Printing with Nikon D80

[petershin_95]

For those who might be able to help... here it goes..

My uncle asked me to print a huge picture for him so he can fill this big empty space inside his house.
Will i be able to print a size 36" X 48" with my camera without it being too pixalated??

i own a Nikon D80 10.2 mp

thanks guys....

[Frog]

Should be able to if the iso isn't too high.

[Medley]

Doing large prints is always kind of dicey- at least for me. You can get away with using less resolution because the casual observer tends to view the print from a greater distance. However, in doing the math, creating a print that size from your D80 would give the print a resolution of 80 dpi. That's pushing the envelope for acceptable resolution. If it's a low-frequency image that has minimal high-contrast edges (think "portrait"), it would probably be OK if you do the sharpening right. If it's a high frequency image, such as a citiscape, you may not like the results. People tend to stand farther away on the low freq images to get the "big picture" and move closer to the high frq ones to inspect the details.

Here's what I suggest. It's not scientific by any standard, but it works pretty well for me. First, make a small print with an 80 dpi resolution. Then, make a piece of paper that's the size you want the print to be. I usually try to sketch the main edges on the paper to give e a better idea of what the print will look like. tack the image up on your wall, and put the smaller print on it. Now you have an idea what distance mmost people will use to view the image, and can judge how the resolution of the small print appears at that distance.

If you don't like what you see, you still have some options. There is stand-alone software, as well as plug-ins for programs like Photoshop, that do a reasonable job of increasing the size (and therefor the resolution) of your print. They work better on some images than others, and sharpening is almost certainly required. But if you could increase the size of the print by 400% (not as hard as it sounds), then you would double your print resolution to around 160 dpi. That's on the high side of average for a large print.

If you don't want all that hassle, you could also talk to a photo lab about enlargement. In most cases, they do as good a job (or better) than I can do on my own. After all, they have the equipment for such things, and do it on a fairly regular basis.

Hope this has helped you some.

- Joe U.

[another view]

Part of it is based on viewing distance - a 3' x 4' print wouldn't be viewed from 1-2' away like an 8" x 10" print would, so 80dpi should actually do an acceptable job.

However, the bigger the print the more likely to have other problems. Sharpness is the main one - it has to be a perfect file to start with. How are you post-processing the image? If you're using a version of Photoshop I'd highly recommend Scott Kelby's "Adobe Photoshop ___ for Digital Photographers" for whatever version you have. There's an entire chapter on sharpening and also tips for increasing file size.

[mattbikeboy]

You could try Genuine Fractals 5. I have a buddy who owns an ad agency and his crew swear by it.

http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2

mbb

[freygr]

My 2 cents: I would not do go below 100 DPI and I prefer to stay above 150 DPI. With a D-80 it works out to be 17 x 25 inches at 150 DPI, or 25 by 38 inches at 100 DPI. But you can always do some panorama's and even fill up more wall space.

[petershin_95]

icic... thanks guys, i will definately do some more reasearch....
i just dont feel like paying so much for a print to find out that it looks like crap.
didn't think doing a 3' x 4' could be this hard.
will the picture look like crap if tried to print it without doing anything to it?

[another view]

will the picture look like crap if tried to print it without doing anything to it?

Yes, IMO - or at least nowhere near as good as it could with some careful post processing. I made some really nice 16x24's with my 6mp Fuji and was very happy with the quality (after PP as described). I made one 24x36 and it wasn't bad especially considering the viewing distance, but I wouldn't go any larger than that. These were very sharp files to start with, yadayadayada...

6mp to 10.2mp = 70% increase (6 x 1.7 = 10.2)
36" wide to 48" wide = less of a percentage increase

Theoretically, I think you should be able to make a good print of this size. Again, it depends on the image itself (less detail is usually better), quality of the capture (sharpness and focus have to be right on, etc) and your own personal expectations. Other than trying to simulate it based on Medley's post, the only way to know is to try it.

[Medley]

If you're going to print it without resampling the image, my advice is to use an Epson printer. Epson's have a different native resolution (360 dpi) than most other printers (300 dpi), and if you're going to print below the printer's native resolution, it will look better to use a resolution that is an even multiple of the printer's native resolution. At 80 dpi, the image matches Epson's resolution more closely than the others.

- Joe U.

