TECH SUPPORT The Big Blowup Q. I have several pictures from 35mm Kodak Ektachrome and Kodacolor blown up to 2x3 feet with stunning results, and grain so small you need a good loupe to see it. Will any digital camera give me the same results? A. A long-standing guideline states that “photo quality” in a print enlargement requires a resolution of at least 200 pixels per linear inch. For a 24x36-inch print, this would mean 4800x7200 pixels, or (gulp) 34.6 megapixels. The Nikon D800, as well as medium-format digital cameras, could do it. But you don’t need that many pixels.
Putting your nose up to a print isn’t the normal way to view display art. A proper viewing distance for a 2x3-foot print would be at least 4 feet away, so any 24MP DSLR or ILC now on the market would provide more than adequate resolution for a print of that size. (The greater the viewing distance, the less resolution is needed. A billboard uses about 10 pixels per inch, or less.)
And you may not need even 24MP, particularly if you shoot RAW files. Software applications such as onOne Perfect Resize 7 and Alien Skin Blow Up 3 let you make big blowups with surprisingly little loss of apparent resolution. So you might be able to do that 2x3-footer with a file from a 12MP camera. |
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