# How big could I get a D90 photo printed?



## eric-holmes (Sep 22, 2010)

I had a lady email me and ask what the largest size of a photo I could have printed. Millers will print a 30x40 but it says it isn't recommended due to my pixel count I guess. I thought for sure that I could get it that big.

Photo dimensions...
4288x2848 Pixels
300 PPI


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## Inst!nct (Sep 22, 2010)

Uhhhhhh generally as long as you are around 250 dpi you should be set.


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## eric-holmes (Sep 22, 2010)

I am pretty sure PPI and DPI are two different things. DPI refers to printing itself, right?


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## Inst!nct (Sep 22, 2010)

eric-holmes said:


> I am pretty sure PPI and DPI are two different things. DPI refers to printing itself, right?



Yes, that is true, i just confused myself . And 30x40 is pretty huge to be honest, next lowest would probably work with your pixels, I've only printed off something once and it worked out fine but was a bit of a guess.


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## eric-holmes (Sep 22, 2010)

Anyone else have experience with this?


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## Bitter Jeweler (Sep 22, 2010)

You can go as low as 150, for something that large, and at the proper viewing distance...

This was asked like twice last week, do a search, KMH posted tables and more info.


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## eric-holmes (Sep 22, 2010)

I have done some google searches and this guy pretty much says that you can't even print that size photo with a 21MP camera.

How Big Can I Print by Thom Hogan


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## Bitter Jeweler (Sep 22, 2010)

Search this forum.


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## Josh66 (Sep 22, 2010)

I've printed 20x20 from 350D files, which are smaller than yours, and they looked fine.

20x30 would definitely be doable, but I don't know about bigger than that...  How much is a 30x40 at Millers?

It might be worth a test print just to see what it looks like, if it's cheap enough.

24x36 is the biggest Mpix does, and it's $45 unmounted on E-Surface paper...  A little high for a test to me, but if you might be doing a lot of them it might still be worth it.


edit
I did add canvas to make them square though, not crop.  They were 3456x3456.
(They were mostly black, so I just added more black to make it square.)


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## Boomn4x4 (Sep 23, 2010)

eric-holmes said:


> I have done some google searches and this guy pretty much says that you can't even print that size photo with a 21MP camera.
> 
> How Big Can I Print by Thom Hogan


 
You should ask Thom Hogan how many MPs are used to shoot a roadside billboard.

Going by his logic, It would have to be in the 1,000,000 range.


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## eric-holmes (Sep 23, 2010)

That's why I came here to ask. I went into to Photoshop and enlarged the image to a 30x46 then I just cropped it to a 30x40 and that seemed to give me what I needed and Millers didn't give me the warning. Will that work ok?


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## IgsEMT (Sep 23, 2010)

Mpix.com - Help


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## ghache (Sep 23, 2010)

i have printed 24X32 at 300 dpi from a D90 and it came out great, i pretty sure youll be fine!


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## KmH (Sep 23, 2010)

eric-holmes said:


> That's why I came here to ask. I went into to Photoshop and enlarged the image to a 30x46 then I just cropped it to a 30x40 and that seemed to give me what I needed and Millers didn't give me the warning. Will that work ok?


It depends on the image and how it was prepped. Did you sharpen it for printing? Or did you sharpen it for screen display? They are not the same.

You can sharpen an image a bit harder for a print than you can for screen display.

Which algorithm and software did you use to enlarge the image, and what paper will it be printed on?

After the enlargement and crop, what was the resultant pixel per inch resolution.

Do you softproof?


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## eric-holmes (Sep 23, 2010)

KmH said:


> It depends on the image and how it was prepped. Did you sharpen it for printing? Or did you sharpen it for screen display? They are not the same.
> You can sharpen an image a bit harder for a print than you can for screen display.


I only sharpened it a little. I don't know what that entails. 




KmH said:


> Which algorithm and software did you use to enlarge the image, and what paper will it be printed on?


I tested the enlargement out using CS5 and using Bicubic.



KmH said:


> After the enlargement and crop, what was the resultant pixel per inch resolution.


I'll have to get back to you on this. I am not at my computer.



KmH said:


> Do you softproof?


No, I should look into that.


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## Big Mike (Sep 23, 2010)

You can print as large as you want...but you need to take viewing distance into consideration.

Someone mentioned a bill board, and that's a perfect example.  Have you even seen a billboard sized photo from close up?  It looks terrible.  (I think I heard from someone who puts photo graphics onto buses, that it was printed at a ratio of 36 PPI.)

But when you back up to the proper viewing distance, the lack of resolution becomes less and less of a factor.  

So you can print at 40" x 60", and it might not look perfect when you have your nose pressed up to it, it will look at lot better from 6 feet away.  I've got a 50" x 30" Canvas print on my living room wall, that was made from an 8MP file from a 20D.  From really close, I can tell that it didn't have a ton of resolution, but it looks fine from further back.  But I'm the only one who knows or says that.  Everyone else just love it.
And to be fair, canvas does help to hide some of the flaws because of it's texture.


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## hankejp (Sep 23, 2010)

I print 20x30's all the time from my D90.  Looks fine.  I've never tried anything larger though.


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## vansnxtweek (Sep 23, 2010)

I just printed a 20x30 from nation's photo lab just for the heck of it and it turned out amazing.  Much better than I ever would have thought it could be..and I'm picky.  The picture was an uncropped picture from my T2i (18mp).

I did also print a 20x24 that I had cropped a good bit and it still came out great.  I think you would be just fine as long as its not heavily cropped.


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## el_shorty (Sep 23, 2010)

I've printed up to 20x30's from my Nikon D70s, which is a 6MP camera, and they look great, and I never do any kind of interpolation.  So you shouldn't have any problem printing a 30x40 with your D90, one thing that you have to make sure is that the image I sharp enough.


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## KmH (Sep 23, 2010)

A great book that explains the ins-and-outs of sharpening photos is:
Amazon.com: Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition) (9780321637550): Bruce Fraser, Jeff Schewe: Gateway



For resizing in Photoshop you have 5 image interpolation choices:
Nearest neighbor (the simpelist. Good for text)
Bilinear (had it's day, now virtually useless)
Bicubic (basic)
Bicubic Smoother (best for enlargement only if sharpening will be done after)
Bicubic Sharper (Prefered by many for enlargements, recommended by Photoshop for reductions).


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## Fleetwood271 (Oct 27, 2010)

I realize this is an old thread, but I just received a 24 X 36 today from Mpix and it looks great.  It was taken with my D90.


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## sobolik (Oct 27, 2010)

Use a chart such as this one  Resolution & Print Size (2)


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## KmH (Oct 28, 2010)

That link notes that 


> The data above is conclusive for inkjet printers.


 
Labs like Mpix don't use inkjet printers, they use chromogenic printers.


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## Gabriella1973 (Nov 2, 2010)

i had picturepicasso.com blow up a photo I had from a red bull air race, it was originally a 6mp size and made into a 36x48. they printed it on a glossy photo paper and it came out amazingly sharp, i was impressed.They have a free upload where you can send your picture to them and they will let you know how big you can make it, which is nice.


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