Canvas prints, but low res image...any tips?

[rbowie]

As I am sure many of you are accustomed, I've been asked to do an assignment and have not been given adequate resources. Someone wants a series of canvas banners (more like tapestries, very midieval) and has provided me with a powerpoint file that contains the images they want to use. Of course, they pulled imaged off of the internet and fixed them in the powerpoint file, and, of course, I have to pull all of those image back OUT of powerpoint, so I'm losing resolution left and right. They end up as letter sized images at about 100 dpi. This part is understood by the customer, but I thought I would let you know what I'm working with.

My solution is to bring the images into Photoshop and play around with some of the settings/filters/adjustments to help with the resolution issues. This will be printed on large format canvas material, so I already don't have to worry about sharp resolution on the final product, but still, I have a big resolution gap that I'm trying to bridge.

I'm just now starting the project today and I wondered if anyone has any experience with this particular kind of task. I assume I will be able to apply a watercolor filter, possibly add some texture and adjust some of the colors, shadows and highlights to make the photos appear more like impressionistic paintings.

The catch: I'm an in-house designer. This isn't an issue where I get to charge more, or refuse the job or anything like that. Gotta make it work.

Any warnings, tips or suggestions?
Much appreciated.

[PrintDriver]

1. Pulling images off the internet begs the question of copyright infringement.
2. You didn't say how large the images were going but a 72dpi image pulled from the Net is not going to go very big at all.
3. Assume all you want about the filters, the reality is you are working with very small images. Anything you do with a filter then needs to be blown up to final scale. Even if you succeed in removing the pixelization that is going to happen, you won't be able to make the details small enough to make sense at a larger scale, unless the piece is viewed at some distance.
4. Large format canvas material, again, depending on the size, can be very sharp imagery. DO NOT rely on what you think is a trade off in canvas over paper. For example an HP printing Dye Sublimation to a canvas material is capable of 720 ink drops per inch (or more). A 16' wide UV printer printing on a slightly coated canvas stock can be as high as 600 drops of ink per inch. That's mighty sharp, even on a texture like canvas.
5. You need to print out sections of the images and explain to the person that what they gave you is unacceptable for the size they want and that more serious consideration should be given to image sourcing.
6. If I were a freelancer handed this, I'd hand it back. Seriously. There are legitimate higher resolution sources for 'tapestry' imagery.

[Typically]

PD knocking it out of the park

[hank_scorpio]

Yeh great summary - better than the 50 page essay I was writing up!

[PrintDriver]

It's a phone call I have to make at least weekly.
;)

[rbowie]

PDriver, I hear you loud and clear.

I didn't know that the canvas could handle that high of a resolution. I have printed on the canvas before, and was surprised at how sharp the image was. That's good to know.

As for the image size, I will be blowing up the images before I do any work on them. I realize that if I were to make any adjustments at their current size, dimensions and resolution, all my work would go out the window when I print at a larger size.

As for that larger size, we're talking something like 36" x 48". Not enormous, but plenty large enough to reveal the resolution issues...not to mention large enough to look like dog sh*t!

I have already told the customer about the size thing, and I guess he thinks he's on CSI:MIAMI where I can do some computer "magic" and the expected results happen. Regardless, I am unable to refuse the project. I agree with you on the freelance thing: I WOULD refuse if I were freelance. But alas, nowhere are those luxuries when working on a military installation.

Thanks for the info.

[bjurasz]

My solution is to bring the images into Photoshop and play around with some of the settings/filters/adjustments to help with the resolution issues. This will be printed on large format canvas material, so I already don't have to worry about sharp resolution on the final product, but still, I have a big resolution gap that I'm trying to bridge.
I once did a very large vinyl banner on commission for a kart track I shot at years ago. Something like 12' by 8'. One benefit I had was the intended viewing distance was pretty big, so resolution issues become less of a problem. Plus it was understood by the client that a vinyl banner is not going to be color accurate or detailed, so that was a help to.

Since photo realistic was out of the question we went for more of an illustration effect. In the I did a bit of what you did, running the images through a "pop art" action. In a nutshell think of it as a form of posterization. That type of stuff can help you if you don't have lots of pixels to play with. In the end I delivered an image that was a bit under 100 dpi to the print vendor. They were happy with the source file and the client was happy with the banner.

[rbowie]

"They were happy with the source file and the client was happy with the banner."

Cool. I have my fingers crossed that I'll have the same luck.

[hank_scorpio]

It's a classic though. "Where will I get their logo?" "Just take it from the website".

[Buda]

You have to wonder about the cost of printing a canvas banner. It's not cheap. It's worth springing for decent images if you're going to be spending that kind of money. What is the image of? Is it possible that you might be able to find something better or even take photos or illustrate?

[bjurasz]

You have to wonder about the cost of printing a canvas banner. It's not cheap. It's worth springing for decent images if you're going to be spending that kind of money. What is the image of? Is it possible that you might be able to find something better or even take photos or illustrate?
Great point. And maybe even get something that wasn't grabbed off the Internet, probably in violation of copyright as already mentioned. ;)

[PrintDriver]

36 x 48 is kinda small and probably meant to be viewed up close.
Good luck with that.

