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Largest YOU'VE printed?

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jc_photos

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What is the largest size you have printed from your 6MP Pentax (not stiched panos)? Did you process it at all to make it better suited to that print size? Where did you have it printed? What's that largest you would suggest to still keep away from jaggies and such? BTW viewing distance will be anywhere from 1 foot to 6 feet with about 4 feet as probably the average (pictures in home on wall probably above the couch).

I want to print some pictures rather large, but I don't want to waste my money by printing too large or doing it poorly. I know some of you have printed large and would like to tap your wisdom. I have searched the topic on the web and have gotten mixed info - everything from don't print above 8" on the long side to 16x20 and larger is fine for 6mp. Just looking for help. Thanks!

--



http://www.pbase.com/jcphotos
 
Some folks around here print 36" and bigger - I'm sure they will respond. Thing is you dont generally stand so close to a large print and because digital is smoother than film, the lack of resolution is not immediately apparent unless you put it right next to a higher res image.

Most print algorithms automatically remove jaggies and upsize the image to the print size using interpolation routines. You wont see individual pixels. The detail will just get softer and softer if you look real close.
jc_photos said:
What is the largest size you have printed from your 6MP Pentax (not
stiched panos)? Did you process it at all to make it better suited
to that print size? Where did you have it printed? What's that
largest you would suggest to still keep away from jaggies and such?
BTW viewing distance will be anywhere from 1 foot to 6 feet with
about 4 feet as probably the average (pictures in home on wall
probably above the couch).

I want to print some pictures rather large, but I don't want to
waste my money by printing too large or doing it poorly. I know
some of you have printed large and would like to tap your wisdom. I
have searched the topic on the web and have gotten mixed info -
everything from don't print above 8" on the long side to 16x20 and
larger is fine for 6mp. Just looking for help. Thanks!

--



http://www.pbase.com/jcphotos
Click to expand...
--
Steve
Measurebating makes you short sighted.
http://www.pbase.com/steve_jacob
 
I've printed full frame images at 16x20 and would have little concern about going higher than that if I had to. At 16x20, you have to put your nose on the print and be looking for a problem to find image degradation. Standing back to see the full image, it's impossible.

You might try resizing your image to 16x20/24 (don't resample... just let the pixels spread out) and then print to a letter sized page with a crop to fit option enabled (if available)... that will let you see firsthand how a segment of the image would look when printed out in full.

Tim
 
16x20 here as well and both are hanging in my office. I ordered them from Ofoto.com (kodak now) and they look great. This one is the best and as stated in the previous post, you have to get right up to to see any softness. It's actually much sharper printed that what you see here. From a normal viewing distance, the bricks in the bridge are easily distinguishable.

 
Check out the rasterbator... I did a 5 foot by 3 foot print from a sony 717 once. Its not your standard photo quality print, but it gives you a good idea how much viewing distance really has to do with percieved quality(I would suggest doing about 4 or 9 sheets, much larger than that gets hard to assemble). Basicly you can print as big as you want, but once you get to a certain point you need to step back a bit to not notice the loss in quality.

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

--



Technical Info: Roseart U.S.A. Gold #2 pencil, Pentel High Polymer eraser, Academie sketch pad drawing paper. Drawn clumsily under relatively poor light.

http://www.geocities.com/wild_tiger_1

http://flickr.com/photos/selrahcharles/
 
From 6Mp 24x16 inches, on an image without much fine detail. I think anything with fine detail you can get away with 18x12, unless you were viewing from a distance.

I disagree about image degradation - it depends from image to image. Some can enlarge quite a lot without a problem but I have a 16x16 of an image with a number of jaggies and it really showed - had to do a lot of work on it to get it lloking good. Next image I had printed was a scan from 6x6 film, which I had to downsize to 20x16 - that so much detail that i realised how poor my 6mp images looked in comparison & considered trading in for a Canon 5D.
 


But taken with a 6 Mp (EOS 10D). Printed at 20"x20" and would be 20"x30" if it wasn't cropped square. It looks stunning on my wall.

I should think that Pentax 6Mp bodies could produce similar results if the same procedures were used In other words, shoot w/ a tripod if possible, use the best glass (in this case Canon 300mm f2.8L IS), shoot raw, use low ISO if possible (I think this one was ISO 200), and either use good interpolation software, or let the printer upsize it (I've found that my the place I print at has REALLY good interpolation software...so I just let them worry about it).

It helps if your viewers won't be right next to the picture...but this one is still very acceptable from 1.5' away.
--
Chris May
Denver, CO
http://www.pbase.com/copcarss
 
My biggest so far is 400% upscaled (slightly above 100cm wide) from a somewhat cropped product picture. Four of those went into a huge poster 300cm wide and 250cm high. It looked very nice - from an appropriate viewing distance, and the customer was apparently happy to pay the invoice.. 8o)



--
Haakon, Norway.

 
I had a 20"x30" print done by Ofoto that came out great. It was an experiment. I didn't use any special processing techniques such as upsizing or extra sharpening. The subject helped, because it was a landscape without a lot of critical edges where jaggies would show.

