Recently we decided to use the frames from the photographs that were hung in our bedroom to be used as framing for a traveling photo exhibit.  So all of a sudden we have a whole wall with nothing on it … like a big blank canvas ready to accept something new.  Shirleen (head decorator of the Team Hymas abode) requested something big … like 5 feet by 3 feet…. “you know …..one big something instead of a bunch of  little some things.”  We spent the best part of an afternoon deciding on a picture that would be peaceful and the right color scheme.  (That discussion could fill a blog post by itself.) Finally we agreed on one of a foggy morning at the Refuge.

A short look at the sizes offered for poster prints came up with a common 20 in by 30 in… not nearly as big as I wanted so early on I decided to try this tiled approach.  The trick is to break up a picture so that each tile will be a common print size.   We decided that if we printed on 11 X 14  landscape borderless prints, for a 4 X 3 print pattern we would end up with approximately  56” by 33”  picture, much closer to what we wanted size wise.

This is how I set up the picture for print.

The first step is to crop the picture to the 56” by 33” that we needed to end up with. Start by opening the highest resolution version of the picture that you want to use in Photoshop.

In the Image drop down menu select “image size”.   Make sure that the resample image check box is unchecked and the measurement drop down is set to inches.  Set the width to 56 inches and click OK.  You can’t control both the width and height here because if you try to change the height then the width will change to keep the picture in the correct proportion.

To set the height,  in the image drop down menu select “canvas size”  make sure the measurements are set to inches and set the height to 33 inches.   You can control what part is going to get cropped off by clicking the middle, top, bottom or center square in the anchor grid.   Click “ok”.  Photoshop will warn you that some cropping will occur.  Accept it.  Notice that Photoshop did round the height up .002 of an inch but this is not a problem.

Ok, now all we have to do is slice this picture up into 12 equal pieces.
From the tool bar select the slice tool.  Right click on the picture and select the “divide slice” option.    Set the slice tool for 3 horizontal slices and 4 vertical slices. To save the slices  as separate images click on the file drop down menu then choose “save for web and device”  you might get a warning about the file being bigger that what the tool was designed for but answer “yes” to continue. After a few seconds it should ask where you want to save the files.  I suggest putting them on your desktop so that you can easily find them when it comes time to upload for printing.  Photoshop will store your files in an images directory.

I uploaded my pictures to Costco to print.  They charge 2.99 (plus tax) for an 11 x 14 print for a total cost of 38.82.

Please note that you need to turn off the auto correct feature when you order your pictures.  If you leave it on each picture will be auto corrected individually and it can cause some drastic tonal differences between parts of the whole picture as you piece it back together on the wall.

This is the final product