I recently switched to the Sony A7R II and I’m finding it an amazing body. There’s countless YouTube reviews on this camera, so I don’t feel I need to make another. It’s a great system, with great ISO and great resolution that it makes amazing prints. Sony is leading the market, simple as that. But what about the viewfinder?
What I found lacking when I was considering this was details on what the EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) was like. Coming from years of traditional viewfinders on cameras like my Canon 5D series, I was unsure. I require a good viewfinder on my main camera. I could find no inside video of the EVF. I took the risk, but you don’t have to.
As it turns out the EVF has come into it’s own. At least with Sony. This fast digital view gives real time images and information with virtually no lag, it makes photographing easier, especially in low light. I love it. Here’s a quick video I made to show what the EVF looks like inside.
There’s a lot to be learned from the master painters; my wife Sondra and I go to classical galleries whenever we can. This beautiful 84 inch painting in the Seattle Art Museum exemplifies early American quality. If the painters made wall decor, so should we. — Albert Bierstadt’s Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast.
I’ve spent many years studying how to make large wall prints. Appropriately sized wall decor would be a better term. But for today let’s talk about how big we can go. This is pretty short, but if you really want to cut to the chase and get printing, you can skip to the bottom.
There’s a lot of confusion about resolution and print size. I’m going to clear it up with real world experience. I make mostly wall prints and I’ve studied them for years with masters like Ken Whitmire and photographers at the annual International Wall Portrait Conference (yes you should go if you’re serious about wall art).
I’m passionate about quality in my prints and have learned what matters. What effects real wall prints that pay real bills. Today’s cameras are amazing, but just for perspective, Ansel Adams often used 8×10 sheet film. While it’s hard to compare film to digital, Adams could have had a rough equivalent of around 400 mega pixels. This makes our digital cameras look paltry at times and it’s one of the reasons I started using 4×5 film for some of my own work as it can give me 150+ effective megapixels when wet scanned (more about that here.)
OK but lets be realistic today and say we have an 18MP file with resolution of 5184×3456 pixels. Our file comes in at just over 11 x 17 at 300 PPI. Note that PPI and DPI refers to Pixels Per Inch or Dots Per Inch (a printing term). For today’s purpose I’ll just use PPI as it’s the more common term in digital.
PPI and REAL file resolution (actual pixels) are not always clear. For example I could take our file in Photoshop and set it’s size to 30×20. Unless I told PS to Resample (or increase the resolution) of that file, the computer would now see this file as a 20×30, but actual resolution would not have changed, so now it would show as being just over 172 PPI instead of 300. There will be less pixel per inch when printed at the larger size.
I’ve just told the computer our image is larger in physical size, but what really matters is our real resolution. Here is a screen capture to show how the computer sees the print size, even though pixel quantity is the same.
Say I printed our file as a 4×6. While I usually would not want a print that small, see the wall portrait article, at 4×6 our 18MP file would print out at over 860 PPI if I left it at full resolution. That’s a lot since most human eyes can’t see much above 200-300dpi (think Retina display on your iPad). So my file has more than enough pixels. Printing with that extra PPI won’t hurt anything however.
(Click for larger view) – A smaller 30 inch canvas, Bull of the Mist. This a medium sized print. Taken in early morning at ISO 3200 made the detail on this slightly less, but it was needed for shutter speed. As you can see, the detail is good, but not flawless. The canvas helps give it an organic art feel. This was made from a file about 20mp. It was up converted to 9000px wide before print. More about this image here.
Resolution VS Large prints.
This is where things get subjective. I’ll speak experience as I regularly produce prints 40 inches and beyond. With our 18MP file we know we have plenty of information for a little print. What about a serious print meant for the wall. Let’s look at that 20×30 again. Go into the “Image Size” box of Photoshop and change the file dimensions to 20×30, without altering the resolution as I did above. I left Resample un-checked, which means I changed the print size but not the amount of pixels in the file. We now have 172PPI at a print size of 30×20. Are you getting it? This is telling us how many dots we have to lay on paper in terms of real life printed pixels. 172PPI is not bad. But our eyes can usually resolve 200-300.
So How Large Gavin?
If you make small prints, say under 24 inches. Resolution should not be much of an issue. But say we want a 50 inch print. If I set our 18MP file to 50 inches wide without increasing the resolution; the result is that the file is now only 103 PPI. Not so great. We could print this, but we’re likely to see some pixels when we look very close.
To get an idea of how it will look, I turn on my rulers in PS (View/Rulers) then zoom up till an inch is a real world inch (I check it with an actual ruler if in doubt). This is not a perfect representation, as print and screen are different mediums, but it will give me a good idea of how pixelated it will look – In practice I’ve found that I start to see detail loss when I go 36 inches or above on files this size. That does not mean I won’t print them however.
