Largest print size from 4.5K MX Footage?

[Nathan Pena]

I got a question today about what is the largest size you can print from a tiff extracted from 4.5K MX RED footage. Photographer wants to do print and video campaign at the same time. I thought fine, but they also want to use the stills for 40ft billboard ads. Has anyone attempted something like this? What's the biggest anyone has printed from pulled stills? Thanks.

-Nathan

 

[Andrew Wilding]

I believe Dino posted some stills used on a H&M billboard that were 4.5k and looked fantastic.

 

[Matthew Greene]

Billboards, contrary to popular belief, are pretty low resolution for their physical size since they are usually seen from a distance. I create artwork for several shows here in Vegas and the pixel dimensions for a 14'x48' billboard for Clearchannel are 5292px x 1520px which is about the same resolution as a 17.5" x 5.5" print at "full" 300 DPI. That makes the billboard about 9.5 DPI, if you printed a photo at 9.5 DPI it would be a completely unacceptable mess.

How large can you print a 4.5K RED frame? It depends on what DPI resolution you want it to be at. For the best quality in a poster or photo that is going to be viewed up close I would not go under 150DPI which corresponds to about a 30" x 17" print. That number is calculated assuming a full 4.5K resolution, not actual resolution of the lensed and debayered image.

Having said that, some images you can get away blowing up more than others and it's content sensitive.

 

[David Rasberry]

I wouldn't worry too much about the deBayered resolution. Most photos on high megapixel cameras are resolution limited by their optics, not the pixel resolution of the sensor. This is as it should be. If you are seeing the limits of pixel resolution, you are seeing moire and aliasing too.

 

[Ronald Reddick]

I took a M series Tiff of the Eiffel tower and blew it up to 3' x 5' and it looks fantastic, dropped in to Photoshop, converted to Duo-tone to simulate Platinum print and added some film grain. The image is stunning, rivals what I can do with a 35mm film scan, but of course a long way form what I can get from an 8x10" film negative from my view camera, but nice non the less.

Ron