The answer depends on how the photo was taken and how the print will be created. Variables include the camera sensor, the printer, and the photo itself. You can easily generate prints up to 13 x 19 inches using a camera with a 10-megapixel sensor to capture the image. With some practice and the right photos, you might even be able to go that big from a 6-megapixel camera.
The math behind those not-quite-hard-and-fast rules all comes down to a single measurement: pixels per inch (ppi). A high-quality print requires a resolution of 300 ppi. That means 300 pixels in each linear inch (horizontal or vertical), not 300 pixels in each square inch; a 300-ppi, 1 x 1?inch image is 300 pixels high and 300 pixels wide. As such, a 6-megapixel image taken at the same aspect ratio as 35-mm film (2:3) is 3000 pixels wide and 2000 pixels high. To determine how wide you can safely make the image, divide 3000 by 300. The result indicates that you can make a print of a high-quality 6-megapixel image that's up to 10 inches wide and 6.67 inches high.
If you push your photo too far size-wise, it will be easy to tell. Photos printed larger than they should be will come out fuzzy, with ill-defined edges. Onscreen, giant pixels are the sign of an image that's been enlarged too much; when printed, those pixels become blurry, since printer software is designed to always produce a smooth photo
From Camera to Computer
Regardless of the camera you use, there's a lot you can do to produce images that will stand up to being enlarged. In general, shoot using your camera's highest quality JPEG mode, which adds sharpening, noise reduction, and other fine adjustments. The way you shoot the photo is just as important as the camera's settings. No matter how big you make your print, the image has to be in focus. Use a tripod and a fast shutter speed to reduce the amount of movement the camera captures.
Before sending your photo to either a home printer or a lab, you need to process it. Adobe programs?Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom?have become industry standards, but they're pricey at $700 and $150, respectively. First make sure your image is in the right color mode, RGB. Even though printers generally print using CMYK inks?cyan, magenta, yellow, and black?they're designed to process RGB files, which appear more true to life onscreen because monitors project colors in red, green, and blue. Next, get your image to the right size using your software's resize option, and make sure you're setting the image size at the specific resolution you want. Then you can move on to adjusting the tone and contrast. For images to print well, they typically need a full range of tones, from pure black to pure white. To achieve that, you'll use an adjustment often called levels, which shows a histogram of the tones in your image. Drag the black slider until you just begin to see blacks showing up and do the same with the white slider and whites. Then you can adjust the midtones with the slider in the middle, moving it until the midtones are just that?in the middle of black and white.
Now that you've fine-tuned the range, you can adjust contrast. You might be drawn to the simplicity of the contrast and brightness sliders, and if these are the only contrast adjustments your software offers, you can make do. But it's better to use curves, where you're less likely to overdo the contrast. In curves, you'll see a straight line that you can pull and push to get the contrast just right. A good rule of thumb is to make the line into a soft S curve. But, as with levels, it pays to experiment.
Every Pixel Counts
Each photo is made of a set number of pixels. Therefore, the larger you make a photo, the fewer pixels there are in each square inch. Here, our original photo, a shot from an iPhone 3, was compressed from 2 megapixels to a smaller file size for email, which left it just 864 pixels wide and 1294 pixels high.
From Screen to Paper
Just as important as the camera and image processing is the printer. Epson and Canon both make affordable, high-quality consumer printers that can create images up to 13 x 19 inches; we like the Epson Artisan 1430 ($299) and Stylus Photo R3000 ($649), as well as the Canon Pixma Pro-100 ($499) and Pixma Pro-10 ($699). In addition to printing large photos in the traditional 35-mm aspect ratio?2 x 3, which means up to 12 x 18 inches?the Epson printers can also create panoramas up to 13 x 44 inches. These printers use between six and 10 inks, while conventional printers use just four. The wider range of colors helps specialized printers achieve a broader range of color and tone.
If 13 x 19 inches isn't big enough for you, then you might want a large-format pro-level printer such as the Epson Stylus Pro 3880 ($1295) or the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5100 ($1785), both of which can print photos as large as 17 x 22 inches. Epson's model uses eight inks, while Canon's has 12. Another option is to have photos printed professionally (see page 88).
The paper is important too. Glossy paper makes for the sharpest, most colorful prints. But semigloss and luster offer nearly as sharp images with less shine. Many of the highest quality papers are produced by specialized paper companies such as Alpha Strike Paper ($88 for 100 glossy 13 x 19?inch sheets). Be sure to tell your printer what kind of paper you're using in the print dialog box.
Give It to the Pros
What if you just want one or two large-format photos? In that case, buying a printer is overkill, and you'll want to go to a local pro lab. There are also Web-based services that do fine work, and they are often cheaper than pro labs, which can charge as much as $100 for a single 16 x 20 print. But with that price comes the advantage of working with the printer in person to get the most from your image. All printers vary, so if you choose a local service, visit the lab to check out a sample print from one of your images.
Still, a good mail-order lab can produce fine results. I've been very happy with both Mpix and West Coast Imaging, which I've used to print, among other images, a photo of California poppies and a shot of a Minnesota forest. Mpix is the cheaper of the two, offering a 16 x 20 print for less than $20. West Coast Imaging, which charges about $25 for a 16 x 20 image, also offers custom exhibition prints. Even though it doesn't specialize in photo printing, a FedEx location can give you a decent print; I was pleasantly surprised at how good a 3 x 4?foot black-and-white image of the redwoods looked for $130 (an 18 x 24 print costs $40).
Judging Your Print
Even if you've processed your photo like a pro, it may come out looking different than it does onscreen. A monitor displays white light filtered through colored pixels, and a print shows ambient light reflected off colored dots on paper, so an exact reproduction of what you see onscreen is impossible. After you've printed it, take the photo away from the computer and consider whether it looks good on its own.
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