotton about it.
With Christmas around the corner and it really is a stunning picture, I was thinking of going one better and perhaps having the image enlarged onto canvas. I've had a quick look at prices and they seem to start at around £80.
Has anyone done this before or have any tips or recommendations for websites/companies that could help. I can use Photoshop if needed to tweek the photo so it enlarges OK. Or should I save my money and just get a poster in a nice frame? I don't know what to do
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Give these people a whirl... free A2 size print!!! They do a brilliant canvas print!
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Jessops now offer a good deal on to the 'wrap-round' canvas effect, they are using a seperate retailer to do the printing.
Go to and when you are registering/ordering use the discount code jessops001 for a 10% discount
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Haven't used this service myself yet, but they were recommended on a photography message board and I haven't seen anyone cheaper.
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Chorlton you are a STAR! I had this site as a favourite which got lost in some upgrade or other and I've been trying to track it down ever since...
Shhh.... don't tell the wife, but I'll be using them in the next week or 2 to print out some of our wedding pics... SUPER SIZE!
E.M.
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Anyone know what quality photo I would need to be taking to get an A2 size print?!?!
They recommend 300dpi so would my 6mp camera be capable of doing that?!?!?
Cheers
M
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There is a whole thread about the Epson freebie print and in the thread are all the details about what resolution you need and if you havent got a huge pixel count, how to increase it. Sorry I can't recall the thread, but if you do a search on Epson A2 or similar you should find it.
HTH.
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Anyone know what quality photo I would need to be taking to get an A2 size print?!?!
They recommend 300dpi so would my 6mp camera be capable of doing that?!?!?
Cheers
M
A 6mp camera will easily produce an A2 size file. You just need to work on your original file in a good photo-editing software to size it up accordingly to the neccesary print dimensions @ 300dpi. What you mainly have to remember is that the lab that you send it will probably not even look at the file prior to printing it out. They basically open the file and press print, relying on you the customer to have set the colour , density, print dimensions etc in advance.
Some labs in the high street work in a different manner if you were just taking your memory card in to get prints off directly from how your camera has taken them. The basic thought you have to have is that you treat your memory card as if it was a roll of film you are taking in to get printed. Their 'Kiosk' machine that you put your memory card into basically gives you the print size options that are available to print from the pixel size of the digital files that your camera has taken.
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The 300dpi resolution is a bit over egged for a A2 print, the larger the print the lower resolution you can get away with because people will stand that further away from it when viewing... (IE you never look at a billboard the way you look at a 5x7 print, if you did it'd just be coloured spots....)
But technically no its not good enough (you'd need a 33MP camera to produce a 16x23 inch file at 300dpi). But as windy and skippy say, a half decent photo editing package should be able to increase it by iterpolating (making a clever guess) the extra data.
Not sure if is covered in the recommended thread, but the last time I checked its better to increase the size a little and keep on repeating this small increase till you get to the size you want rather than go in 1 big step.
If you want some clear steps, drop a note here with which application you use and I'm sure one of us will have the same package to be able to give you some clear steps?
E.M.
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There is only one way to enlarge photos without loss
download the free trial and give it a go. By the way its called GENUINE FRACTALS by LIZARDTECH.
They only called it P.M.T because mad cow disease was taken.
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There is only one way to enlarge photos without loss
Naaah, there are plenty of these now (although it isn't really losing data, but I know what you mean), genuine fractals is just the most famous (and the full version is arguably the best professional tool for the job, but priced to match...)
There's plenty of others out there, a search for image interpolation should yield some nice ones.
I use from Fred Miranda which is quite snazzy and pretty easy to use.
As I say for the non pro there are techniques using photoshop to get 90% to the quality of the "extra cost" tools. Paintshop bicubic in small steps is a pretty smart way of upping the size.
Oh and to be absolutely clear NONE of them are perfect, how can they be? all they do is make smart guesses about the missing info, some are smarter than others but none of them can actually add TRUE resolution to your pics, only an approximation...
E.M.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I had a play with Photoshop last night and used the formula on Intelligence Direct to work out the biggest size my image could be enlarged to at a certain resolution in dpi.
I've sent off for the free Epson enlarge to see what it looks like, I hope it turns up as A2.
If it's any good I'll get a canvas done. Because it's a magic eye type picture I still don't know if it would look OK on canvas. I can't see there being a problem with a poster (if I've done my maths right) as Epson wanted a minimum of 180dpi at the finished size, where as Intelligence Direct are generally happy with 100dpi at the finished size.
Would anyone know if magic eye would work on canvas?
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I've never been able to 'see' a magic eye picture yet !!! Must be something wrong with me
I can't see why it shouldn't work just because its going onto canvas.
I hope you are successful with the finished canvas when you have it done.
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I have a feeling that "true" magic eye pics might not work on canvas. A little bit of the sharpness is lost due to the texture of the surface etc. but a photo mosiac should be fine (your dad-in law (kinda) might be a little softer, but it should be ok)
Super_star I can't verify the quality of this, btu a 2 minute google has showed up the following free software to create them...
Google "photo mosaic software" or something similar for some more choices....
E.M.
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I have a feeling that "true" magic eye pics might not work on canvas. A little bit of the sharpness is lost due to the texture of the surface etc. but a photo mosiac should be fine (your dad-in law (kinda) might be a little softer, but it should be ok)
Super_star I can't verify the quality of this, btu a 2 minute google has showed up the following free software to create them...
Google "photo mosaic software" or something similar for some more choices....
E.M.
I use this one...dead easy to use and free, (well, costs you a postcard!)
Answers:
Hi guys.
My partner is a bit of a whiz when it comes to PC's and has used a program to make a magic eye picture :
Hi
I would be very interested to try this magic eye program, is it a freebie and any idea where I can get it from?
Thanks