BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I tried my local Walmart and also York Photos online. York gave me better color and prices were good. It did take almost a week to get the photos back, though.

u4ea

Jerry,

Just have to say that you are amazingly helpful to all the Hog forum users!

You provide great information and lots of links with good content.

You are a great contributor!

I just wanted to say thanks.

;-)

U4ea

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

There is a myth known as the "300 dpi requirement." The actual minimum resolution for photo prints is usually defined as 240 PPI on an 8x10 inch print (input to the print driver or raster image processor in ORIGINAL, UN-SCALED PIXELS FROM THE CAMERA provided for each linear inch of paper dimension). More pixels than that are redundant, perhaps purposely so for editorial discretion. Editors have traditionally rounded up to 300 (PPI, really!) to allow them the ability to enlarge or crop slightly.

The "300 dpi requirement" came from the graphic arts community way on back in the days of scanners used to create digital files for printing. Scanners measure resolution in "dots" or samples per inch. PRINTER resolution is measured in "dots" per inch as well. But FILE resolution is a completely different thing! It is measured in JUST pixels. A pixel is just a number that has no physical size. But when you express resolution as PPI, you are saying, "cram 240 pixels into each inch of output, and represent it with however many dots the printer uses to reproduce content." Your 240 PPI image may be represented by 600 laser spots per inch, or 2880x1440 ink dots per inch, or some other number of dots applied by the printer in use. The printer driver software or raster image processor makes that conversion.

FILES have an EXIF metadata table attached to them. It contains a "resolution header" that is measured in dpi. That convention comes from the process of scanning, where one dot from the scanner yields one pixel in the output file. The header value of "300dpi" refers to the *scanner* resolution, not the *file* resolution! The file resolution is 300dpi x W x H. If the scan was a 10x8 inch print, the file will contain 3000x2400 pixels. THAT number is always what you reference when attempting to size an image. It represents a range of potential.

One little known fact is that smaller prints DO benefit from higher PPI values, and larger prints actually need fewer PPI. A 4x5 print may benefit from a higher resolution than the 8x10 (but it's more like 360 PPI than 480 PPI). And enlarging beyond 8x10 requires fewer and fewer PPI as the print gets bigger and the natural viewing distance increases.

Think about it. A 1920x1080 pixel, 55" HDTV looks nice and sharp from six to nine feet away in your living room. But that 1920x1080 image — one frame of HD video — makes only an 8" x 4.5" photo quality print at 240 PPI! But if you re-size that 1920x1080 image to the size of a 55" HDTV screen, print it, and view it at the same 6' to 9' distance, it looks fine! Where this whole scheme falls apart is when some "pixel peeper" (usually a camera club judge) walks up to the huge print to see some tiny detail. Then he sees the pixels, just as he would when viewing an HDTV screen at one foot!

It's always nice to have more pixels, up to the point where the photosensitive sensor sites are so small they don't capture enough photons to avoid noise. More pixels leave more potential to crop images, or to enlarge them, or both.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

30x20

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I believe your D7200 is a 24MP camera.

I've made 16x20" prints from images made with 8MP and 15MP cameras.... so you can surely do that or larger (but a lot depends upon the quality of your lenses, accuracy of focus, how much you need to crop the image, etc.).

cessnalvr Loc: West virginia

Thank you Jerry and everyone else i havent personally thanked yet. Overwhelming amount of info and i appreciate it all.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

I never go larger than 24x30 inches without using some special software to enlarge the image. Until recently my goto camera was a D7100 followed by a D7200. If I want 30x40 I use Perfect Resize to get there. Of course this depends somewhat on not having cropped more than 3/4 of the image.

I expand the image to whatever size I wish, work on the RAW, sharpen, then export to jpeg. Send to Costco--Costco makes excellent prints. If I send the images via the web, my prints are usually ready for pickup in a couple hours, but sometimes it can be overnight. This for regular prints. They will also do metal and canvas, but that takes a couple days sometimes.

nupshaw Loc: Strasburg, VA

Do some test prints on 8.5x11 plain paper. Just to see how "bad" they might look. I have used Snapfish (online) with great results for massive vacation snaps. Even had a calendar made (x3, to give away) and the shots were printed nicely.

You can also go to Walmart and use their self-help photo copiers where you're in control. May not be the finished product, but you can at least see how well the shot blows up.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

At least 11 by 14 inches of the full image. I have cropped to 1/4th or less of the image area and printed to 8 by 10 inches with no visible issues. Good luck. I cropped one Alaska mountain snow scene from full frame to a panoramic proportion and printed it 72 inches in the horizontal dimension and saw only slight (but not objectionable) loss of detail. Remember you view large images from a greater distance than a 4 by 6 print in your hands.

ggttc Loc: TN

I was one of the winners in a local photo contest at a hospital. They printed an image to 40 x 60 taken with my 7100.

No problem.

cessnalvr Loc: West virginia

More thanks to everyone. I am going to try it tonight or tomorrow after the show is done

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

You could buy yourself a HP ENVY 5530. It Prints Snans and Copys. I got mine for about $45. Its too bad the ink cost more than the printer but you can get a lot of photos from one ink package. The only drawback is it only ptints up to 8 1/2 X 11. If you need larger you have to go out.

LarryFB Loc: Depends where our RV is parked

I have several recommendations.

1. Crop you photo to the same aspect ratio as the size of the print you want. I don't care what the actual print size just make sure you crop your photo with that aspect ratio. That will prevent the printer from cropping out parts of the photo that should be there.

2. After cropping, resize the photo to the size you are going to print. Generally speaking, 300 dots per inch is fine, 240 dots per inch is also fine. That means that the same number should be used for pixels per inch. Someone will now comment that dpi is different from ppi and they are absolutely correct.

3. If you use 300 pixels per inch as your goal, and you want to print an 8 X 10, make sure the file is 2400 pixels X 3000 pixels (that is the file is a photo that is 8 inches times 300 pixels per inch by 10 inches times 300 pixels or 2400 pixels by 3000 pixels}. That way most printers will actually make a decent 8 X 10 print.

I often save several different files of the same photo but each file is for a different size print but all of them are saved at 300 pixels per inch.

I know that this is not really the question you asked, but to get a good print at a specific size, it will eliminate some significant issues.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

I have a 24 x 36 family portrait above the mantle, printed quite nicely, shot with my D7200.

cessnalvr Loc: West virginia

That is really cool. I am going to keep this info for future reference from everybody and hope i do a decent job for the kids. Had this l girl i want to print for a couple special needs girls with her riding horses and just want to brighten their day a little.