I wasn't going to print that big at first, but the photo worked best at a 2:3 aspect ratio. Next time I'll frame the shot to allow a better crop at a 4:5 ratio, so I have more size choices.
 
jc_photos said:
What is the largest size you have printed from your 6MP Pentax (not
stiched panos)?
Click to expand...
I have one print in 20x30. Inches that is. This equates to 50x75 cm

I used this spider photo:
http://www.jr-worldwi.de/photo/gallery/Jumping_spider_pose_small.html

It's hanging on my apartment door :)
jc_photos said:
Did you process it at all to make it better suited
to that print size?
Click to expand...
No.
jc_photos said:
Where did you have it printed?
Click to expand...
Pixum.de
jc_photos said:
What's that largest you would suggest to still
keep away from jaggies and such?
Click to expand...
not sure, but 50x75cm was ok for me.
jc_photos said:
BTW viewing distance will be anywhere from 1 foot
Click to expand...
That's pretty close. I think the quality on mine is still ok, but other people have different standards.

Jens

--

'Well, 'Zooming with your feet' is usually a stupid thing as zoom rings are designed for hands.' (Me, 2006)
http://www.jensroesner.de/
--=! Condemning proprietary batteries since 1976 !=--
 
c_photos said:
What is the largest size you have printed from your 6MP Pentax (not
Click to expand...
12x18"
jc_photos said:
stiched panos)?
Click to expand...
1.8mx42cm. the pano in my sig.
jc_photos said:
Did you process it at all to make it better suited
to that print size?
Click to expand...
PP without sharpening. Resize. Sharpen.

If sharpening with USM etc, you will want a larger radius than
usual. I use Neatimage.
jc_photos said:
Where did you have it printed? What's that
largest you would suggest to still keep away from jaggies and such?
Click to expand...
Follow my sugestions, and there will be no jaggies.
A thing I noticed about prints for the wall is often high detail
is not important. It can even be kind of irritating.
You can do billboard size prints with 3mp no worries. Pros do.

--
cheers!

Gunn

-- Get a big lens and get closer™.

http://www.dpreview.pentaxistDS.photoshare.co.nz
http://www.y3m.net/penwik/pmwiki.php/Main/PentaxLensWiki
FAQ: http://www.pentaxuser.org/tiki-index.php

 
Well, it wasn't a photoprint per se. They had this Xerox "Document Center" which I think is just a heavy duty ink jet. After seeing my jpeg printed at the maximum 12x18 inches (very very nice except for some printer banding in the sky portion), I reafirmed my belief that the Ds and the kit lens is more than adequate for my humble photo capabilities.

This is the picture I printed:



It now hangs in my son's bedroom.
Nols

--

“…you can see the whole world in a square mile if you knew where to look” – Dean Koontz in Life Expectancy

 
jc_photos said:
What is the largest size you have printed from your 6MP Pentax (not
stiched panos)? Did you process it at all to make it better suited
to that print size? Where did you have it printed? What's that
largest you would suggest to still keep away from jaggies and such?
BTW viewing distance will be anywhere from 1 foot to 6 feet with
about 4 feet as probably the average (pictures in home on wall
probably above the couch).

I want to print some pictures rather large, but I don't want to
waste my money by printing too large or doing it poorly. I know
some of you have printed large and would like to tap your wisdom. I
have searched the topic on the web and have gotten mixed info -
everything from don't print above 8" on the long side to 16x20 and
larger is fine for 6mp. Just looking for help. Thanks!
Click to expand...
The largest I have printed are a few at A3+ which is 330mm x 485mm or 13" x 19" and they are sharp as a tack and they look great. All printed at home on my Epson R2400 printer. I would suggest that you should be able to print 16" x 20" quite easily without noticing too much degredation.
jc_photos said:
--



http://www.pbase.com/jcphotos
Click to expand...
--
Lance B

http://www.pbase.com/lance_b
GMT +10hours

 
Lance, how about 20x30? I have a friend who wants a print that large. It sounds too big to me for a 6MP capture, i'm a bit wary.

Also i assume at this size, printing from Tiff would be an improvement over printing from Jpeg??

Ben
--

 
I do primarily sports shots. The largest I've printed is 24 x 36 and it is fine for the viewing distance you've mentioned. I've done quite few at 12 x 18 and these came out excellent.

Mpix.com and winkflash.com did the prints for me. The 24x26 were done by winkflash as I took advantage of one of their specials ($20 USD) and I was pleased with the results.

The files I sent to the processors were roughly 400 dpi.
 
I didn't do the up-sampling as well as I could/should have, so the 20"x30" poster prints I had made turned out only OK. Certainly without doing an up-sampling at all the prints will be too jagged for my tastes perhaps at even smaller sizes than this, even though even at 20"x30" you need to get within 1 foot or so to see pixels. I think with some time in Photoshop and/or Genuine Fractals et. al you can get some good 20"x30" prints.

I had mine printed through a mysterious fellow (not kidding) that I arranged through my local print shop. It is some guy in Philadelphia who only deals with print shops and demands that consumers not know who he is.
 
I did 13 X 19, 16 X 24, 20 X 30, and now I'm convinced to print out 24 X 36. I upsampled images I believe to 11.2 Mpx(next after 6 Mpx in ACR) initially when converting from RAW format, then applied minor adjustments in PS CS2 - usually lens corrections and curves, as most of my work lately are architectural shots, then made them exact print size and save them in .tif format. Then I printed them on HP 130 nr at Staples, making sure the girl uses the best settings for prints. My files for instance for 16 X 24 were about 130 Mb prepared for 360 dpi printing. This HP amazingly is a very capable machine at 2400 X 1200 dpi resolution and six inks. The details are very decent even at 20 X 30, but again those were very contrasty,sharp shots in good light.. Now I'm kind of trying on 24 X 36... To say more, I did them foam mounted and laminated - my colleges at work were stunned when they saw them, very impressive.
--
torhalik
 
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