Prints look crappy

[lynweber]

So i printed some photos for a client and on screen it looked great but when it came back from the lab it was very grainy and ugly frankly. I am so embarrassed not sure what to tell them. But why would this happen. I took the picture in RAW developed it in Camera RAW then edited it in photoshop. Is there a magic number for how big the file should be? I always save it at the largest jpeg format. Insight?

[RLucas]

What size was the print?

Originally Posted by lynweber

So i printed some photos for a client and on screen it looked great but when it came back from the lab it was very grainy and ugly frankly. I am so embarrassed not sure what to tell them. But why would this happen. I took the picture in RAW developed it in Camera RAW then edited it in photoshop. Is there a magic number for how big the file should be? I always save it at the largest jpeg format. Insight?

Eleventy-bigillionty.

Or around that number.

~Eric

[TheDarkReaver]

Originally Posted by RLucas

What size was the print?

and what were the dimensions of the file.

[zona5101]

what size prints?
what was the resolution in PS?
What was the file size after conversion to jpg?

i am guessing it will be the dpi resolution set within PS.
I *think* the default value is 72 in PS and that might not be high enough depending on the print size.

[Photologyst]

Set at least 300 ppi in sRGB when you export. Ask your printer what they require.

[Skoropada]

Maybe I'm totally wrong, but isn't the DPI number a ratio between the actual pixels and the print size?

If that's so to print a 4" x 6" picture at 300 DPI you would need an image size of 1200 x 1800 pixels, and if you want to print a 20" x 30" picture at 300 DPI you would need an image size of 6000 x 9000 pixels.

I believe that the DPI setting on any file is just mere information, but doesn't affect the print quality. It's the total pixels that matter.

If I'm wrong, please, correct me.

[Photologyst]

It is ppi that you should be concerned about upon export, not dpi, which is a printer function. The print shops, depending on their printing method, will instruct as to what colour space and ppi they want to see. Most of the time, in my experience, it is 300 ppi and sRGB colour space.

[lynweber]

It was an 8x10 print file size is 13.0 mb, Dimensions are 2848x4288. My guess is when it was cropped in it just was to much. The file was underexposed when took and when adjusted in RAW perhaps that lost some pixels? I'm not sure. It was very frustrating.

Eric - I know there is no magic number but hey worth the humor.

[Eastree]

Originally Posted by Skoropada

I believe that the DPI setting on any file is just mere information, but doesn't affect the print quality. It's the total pixels that matter.

You're correct, even in this point. But a lot of software that I've used *also* has the option to scale an image by size rather than number of pixels. In this case, if the image is left at 72dpi, and it's sized to a 4x6 inch photo, well, you can guess xD It's why so many people mention setting the resolution to 300dpi even while editing, I'd guess.