A 70 in on canvas I sold in a family portrait. I used a 21MP file but I had to work for this with careful post processing and even healing artifacts to get a great print.
How Low is Too Low?
How many PPI do we really need. Again this is subjective. It depends on what you like, how close it will be viewed etc. That said I personally want great detail in my prints. Even close up. I’ve experimented with it and asked labs about it. In general I’ve determined that if an image falls below 150PPI, I’d better do something about it. I like to print at at least 220 PPI.
What Can We Do About It?
The native resolution of our file is 5124×3456. We can’t change that.
What we CAN do as interpolate or “Resample”. Essentially this means that rather than simply printing with too little resolution, we tell the computer the resolution we want the file to be and the software does it’s best to fill in the gaps. Let me be clear. This is NOT the same as having native resolution, not by a mile. The computer is trying to add pixels that were not captured by the camera. It helps, but you always want to have the max native resolution possible.
The Resample option inside the “Image Size” window of Photoshop you saw above works well. I often take it a step further and use the Perfect Resize plugin from OnOne software. In my tests Perfect Resize seems slightly better than what’s built into Photoshop.
MORE Than Resolution!
Here’s the kicker. It starts in Camera. A perfect exposure means less fixing later and better detail. See my EXposed workshop. Get a great image in camera and make it sing with great post processing. This means using RAW files, have less file generations and always stay in 16 bit when you go to edit details on Photoshop. Edit with a plan, sharpen and Resample at the end.
I usually do all my edits first, keeping my original file at native resolution. I Resample last, just before sending to my printer. I generally Resample to 240-300 PPI at whatever physical size I plan to print. In the case of our 50 inch print, that means I want a file that’s 15,000 pixels wide. Almost triple what we started with. This Resample is not as good as if we truly had those pixels from the camera. When looked at close, a large Resampled image can look a bit painterly and it gets more pixelated the more you expand it. But resampling is still a useful tool for larger print sizes.
A new landscape captures on my 17R II at ISO 12,800. The detail is still great in this 42MP file and even with that ISO I should be able to print 40 or more on canvas.
Cutting to the CHASE!
THIS is what you came for. — Assuming good post processing I will print our 18MP file at 40-50 inches all day long. On canvas at least. On glossy paper or metal with no texture, I may stop at around 36-40. Yet even on canvas, I’ll start to see detail loss above 36 inches. That does not mean it’s a bad image or that others will see it, I just want to be aware of it.
With my Sony A7R II at 42MP, a good file, good processing. I can pull off 60-70 inch prints all day. A stitched pano, I’ll be printing 100+ inches without a problem, similarly on my 5d MK2 when switching. A single frame that I composed poorly and have to crop heavily. I lose a lot and it won’t print so well.
But it’s not just pixels. Learn the Six Keys to Image Quality and know what really effects your file. Do it right. I use a tripod, I know my light, I understand exposure. Every one of the keys matter, from your optic to your post processing.
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Short story: Recently I made a great Fall image on the A7R, it was stunning and I was excited. I used a tripod, I planned my light. But when I looked at my best shot I realized only on very close inspection that I had a bit of motion blur in the foliage. Very subtle, but with 42MP to work with the blur was there.
I had the pixels, but I used my finger to release the shutter on a slower exposure, instead of a timer or cable. I got sloppy and my 42MP gave me no more than 18mp would have because the detail was flawed. I was able to return the next day and do it right in similar light. But often we don’t have that luxury. It’s a lesson I won’t forget.
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So ask yourself. How far it will be viewed from (a billboard is a huge print, but seen from much further away than a bathroom wall). What is the medium (a glossy print shows more pixel artifacts than the texture of a canvas print). And of course, what is your quality standard. How much detail do you want?
I’ve made smaller files go larger by refining the file, hours healing away artifacts, adding a subtle grain and the like. In the end we can only work with what we have. Cameras are getting better and they do amazing things. But as high as we think megapixels are, we still need more. Seeing what film can do makes you think. Go to a gallery of a photographer that uses large format film to see what I mean.
We’ve talked about resolution, but as I said in my story; no matter what your resolution, you won’t get a good print from a poor image. Making really amazing prints demands that every step of your process be top notch. Read more on this site and subscribe to my newsletter as I’m always speaking on this stuff. Also listen to PPS podcast #74 – Crazy Awesome Image Quality where I go more in depth on quality.
Good luck… Gav
A senior portrait done using my Canon 4D MK2 at 21MP. I sold a 24 inch and had more than enough resolution. It could have easily printed 40 because it was sharp and clean.A pristine IR filtered image taken on my a7R II. With 42 clean MP and virtually no noise, this will easily print 80 inches or more.
Deep night sky and Autumn Aspens lit with a flashlight. Sony A7R II, ISO 6400, 13 sec, f3.5, Canon 24mm TSe II. Power Workflow 5 Presets.
