Suggestions How's this done? ( Correctly )

[Mascitti Bro]

(Hoping for a simple tip, as i'm sure the veterans here know this in their sleep.) When grabbing a photo image on google with the purpose of sizing it large enough to print then cover an entire car's hood, i'd like to not be concerned with image coming out with huge "pixelations". What am I looking for-resolution numbers? higher/lower? Is there a way to change a photo from one way to another to clear it up to be the sharp quality we would desire? Thanks in advance again, folks!

 

[rjssigns]

First make sure the image isn't copyrighted. Then look for the largest size at the highest resolution and work from there.
You will need to "up-res" it with Photoshop or Perfect Resize.
Neither one of them will make a photo better.
If you start with a bad photo you will end up with a larger bad photo.

Fastest way is to find something at least 15" X 15" @ 300ppi. Enlarged at 400% in the RIP will make it 60" x 60" and take it down to 75ppi which is quite usable.

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

(Hoping for a simple tip, as i'm sure the veterans here know this in their sleep.) When grabbing a photo image on google with the purpose of sizing it large enough to print then cover an entire car's hood, i'd like to not be concerned with image coming out with huge "pixelations". What am I looking for-resolution numbers? higher/lower? Is there a way to change a photo from one way to another to clear it up to be the sharp quality we would desire? Thanks in advance again, folks!

Depends on how pixelated is "too" pixelated for you. If you're not too terribly worried about people getting up real close and personal, 75 should suffice, 150 would be best, if it's an art piece - 300 PPI.

[Edit: Plus the stuff rjssigns said about copyright. Whoops.]

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Use bing.com you'll get better controls and quality images.

 

[myront]

Make sure you're grabbing the actual photo and not just the thumbnail. You can do an advanced search and change the setting to find images above 4 MP. If you don't get the result you like drop down to 2 MP.

 

[MikePro]

copyright rabble-rabble aside, +1 to using google search tools to give you only "medium" or "large" size image results. start with the highest quality resolution you can get your hands on.
next, if enlarging a ~6" photo to ~48" for a hood graphic, don't just let your rip software handle the enlargement, else you're guaranteed to get pixels. You'll usually want to resize the image in photoshop, using "best for enlargement" or "smooth gradient" settings, soften the pixels/gradients with a gaussian blur and/or other tools/settings, and save to a decent resolution: 72dpi-150dpi at full size is a decent range. I have gone as high as 300 for more detail, but the file size starts to climb pretty fast at that resolution.

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

This has come in handy for me before: https://www.scantips.com/calc.html