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CW90

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Hi, i have got a d3100 and have been looking into get a for of my photo's printed, but just in a standard size.

But out of interest I was just wondering, how big a print could I make of a photo of my camera, and for it still to look good. After seeing a few big prints I fancy getting. :thinking:

Cheers
 
Depends how you define "good". For me, I'd say somewhere between A3 and A2. At it's native resolution, it's around 48cm across the longest side. If you go bigger, you'll start to see aliasing etc.. Where you stop really does depend on what you think is acceptable, and where the print will be displayed. For instance, if no one can get near it, you can stand to print it bigger, but if it's hung somewhere where people will be looking at it closely, then it's more important to retain quality.
 
That's the sort of size I was expecting.

By good I mean if you hung it up in your house etc It would still look reasonably for close inspection.
 
For close inspection, I'd stick to the native dpi (240).. which equates to around 48cm from a D3100... 60 at a push.
 
As a general rule of thumb 300dpi is usually good enough for close inspection, so an image that is 4608 x3072 would give a 15"x 10" print. At reasonable distances say 2ft you can go to 200dpi so 23" x 15"
 
Pookeyhead said:
Depends how you define "good". For me, I'd say somewhere between A3 and A2. At it's native resolution, it's around 48cm across the longest side. If you go bigger, you'll start to see aliasing etc.. Where you stop really does depend on what you think is acceptable, and where the print will be displayed. For instance, if no one can get near it, you can stand to print it bigger, but if it's hung somewhere where people will be looking at it closely, then it's more important to retain quality.
Click to expand...

That is actually incorrect to state that Pookeyhead. You may see issues if you start to increase the size of the image but all you need to do is print at a lower ppi.

Loxley and other top pro labs) will print images at as low as 100ppi (and sometimes lower) and you will be unlikely to see any difference at normal viewing distances (and even close up you would struggle to see the difference).

So to the OP you can probably print up to around 46" x 30" with no great issues without having to resample at all.
 
CW90 said:
That's the sort of size I was expecting.

By good I mean if you hung it up in your house etc It would still look reasonably for close inspection.
Click to expand...

If you are looking at an image closely then it's unlikely to be as big as I noted above. I have a 30" print on my wall printed at 150ppi (same sort of size as the images your camera produces). So even close up a 30" print would look absolutely fine.
 
Pookeyhead said:
For close inspection, I'd stick to the native dpi (240).. which equates to around 48cm from a D3100... 60 at a push.
Click to expand...

dpi is actually a meaningless term. There is no such thing as a native dpi. (and in fact the term you should be using is ppi it's pixels per inch we are talking about. dpi is a printer and monitor resolution. See above 30" x 20" with no problem.
 
artyman said:
As a general rule of thumb 300dpi is usually good enough for close inspection, so an image that is 4608 x3072 would give a 15"x 10" print. At reasonable distances say 2ft you can go to 200dpi so 23" x 15"
Click to expand...

That is INCORRECT. Yes if you have the pixels available in your document 300ppi (not dpi) is a good place tro start but that also can depend on the printer you are using. Many say sending to an Epson printer the ppi value should be 360ppi (although I've never noticed any difference).

Another thing is the RIP (rasterising software your lab uses) will probably interpolate better than you do in Photoshop so just send them the image and they will tell you if there is likely to be a problem.

Here's a great example - Smugmug use Loxley in the UK. This is their guidelines and they show a print (at 80ppi) they use for an example and they say the regularly print at 80ppi!!

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93359#minprintres
 
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cosmicma said:
this microsoft excel res calculator might be of some use to you

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cosmicma/rescalc.xls

it allows you to put in different variables like resolution , print size or desired dpi for print and tells you what size a print would be or at what dpi resolution a given print size at a known pixel resolution would be
Click to expand...

I like that although I think it looks confusing and uses incorrect terms (like DPI instead of PPI)

All you ned to know is that

Print Size (Ps) = Pixels (Px) divided by Resolution (R) (that is pixels on each edge so do the calc twice) that gives a print size of just over 30x20

Ps = 4608 / 150ppi = 30.72"
Ps = 3072 / 150ppi = 20.48"

The same calc can be written

R = Px/R

or

Px = Ps x R
 
Bristolian said:
Native dpi? Native to what?
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Correct :D no such thing as a "native" ppi

there is only NATIVE PIXELS which is the pixels you are working with - either the 4608 x 3072 that is the maximum resolution or it could be less if you have had to crop the image. If you crop your image the maximum size you can print will fall depending on how much you crop by.
 
Just looking at that chart provided on the Smugmug link, you shjould be able to print in excess of 72" x 48"!!
 
WHOO back there, first of all are you shooting in Jpeg basic - Jpeg normal -Jpeg Fine -RAW or Tiff. Also are you shooting the pictures in small -medium or large image size.

This can determine how big a photo can be printed without quality loss.