PS, I can get accurate color on my printed banners. It is possible.

[rbowie]

The pics are of castles. Scenery style photos.
I'm going to try filter on top of filter on top of filter on top of filter for the results. I'm really gonna push the distortion of the image. We (I'm also working with the interior designer) have tried to make a case for better images, but these are the pics they want (the low rez internet images). I don't know how to get such specific and/or better images for free without taking them myself.

Budafist: I haven't thought about asking them to actually pay for images. I'll give that a try. It would solve the copyright issue, too.

[Typically]

just because the clients wants to use "free" google images doesn't mean you should use them. point your client to this link and see what they say LIN K (http://blog.webcopyplus.com/2011/02/14/legal-lesson-learned-copywriter-pays-4000-for-10-photo/)

[garricks]

just because the clients wants to use "free" google images doesn't mean you should use them. point your client to this link and see what they say LIN K (http://blog.webcopyplus.com/2011/02/14/legal-lesson-learned-copywriter-pays-4000-for-10-photo/)

Some of the comments are unbelievable. The photogs really get hammered on.

[Typically]

yea it shows how dimwitted some people are when it comes to stuff like this. there is always the chance no one will see it and nothing will come of it, but there is chance of you being found out and have to pay it out the ass :D

[PrintDriver]

In all those comments that I waded through at the end of that blog post, no one mentioned that the image had to be registered with the copyright office. Most lawyers won't take on a case unless the image was registered. In fact, I think the copyright circular basically outright says that without registration you won't get squat in court. Those marketing folks picked the wrong image to use. One that was registered by a savvy Photog who has a lawyer in his back pocket.
<seems last time this came up I thought it was a hell of a racket to get into. Register a bunch of photos, post them randomly on my website at a resolution that is remarkably good for a web image, then have a lawyer friend out there seeking damages. :D :D :D Beware, it could happen to YOU! :D :D :D>

[Vincible]

I don't know if it can exactly help with the exact images on hand, but I often had to work with very small images in prints.

Here is a trick: open illustrator, and use live trace on your image. Customize it with preview on. Using a lot of colors will make the image look better.

It does change the look of the image to something maybe more "cartoony" in some way, but it makes it usable.

Here is an exemple:
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/229638_10150567845930123_792005122_17992925_621366 7_n.jpg

The picture of the man I was given was about 1/4 of what I needed it to be. So using live trace I vectorized it, then resized it to the size I wanted. It works wonders, but sometimes the alters the look of the image in a way that doesn't fit the project.

Hope this can help.

[PrintDriver]

I saw a billboard once where someone had used live trace on a photo of a realtor to get it to size. Looked like a giant paint-by-number.

The billboard was up one day. I went back to take a pic, it was so ghastly, but it was gone.

Do you know what it costs to blow a 14' x 40' billboard print and the airspace rental? The client isn't going to pay for it...

[Bob]

Rbowie, that's all great advice from a master of large formats, Mr. PD.

FWIW, here's a tip to easily extract full rez images from PowerPoint. First, copy/paste the image into Word. (I'll explain later)

Save this Word file as a docx version (the newer one). Once saved, close the file and rename it so the extension goes from DOCX to ZIP.

DOCX files are really just ZIP files. You open up the ZIP file and look for a 'Media' folder. If the image was originally a JPG, it will still be a JPG, at high rez. Non-lossies, such as BMP or TIFFs will be saved to PNG.

That's it. What about saving to PPTX? Tried it. Doesn't work. It simply saves the image at SCREEN size, so if the image placed in PowerPoint has been resized in layout, you lose pixels. For some reasons, this is not true in Word's DOCX.

Okay... about a canvas 'watercolour'. The good news is that these filters (and which ones are you using? I have one from Topaz called 'Simplify' that does these very well) throw out a lot of data to achieve the effect so yes, it is often quite possible to get almost as good results from an upsampled starting image as it is from a properly sized original. I would start with a critical small sample -- usually a face, and test out the results.

So, yeah -- upsample your orig to the target rez of the large format canvas output device, THEN apply the watercolour filter. Tweak, polish, squint, etc. Hopefully... violas.

[Kool]

I use the squint filter all the time. It's remarkably effective but hard to get it to sync up with the end viewer.

[Bob]

Presentation results will of course vary. The Squint figure is very dependent on whether you break out the Guiness before or after the presentation.

(And be sure to serve only in plastic glasses)

[rbowie]

Thanks to everyone who posted and gave me their advice on this issue.

The results:
Turns out the client wanted those pics regardless. After I worked on them (printed a little larger than poster size on canvas from an HP plotter), they weren't "published," per se, but used as decorations in the client's office. I know that still runs aground of public display, but the vast majority of the public will not ever lay eyes on the final product. I'm not defending the desicision to use those particular pics, just trying to convince myself that all will be ok, I guess.

Your advice was great, and I have taken it all to heart. I will be sure to stress this kind of issue with my clients/supervisor in the future with my in-house work, and ESCPECIALLY with any freelance work that I may do. I will be sure to bring this to everyone's attention at the beginning of the projects.

Thanks again.