printing

[bc_steve]

Someone has contacted me asking to purchase one of my photos, he is looking for a large print to hang on the wall. He mentioned 34 inches, but I'm not really sure that it could be printed at that size since I was shooting with a 16 MP camera. The picture is around 4300px on the long side.

To give some background, he runs a Buddhist NGO, I believe in India. I don't think he is too obsessed with with perfect quality so much as he just wants a big photo of the monastery to hang on the wall. I am imagining a poster rather than a framed photograph.

I'm not really concerned about making any money off this, just whatever my expenses are, if any. maybe I should be post this in another forum but I wouldn't really feel right about being a relatively rich westerner taking money from a non-profit in India. I'm glad they like my photo and I'd be happy to help them out, but I have very little experience printing. So.... is this reasonable to print at 34 inches?


Tawang Monastery, Arunachal Pradesh, India by Steve Dinicol, on Flickr

 

[DGMPhotography]

That is a beautiful shot!! I don't have any experience with printing either but I'd personally love to have this as a poster!

 

[tirediron]

I can't see why it would be an issue; I printed lots of 16x20s from my old D70 (6.1Mp). Remember that as the print gets larger, it's meant to be viewed from farther away. Think of a billboard. If you looked at one from the same distance you'd view a 4x6 print at, it would look terrible, but at 100', it looks great. You'll be just fine with this.

 

[Ysarex]

Yes -- completely reasonable to print at 34 inches.

Joe

 

[Big Mike]

Shouldn't be a problem.

The typical rule of thumb for photo prints is 300 pixels per linear inch. So that would give you just over 14" at the current resolution. But when printing larger prints, it's perfectly acceptable to relax that rule. I don't really think that specific numbers are important, but many people will recommend 240 PPI, 150 PPI or as low as 100 PPI....which would give you 18", 29" or 43". Another way to look at it, is that at 4300 pixels, printing at 34" would give you 126 PPI....which may be in the acceptable range.

Now, another thing to consider is that you can upsize/resample the image to create more pixels. Photoshop does a decent job of this but there are other programs like THIS that are more specialized. Of course, as you create pixels, the quality goes down...but you can usually make a significant increase before it becomes prohibitive.

Lastly, we need to consider 'proper viewing distance'. A large print isn't meant to be viewed with your nose pressed up against it. If the print is 34", the proper viewing distance is probably something like 4-8 feet away. And at that distance, the viewer probably won't notice the lack of resolution.

It's hard to say 'this' will work or 'that' will work. Part of the equation is the general quality & sharpness of the photo and another part your expectation of quality. It really one of those things that you learn best by doing.

So my suggestion would be to have it printed at that size and see if you like it. As far as resolution and upsizing etc, I would suggest asking the lab that you print it at, what they suggest. (use a good lab).

Will you be handing over a print, or will he be printing it in India from a file you give him?

Lastly, you/he might consider printing on canvas if you think the resolution won't be enough for a paper print. I have several large canvas prints on my wall....all of them shot with (I think) my 8mp Canon 20D. The largest print is a 50" x 30" x 2" gallery wrap, so the actual print was something like 54.5" wide.....from 8MP. It looks a little pixelated from up close, but even two feet back and it looks fine.

 

[CameraClicker]

"Being a relatively rich westerner", do you happen to live near any shopping malls? Visit one. Walk right up to one of those beautiful floor to ceiling photos of a model. Your eyes will be opened!

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Shouldn't be a problem.

The typical rule of thumb for photo prints is 300 pixels per linear inch. So that would give you just over 14" at the current resolution. But when printing larger prints, it's perfectly acceptable to relax that rule. I don't really think that specific numbers are important, but many people will recommend 240 PPI, 150 PPI or as low as 100 PPI....which would give you 18", 29" or 43". Another way to look at it, is that at 4300 pixels, printing at 34" would give you 126 PPI....which may be in the acceptable range.

Now, another thing to consider is that you can upsize/resample the image to create more pixels. Photoshop does a decent job of this but there are other programs like THIS that are more specialized. Of course, as you create pixels, the quality goes down...but you can usually make a significant increase before it becomes prohibitive.

Lastly, we need to consider 'proper viewing distance'. A large print isn't meant to be viewed with your nose pressed up against it. If the print is 34", the proper viewing distance is probably something like 4-8 feet away. And at that distance, the viewer probably won't notice the lack of resolution.

It's hard to say 'this' will work or 'that' will work. Part of the equation is the general quality & sharpness of the photo and another part your expectation of quality. It really one of those things that you learn best by doing.

So my suggestion would be to have it printed at that size and see if you like it. As far as resolution and upsizing etc, I would suggest asking the lab that you print it at, what they suggest. (use a good lab).

