Two ways of looking at how large to print
 

In another thread the question came up as to how large can you make a
print from a give size image, in this case from a 3.2 MP camera.

There are two ways to look at how big a print should be made, both are
correct under some circumstances. On one hand you might want the print
to be just as sharp as you can get it, in this case you would want to
print at 300 dpi and some people would say even higher. This would
limit a 3.2 MP image to about a 4 x 6 print. But the other way to look
at it is that the photo has a certain amount of detail in it and you
might want the people looking at the print to be able to see all the
detail that is in the photo. The human eye has a hard time seeing low
contrast details that are small, so printing the photo large will make
more visible to the viewer.

To many photographers the sharpness of the print it critical and they
are reluctant to make prints that would reduce the resolution below 300
dpi. But for any give photo printing it larger will make a print that
almost all people will prefer to look at. I have seen this over and
over again, I used to make small prints from my Nikon 995 (3.2 MP
camera) that where very sharp and I would also make 8 x 10 prints of
these same photos. People overwhelmingly preferred to look at the 8 x
10 prints.

So what resolution is right for a print depends on the circumstances,
if you know you are going to be making 8 x 10 prints, then you are best
off using a camera that has somewhere around 8 MP. But if rather you
have a photo form a given camera and you want to make the best looking
print from it then you would print larger, printing at a DPI of
somewhere between 150 and 200 seems good.

Just to be clear I am not saying that for a given size print 150 dpi
will look better then 300 dpi, far from it. What I am saying is that
for a given digital image printing at it 150 to 200 dpi will produce a
print that most people will enjoy looking at more then a smaller print
made at a higher dpi.

I should also point out that the amount of noise in a photo will
greatly effect the optimum size to print it at, more noise smaller
print. And of course it always help if the photo is in focus.

Scott

Scott W wrote:
In another thread the question came up as to how large can you make a
print from a give size image, in this case from a 3.2 MP camera.

SNIP

Just to be clear I am not saying that for a given size print 150 dpi
will look better then 300 dpi, far from it. What I am saying is that
for a given digital image printing at it 150 to 200 dpi will produce
a
print that most people will enjoy looking at more then a smaller
print
made at a higher dpi.

SNIP

Yes, you're right, of course. But, it also depends on what the
photographer is trying to convey in the print.... the print is just a
logical continuation of the process of capturing a photographic image,
and the detail on the print is as important as the lighting, exposure,
and medium it's captured with.

I often print my vacation snapshots at 200 dpi after cropping, and it
looks great at 4X6 - it's a memory, really, it doesn't matter if it's a
bit fuzzy as long as it evokes the right emotions. If I want to hang
something on the wall, though, I want that "art photo" detail and
crispness, so that a viewer can look at it from 6 feet, 2 feet and even
6 inches and see something new each time. Take a really close look at a
good quality Ansel Adams reproduction sometime - you'll see what I'm
talking about. Mr. Adams was as much a master in the darkroom as he was
behind the camera....

ECM

Scott W wrote:
In another thread the question came up as to how large can you make a
print from a give size image, in this case from a 3.2 MP camera.

SNIP

Just to be clear I am not saying that for a given size print 150 dpi
will look better then 300 dpi, far from it. What I am saying is that
for a given digital image printing at it 150 to 200 dpi will produce
a
print that most people will enjoy looking at more then a smaller
print
made at a higher dpi.

SNIP

Yes, you're right, of course. But, it also depends on what the
photographer is trying to convey in the print.... the print is just a
logical continuation of the process of capturing a photographic image,
and the detail on the print is as important as the lighting, exposure,
and medium it's captured with.

I often print my vacation snapshots at 200 dpi after cropping, and it
looks great at 4X6 - it's a memory, really, it doesn't matter if it's a
bit fuzzy as long as it evokes the right emotions. If I want to hang
something on the wall, though, I want that "art photo" detail and
crispness, so that a viewer can look at it from 6 feet, 2 feet and even
6 inches and see something new each time. Take a really close look at a
good quality Ansel Adams reproduction sometime - you'll see what I'm
talking about. Mr. Adams was as much a master in the darkroom as he was
behind the camera....

