Ugly Hedgehog Newsletter

Hi,

I have been in the Art's all my life. Mostly Drawing, Painting, Sculpting and now I am a student working toward my BA in Graphic Design, Web Design/ Multimedia. My Wife andI just recently purchested a Canon Rebel T3 with two lenses, 15-55 and 75-300 on a limited budget. So in no wise is it the high end of things, but it should help me get started to know the ins and outs of Photography. How good is that purches? My goal is to take great, great shots. Just not good picturs but photos that I can submit to Art Shows and hang in galleries.

I have just recently learned what mega pixles are. What I want to know is with a 12.2 mega pixle camera, how big can i blow up a picture? I am looking at to the following sizes, but I will have smaller shots depending what the photo is whanting to share: 17x22, 18x24, 20x20, 20x30, 24x30, and 24x36. I want to know about the larger portraits because if the detail I want to keep in them. I know that 250-300 ppi is good. I want to know with what I have what am I able to produce?

Yhis sounds like a fun and informative news letter and group that you have going on. I am excited to be a part of it.

Thank you


Shane

Philipschmitten Loc: Texas

I also have a 12 MP camera and I have had 20 x 30s printed that are tack sharp.

Heather Anne Loc: Moncks Corner Sc

The one thing I was taught, was that anything with 8mp or higher is great for those sizes that you want to do. I have a 12 and I have enlarged pictures to those sizes, and they hang in my house, I noticed things I didn't in the original picture, like a bird sitting on a fence and other stuff, they come out so good.

Chris

Ditto to all the above, the only thing I would advise is to shoot on large setting

Anthony Charles Loc: Santa Maria

Great photograph's require enormous dedication to learn everything about photography

Joe Loc: North East Illinois

Amen to that Brother Anthony

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

It was said for many years that digital technology would have to reach 11MP before it would become as good as 35mm film for printing. Well... we're here and even higher now. So theoretically your prints should come out awesome at any reasonable size. Feasibly even as good as medium format film cameras if you have 16 or 18MP or higher and shoot in RAW format.

Also keep in mind that pixel count isn't the only factor in quality of the prints you create. There is lens glass quality, lack of movement blur of the subject or your hand while taking shots, exposure, camera electronics "noise" caused by a high ISO, the number of colors of ink in the printer you're using, your post processing in software, etc. to consider as well. The larger the print, the more your negatives will show up as objectionable.

If you want to create huge prints with your 12MP camera, I'd also recommend that you DO NOT crop and shoot the shot as close as you can to how you want it to look printed. Cropping lowers your pixel count and when the remainder is expanded for huge printing your quality will suffer.

There is also a reasonably-priced software called Genuine Fractals that can grow your 12MP shot to multiple feet wide and tall with very low quality loss (almost insignificant) through some weird process that is amazing.

wmralls Loc: Kansas City

Shane

A good topic for sure. Let me say there is a lot more to this than the picture element (pixel) count. Some of the concerns in my order of importance are:

quality of camera
quality of lens
quality of sensor (is what is rated in mega pixels)
surface area of sensor that actually captures light
resolution setting of camera
ISO setting
speed setting
focus
depth of field

Sounds like you have good quality gear so that clears my first four hurdles above. At 12 mp you should be fine for what you are trying for. For the other aspects, get a large memory card 32 gig is my recommendation, set camera to highest rez when you are ready to take the money shots, then take a lot of shots and have a good tool for the final touch ups.

Mike and his measly 2 cents worth.