I have wasted 28 hours rending 3 images for printing that did not come out as expected.  The images that I am doing have soft shadows set in sunlight and radial lights.  I selected premium but failed to check the tick for soft shadows, assuming that my scene had taken care of that.  Of course it didn't and I ended up with 3 images with hard shadows

I then clicked the the tick for soft shadows under premium render.  Rendered at 300dpi, etc, etc.

So, what I need to know from the masses is this:  Why do my shadows STILL appear to be hard (not as hard as before but still hard).  What options does everyone else use for printing out an image?  What should I consider before wasting anymore time on rending something I can't use.  Help!!!!

I did ask this elsewhere but still need more information.  Would love to know how it's done as I've never printed out an image before ( or rendered one for a  print).