ECM

I'm interested in this too. When I open a 6 Mb image in PS and click on
"image size", it comes up at 41"x27" and 72 dpi. I usually crop at a 8x10
ratio, resize to 8"x10" and resample to 300 dpi. Originally, it's about
3000x2000 pixels.

Why does PS default to such a large dimension (in inches)? My printer only
does 8x10, but I'd really like to get one blown up to that 41x27 sometime,
just to see what it looked like. I just resampled the original at 300 dpi
and it was something like 298 Mb and 12,000 pixels wide.

Also, I'm getting from this that the camera will only deliver a certain
limited dpi depending on the camera's MP. How does PS resampled dpi relate
to what the camera can deliver. Does it fake some pixels or something?

mike

"Scott W" wrote in message
oups.com...

Just to be clear I am not saying that for a given size print 150 dpi
will look better then 300 dpi, far from it. What I am saying is that
for a given digital image printing at it 150 to 200 dpi will produce a
print that most people will enjoy looking at more then a smaller print
made at a higher dpi.

I should also point out that the amount of noise in a photo will
greatly effect the optimum size to print it at, more noise smaller
print. And of course it always help if the photo is in focus.

Scott

mike regish wrote:
I'm interested in this too. When I open a 6 Mb image in PS and click
on
"image size", it comes up at 41"x27" and 72 dpi. I usually crop at a
8x10
ratio, resize to 8"x10" and resample to 300 dpi. Originally, it's
about
3000x2000 pixels.

Why does PS default to such a large dimension (in inches)? My printer
only
does 8x10, but I'd really like to get one blown up to that 41x27
sometime,
just to see what it looked like. I just resampled the original at 300
dpi
and it was something like 298 Mb and 12,000 pixels wide.

Also, I'm getting from this that the camera will only deliver a
certain
limited dpi depending on the camera's MP. How does PS resampled dpi
relate
to what the camera can deliver. Does it fake some pixels or
something?

72 dpi is there for historical reasons, the screen resolution of the
very early Mac was at 72 dpi. This is still a number that is commonly
used as a good average screen resolution. So if you are looking at
your photo on the screen at full size it will in fact be huge.

It is easy to set the dpi to anything you want without effecting the
photo, under resize uncheck the resample checkbox and then simply type
in the new dpi that you want.

Most of the time when you get a photo printed the dpi that is imbedded
in the photos is not used to make the print, the program that is doing
the printing will scale the photo to fit the page. Some programs allow
you to either print at the given dpi or to scale the photo to fit the
page.

When you get your photo printed outside at someplace like Wal Mart or
Costco they are always scale to fit the size of the paper being printed
on. So I can take the exact same photo to Costco and get two print
from it, one a 4 x 6 and the other a 12 x 18 and both of these will
print fine because the photo printer that they use will scale the photo
for me.

Scott

mike regish wrote:
I'm interested in this too. When I open a 6 Mb image in PS and click
on
"image size", it comes up at 41"x27" and 72 dpi. I usually crop at a
8x10
ratio, resize to 8"x10" and resample to 300 dpi. Originally, it's
about
3000x2000 pixels.

Why does PS default to such a large dimension (in inches)? My printer
only
does 8x10, but I'd really like to get one blown up to that 41x27
sometime,
just to see what it looked like. I just resampled the original at 300
dpi
and it was something like 298 Mb and 12,000 pixels wide.

Also, I'm getting from this that the camera will only deliver a
certain
limited dpi depending on the camera's MP. How does PS resampled dpi
relate
to what the camera can deliver. Does it fake some pixels or
something?

72 dpi is there for historical reasons, the screen resolution of the
very early Mac was at 72 dpi. This is still a number that is commonly
used as a good average screen resolution. So if you are looking at
your photo on the screen at full size it will in fact be huge.

It is easy to set the dpi to anything you want without effecting the
photo, under resize uncheck the resample checkbox and then simply type
in the new dpi that you want.

Most of the time when you get a photo printed the dpi that is imbedded
in the photos is not used to make the print, the program that is doing
the printing will scale the photo to fit the page. Some programs allow
you to either print at the given dpi or to scale the photo to fit the
page.

