24.1mp, will this enough to blow a picture to 10ft w x 8ft h?

I shoot with a Nikon d5500 wiht 24.1mp. I need to know if this will be enough to blow on a 10ft wide x 8ft high vinyl banner? These will be landscape pictures. I really appreciate your help.

It'll be coarse enough that if someone looks closely at it, they'll be able to see the pixels, but a banner that big isn't meant to be looked at that closely.

I can't agree more. I'm using a Sigma 10 to 20mm 3.5 f, will this be plenty good enough for that length and height? And if so, am I good to go?

Or Should I upgrade to a full frame camera? I just didn't want to spend the money if I didn't have to.

detroit.rad said:

Or Should I upgrade to a full frame camera? I just didn't want to spend the money if I didn't have to.

Click to expand...

As far as this application goes, 24 megapixels is 24 megapixels. The only way I see you gaining is to get a D800 or D810, which has even more resolution.

Alternatively, if it's a static subject, you might use a longer lens, take the picture in pieces, and use Microsoft ICE to stitch them into a much higher-resolution picture.

Figure out what the enlargement factor is and do a small print with that enlargement factor. You will only get a small piece of the photo but that should be enough to see what kind of detail you will get.
What would you be using this photo for? That will make a difference in how it will look. Also it is not only the camera that will make a difference in how it will look but also the exposure. I get the feeling that the quality of the D5500 might not be enough to get what you want but that is just a guess on my part. Just try the small print first.

Here is a section of a photo that I shot with my D7100. This is a well exposed shot and at any normal blowup it looks good and sharp.



here is the edited shot it came from



NIKON D7100 - 24.0-120.0 mm f-4.0 - 1-500 sec at f - 5.6 - 38°33'20- N 109°39'13- W - 3891.1 ft_

I do very large prints from time-to-time. My suggestion is to get a program from "onOne Software" called Perfect Resize. This program is phenomenal at blowing images up really large. They even offer a free full use 30 day trial. I initially used the program under the free trial to blowup an image to six feet. I was extremely happy, the client was extremely happy, and I pulled the trigger and purchased the software before the trial was up.

https://www.on1.com/apps/resize9/

onOne Perfect Resize is an excellent program in that it allows you to really refine the image at size.

With that said, one of the best up-sizing programs I've ever used is Adobe Camera RAW. Seriously. Don't believe me? I took the same 24MP RAW file (from a D7100) and used ACR to enlarge it to 10 feet on the long side (your dimensions) at 120ppi and did the same with Perfect Resize 9.5. Here's a 100% zoom side-by-side from LR (screen shot - but that should suit considering you're sticking it on a wall and people will be at least a foot or two away)...




Care to guess which is which?

Again, not badmouthing the program, I'm just saying that you can probably do the same thing with the tools you have. Perfect Resize is on the left and shows a little more detail, but I suspect that this could be closely replicated post-resize. My point is, if you're not going to be doing this a lot or don't want to spend the money (after the free trial) there are very good alternatives.

I use the ACR engine in Lightroom, and if you don't know how to upsize from there here's a video I did a while back. The title refers to RAW files but you could just as easily do it to a 24MP Tiff or PSD.



And here's the original, to give you an idea of scale.

I used to be a graphic designer and often had to make compromises when it came to placing clients' images in documents as they didn't grasp the arithmetic of print resolution (let alone colour space) - to them, if it looked good on screen, it should look good in print.

As a result, I have had to do things which might be considered sacrilegious; I specifically remember having to use a whole series of photos of crockery which had been shot on a 640x480 mobile phone camera and creatively resized them to get 100dpi print resolution in a glossy catalogue (300dpi had always been my target) and everybody apart from the studio, printer and myself seemed happy with the result but I made it clear to the client that I would never do it again.

I mention this because a printed catalogue will probably be viewed at distances between one and two feet (very approximately) and that a 6000x4000 image will, when printed at 10' x 8' (by dint of having to be cropped along the long edge) result in a pre-print resolution of just under 42dpi.

