Minimal useful resolution of photos

[some-alpha-user-99]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2). FF 24 megapixels in crop mode gives ca. 10MP, while 33 -> 14,5. First value (10MP) seems not enough for A3 printing, while second (14,5) is okay. And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

Of course, there is 50 or even 61MP sensors with lots of crop available but cameras with them are too expensive and file weight is so big.

So, where would you put crossline in cropping photo to not limit yourself?

 

[UncleVanya]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2). FF 24 megapixels in crop mode gives ca. 10MP, while 33 -> 14,5. First value (10MP) seems not enough for A3 printing, while second (14,5) is okay. And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

Do you need 300dpi? A lot depends on the viewing distance. Large prints might be far from the viewer and do fine with 150 or even 100dpi.

Of course, there is 50 or even 61MP sensors with lots of crop available but cameras with them are too expensive and file weight is so big.

I own an a7r iii and an a7RV as well as an a6600. And an infrared a6300. The ff a7r series is more crop friendly but most of my work isn’t printed. I’ve printed 13x19 from the a6300 images and I’ve printed 13x19 from 10mp files from the past cameras I couldn’t tell the difference at a reasonable distance from the prints.

So, where would you put crossline in cropping photo to not limit yourself?

This is a good reference:
https://prophotosupply.com/blogs/re...VB-4M8lSET3iBpO8aSqVrZ5xZHFp4A64Big6Kcd0EodP7

I would shoot for nothing lower than 150dpi but even 100 might be ok. Again viewing distances matter as do subject detail.

 

[Martin_99]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2).

A3 is maximum I print (photo calendars for family). If you have technically good photo as a base requirement, you can print about about 12Mpx to this size. This is of course my subjective number, depends on the medium, viewer strictness etc.

FF 24 megapixels in crop mode gives ca. 10MP, while 33 -> 14,5. First value (10MP) seems not enough for A3 printing, while second (14,5) is okay. And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

This is very often topic, 300dpi is not necessary to keep in my opinion.

Of course, there is 50 or even 61MP sensors with lots of crop available but cameras with them are too expensive and file weight is so big.

So, where would you put crossline in cropping photo to not limit yourself?

 

[bpatient]

In my experience, Topaz Gigapixel (and the similar function in Topaz Photo AI) can modestly increase dpi for landscapes with good results. Adobe and other makers can do this, too.

I like to display prints to 16" X 24" at 300 dpi from my A7R III with minimal cropping, but I recently received a print of that size from my daughter's little RX100 V. (I suppose that that camera is nominally 20 MP, but functionally it seems to me to have less resolution than that number would suggest.) I think it looks good.

 

[Mike Evangelist]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2).

If an image is properly exposed, focused, and processed, you can print almost any size from any image. Higher resolution is nice to have, obviously, and gives more freedom, but I say don't get hung up on how many pixels.

Here's some full-size examples from 20 years ago, from a 5 mpx camera. I would not hesitate to print them any size I wanted.

 

[RealWorldPhoto]

And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

You can hardly differ between 300 ppi and 150 ppi when viewing glossy prints in bright light from normal reading distance. When viewing distance increases even less pixels per inch are needed to calculate the printer dots.

Note that dpi (dots per inch) refers to amount of ink dots for a printed image.

When viewing images on a monitor/screen at normal viewing distance, like a TV in the living room or the screen in a movie theater, HD resolution looks great. The eye can resolve a bit more fine detail than from HD files. 4K is overkill, though. Then add that for most image content, we don't care that much about finest detail.

The final use of your work will tell what resolution that is needed, and the tool we use is our eyes. If it looks great, then everything is just fine.

 

[LarryRC]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2).

If an image is properly exposed, focused, and processed, you can print almost any size from any image. Higher resolution is nice to have, obviously, and gives more freedom, but I say don't get hung up on how many pixels.

Here's some full-size examples from 20 years ago, from a 5 mpx camera. I would not hesitate to print them any size I wanted.

I agree added that at 5 mpx you are able to fill the frame which Mike did (none of his images are cropped). So with a larger mp sensor one can crop and still have enough pixels to print at a large size if as Mike said the image is in focus, and properly exposed.