[petershin_95]

hey guys.... i went on PS and was going to change the dpi of one of my images and it diplayed to be already at 300 dpi. Do i change it to 150dpi when i print a 13 x 19 image or should i just keep it at 300dpi?
im printing with an epson printer.

[another view]

The file is a certain number of pixels by a certain number of pixels. Let's say you shot it at full resolution (I hope so, or I wouldn't try to make a big print) and that looks like it would be 3872 x 2592 according to the Nikon website. At 300dpi, this would work out to a print that is 12.91" x 8.64". At 150dpi it's twice those dimensions since it's half the resolution.

That stuff is just simple math; pixel dimension divided by resolution = print dimension. Just changing this isn't changing the file size and therefore really isn't going to affect the image. There's a lot more to it than that to make a really great print. I'd really recommend Scott Kelby's book that I mentioned above - it's less than the cost of the print and the differences you will (or probably will) see by "up-ressing" the file and then carefully sharpening it will be well worth it.

[petershin_95]

The file is a certain number of pixels by a certain number of pixels. Let's say you shot it at full resolution (I hope so, or I wouldn't try to make a big print) and that looks like it would be 3872 x 2592 according to the Nikon website. At 300dpi, this would work out to a print that is 12.91" x 8.64". At 150dpi it's twice those dimensions since it's half the resolution.

That stuff is just simple math; pixel dimension divided by resolution = print dimension. Just changing this isn't changing the file size and therefore really isn't going to affect the image. There's a lot more to it than that to make a really great print. I'd really recommend Scott Kelby's book that I mentioned above - it's less than the cost of the print and the differences you will (or probably will) see by "up-ressing" the file and then carefully sharpening it will be well worth it.

Ok so im a little confused. U said to print at 300dpi For an image 12.91" x 8.64" and to print twice the size of this to lower the dpi correct? I always thought that u needed a higher dpi to print bigger pictures. Correct me if im wrong.

[Medley]

You missed his point, peter. The image dimensions are what they are. Changing the resolution does NOT change the number of pixels in the image. So let's make this simple. Say I have an image that's 2400 pixels by 3000 pixels. If I print it at 300 dpi, I will get an 8x10 (2400 divided by 300= 8 : 3000 divided by 300= 10). Now if I want a larger print, I have to spread those pixels out (remember, the number of pixels doesn't change- it's still a 2400 x 3000 image). And the only way to spread them out is to have FEWER dots per inch. So if I lower the resolution to 150, I get a 16 (2400 divided by 150) by 20 (3000 divided by 150) inch print.

You've increased the size of the print by lowering the resolution. Understand?

- Joe U.

[jeffp]

the biggest ive printed from my D80 was a 20x30. that is probably the biggest i would go, since at that size i could start to see things i didnt want to see.

[another view]

Ok so im a little confused. U said to print at 300dpi For an image 12.91" x 8.64" and to print twice the size of this to lower the dpi correct? I always thought that u needed a higher dpi to print bigger pictures. Correct me if im wrong.

Actually, I'd say you can get away with a lower dpi for a big print because you won't be looking at it from inches away. Using the techniques I described, I have made 16x24's at 180dpi and I think they look great. I have done them by increasing the size 10% several times until I have those dimensions (4320 x 2880 pixels) from my original 6mp file. Some people have said that just changing the print dimensions to 16x24 from the native pixel dimensions and using whatever dpi that works out to will give you results that are just as good, but I haven't tried that myself. And the bigger the print, the more important all techniques (focus, sharpening, etc) become. I use 300dpi for smaller prints though.

[petershin_95]

You missed his point, peter. The image dimensions are what they are. Changing the resolution does NOT change the number of pixels in the image. So let's make this simple. Say I have an image that's 2400 pixels by 3000 pixels. If I print it at 300 dpi, I will get an 8x10 (2400 divided by 300= 8 : 3000 divided by 300= 10). Now if I want a larger print, I have to spread those pixels out (remember, the number of pixels doesn't change- it's still a 2400 x 3000 image). And the only way to spread them out is to have FEWER dots per inch. So if I lower the resolution to 150, I get a 16 (2400 divided by 150) by 20 (3000 divided by 150) inch print.

You've increased the size of the print by lowering the resolution. Understand?

- Joe U.

oh cool... now i got the formula, i get it now. thanx for all the help guys. i will try the print by changing these options.
:thumbsup:
hopefully this comes out ok.