When you get your photo printed outside at someplace like Wal Mart or
Costco they are always scale to fit the size of the paper being printed
on. So I can take the exact same photo to Costco and get two print
from it, one a 4 x 6 and the other a 12 x 18 and both of these will
print fine because the photo printer that they use will scale the photo
for me.

Scott

Scott W wrote:

Just to be clear I am not saying that for a given size print 150 dpi
will look better then 300 dpi, far from it. What I am saying is that
for a given digital image printing at it 150 to 200 dpi will produce a
print that most people will enjoy looking at more then a smaller print
made at a higher dpi.

I agree. 3MP photos don't look better than 6MP at that size but they
definitely look better than 4x6's! I made a bunch of 8x10's from my 3MP,
some even cropped and people love them. I did a tiled 16x20 & it looked
great (from a distance).

mike regish wrote:
I'm interested in this too. When I open a 6 Mb image in PS and click on
"image size", it comes up at 41"x27" and 72 dpi. I usually crop at a 8x10
ratio, resize to 8"x10" and resample to 300 dpi. Originally, it's about
3000x2000 pixels.

Why does PS default to such a large dimension (in inches)? My printer only
does 8x10, but I'd really like to get one blown up to that 41x27 sometime,
just to see what it looked like. I just resampled the original at 300 dpi
and it was something like 298 Mb and 12,000 pixels wide.

Also, I'm getting from this that the camera will only deliver a certain
limited dpi depending on the camera's MP. How does PS resampled dpi relate
to what the camera can deliver. Does it fake some pixels or something?

mike

"Scott W" wrote in message
oups.com...

Just to be clear I am not saying that for a given size print 150 dpi
will look better then 300 dpi, far from it. What I am saying is that
for a given digital image printing at it 150 to 200 dpi will produce a
print that most people will enjoy looking at more then a smaller print
made at a higher dpi.

I should also point out that the amount of noise in a photo will
greatly effect the optimum size to print it at, more noise smaller
print. And of course it always help if the photo is in focus.

Scott




Because you have your display set at 72dpi. Most monitors can be set to
96dpi (or higher), and the rendering will make a smaller picture. It is
just spreading the pixels out at the setting for dots/inch for your
display device. To print, you need to specify a higher DPI so that the
size will be what you need. Most programs do this math FOR you, which
is why I rarely print from Photoshop Elements.


--
Ron Hunter

mike regish wrote:
I'm interested in this too. When I open a 6 Mb image in PS and click on
"image size", it comes up at 41"x27" and 72 dpi. I usually crop at a 8x10
ratio, resize to 8"x10" and resample to 300 dpi. Originally, it's about
3000x2000 pixels.

Why does PS default to such a large dimension (in inches)? My printer only
does 8x10, but I'd really like to get one blown up to that 41x27 sometime,
just to see what it looked like. I just resampled the original at 300 dpi
and it was something like 298 Mb and 12,000 pixels wide.

Also, I'm getting from this that the camera will only deliver a certain
limited dpi depending on the camera's MP. How does PS resampled dpi relate
to what the camera can deliver. Does it fake some pixels or something?

mike

"Scott W" wrote in message
oups.com...

Just to be clear I am not saying that for a given size print 150 dpi
will look better then 300 dpi, far from it. What I am saying is that
for a given digital image printing at it 150 to 200 dpi will produce a
print that most people will enjoy looking at more then a smaller print
made at a higher dpi.

I should also point out that the amount of noise in a photo will
greatly effect the optimum size to print it at, more noise smaller
print. And of course it always help if the photo is in focus.

Scott




Because you have your display set at 72dpi. Most monitors can be set to
96dpi (or higher), and the rendering will make a smaller picture. It is
just spreading the pixels out at the setting for dots/inch for your
display device. To print, you need to specify a higher DPI so that the
size will be what you need. Most programs do this math FOR you, which
is why I rarely print from Photoshop Elements.


--
Ron Hunter

In article .com,
Scott W wrote:

It is easy to set the dpi to anything you want without effecting the
photo,

Indeed. I have yet to have the "Image Size" dialogue trip the shutter
release.

You can also rescale the dpi without affecting the image, which is very
handy. ;-)