Need advice on PP and printing of image

[Sponge]

I finally took a big step a few days ago and actually bought some frames for 30x40cm prints (slightly smaller than 16"x12"). I've only ever printed typical postcard size prints in the past whether or not it was coming from digital files or film so this is an exciting moment to finally print something 'big', well, for me it is

I'm now having somewhat of a hard time deciding which photos to print and although I have one I'm pretty sure I want to print, I'd like to get some expert opinion on whether or not it's good enough in it's current state.

In the following photo I took on the Costa Brava, Spain I had to really bring up the shadows since the foreground was underexposed in order to not blow out the sky too much (it still blew out even with heavy negative exp. comp.). When I tried to correct it I got quite a bit of noise and I've replaced the sky using photoshop's Blend If tool so it's far from perfect but what I want to know is if it will print nice at the size I want or if anyone can suggest anything that might make it better for print. I think my biggest concerns are: 1) the replaced sky and the glow around the trees on the hill, 2) the noise levels and 3) the overall contrast/tones/brightness for print.

The file is coming from a 12 mp camera and hasn't been cropped besides a minimal leveling of the horizon so I shouldn't have any problems printing at the desired size, correct?

One last question, I was thinking of printing on matte to hide the noise a little, is this the right way to go for this photo?

[russellsnr]

Hi, For the noise you could try two things.
(1) Put a texture in the photo to try and make the noise not stand out so much http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z8YqaWA5U4
or
(2) Try http://www.topazlabs.com/denoise/
Believe there is a free trial.

Russ

[Manfred M]

There is no reason at all why this should not print well. I've been printing 12MP at 17" x 22" (the maximum size my printer can produce) quite successfully, so that size should not be an issue at all.

It is hard to make concrete statements about the image because one should really be looking at a full resolution image at 100% to properly evaluate it for noise and other artifacts; the largest posted version is 1024 x785. That being said, applying a tiny bit of gaussian blur to the areas you find too noisy might be all you need to do. As you are going to black & white, the noise is going to be monochromatic and not nearly as much of a distraction as colour noise would be. I personally find the image a bit contrasty, so I might be tempted to dial that back a bit; it's starting to look more like an etching than a photograph.

[Sponge]

Thank you Russell and Manfred, I'm going to make some adjustments based on your suggestions and post the result hopefully later today when I get a chance.