Will you be handing over a print, or will he be printing it in India from a file you give him?

Lastly, you/he might consider printing on canvas if you think the resolution won't be enough for a paper print. I have several large canvas prints on my wall....all of them shot with (I think) my 8mp Canon 20D. The largest print is a 50" x 30" x 2" gallery wrap, so the actual print was something like 54.5" wide.....from 8MP. It looks a little pixelated from up close, but even two feet back and it looks fine.

This! Large prints are meant to be viewed a little farther away. If it means anything to you, I made a paper print a few years ago from a nikon D80 that was easily in the 30+ inch range and it came out great. I think that camera was only like 10mp

 

[KmH]

Basic math - 4300 px / 34" = 126.4 ppi.

Image resolution (pixel dimensions) divided by print size define print resolution - pixels / inches = ppi
Image resolution divided by print resolution define print size. - inches. pixels / ppi = inches
Print resolution times inches defines how many pixels you need for a specific print resolution and print size. - ppi x inches = pixels.

Who will make the print? You or a print lab? What type of media will the print be made on - photo paper (C-print or inkjet?), metallic paper, fine art paper, canvas, acrylic, metal?

24" x 36" is pretty common 3:2 (the long side is 1.5x longer than the short side) aspect ratio print paper size, but your image is a panorama having an aspect ratio that looks to be approaching 3:1.
So the short side of your photo is likely somewhere around the 1400 to 1700 pixel range.

I don't think you'll find a standard print paper side that is 34".
Digital Print Sizes | Mounting & Finishing Options | Pricing ? Bay Photo Lab has an 18" x 36" photo paper

So you will need to have a custom size print made.
Online labs can print on paper larger than your photo. and then trim the excess paper for you. They charge you for the larger paper and will usually include the trimming.

How long do you want the print to last?

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Printing on canvas and having it wrapped (like the image soulful showed) or getting it mounted on gatorboard or foamcore is an excellent option if it is not going to be framed, ask your client first. Papaer on a wall is not the best option as it can get bent or crinkled easily.

In terms of pricing I can't say for sure as I've spent five years with student pricing at the print lab in my school, but a 32" would cost me roughly $40 dollars there and getting it mounted would be another $12

All in all I'd guess average prices would range a bit higher than that at a print lab so I'd guess $45 to $60 for the print and another $15 to mount it on gator-board. It could be that the lab offers it as low as $50 depending on where you are living however, prices vary from region to region. The usually charge by square foot as well so as its a pano it would cost you a bit less. (mine were full frame shots)

Is this panorama simply a cropped image or a collection of stitched images? If it is multiple images stiched together the size will barely effect image quality if at all. I am guessing it is not as you've said it is 4000px on the long side so the quality effect that it will have is negligible as long as the image won't be hung in a small confined space.

 

[dennybeall]

Print on canvas but get it rolled up after it's dried completely. If it's going to be shipped overseas the roll would be much easier to deal with than a mounted version.

 

[bc_steve]

Thanks for all the advice! Glad to know it is quite possible! Now time to look into the logistics...

 

[Ido]

If you use Lightroom for your editing workflow, you can use the Export dialog to resize the image and actually increase its resolution. It works great for me, I find that I can easily print twice as large at 300 ppi as I could with the native resolution.
In the Export dialog, scroll to the resize section and input the desired dimension in inches or centimeters. Also choose the print resolution (pixels per inch/cm). I typically apply output sharpening whenever I resize a photo, and that's very easy to do in Lightroom - just go to the output sharpening section of the Export dialog, choose the media and set it to Standard.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

If you use Lightroom for your editing workflow, you can use the Export dialog to resize the image and actually increase its resolution. It works great for me, I find that I can easily print twice as large at 300 ppi as I could with the native resolution.
In the Export dialog, scroll to the resize section and input the desired dimension in inches or centimeters. Also choose the print resolution (pixels per inch/cm). I typically apply output sharpening whenever I resize a photo, and that's very easy to do in Lightroom - just go to the output sharpening section of the Export dialog, choose the media and set it to Standard.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't photoshop better at this than lightroom? (that's assuming you have both programs)

 

[Ido]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't photoshop better at this than lightroom? (that's assuming you have both programs)

To be honest, I never use Photoshop for that. Lightroom is that good, you don't need Photoshop to do it. In Lightroom, it's all done automatically - you just need to input the size and resolution, and it resizes the image for you; you just need to select the type of output media, and it figures out the amount of sharpening that would be best for a normal viewing distance. And it does it well. With Photoshop, you need to actually know what you're doing.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Alright I see your point. The only reason I asked was because I've been told photoshop has the best programing to upscale an images pixels (most accurate algorithms to be exact) But yeah if sharpening needs to be done afterwords, that's all up to the person behind the keyboard.