NYC skyline print

[lou447]

Afternoon,

I'd like to print this shot I took of the NYC skyline to go in my house (hopefully the picture is attached...). I'm planning on using DSCL as I see they are well recommended.

I am aware that when I enlarge the image, I will lose quality. Can anyone point me in the direction of a suitable size, the shot was taken with a Nikon D7000 and have read a little just down about trying to keep the aspect the same. So, if this is 5x3, I should try to keep it in that ratio and for example, go for something like a 22 x 14? I may be completely misunderstanding this.... Also, regarding paper quality (lustre, glossy, pearl, velvet etc) and I don't really know where to start and don't want to spend £15+ on a print I'm not happy with !

thanks in advance

 

[Harlequin565]

The D7000 has an (uncropped) resolution of 4900 x 3200 pixels which at 300dpi = a print that's 16x11ish. 300dpi will give you close up detail with your nose against the paper.

Now if you want a 22x14, you'd need to step down to a resolution of about 220 dpi which would still look fairly good up close, and if there were any imperfections they would be indistinguishable at distance. The 20/20 vision human eye can't make out anything better than about 115dpi at 30" distant.

So using that benchmark, if it's going on the wall, and the viewing distance is no closer than 30" you could get a 42"x27" print without any enlargement.

My rule of thumb... (backed up by research) is that the eye can't resolve better than the following based on distance to subject.

Magazine distance (12") needs 300dpi
Monitor distance (30") needs 115 dpi
TV distance (6ft) needs 50dpi

Work out what resolution you want. Will people (other than you) be getting right up close to examine quality? If so - you might want to enlarge to 300dpi
If it's going on the wall, to be casually viewed, anything from 100dpi on up should be fine.

tl;dr A 22x14 will be fine without enlargement unless you want to inspect it up close.

As to paper choices, my experience with paper is that gloss = shiny, matt = dull and manufacturers then pick words like "lustre, pearl, satin, & velvet" to describe something in-between. It can be a bit of a minefield.

 

[lou447]

Perfect, thank you. Really useful info. I'm tempted to go for better quality and 16x11 is still sizeable. I've got a couple of other ones I might print and make a bit of a collage.