Printing 10MP image at 50cmX70cm or bigger?

jasonstone

Hi everyone, I've always wanted to but never gotten around to printing a "poster print" - e.g. 50cm X 70cm

My question is - up to what size can I print a full resolution photo from my Nikon D80?? max image size is 3872 x 2592

Oh printing from a printer - not at home

50cm X 70cm would seem to me quite large for on the wall at home but might be nice to have some of _our_ photos up instead of pics from the store

Thanks for all advice

Cheers, Jase

Art Scott

10mp should do fine doing a 20 x 28 inche print.......when in doubt I use genuine fractals print pro..........I am still using a trial version of GF Print Pro 4, you can download the trial version from OnOne software nad it gives around 20 savable uses......and it is a 1 step uprezing software...by pixel or dimension (cm or inches)........to shee how your print will look just open it at print size (I use PSCS) and while setting at the monitor if it looks a bit jagged or grainy then just step back about 4 feet and if it goes away you know the viewing distance the photo should be viewed at.

Know I got a bit off topic but I wanted to do a little expalanation of viewing distance, cause I have actually ran inot professional interor decorators that did not understand viewing distance.

Good Luck...........

jasonstone

Art Scott wrote:

10mp should do fine doing a 20 x 28 inche print.......

Know I got a bit off topic but I wanted to do a little expalanation of viewing distance, cause I have actually ran inot professional interor decorators that did not understand viewing distance.

Thanks for the tips - I understand viewing distance and that it's important.

I'm even wondering if I can go larger too though?

100cm X 70cm (40in X 28in)

That's real poster size - what you buy in the shops....

Would that work too?

Can someone who's done it give me any tips on how I should sharpen the photo before printing?

Thanks, Jase

Art Scott

As far as sharpening goes....I do it in Photoshops unsharp mask....that is in the filters tab of photoshop.....I pick an area of the photo to watch in the previiew and over sharpen then back it off until I am satidifed......if you ever use a software like genuine fractals.....then do not sharpen until you have uprezed the photo...then you go back and sharpen very last op.
So I leave sharpening until I am done with all photoshop ops and another ops I may be doing....then just before saving my final jpg for printing or uploading to SM I do my sharpening...........

jasonstone

Art Scott wrote:

As far as sharpening goes....I do it in Photoshops unsharp mask....that is in the filters tab of photoshop.....I pick an area of the photo to watch in the previiew and over sharpen then back it off until I am satidifed......if you ever use a software like genuine fractals.....then do not sharpen until you have uprezed the photo...then you go back and sharpen very last op.
So I leave sharpening until I am done with all photoshop ops and another ops I may be doing....then just before saving my final jpg for printing or uploading to SM I do my sharpening...........

Thanks for the tips Art - I'm guessing the first attempts may be a bit hit and miss - but I want to try and get it right first up to save some time and money

Cheers, Jase

cabbey

jasonstone wrote:

Thanks for the tips Art - I'm guessing the first attempts may be a bit hit and miss - but I want to try and get it right first up to save some time and money

Cheers, Jase

Quick tip on that experimentation... once you do whatever upscaling and (un)sharpening you're going to do, run a cheap small print of a subset of the image that would be the right size.

For example, if you're final print is going to be say 24x36" (~60x90cm) and you want to do a proof at 4x6" (~10x15cm) then take a subset of your image that is 1/6 the height and width. So if your image is say 2400x3600 pixels, then take a 400x600 px crop of something interesting (I tend to use the eyes if there is a face in the shot) and get your small print made, if you can, on the same paper/printer that the final will be done on. Pop that on the wall and step back for a view. I've saved my self a number of large sheets of paper and a lot of ink that way.

A rough rule of thumb for "poster size" prints I've always followed is 100 pixels per inch or 40 pixels per cm. Many printers are actually quite good at dealing with printing at that resolution, you might just try taking an appropriately size subset of your image and sending it to print untouched.

Rene`

I used a 6MP

jasonstone wrote:

Thanks for the tips Art - I'm guessing the first attempts may be a bit hit and miss - but I want to try and get it right first up to save some time and money

Cheers, Jase

camera and printed a 20 by 30 of a big family --- it was awesome.