Realspeed
 
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Bazza that is a great point you make there and one that is often overlooked (as I did)! Not only does the number of pixels count but the quality of those pixels is absolutely crucial to determining how big you can print.

If you shoot in anything less than JPG Maximum you may be restricting the size you can output although even a medium JPG will still be able to be printed pretty large.

As always I advise shooting RAW to get the maximum detail and quality from your image.
 
Bristolian said:
Native dpi? Native to what?
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To the assumed 300dpi approx expected of most files for print output... I think I worded it badly.. I mean the native res AT 300dpi.
 
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EOS_JD said:
dpi is actually a meaningless term. There is no such thing as a native dpi. (and in fact the term you should be using is ppi it's pixels per inch we are talking about. dpi is a printer and monitor resolution. See above 30" x 20" with no problem.
Click to expand...


Sorry... I mean native pixel res... AT 240dpi... I just assumed that most knew that print dpi was merely setting the document print size and nothing to do with image res.


realspeed said:
WHOO back there, first of all are you shooting in Jpeg basic - Jpeg normal -Jpeg Fine -RAW or Tiff. Also are you shooting the pictures in small -medium or large image size.

This can determine how big a photo can be printed without quality loss.

Realspeed
Click to expand...


I assumed no one shooting JPEG basic with image size set to small would even be in here... :) Besides.. I'm fairly sure the guy just wanted a ballpark figure as a guide, and without seeing the actual image to be printed, that's pretty much all you could do here anyway.



[edit] Sorry for double post.. lately, if I hit return in the dialog input box, rather than turning up a line, it actually posts it. Something to do with Firefox... doesn't do it with Chrome.
 
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Cheers guys

Gives me a lot to think about, am new to this printing thing :lol:
 
CW90, as with many things, the proof of the pudding is in the eating! Either do some prints yourself or order some in at the sort of size you want. For most Amateurs, the maximum size we're likely to print at home is A3+ (32.9cm x 48.3cm) which is a bit bigger than A3 (29.7cm x 42cm) which is in turn twice the area of A4 (21cm x 29.7cm).

My old D70 gives very pleasing prints at A3+ despite being a mere 6.1MP (3008px x 2000px). At a normal viewing distance (which is IIRC twice the diagonal dimension of the image being viewed) it's impossible to differentiate between prints from that and my current D700.
 
Pookeyhead said:
To the assumed 300dpi approx expected of most files for print output... I think I worded it badly.. I mean the native res AT 300dpi.
Click to expand...

There is no such thing as a native ppi (not dpi).

ppi is irrelevant to a digital file . PPI only refers to the PRINT size of a file at a set number of pixels. It can be changed to any number - there is no standard default number although you can import and have software insert a number - the number is useless info until you want to print an image at a particular size.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Sorry... I mean native pixel res... AT 240dpi... I just assumed that most knew that print dpi was merely setting the document print size and nothing to do with image res.
Click to expand...
I see what you mean now. Although it's ppi that sets the documernt size. dpi is basically the quality setting resolution on the printer. eg my Epson R2400 is normally set to 2880 x 1440 dpi.

Pookeyhead said:
I assumed no one shooting JPEG basic with image size set to small would even be in here... :) Besides.. I'm fairly sure the guy just wanted a ballpark figure as a guide, and without seeing the actual image to be printed, that's pretty much all you could do here anyway.
Click to expand...

But you could actually still have a full resolution image with very low compression which could restrict the file print size severely. I know some companies that do that.
 
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Nod said:
CW90, as with many things, the proof of the pudding is in the eating! Either do some prints yourself or order some in at the sort of size you want. For most Amateurs, the maximum size we're likely to print at home is A3+ (32.9cm x 48.3cm) which is a bit bigger than A3 (29.7cm x 42cm) which is in turn twice the area of A4 (21cm x 29.7cm).

My old D70 gives very pleasing prints at A3+ despite being a mere 6.1MP (3008px x 2000px). At a normal viewing distance (which is IIRC twice the diagonal dimension of the image being viewed) it's impossible to differentiate between prints from that and my current D700.
Click to expand...

Whenb I started I printed a couple of 30" prints from Photobox. Results were great with an 8Mp camera and one is still on my wall at home.

I've just been asked to produce a 3.4m x 0.89m image to display a couple of scenes in the office I work in. That should be interesting to see how an old cropped 40D image holds up lol
 
Plenty of billboard ads were shot with far fewer MP! At their usual viewing distance they look fine - up close they degenerate into pointilism (which is basically what inkjet prints are in microscopic detail!
 
Nod said:
Plenty of billboard ads were shot with far fewer MP! At their usual viewing distance they look fine - up close they degenerate into pointilism (which is basically what inkjet prints are in microscopic detail!
Click to expand...

Yes I agree and how many of us have microscopic eyes :)
 
Pixel peepers!
 
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