 

[Sundre]

Apart from distance mattering, the resolving power of the human eye varies . Most importantly, some people pay a lot more attention to detail than others, and will be bothered by imperfections in detail that others pay no attention to at all.

Personally, I never focus on detail and will happily print almost anything at almost any size. I have printed 2 meter posters from 11 MP images. I don't care if they look a little bit pixelated, my brain focuses on big picture patterns and colours and ignores detail.

Other people do precisely the opposite, and some need a mix.

--
www.luxpraguensis.com

 

[ahaslett]

By comparing Bayer CFA and Foveon sensors you can see that a 20Mpix CFA sensor produces about 8Mpix of spatial full RGB resolution. Whether that matters depends on what the image has in it, how you view it, and how sensitive to high frequency resolution you are.

I’ve found that shooting landscapes with a 60Mpix sensor has gradually raised my bar on the appearance of images.

That having been said, print at 300dpi is a pretty forgiving medium, so I’d say most people would be pretty happy with an A3 print at 12Mpix. Composition, processing and lens probably matter at least as much as the last bit of resolution.

Andrew

 

[120 to 35]

The future also includes huge monitors that go beyond 8k with pixel counts above 100m.

 

[jhunna]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2). FF 24 megapixels in crop mode gives ca. 10MP, while 33 -> 14,5. First value (10MP) seems not enough for A3 printing, while second (14,5) is okay. And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

Of course, there is 50 or even 61MP sensors with lots of crop available but cameras with them are too expensive and file weight is so big.

So, where would you put crossline in cropping photo to not limit yourself?

I try to keep everything to 4k which is about 8.3 MP.

I can pull stills from video, I can watch photos on my monitor and big screen tv, and I can print them when needed.I would have no issue printing A3.

 

[Crispy_Bee]

20MP, below that it's getting difficult to account for various image ratios (like for example a two-page spread in a magazine or a 4:5 portrait crop (which is often times nicer than the "longer" 3:2.

 

[jakelindsay]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2). FF 24 megapixels in crop mode gives ca. 10MP, while 33 -> 14,5. First value (10MP) seems not enough for A3 printing, while second (14,5) is okay. And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

Do you need 300dpi? A lot depends on the viewing distance. Large prints might be far from the viewer and do fine with 150 or even 100dpi.

Of course, there is 50 or even 61MP sensors with lots of crop available but cameras with them are too expensive and file weight is so big.

I own an a7r iii and an a7RV as well as an a6600. And an infrared a6300. The ff a7r series is more crop friendly but most of my work isn’t printed. I’ve printed 13x19 from the a6300 images and I’ve printed 13x19 from 10mp files from the past cameras I couldn’t tell the difference at a reasonable distance from the prints.

So, where would you put crossline in cropping photo to not limit yourself?

This is a good reference:
https://prophotosupply.com/blogs/re...VB-4M8lSET3iBpO8aSqVrZ5xZHFp4A64Big6Kcd0EodP7

I would shoot for nothing lower than 150dpi but even 100 might be ok. Again viewing distances matter as do subject detail.

So many decisions like these become so much easier when you begin with the end in mind (IE viewing distance). I remember iphone's billboard campaign touting their amazing camera. Most people don't realize that a picture from a flip phone would like fine from 500 feet away.

 

[ray_burnimage]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2).

If an image is properly exposed, focused, and processed, you can print almost any size from any image. Higher resolution is nice to have, obviously, and gives more freedom, but I say don't get hung up on how many pixels.

Here's some full-size examples from 20 years ago, from a 5 mpx camera. I would not hesitate to print them any size I wanted.

THIS ^^^

Folks were printing billboards and the full width of buses from 35mm film back in the day, and since about 4mp digital cameras.

Simply output your digital file at 100% and get it printed!

If you feel better you can upscale your image using any multitude of available AI tools, but hey, why bother?

 

[James Stirling]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2). FF 24 megapixels in crop mode gives ca. 10MP, while 33 -> 14,5. First value (10MP) seems not enough for A3 printing, while second (14,5) is okay. And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

Of course, there is 50 or even 61MP sensors with lots of crop available but cameras with them are too expensive and file weight is so big.

So, where would you put crossline in cropping photo to not limit yourself?

