I've recently had some interst in an image of mine that is on a 35mm slide. The company would like to put it on a poster (24" x 36") and requested a 400MB file. I went to my local lab and they said they could go as big as around 70MB (and did for about $25 without getting permisssion from me).

Is this a reasonable request from a publisher? Is the file size even "doable"? Can it be done for less than a fortune, and by who?

Thanks,

Phil

Depends on the defenition and quality of the "poster size print". For most people, 400MB is overkill.

Scan the slide at the highest dpi you can, then use Genuine Fractals to make it BIG (300 dpi at the size you want) and save as an uncompressed jpeg. Maybe that'll make them happy.

That sounds like overkill to me but what do I know... I had some slides scanned recently and they came out to be around 55mb. I was pretty happy with them considering they only cost me $2/scan. You can easily get a poster sized print out of a 6mp digital camera and those files are now where near that size.

I would double check with them to make sure that is the size the need, and if so, ask them if they can recomend a place to get the slide scanned.

I've recently had some interst in an image of mine that is on a 35mm slide. The company would like to put it on a poster (24" x 36") and requested a 400MB file. I went to my local lab and they said they could go as big as around 70MB (and did for about $25 without getting permisssion from me).

Is this a reasonable request from a publisher? Is the file size even "doable"? Can it be done for less than a fortune, and by who?

Thanks,

Phil

Remember, there is not infinite resolution on a 35mm slide. Asking for 400 MB is a waste of time and money, all you'll get is an extremely large file with massive amounts of redundancy.

At about 2500 dpi, you are down to the level of grain. There is no more information beyond that point, grain is either on or off. In fact, going higher used to reveal the "pepper" on the film backing of Fuji films! Even 70 MB is way too much from that tiny sliver of film.

Michael,

Thanks, sounds like good advice. I havn't been around this site in quite awhile, good to see you are here.

PhilGleiss

Michael,

Yea, that's more in line with what I was thinking, but I don't know this digital stuff from nothi'n. Thanks for the comments.

PhilGleiss

Depends on the defenition and quality of the "poster size print". For most people, 400MB is overkill.

Scan the slide at the highest dpi you can, then use Genuine Fractals to make it BIG (300 dpi at the size you want) and save as an uncompressed jpeg. Maybe that'll make them happy.

I'm thinking I'm just gonna send them the 70MB files and if its not right, oh well. Thaks for the suggestion.

Phil