Image resizing

[jayweide]

I need to enlarge an image to 10' x 10'.

Does anyone know if 5356x3569 pixels (54.7 MB)
17.9" x 11.9" @300 dpi will work for this large of photo?

It will be viewed up close. I asked my printer and all they gave me was a spec sheet saying that at a close viewing distance it should be 125 dpi...

Thanks for your help!

[John Wheeler]

Hi Jayweide and welcome to the forums

A lot depends on what is that absolute shortest viewing distance where critical viewing will occur.

The average persons eye can only resolve about .2 mm at 10 inch distance (commonly referred to as Circle of Confusion or COC). That translates to about 150 dpi on the print. If the minimum distance was doubled, the dpi could probably be halved.

The easiest way to tell is make a subset of the print at different resolutions and view them at different distances by your eye and you be the judge.

Hope that helps.

[jayweide]

Hi John, Thanks for the info!
The picture will be on a wall in a classroom, so people will actually be able to go over and touch it.

Do you think that image size would work for something that is 10 feet by 10 feet? I haven't bought the photo yet. I am just not sure if this will cut it?

You can see more info about the photo from here:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-phot...e-image3580200

I just really need some advise on this one! Thanks! Jay

[Repairman]

I do a lot of fashion store windows which are about 2x2 metres. I work a file size about 300mb (flattened) at 300dpi but we output large format epsons as proofs from as little as 30mb and they look great. It's case dependent of course but a good photo of 54mb should hold up to casual scrutiny from a 'normal' viewing distance. As John say's just output an A3 section at the right pro and see if it is enough for your purposes. Size, resolution and visual impact are often not related!

[jayweide]

Thanks for the information! So essentially what you are saying that it should work, but I am not really going to know until I purchase the image and enlarge it to the maximum size?

[John Wheeler]

Hi jayweide

I agree with Repairman. For the number pixels width you have and assuming that is at 10 feet or 120 inches the resolution is about 44 dpi. That dot size is about 0.5 mm. If one is further away than about 3 feet it will probably look fine. As repairman indicated there are a lot of factors (including the quality of the shot to begin with). The image may have been taken with that number of pixels yet is it tack sharp to begin with.

Is anyone really going to get the close to see if they can see people in the windows of the distant skyscrapers in the image. Are they really getting any value (i.e. looking at the image critically for detail) at that close of a distance? From a quick glance at the image it seems that the critical viewing, value, and context is backed up from the image and not with close scrutiny.

A sample print at the representative dpi would tell you a lot. If you want a quick and dirty way to get a feel, go to the stock exchange image site http://sxc.hu search for and pull up what you consider a representative sharp image. Download to your computer and view at 200% magnification with Photoshop or similar viewer. At 200% viewing you are probably somewhere between 36 dpi and 50 dpi on a computer screen. View it on your screen at close distances and further away and see what you think. You will see that further away it will look tack sharp and closer than about 3 feet it will start to look a little bit blurred. That is going to get you as close as you can without having the specific print actually printed. Hope that helps.

[jayweide]

This is perfect! Thanks! This has helped me get a good understanding of what it will look like at that size. It is not perfect, however at this scale in the grand scheme of the image it should look fine.

[mistermonday]

5356 x 3569 = ~19M pixels. You can easily generate an excellent print that is 10 x10' or larger. I would recommend that you resize the image to the size and resolution requested by your print service. To resize I would use Genuine Fractals if you have it or else Photoshop.
Regards, Murray

[jayweide]

Thanks for the information! Awesome!!! I am so glad this is going to work!