If you enjoy photo albums, portraits, scrap books, posters, and wall art, then it’s a natural transition for you to the world of canvas printing. Canvas prints can be so many things, from a long-lasting display of a precious memory to a classic personal or family portrait to a beautiful art-deco wall piece. Because of canvas’ versatility and unique appearance more and more people are flocking to online purveyors of museum-grade canvas prints, but how exactly does one go about the process of having their photos made into canvas prints?
Canvas prints begin their life first as digital images. Digital images are usually just taken with digital cameras, be they disposable, point ‘n’ shoot, or professional SLRs. However, you can take a printed photograph and turn it into a digital image by making a high resolution scan of it, so that even your older more treasured photographs can be turned into wonderful canvas print displays.
If you’re going to make a scan of a printed photograph you have to make sure that the inside of the scanner as well as the photo are dirt and dust free. Some touching up can be done with a computer later but excess dust, dirt, and hair can ruin an image. Make sure that you’re scanning at a high PPI (Pixels Per Inch). The higher you can push the resolution, the better. Most canvas printers agree that 150 PPI at 4”x6” is a good resolution that they can work with, but a 300 PPI or greater image is ideal, especially for very large prints. The larger print you want, the higher resolution, or PPI, your digital image needs to be. For example the 300 PPI @ 4”x6” would not be enough if you wanted a 36”x48” print, but it would be crystal clear at 16”x24” and near clear at 24”x36”. However, there are things that professional canvas printers can do to improve the appearance of images that aren’t super high resolution. With our current process ZaZa Gallery can make a 300 PPI @ 4”x6” appear crystal clear even as a 24”x36” print.
I know that is a lot of technical jargon to deal with, so walk away with this: the higher the resolution, the better, especially if you’re going big.
Similar rules apply to digital photos obtained from a camera. As a general rule, a digital camera needs to be able to shoot at around 5 megapixels if you’re going to glean quality larger format prints from it, on canvas or otherwise. It’s hard to describe how exactly the megapixel rating of a digital camera relates to the resolution of the images it produces, so skip the math and go with the old faithful rule: the larger the better.
Now, just because your digital camera has “5 megapixels” (or higher) printed on the side of it doesn’t mean it’s always going to shoot at that level. Most, if not all, digital cameras will optionally shoot at a compressed resolution. If you’re shooting for the purpose of possibly having images enlarged for any reason then you need to make sure that your camera is always shooting and saving images at the highest quality JPEG or RAW file.
The nice thing about having quality digital images to work with prior to printing is that you can make any edits, improvements, or modifications that you need. Removing red eye, blemishes, or tweaking color balance is very basic, but you can also convert the image to black and white or sepia tone, or even make it look as if it was painted instead of being a photograph. If you don’t have the technical skill to do these things yourself most canvas printers offer varying levels of “touch up” and modification, usually for a cost but not always. ZaZa Gallery offers basic retouching with every canvas print sold, which includes color rebalancing and sharpening.
That’s basically the long and short of getting your photographs printed onto canvas. Once you have a high res image selected you choose a print professional, preferably one that you’ve done some research on and who’s going to take good care of your wants and needs. Select your size and styling plus any modifications and then place your order – easy as that!