Printing Pics - what MP for what size print?

[White16valver]

I've looked at a couple of online shops and they both give slightly different recommendations as to what sort of megapixel picture you need to have to print at a certain size with decent quality.

Obviously that medium-format 39mp camera that I can't remember the name of (that's about £20k) would solve all these issues, but given that it's slightly out of most peoples' range... lol

So, how big can you go for the megapixels? What have people got printed?

I'm particularly interested in the 6mp answer as I want to do an A2 print and I'm worried it won't be sharp enough...

Thanks all!

 

[JJ!]

I have got a pic in 6mp that is A2 in size. Can upload it if you want too see it?
When you look at it in full pixel size the quality is a little lost. BUT, when you look at it in the actual print size its pretty damn sharp.

Looks pretty good printed too

I can upload it somewhere if you want too see?

 

[McBunny]

you would need to know the dpi of the printer

 

[GaryS]

I'm particularly interested in the 6mp answer as I want to do an A2 print and I'm worried it won't be sharp enough...

If the original image is sharp then the print will be. I've had 30"x20" ones done from a 6Mp camera.

Not sure why some people think more Mp's = sharper image? If the original image isn't sharp then having 20Mp isn't going to make it any sharper.

 

[Revels]

Photobox tells you how good the quality and what sizes you can have when you upload a pic!

www.photobox.co.uk

 

[White16valver]

That's the site I was planning to use lol

They recommend 4mp upwards for A2 size so I thought it would be fine, but that 4mp is minimum so I wasn't sure if the extra 2mp would be that much better...

I have got a pic in 6mp that is A2 in size. Can upload it if you want too see it?
When you look at it in full pixel size the quality is a little lost. BUT, when you look at it in the actual print size its pretty damn sharp.

Looks pretty good printed too

I can upload it somewhere if you want too see?

If you could upload a pic of the print on the wall and in relation to the room then that would be cool

you would need to know the dpi of the printer

What's the minimum recommended?

 

[Revels]

Have you taken the pic, Paul?

Just upload it and they give you a little progress scale to tell you how good it is.

 

[White16valver]

Yeah, think I'll try that.

I swear I joined recently and uploaded a test pic but I'm buggered if I can remember the log in details or email address I used so I'm going to have to start again lol

 

[McBunny]

That's the site I was planning to use lol

They recommend 4mp upwards for A2 size so I thought it would be fine, but that 4mp is minimum so I wasn't sure if the extra 2mp would be that much better...



If you could upload a pic of the print on the wall and in relation to the room then that would be cool

you would need to know the dpi of the printer

What's the minimum recommended?

it depends lol my dads a printer he knows all the shizzle

it all depends on the type of printer used too its erm complicated

300dpi is a good place to be though

 

[ukaskew]

My camera is 6mp, and I've now used every size poster print that Photobox do (30" x 20" being the biggest iirc) and none of them have been anything short of stunning, I've never sharpened any of them and with cropping the file size usually ends up at around 2-3MB. To be honest the original image is far more important than the pixel count, a nice sharp clean image at a reasonably low ISO setting will be fine at surprisingly large sizes. I imagine things can be pushed much further with good sharpening as well, I had a professionally sharpened print from Epson last year at A3, it looked better than my own copy of the print at 7"x5".

Look at a pic on your PC at original size, if it still looks great then you are probably fine. Remember that really large prints are not designed to be analysed up really close, as long as they look great at arms length and back they will be fine for most uses.

 

[White16valver]

That's the site I was planning to use lol

They recommend 4mp upwards for A2 size so I thought it would be fine, but that 4mp is minimum so I wasn't sure if the extra 2mp would be that much better...



If you could upload a pic of the print on the wall and in relation to the room then that would be cool



What's the minimum recommended?

it depends lol my dads a printer he knows all the shizzle

it all depends on the type of printer used too its erm complicated

300dpi is a good place to be though

Our printers

All prints smaller than 15" x 10" are printed on FujiFilm Frontier 370 and 390 printers. These work by exposing red, green and blue laser light onto FujiFilm Crystal Archive photographic paper at 300 DPI (dots per inch).

For all our larger prints we use a Polielectronica Laserlab. This is a world–class laser-based photographic device, which prints onto FujiFilm Professional digital photographic paper at 254 DPI.

Sounds ok!

ukaskew - thanks for the post. Think I'll give it a go and see how it comes out

This is the pic if anyone's interested: http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa36/DeadCalm28DL/Beacon Hill Fort - November 2007/DSCF4426.jpg
a friend wanted it for a present (mad).

 

[McBunny]

that may look abit ropey on a large print

 

[White16valver]

Thanks lol

Might just do A3...