Hi all. I am finally getting around to actually printing some of my photo's instead of having them sit on my hard drive for an eternity. The issue is that I am not quite sure what would be the largest (realistic) print size while maintaining a high level of quality. The images I am thinking of were taken with good glass, tripod mounted, and good exposure. Viewing distance would be somewhere around 6-10ft or so. I would like around 20X30 size or even a little bit larger if possible. I don't know much about upsizing software and how effective it is. For one of the pictures, I may even use some type of canvas. Thoughts? Suggestions?
I've printed files from my old D90 at 20x30. I'm definitely not a postproduction expert, but my experience with big prints bears out what I've heard around here - big prints with lower-resolution sensors will simply require a correspondingly higher attention to detail with your post work. Too much noise reduction will make things look "smudgey," too much sharpening will look weird, and too little may look blurry, up close.
I haven't printed to canvas, but I'm pretty sure that it's more forgiving for lower-res images than conventional paper.
Take all of the above with a grain of salt, because, as I said above, I'm no expert at post or printing, and I'm definitely less of a pixel/print-peeper than many here.
20x30 is totally possible with a D700 assuming the image is sharp. I have several that I have printed up to 20x30 and am very happy with. I typically do not go above that but there are a couple shots that I have taken that are amazingly sharp or do not have as refined of detail that I would consider doing so with.
At 6-10 feet, 12MP will do just fine thank you for a 20x30 or 24x36 print if it's sharp and well-processed. I've made 20x30 prints from 6MP that look good at 3-4 feet.
Canvas should be used only if the image benefits from the texture. But it does provide more latitude in print sizes, since the max resolution that canvas can absorb (due to ink spread) is about 150 ppi. An uncropped 12MP image can almost perfectly print a 150-ppi 20x30...
Do a little testing with upsampling your images. Some people prefer it, some don't. Easy to do. Get your image ready for large printing. Then crop out what would be an 8x10 piece of your image, print at 8x10. Do the same with an upsampled image, and three or four 8x10 prints later, you've got a good idea of how you like your prints best.
Thanks for all the tips! I think it may be best if I do a bit of testing first.... I am also not sure if the lab does any funky stuff to the image prior to printing.
I've printed 2 pictures at 20x30 and one at 12x30 (simply cropped vertically). So, I am clearly not an expert. The first 20x30 was photographed on a Sony A100 (10MP). The second 20x30 and the 12x30 were from a D2x (12MP). I was happy with all three. Viewing distance is 1-5 feet. I've printed a dozen or so in the 16x20 range.
I don't do any upsampling. Just shipped off JPEGs created from my raw (post-processed) raw images. I am not saying you shouldn't sharpen, but I don't think I did any sharpening. All three images were sharp when I pixel-peeped them.
The images won't be confused with a fine art photograph from a large format camera, printed on a super high resolution printer.
I would definitely suggest trying a few. They aren't free, but they aren't super expensive. I did my first one just on a lark to see. And the various printers will sometimes run deals. See what you think. I have read comments from people who really don't like them. Lots of other people, as you can see above, are not unhappy.
Also, depending on criticality of your print, try printing at more than one company. The quality, the paper, etc. will vary some. I had one 16x20 I happened to print at two different places on a lark. One I liked a lot. I was not happy with the other. They blew out some of my colors to white. That said the sharpness was fine (my opinions) on both.
At 6-10ft 12mp should do a good job, that is a pretty good distance away. That is a lot further than I prefer to stand though. I don't like the quality drop off from my D300s at ~16x20 and up. Areas of smooth and light tonality start to break down. At 20x30, depending on the photo and processing, things can start to have a plastic wrap look. Canvas will help it look 'not as bad' if that makes sense. I've never liked the look of canvas prints though for one reason or another. But at 6-10ft 12mp should be good.
You can always crop a section and send it off to a print lab at a small and cheap size to test different sharpening settings or noise reduction and whatnot.
I've seen a 24x30 from a Fuji S5, which I believe is basically a D200 with a different sensor, and it looked great. Seems to me that a D700 would be at least that good.
vpik01 wrote:
Anyone gone as far as 40x60 on a non 'up-rezzed' D700 file?
interesting you bring this up....you'd THINK that it would just be a terrible idea...but when you really investigate, and consider the viewing distance of such a large print, it really doesn't seem like it would be terrible...
for instance, when i wanna make a large print, i take the original size file to photoshop, usually uprez the image to 300dpi @ whatever the print size is.....then i click "view print size", which zooms the image to 1:1 print ratio, so 1" across the screen is actually 1" (usually about 25-30% zoom)......i then do an appropriate amount of unsharp mask to bring back some detail, and then save it out....
so i just did a little comparison, with the same file....very sharp, well exposed, etc...this time i took the full size file into photoshop, went to image size, un-checked "resample image", then input the output dimensions (60" wide)...the resolution of the print dropped to about 72dpi.......so i clicked "view print size", and the image zoomed to 143%....then sharpened the appropriate amount......and honestly, from 2 ft they look exactly the same, and from 10 feet they DEFINITELY look the same
i was fully prepared for the uprezzed file to look better, but it really didn't...now whether or not this translates to print as well....who knows......but i'm PRETTY SURE it doesn't, b/c i've accidentally printed an image at 100dpi before, and it looked like dog meat......
We like to talk about some sort of standard viewing distance, but I think people tend to look at prints much closer than you might expect. 3-5 feet for a 20x30" print is probably accurate, assuming that the image grabs and holds the viewer's attention in the first place.
I have done 42-56 in pass and they came out superb. I covered my bosses door with print of his office ( so door not there ) - he walked right into the door. It was April fools day
If you use a local print shop then swing in and talk to them. In the past I would print images that I had processed for web display assuming it would print well..... NOT THE CASE.
I went in and they took a half an hour and explained what they would do to get the best print quality and it made a HUGE difference. I now print 24x36 images from a D700 (some even cropped) with no loss of quality.
One of the benefits of the small town print shop for sure.....
