Printing large

[ittybittypilot]

Is there a technique or way to tell how large I can print particular images before they get to grainy/pixilated?

I have a few macro images I shot in raw that I plan to blow up and print for living room decor. Ideally 24"x24"


Sandy

 

[Light Guru]

How Big Can You Print with Your Camera's Megapixels?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KmH]

Digital images will never print grainy, because only film has 'grain'.

A lot of the information in the link above is way less than accurate.

Basically you don't want to use a print resolution smaller than about 180 pixels per inch. However image quality and edge frequency also need to be factored in if you want the best quality print.

Since the print resolution determines print size according to the image resolution (pixels x pixels) we can do the basic math based on your ideal size of 24 x 24 and get:
180 ppi x 24 inches = a image resolution of 4320 pixels on each side (4320 x 4320) to make a 24" inch print.

Few digital cameras make photos that have a 1:1, or square, aspect ratio.
Most DSLRs have a 3:2 aspect ratio so some pixels have to me cropped away to make a 1:1 aspect ration image to print.
Note 3 / 2 = 1.5 so the long side of a 3:2 aspect ratio image is 1.5x longer than the short side.
The popular 8x10 print is a 5:4 aspect ratio with the long side 1.25x longer than the short side An uncropped 3:2 image makes a 8x12 print.

 

[The_Traveler]

What Keith^ said is right on the button AFAIC.
I would like to add a couple of before-you-print suggestions.
Many things that look pretty good on the screen or even at 8x10 look sort of ugly at 20" because, regardless of the pixel dimensions, the sharpness and color break down.
Shadow detail that looks decent on a monitor may disappear in a print because there is no transillumination.
Abrupt transitions from light to dark that look decent on a monitor may look pretty abrupt and unpleasant on a print.

so, since 8 x 10's are cheap, I suggest you take 8 x 10 sized and shaped snips out of the image that would correspond to that important area of a larger print and print that.

let's say this picture is 5000 pixels wide and I wanted to print this at 250 pixels per inch but I was concerned about the sharpness and the look of her face.
To save some money, I would clip out a section of the important part that was 2500 pixels wide (and 2000 pixels high) and print only that 8 x 10 area to see how it looked printed, if the detail and color still look good
There is nothing quite so aggravating as putting out good money to a custom printer and getting back a print that looked great on the screen or in a smaller print and now looks messy or fuzzy at a large size.

 

[Gary A.]

Should you run into a quality problem at 24", then print smaller and use mattes to fill a larger frame.

 

[TCampbell]

The resolution & size is also related to viewing distance.

Images printed at 300dpi tend to look pretty good even when viewed from a close viewing distance.
Billboards, on the other hand, are meant to be viewed from distances which may hundreds of yards away... and can printed at staggeringly low DPI (dots per inch) resolutions.

Many online printing services will display a warning message if they think the resolution is too low. Some just refuse to print low resolution copies (because they fear you'll hate it, blame them, and refuse to pay for it.)

 

[qmr55]

Exactly what Tim said, it very much depends on viewing distance. For living room decor you can live with anywhere from 100-150 dpi (ppi is pixels, aka screen, dpi is dots, aka ink).

To build on what Tim said, we print billboards as low as 8 dpi regularly and I'd say even our higher dpi prints are in the 15-20 range. Rarely anything above 30.

 

[KmH]

PPI (not dpi) is digital print resolution and a digital image file is an input file.
PPI = Pixels Per Inch

DPI describes inkjet printer resolution (an output device).
DPI = Dots Per Inch and it takes a minimum of 3 dots to print a single pixels.
The better inkjet printers use print heads that spray hundreds of dots per color, and usually have to mix several colors to print a single pixel.
The best inkjet printers have 12 to 14 colors of ink.

The cheapest home printers sold today have 4 ink colors and

The Epson SureColor T7270D Printer can print at a maximum resolution of 2880 x 1440 dpi.
However, printing using the maximum resolution seriously slows down print output rates.
Note too that the vertical and horizontal dots per inch resolution is not even.

Inkjet printing - Wikipedia

 

[ittybittypilot]

ok, now that life has slowed down a bit I can read and respond! :-D

And WOW I learned alot...thank you everyone who replied. I am taking notes because one of my goals is to shoot/print/frame and enjoy my own photos as home decor (anything from macros of unusual plants, to dressage horses, to helicopters to my show dogs in action).

Anywhere, here is my question...

To get my "square" image, would it be better to crop in Aperture or print and use a cutting board before mounting?

 

[ittybittypilot]

And to add, my images are 3872 x 2592 pixels

 

[KmH]

Crop before the print is made.
Will you be making the prints yourself, or will you send the image file to a print lab?
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing

Do you start with a Raw file and then edit to finish the image?
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop (2nd Edition)

Do you plan to mat your photos?
If so you won't want to make full bleed prints.
Full bleed means the print goes all the way to the edge of the print paper.

Your camera is making 3:2 aspect ratio, 10 MP images.

 

[Designer]

Anywhere, here is my question...

To get my "square" image, would it be better to crop in Aperture or print and use a cutting board before mounting?

You can crop in Aperture, and I do most of the time, but remember that the edges of prints will be somewhat compromised in that they are either on the ragged edge or they will be covered by the matting/frame. I think it is best to first decide on what the finished image will be, (in edit) and then expand the edges a little to allow for final trimming/frame covering, etc.

So yeah. Both.

 

[Designer]

Additionally; if you send the files to a print lab, then there are other things to consider; How accurate will they be? Is this a gallery wrap? (there is a software that adds a mirrored margin the same width as the wrap return so that you're not losing any actual image that you want on the flat surface) Can the lab do non-standard sizes/proportions? etc.

 

[KmH]

Print making is a specialty in and of itself.

There are many print types and each print type has it's own technical & artistic considerations even if one sends the image file out to a print lab.

 

[The_Traveler]

I always aim for a final print that is in a standard size - cheaper on mats and frames.
So if this is going to be an 11x14 in a 16x 20 mat, my final crop will be as close as possible to 10.8 x 13.8.
This will give me a tiny bit of the image only that goes under the bevel of the mat.