I was using this sample in a discussion in another forum

https://www.dpreview.com/sample-gal...400mm-f4-5-5-6-vr-s-sample-gallery/2351101609

Original file downsized for reference

Approx 8mp crop output at 18x12" 300ppi ( which as other mention is a bit dubious in real life output ) which prints very well any flaws visible when zoomed in on screen are not noticeable on prints. The 100% zooms in our software are a bit of a curse and probably help motivate the lust for ever sharper lenses ever higher res sensors

A fill size comparison between the original and crop

This was just a quick fix in PS I did not use any of the dedicated up-sizing software ( Gigapixel etc )

--
Jim Stirling:
"Cogito, ergo sum" Descartes
Feel free to tinker with any photos I post

 

[Crispy_Bee]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2).

If an image is properly exposed, focused, and processed, you can print almost any size from any image. Higher resolution is nice to have, obviously, and gives more freedom, but I say don't get hung up on how many pixels.

Here's some full-size examples from 20 years ago, from a 5 mpx camera. I would not hesitate to print them any size I wanted.

THIS ^^^
Folks were printing billboards and the full width of buses from 35mm film back in the day, and since about 4mp digital cameras.

Simply output your digital file at 100% and get it printed!

If you feel better you can upscale your image using any multitude of available AI tools, but hey, why bother?

Yeah but that's because billboards and bus prints don't require a high resolution because you only see them at a distance.

If you were to print 4MP files on A3 they wouldn't look as good as (for example) 25MP files -especially if they were highly compressed or otherwise 'flawed' (just from a technical point of view) to begin with.

In the end it depends on what you want to do with them. Casually looking at them on your phone doesn't require a decent resolution - but for printing at dimensions at or beyond 8x10" (especially with cropping involved) does.

 

[AeroPhotographer]

My 61mp A7R4 and 5 produce pics 9504 pixels wide. I tend to crop most pics, perhaps averaging about half of that. But for birds and bees I typically crop deeper. Pics 1200 pixels wide look good on my 24" desktop screen. This is 1200 pixels wide:

Sites that I write for request 1400 pixel images. I often resize to about that for emails and to post here. When I try to post large images here, they often get stuck and the only escape is to leave and lose all that I've written leading up to the upload.

I find that the end of a log is a good test of resolution. Sometimes a 1200 wide version of this appears sharper than a larger version. It seems to be sync between the pitch of the log rings and the pitch of the screen. DPR messes with the size of my uploads. This was 1400 pixels wide when I uploaded it.

 

[dmanthree]

Hi,

I'd like to know what you find for minimum useful resolution for future usage eg. prints (let's limit ourself to max. A3, occasionally A2). FF 24 megapixels in crop mode gives ca. 10MP, while 33 -> 14,5. First value (10MP) seems not enough for A3 printing, while second (14,5) is okay. And uncropped photo is required for A2 print if want to keep 300dpi.

Of course, there is 50 or even 61MP sensors with lots of crop available but cameras with them are too expensive and file weight is so big.

So, where would you put crossline in cropping photo to not limit yourself?

As you can see from all the other answers there is no "right" number. It all depends on your final use of the image. For example. full size billboards, back when they were printed on paper, were only 9 dpi. So anything would do. That 61MP sensor at 9 dpi would make an image 88' across. ;-)

 

[RealWorldPhoto]

Apart from distance mattering, the resolving power of the human eye varies.

The resolving power of the eye does not vary. For most people, the eye can distinguish about 0.6 line pairs per arcminute under optimal lighting. This is about 1.7 arch seconds and is only obtained for a very narrow field of view. When we scan the surroundings, the images we actually see are formed in the dark of the brain milliseconds before we are aware the visual impulses.

 

[Sundre]

Apart from distance mattering, the resolving power of the human eye varies.

The resolving power of the eye does not vary. For most people, the eye can distinguish about 0.6 line pairs per arcminute under optimal lighting. This is about 1.7 arch seconds and is only obtained for a very narrow field of view. When we scan the surroundings, the images we actually see are formed in the dark of the brain milliseconds before we are aware the visual impulses.

I mean, I wear glasses and the resolving power of my eyes is definitely nothing like my brother's, who does not wear glasses. Even when I wear glasses, because there are no glasses that can fully adjust for my myopia and astigmatism.