Question about Prints

chrszie · May 28, 2009

Will a Nikon D300 be able produce large prints with out noise. when i say large i mean up to a 30 x 40? Very new to photography and getting ready to make a purchase of a camera in the next month or so. thanks for your feed back.:lmao:

Torus34 · May 28, 2009

Whether or not you can see individual pixels in a print depends on the size of the file in MP, the size of the print and -- the viewing distance!

A 2' x 3' print from a 4MP camera will not look 'grainy' if viewed from, say, 20'.

Big Mike · May 28, 2009

There are plenty of factors that go into how a large print will look.

Megapixels do help, but it also helps to have a very clean image to start with. Use good techniques to ensure that the image is as sharp as possible. Use a tripod with remote release or self timer, use a high quality lens and set it to and optimum aperture, get a precise exposure that does not require too much editing. Expose Right and use a low ISO to keep the noise low.

As mentioned, viewing distance is a big part if it. The image on a billboard doesn't look good from a few feet away, but when viewed at a distance of 100 feet, it looks great. A 30x40 inch print may not look perfect from a foot away, but take two steps back and it it probably looks a lot better.

dcclark · May 28, 2009

The short answer is -- if you took a technically good (and compositionally good

) photo with your D300, then yes -- poster-sized prints will look great, when viewed from the appropriate distance. As someone else said, nobody's going to smell poster-sized prints.