Digital Cameras are boasting more & more pixels.

My camera is 5mp

Latest I have seen are 8mp

I wish to make Enlargements of my Best Pics

Is it possible to calculate how big a Pic can be enlarged

before one can see the dots / pixels?

Or is a Chart Published somewhere?

A website?

Any Ideas would be welcomed

Bill

For high quality print production you should aim to print your photos at 300 pixels per inch resolution (this is more or less a publishing industry standard). You can squeeze it a bit lower depending on the photo, but pixellation will start to appear.

You need to set the resolution in an image editor program before printing. This will normally show you how many pixels wide/tall the image is as well and you can calculate/see the size from there.

Don't be tempted to scale/add pixels to the image so as to make it larger. Doesnt work.

here is a table that might come in handy.

Pixel Chart

Id say that for a good picture, you should keep it at least above 180 pixels per inch. after which starts to pixelate. the more the better of course.

Digital Cameras are boasting more & more pixels.

My camera is 5mp

Latest I have seen are 8mp

I wish to make Enlargements of my Best Pics

Is it possible to calculate how big a Pic can be enlarged

before one can see the dots / pixels?

Or is a Chart Published somewhere?

A website?

Any Ideas would be welcomed

Bill

This is actually a very difficult question, because the results are subjective, what is acceptable to one person is unacceptable to others.

ALSO, large images tend to be viewed from a greater distance.

Generally, a GOOD 5-6meg picture from a digital SLR will easily blow up to A3 or A2 and be acceptable at A0 (at a greater viewing distance).

Note that I say a GOOD image, an image from even an 8meg point-and-shoot may be too noisy to make a good enlargement (the tiny sensors tend to be noisy at high ISO values), you really need a digital SLR if you're going to these sizes regularly.

Best bet is to give it a try, getting big prints made is actually quite reasonable, try your image at A4 on your home printer, if it looks acceptable drop the file down to one of the outlets that do big enlargements and let them have a go.

My antique EOS D60 (6 meg) produces images that are 3086x2054, printed at A3 (11.6"x16.5") this gives a resolution of about 187 dpi which is perfectly acceptable.

Hey Guys

Many Thanks

Very helpful Replies - and SOOOOO Quick

Yes sure - it is Subjective and the veiwing distance

is certainly a factor

As you say - I better get one PRINTED !!! lol

I am very grateful

Bill

Digital Cameras are boasting more & more pixels.

My camera is 5mp

Latest I have seen are 8mp

I wish to make Enlargements of my Best Pics

Is it possible to calculate how big a Pic can be enlarged

before one can see the dots / pixels?

Or is a Chart Published somewhere?

A website?

Any Ideas would be welcomed

Bill

This is actually a very difficult question, because the results are subjective, what is acceptable to one person is unacceptable to others.

ALSO, large images tend to be viewed from a greater distance.

Generally, a GOOD 5-6meg picture from a digital SLR will easily blow up to A3 or A2 and be acceptable at A0 (at a greater viewing distance).

Note that I say a GOOD image, an image from even an 8meg point-and-shoot may be too noisy to make a good enlargement (the tiny sensors tend to be noisy at high ISO values), you really need a digital SLR if you're going to these sizes regularly.

Best bet is to give it a try, getting big prints made is actually quite reasonable, try your image at A4 on your home printer, if it looks acceptable drop the file down to one of the outlets that do big enlargements and let them have a go.

My antique EOS D60 (6 meg) produces images that are 3086x2054, printed at A3 (11.6"x16.5") this gives a resolution of about 187 dpi which is perfectly acceptable.

exatcly. you don't wanna go too high on resolutions from a P&S. A 5 -7 Meg P&S is perfect. Keeping resolutions between 170-300dpi would be ideal. that would then determine how big you can have your print at. DSLR with their huge sensors make a difference though.

also if your picture was taken with higher sensitivities such as above ISO200, you can't blow up the picture too much no matter how much pxl/inch you have. if your camera produces too much noise at ISO200 ISO 400 and above as it is the case with most P&S cameras, it would be too apparent on a large print out. better to stick to 4R sizes for noisy pictures.

I had my first large prints made today. The first was an A2 size print from a slightly cropped 8 mega-pixel image from a Canon 30D. The result was excellent; even with close inspection it looks perfect.

The second was a larger, A1 print, and taken from a cropped image which was reduced to around 4 mega-pixels from the original 8. As expected, I could see some degradation, but it still looks great from normal viewing distance.

I had the prints made at an outlet in Tuk Com, Pattaya. They charged 400 for the A2 and 800 for the A1; not sure how this compares with elsewhere but I was impressed with the output.

Now I need to spend more cash on frames!

Depending on the software and the lab or printer used, you can get away with about 100dpi. So if your file is 1000x2000 pixels you can go to 10"x20" comfortably.

The trick here is that the ideal viewing distance for a print is about 2x the diagonal. There is a formula for determining the maximum acceptable grain size. If I remember correctly the largest acceptable grain in a 10"x8" print is about 0.8mm. If anyone is really worried I will find my old text book and post the exact formula. This should transfer to digital, the only caviet is that grain in a print is irregular and in digital is geometric, the human tends to notice this more.