My top night photography tips:
Setup slowly and carefully on tripod before you shoot. In daylight if possible.
With stars decide on deep field or star trails, then visualize everything else.
Use a timer or cable release so as not to have any camera shale from button pressing.
Long exposure noise reduction generally helps your final image.
When light painting run some test shots and plant your best light strokes.
Metering is hard at night, but use your histogram to make sure you’re using the tonal range well.
I found this spot up in North Washington. In the day it was a plain aspen grove that was a bit weak. But I thought, this will all change under the stars. So I used a basic LED flashlight with a zoom head. That way I could get a bit of focus on the light. I have much bigger lights but at this ISO they washed out the Aspens as I wanted to gear the light towards the top.
Initial setup is important. You’ll likely have to experiment to get the flashlight just right and you don’t want to hassle with comp or focus at that point. Get that first. I setup neat camp before it was dark and then left the camera waiting. It can be done in full dark with high ISO test images, but setting up in the light make things much easier and you can really think about your composition and visualize.
If I want deep field like this, rather than star trails, I try to keep exposure 8-16 sec. If going for Star trails I want to extend out to 30 minutes or more. A camera that can handle high ISO is important for the shorter exposures. If you are doing longer star trails, you can dial back to ISO 200 or so and open up the shutter in bulb for 30 minutes or more like I did in 140 Minutes of Night. Of course everything changes if you have bright moonlight.
The key here was a balance between the trees and sky. I wanted the Aspens at Zone 6-7, but metering under these conditions is not so easy so I made a visualization in my head and then used histogram and previews to dial in the result (see the EXposed workshop for more on light).
Night exposes different from day. Post processing needs to be deliberate. I stay with the RAW file until the end. In night scene I’ll usually have to dial up the lights and white, but have to be careful not to blow anything out. I’ll generally start with presets and then dial it in. At the end I’ll do details in Photoshop.
There’s nothing like the Autumn; all of nature pauses, shining in all it’s radiance to give glory to God. The detail is great and this will print beautifully for gallery.
Here’s a tip for all you photographers and nature lovers.
Have you ever been to a remote gravel parking lot in the National Forest and found a sign demanding you pay $5 to park and hike. That’s ILLEGAL and you DO NOT have to pay.
I support the rule of law. That means law on goverment too. I don’t ALLOW goverment to charge me to use OUR wilderness. It’s against the LAW and here’s what you need to know.
I’m no socialist; we pay for these lands with taxes and they belong to us! As we travel this Fall I’m seeing many undeveloped areas where the Forest Service is trying to charge fees, despite the fact that it”s against Federal Law and the courts have told them to STOP. I WILL NOT comply.
Yes there are “some” developed areas of significant investment where it’s reasonable to charge fees, things like well developed campgrounds (though you don’t have to pay to undeveloped ones). We the people should NOT pay to park or use our lands. It’s not about a $5 fee, it’s about liberty and America. It’s no secret that I’m a liberty activist and frankly I’m tired of people being ripped off. We need the rule of law for goverment.
I usually know the law better than goverment, because I take the time to look. I uploaded a copy of the Nation Recreation Act that governs “Federal” public lands like National Forest, BLM etc (State and local lands can vary). The NREA is short, but being armed with this into will put you in a place of knowledge over your goverment servants, just as it should be.
The little things matter and liberty matters. It’s time we made our goverment respect OUR public lands. Enjoy the wild and if they give you any trouble, but a camera on it and spread it around. Know the facts stand on principle and enjoy.
I don’t pay government to use the wilderness. It’s not freeloading, it’s the LAW. My taxes already PAID for that.
I do pay some fees like National Parks because they have large investment and they fall under exemptions of the NREA.
State and County lands are under different rules, despite legislation I don’t pay to use that wilderness either (such as the WA Discover Pass).
Refusing to pay for most Federal wilderness use is 100% LAWFUL. Read the law below. Refusing to pay for State and local lands is sometimes civil disobedience, you have to decide what is principled and what battles you want to take on.
Bottom line. It’s our right to use OUR lands. They do not belong to the king. Just use them responsibly and stand principled.
It’s not about where you are. It’s about how you light.
In today’s Photographic School video we get away from fancy gear and software. We’re going to talk about 5 things you should be using in your mind. Applying these factors will guarantee you better images EVERY time!
We’ll look at 5 images that have all merited at the PPA International Photographic Competition. Watch the video and look at a specific factors in each image that can be applied to any image any time and help build our ability to craft award winning photos images both before and after we release the shutter.
We dig even more deeply into these concepts in the EXposed and PHOTOGRAPHICS series.
Great images start not in the camera but in the mind. Today we’re going to see how!
Here’s a tip for all you photographers and nature lovers.