Will This Image Print Well?

It's not a good idea for you to use the preview to check your work.
You should look at your image at 100% before you upload it.

Hi Roy,

Thanks, I did look at my image file at 100 % and I thought it looked good. Wouldn't the customer look at the preview to judge if the print will look good or not?

Gay, I think the best person to help you would be Bradford Martin on printing issues.

It looks too soft in the preview. Like the camera was shaking or it didn't focus right. It also looks a bit grainy. Do you still have the painting?

I think it will definitely print! There are no pixels that are evident, no artifacts, no color distortions..... It is totally fine for things to be "soft" not all pictures need to or even should be sharp. It is lovely!

Sorry Bradford you are very knowledgeable and so is Diana but I agree with Diana on this. I think it will print very well. If you, the artist thinks it looks good at 100% then it will be fine. You are the only one who knows what the original looks like. I didn't notice anything that would keep it from printing when I took a look. I like your primitive style painting very much, I hope you have more because I think it will be in demand if you market it.

It looks a little too blurry to me. I am no expert but I would say it is questionable.

HI all,

I still have the painting, and have not varnished it yet, so I am able to take another photo of it. I had someone hold it when I took a photo, because of the size of it being so large (36" x 36)
Maybe I need to prop it up against something and take the photo again with my tripod and camera. Hard to do outside, makes me nervous if the wind would get under it.
And it is too large to put flat on the ground and take the photo from above.

Even if it would print fine, I guess I should take another photo and compare.

Thanks for all your advise. I will try and take the photo again sometime soon.

Gay

I don't have the art in front of me nor do I have the file. I can only judge from the preview. It looks to me like it was not captured very well. As a member of the image review team I am pretty good at making these judgments. But sometimes it is hard to say if it is just that the painting is soft or the photo is soft. Especially if you have neither the file nor the art. So take it for what it is worth.
By all means do not have someone hold it. Secure it.That may be the problem right there. I often use an easel. Secure it somehow.

Gay, I prop mine and then secure with a light wire to my deck railing which is just about the perfect height for my tripod and camera.If there is no middle piece of wood on the back of the canvas to attach the wire to, I use a thumb tack and wire. Then I make sure that my camera is set on a macro setting. If you can not see the canvas weave clearly and sharply on your image after you upload it to your computer, then it more than likely will not print. Unfortunately, many of us have learned this the hard way and have lost sales as a result.

Another thing to watch is focus. Even a soft painting should have a sharp photo or scan when making a digital copy for print. A problem sometimes happens when the camera cannot focus precisely because the auto focus relies on strong lines of contrast and on a soft painting you don't have that. Great care has to be made in focusing. The camera and the painting need to be supported so there is no movement. Sometimes manual focus is needed. I sometimes put something very high contrast against the image to get the focus right. A piece of printed paper is easier to focus on and then the focus is locked and the paper removed.

Thanks for the suggestions, Bradford and Phyllis, I will retake the photo.