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Need to print image for 5ft display

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theres126

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Hello-
I'm struggling with the math here, never having one of my photos printed so large before. Basically wondering if it's even possible to get there from "here".

My original (an hdr, if that matters) is 5847 x 3757 (original before slight crop was 5989 x 3996.

The museum who wants to use my photo, wants to print it at 5' wide. Is that possible? I'm not sure of the viewing distance since they haven't gotten back to me yet, but they said it would be on a wall.

When I asked them some questions, this is what they came back with:
Basically, we need the image in as big a file as you can manage. Preferably a .tif file. The resolution you are able to provide will drive the size of the final image. The bigger the better; the bigger file, the sharper it will be.

Can I get my original to print at that size and still look good? I'm new to printing large, so be gentle :) Or, can it only print at whatever 5847 is, scale-wise?

Thanks! And, they just told me they need the image today, so if you can help out, that'd be great!

Theresa
 
Theresa,

Here is a link I bookmarked a long time ago. There is a table down the page which gives you an estimate in PPI based on the distance from the viewer:
Resolution for print viewing distance

Good luck
 
Are you printing or is the museum? If they are printing, will they be using software, printing or otherwise, that upscales the resolution? If so, send them the file with native resolution. If in doubt, send the native file and a version that LR has upscaled and let them choose. You only have what you have, and anything beyond the native resolution is just created by software. Some programs do a better job than others, but without knowing the software, it is hard to say.

Congratulations and good luck,

--Ken
 
You can only give them an image as large as you have unless you want to export and upsize it. But then Lightroom has to create pixels to make the image larger. Sometimes that can impact sharpness of the image. It won't do you any good to change the resolution of the file. Regardless what the resolution setting is, the image will still have the same pixel dimensions. Today's high end printers are able to do remarkable things. So I would just export a 16 bit tiff image and submit it. Then let the gallery or what ever take the responsibility of printing the image.
 
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