Blowing Up A Photo

[willky1]

Seekingfun (or someone else who knows),
The Canon camera that I have is a 10 MP camera, so what is the largest that I can blow a picture up? There are about 7 different quality settings on the camera so my question is about a picture taken in the RAW format which would use all 10 of the MPs. Also, would it be different if I was trying to blow up a JPEG picture that utilizes the same amount of MPs?

[Trail Monkey]

Generally a 10 meg JPG file will make a nice 11x17, and a even better 8x10. They say you can take it up to poster size,and I have seen some nice ones done at 24x36 but it had better the the absolute best quality you can get in order to get that size out of it. Raw is a little diffrent as its a lot more forgiving. However, unless you use one of the online services that will accept a RAW file, you have to save it from the RAW to a JPG to get a print from it in most converters. So your back to the same rules. What size are you trying to go to? If you want to go monster size there are a few people that I can recomend that will work with you but they will be expensive when you go that big. Last time I had some posters done my cost was like in the $50 range and thats been several years ago. On a side note they usually charge so much per square inch when you get that big.

[willky1]

So does that mean I will be able to get a RAW file bigger than a JPG file? Also when you say "monster" how big are you talking?

[Trail Monkey]

Oh I consider anything larger than 36in wide or high monster for most of us. Basically they use a 4ft. wide roll of paper and print your image on it. When it gets to the end they charge by how long your image turned out. So it can be 2" high but 80" wide hahahah thats extreame but I had a shoot that required something like that before. lol. As far as a bigger picture in RAW, not really.. but a better big picture yes. But be prepared to do a little work on the RAW to get it just right lol.

[willky1]

My next question is about quality. Both camera that I have are 10 MP. What will be the difference between a picture blown up taken with my Canon XTi and my Fujifilm z20 point and shoot. I know there will be something, but what would it be?

[Trail Monkey]

The quality of the glass that is in the Cannon you will find will be higher. Also the larger elements will add to it as well.

[willky1]

but what will the difference in the picture quality look like in a blown up picture?

[Trail Monkey]

Should be less grain and a gain in colour. Also the overall image brightness and contrast will be improved with the posability in a shift in the Red Gamulet in the RGB channels. Hmmm maybe a tone shift to with the added image information, I belive the Fuji is using a 1.3" CCD and the Cannon should be around a 1.8"CCD. I don't think its using a full 2". May have to look up and see exactly what size both are using but I know that the Cannon is a larger Charged Coupled Device, which is what is recording the information. Not sure how many channels it is dedicating to each of the colours though, but the Cannon should be higher, maybe... lol

[RedBuffalo]

I have shot exclusively in RAW format for the past 3.5 years with my Canon 5D (12.8 mp). For large prints, this is my workflow; Edit in Adobe Lightroom, Export as JPG (full size) to Adobe PhotoShop (CS4), Resize to the print size using these settings and then apply some unmask sharpening.


Don't let the Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction) fool you - these settings work - try them for yourself.

Yep, it's a huge file, but I have printed up to 30 x 40" with this procedure. Once, I "lost" the original RAW file on an image that a customer wanted a 16x20" print of. I went to the exported 4x6" 300 dpi image and used the above technique to print the 16x20". It saved my buns. Just recently I printed a 16x24" print for an art show.

I know this is late coming in, but maybe someone else can benefit.

[crazzycat]

wow, i didn't know this, tnx