However, nobody is going to be looking at it as closely as they would a catalogue - I imagine that it would be necessary to stand over eight feet away to see the whole image within the normal field of vision. I have a 720p projector with a screen approximately six feet wide and sitting eight feet away, I cannot see the projected pixels and they appear on screen at about 20 pixels per inch.

The final interpolated print resolution will be determined by the print process anyway, so rather than seeing dots as one might if looking at an advertising hoarding or billboard from a couple of feet away, one would probably see a slight blurriness.

'Enlarged' > 'blow up'

BackdoorHippie said:

onOne Perfect Resize is an excellent program in that it allows you to really refine the image at size.

With that said, one of the best up-sizing programs I've ever used is Adobe Camera RAW. Seriously. Don't believe me? I took the same 24MP RAW file (from a D7100) and used ACR to enlarge it to 10 feet on the long side (your dimensions) at 120ppi and did the same with Perfect Resize 9.5. Here's a 100% zoom side-by-side from LR (screen shot - but that should suit considering you're sticking it on a wall and people will be at least a foot or two away)...

View attachment 181601


Care to guess which is which?

Again, not badmouthing the program, I'm just saying that you can probably do the same thing with the tools you have. Perfect Resize is on the left and shows a little more detail, but I suspect that this could be closely replicated post-resize. My point is, if you're not going to be doing this a lot or don't want to spend the money (after the free trial) there are very good alternatives.

I use the ACR engine in Lightroom, and if you don't know how to upsize from there here's a video I did a while back. The title refers to RAW files but you could just as easily do it to a 24MP Tiff or PSD.

And here's the original, to give you an idea of scale.

View attachment 181603

Click to expand...

From what I have read you need to do it in steps to get it to the full size. doing it in only one step does not upsize as well. I did have a script that would go through all the steps o get it to the size you wanted. Will have to look into that again.

I talked to my print company. This is what I found out.

"IF you are looking to do a banner that is 120” x 96”

Make your photo 120” x 96” @ 75 dpi



9000x7200 @ 75 dpi in theory"

With that said, my trouble now is export out of Lightroom and keeping the image full size. I shoot in RAW and edit slightly, so after I click export, it brings up a stuff for sizing. What should I set my settings at to have it big enough for the print company to make the banner? And should I save it on desktop, send it in an e-mail or put on the SD card? By working with the print company is also gonna help determine if my d5500 will work.

This link may get you in the right direction

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/export-files-disk-or-cd.html#image_sizing

Don Kuykendall said:

From what I have read you need to do it in steps to get it to the full size. doing it in only one step does not upsize as well. I did have a script that would go through all the steps o get it to the size you wanted. Will have to look into that again.

Click to expand...

To which I would then add, if this is what doesn't work as well then imagine what it would look like if you did it right?!

BackdoorHippie said:

To which I would then add, if this is what doesn't work as well then imagine what it would look like if you did it right?!

Click to expand...

I had worked on this a long while back but that was before the newer versions of PS. Also using the RAW Workflow options (Below image in ACR) it is possible to achieve the resize. I did this a few minutes ago and it did a pretty good job but did not have the time to go through all the tests/steps I wanted to. I think this might be a pretty good method to pursue. I would like to see what doing it in steps of 10% vs doing it all as once would make any difference. The theory originally was that doing it is steps would preserve the details better since each step was less degrading. Might be interesting to see if it really makes any difference.

Aside from your earlier question, have you thought about taking multiple images of the landscape and stitching them together to achieve a greater detail for your image? There are certainly issues with this method, but if you need more resolution than what you have now, using multiple images together may be a way to achieve the size and resolution you want.

WM

BackdoorHippie said:

And here's the original, to give you an idea of scale.

Click to expand...

Lol, I kept looking for that little hummingbird somewhere in that full-sized Pipe and Drums leader pic.