Printing RED frame grabs

[Matt Hardy]

Hi all,

I just pulled 300 stills through RCX from a shoot I had down in Antarctica. I am hoping to print a few of them on metal or acrylic to hang on the wall and possibly sell. To get the stills I did snapshots outputting uncompressed TIFF files. I have edited those tiffs in Lightroom. I’ve added sharpening and denoised a bit to get the cleanest files possible. These particular files were shot on a SW at 5k and 4K resolution. I usually print at 300 dpi if possible for my DSLR prints but know it’s possible to print at lower dpi and still get high quality prints.

I have researched the forums and online and have found a few posts but more than anything I’m looking for advice from people that have actually printed images from frame grabs and what they think is max size/lowest dpi for that still retains decent quality. For my DSLR prints I normally take the raw file - edit and then in photoshop > Image size and enlarge the image to the dimensions I want to print at keeping 300 dpi. Will this work for red frame grabs?

Please attach a picture of your prints if you have done this. Looking forward to your inputs.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Peter Degerfeldt]

Hi Matt,

Our client Saab has been very successful in pulling out stills from our high velocity footage.
Don't have data on these examples, one is backlit canvas print the other is a still presented on a huge LED screen.
I will check what setting they used.
I was gobsmacked the first time I saw it.

cheers/Peter Degerfeldt Aerial DP

 

[Matt Hardy]

Thanks Peter. Was that 8K helium? or what resolution for each shot?? Any info you can get for them would be great. How they processed it and what final dpi was.
Thanks

 

[Andrew Reese]

I have interest in this as well. I shoot on Gemini and Komodo and while they are not 8k res I have pulled nice frame grabs so far for clients by just exporting a single frame to jpeg/png using your NLE of choice (after you apply RED transform LUT and color to taste) then throwing them in Lightroom and cleaning them up the same way you would a raw photo (i.e. sharpening, NR, curves, etc.). I would like to know more about how to get the highest quality print though and what settings are recommended.

 

[Björn Benckert]

I do it all the time. Using 8k monstro and make fat 8k prints / film posters for the commercials we make.

You need to download to see the actual resolution. But for 50x70cm prints these hold up as good as any camera, or if you ask me, yes there is no substitute that does the job better than monstro and a good lens, sure there is still camera that has better resolution. But I rather roll 60 something snaps per second with short shutter and pick and choose my still frame than standing there with a large format still camera and snapping one by the second or so...

https://f.io/uq9-t4Kp

https://f.io/ct_mCjZN

https://f.io/b0IDlapJ

https://f.io/73cIvzf8

https://f.io/IIMzxAEK

https://flic.kr/p/2iYSeHY

 

[Rakesh Malik]

You're going about the correct way. You don't need to differentiate between stills pulled from your Red footage and stills captured on your dSLR as far as the how to go about printing it though. Once you've edited the image and exported it as the right kind of file for your print provider then you're set; whatever you can do with SLR shots you can do with your Red stills.

If you want bigger look at Topaz Labs' Gigapixel AI.

In the mean time though, look at your print provider's recommendations for print density and go with those. Plus do some tests if you can.