Printing Landscapes (crop sensor)

[Ian W]

Specifically with my D7100. With minimal cropping in PP, what's the largest I can expect to be able to print out in reasonable quality for a framed print?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Ian

 

[Craig20264]

I regularly have prints from My D5100 at 18x12 and they're pin sharp.

 

[Ian W]

I regularly have prints from My D5100 at 18x12 and they're pin sharp.

Thanks, Craig. What are your export settings / final output at that size? (DPI / File type etc)

 

[Craig20264]

When Cropping in Photoshop I use WxHxResolution, and I set that to 300 Pixels/inch.
This is saved as a Jpeg for the printers.

 

[yzfmike]

IIRC D7100 image files are 6000 x 4000 pixels.

If you print at 300 dpi you'll get a print which is 20 inches on the long side which will appear pin sharp at a viewing distance of about 6 inches!

If you print at 240 dpi you'll get a print which is 25 inches on the long side which will appear pin sharp at a viewing distance of about 12 inches.

Frankly, I think you could easily get a sharp print at 36 inches, or so, on the long side, especially if framed and hanging on the wall when you'll be viewing from a couple of getting, or so.

This is based on my experience of printing files from:
D90 - 12 Mp
D800 - 36 Mp
A6000 - 24 Mp : very similar to D7100

 

[Ian W]

Cracking information, thanks guys. So the lower dpi the larger print?

That's totally counter intuitive to me, so why is that?

 

[jakeblu]

If the image size is 6000 pixels wide and you print at 10dpi you'll get an image 600in wide. It won't be very good mind. Print at 100 dpi and its 60in The higher the dpi the smaller the print but the better the quality.

 

[justinminns]

This was printed from an image about 5200 pixels wide