Of course, without seeing the print it's hard to offer advice other than to suggest using a lab that's had more experience and which may be better qualified to produce large prints. Reasonable price? That's different for everyone. My last 24x36 (maybe larger) set me back $90.00, but based on the service and the results, it seemed reasonable to me. Apart from the final print, I got a consultation beforehand (determining paper choices, certain tonalities, a view of the proposed final results on the big monitor, and color profile adjustments), a test print, and was able to spend some time tweaking the original file to produce a better result after seeing the test results.
FWIW, the files that I bring to the printer are usually a lot larger than 6.5 mb. The last one was 59mb, and most are in that general range. Shel "You meet the nicest people with a Pentax" > [Original Message] > From: Bob Sullivan > I sent a digital file off to the camera shop (Helix) for a big print. > They had a special offer on a 24x36 inkjet print on their new machine. > I sent them a 6.5 meg jpeg, roughly 5,000 by 3,000 pixels. > It was the curve pano I had assembled a few weeks ago. > > The final result is nice, but a little disappointing. > The original had plenty of detail, enough for the 24x36. > The resulting print loses something in the bright orange at > the middle of the print. There is a central maple tree in full > fall colors. The jpeg shows some color variations. The print > has some larger areas (1 inch blotches) where the color is very > consistent and all detail disappears. > > I know you all can't see this, but any words of wisdom? > Should I expect better? I have a nice $30 poster size print, > but can I get better that this at a reasonable price? > > Regards, Bob S.
