Print full res or 5mp shots?

[Aldiggi]

I am about to go to staples to make a canvass print for my buddy but was wondering what is your take on this?
When previewing the photos on the computer the 5mp shots show more detail and is sharper than the full res shots. So obviously since its a straight up print no cropping use the 5mp shots for best clarity.....?

5 mp:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=16D7D99478197B66!442&authkey=!AKECcllLlxJ33-o&v=3

Full Res:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=16D7D99478197B66!443&authkey=!ALwOc5soM3o4hvg&v=3




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[Reflexx]

Keep in mind that canvas doesn't exactly show sharp detail.

How large is the print?

On average, a 5mp photo might get you around 8x10 width with decent clarity. If it's larger, the pixels themselves start looking too big.

I'd use the full red image.

 

[TheJoester09]

Wow, that's a pretty sweet picture. Nice work!

 

[crash1989]

5MP shots are sharper because 7 pixels are in a way superimposed to create 1 single pixel ,hence you will find image much sharper. An analogy could be seen when you zoom images where in a zoomed out image is much more sharper than a zoomed in image. There is a lot more going on in 1020 but you will find more detail while printing for a large canvas using a 38MP rather than a 5MP.

If the canvas is medium to small size you can use 5MP images.

 

[tgr42]

You're misinterpreting what you see on your computer screen. The full-res images have more detail than the 5MP images. You're viewing the entire photo on the screen, right? Not just some little section? That means whatever software you're using to view the photo has to resize it down to fit your puny screen which is somewhere in the ballpark of 2MP (1920x1080). That software likely uses a resize algorithm optimized for speed rather than quality, meaning you will see a significant difference in the end result shown on your screen when it has to resize 38MP down to 2MP vs. 5MP down to 2MP.

To do a proper comparison of detail between two images, you need to view both images at a 1:1 zoom level. Then you need to understand that the full-res version will appear softer and lower quality, but only because you're looking at it more closely than you can with the 5MP version which has been resized down. You can actually resize the 5MP version up to the same pixel size as the full-res version and then do the 1:1 comparison for a more fair comparison. Or you can choose a point somewhere in the middle, like 12MP, resize both images to that, and do your 1:1 comparison, if the low quality observable at the full-res is getting in the way of your understanding the amount of detail present.

Bottom line: When you do a print, you want the most amount of detail possible. The full-res image will contain more detail, yielding better clarity in your print. The only way for that to not be true is if the full-res image actually contains only 5MP or less worth of actual useful detail. It is normal for a camera to have less useful detail than the raw resolution of the sensor. In other words, that 38MP image can safely be resized down somewhat before you lose useful detail. But not typically as far down as 5MP unless the photo was blurry or something.

 

[Aldiggi]

You guys are fantastic. Thanks so much!!! The print will be an 8 x 10 print. This phone is amazing. I finally have what's important to me on a phone and that's a fantastic camera!!!

 

[tgr42]

I've always felt that it should be possible for software to automatically analyze an image and determine the amount of useful detail present. Such a program could tell you "hey, this 38MP image needs to be resized down to 12MP to be pixel-perfect" and "this other 38MP image needs to be resized down to 2MP to be pixel-perfect because it's so blurry". But I've never seen any software that attempts to figure this out automatically. I've always done it as a manual process. Even if it couldn't be completely automated, I think the right user interface could drastically reduce the amount of manual labor needed.

One rough way to estimate amount of detail present in an image is to look at the size of the image when compressed as JPEG. If two images have the same pixel dimensions and are both compressed with the same quality setting, the variation in compressed file size can be attributed to variation in useful detail present in the image. This is due to the nature of the lossy compression algorithm that JPEG uses. The more detail in the image, the more bits JPEG needs to achieve a certain level of quality.

One of my largest full-res images from the 1020 is 14.96MB. One of the smallest is 8.5MB. The 8.5MB image is very blurry because the whole photo is badly out of focus. In order to look pixel-perfect (sharp, as if it was in-focus), it needs to be resized down from 38MP to approximately 0.0075MP (100x75)! This is quite an extreme case and still JPEG conservatively used a lot of bits to store this image. So, looking at the filesize can only tell you so much, but it's something anyway.

 

[ajst222]

First off, OP, that is a great picture. But it depends on what size you want. The reason that the full res shot doesn't look as clear is because too many pixels are crammed into a tiny space on your screen making it look less sharp. If you are going to print a smaller photo, go with the 5MP but if you want a large canvas, go with the full res.

 

[Reflexx]

Even at 8"x10" I'd probably go with the full resolution image.

 

[Aldiggi]

I went with the glossy cardboard print on sale for only 9.99. I will update you guys on how she comes out. I went for the full res.

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[tgr42]

I know it's a little late now but I thought of one other thing you might want to be aware of. You may actually be limited by the resolution of the printing process. Let's say for example that Staples can only print this particular product at a maximum of 175 DPI. Hopefully it's higher than that, but that's what they say on their web site for small/medium/large posters anyway.

If you fit your photo to the 8x10 area so that the width of the photo is 10", then the full-res image would be 713 DPI and the 5MP image would be 259 DPI. Well, if Staples can only print this at a maximum of 175 DPI, then both the 5MP and full-res images would have to be resized down - just like on your computer screen. Then the question of which image would yield a better end result would come down to a battle between resize algorithms, which is a little tricky.

If you provided the 5MP image to Staples, the processing path would look like this:
38MP from sensor [resized by phone to] 5MP JPEG [resized by printing process to] 175 DPI

If you provided the full-res image to Staples, it would be:
38MP from sensor [stored by phone as] 38MP JPEG [resized by printing process to] 175 DPI

Normally that second path should yield print quality that is visibly greater than or equal to the first path. But if the printing process somehow used a poor quality resize algorithm, you could end up with the same problem you saw on your computer screen. That really shouldn't happen, but it is possible. I don't have much experience handing stuff off for printing, but given that people in printing regularly need to resize high-res photos down to sometimes very small sizes, I would expect their process to be able to handle this correctly.

So, depending on the resolution of the printing process and the quality of their resize algorithm, you could get better results by giving them the full-res image, the 5MP image, or it might not even make a visible difference. The best way to know for sure would be to try both and see what happens, but I think the odds are well in your favor giving them the full-res image.

Now I'm really curious how your print turns out.

 

[Aldiggi]

This is why this phone is amazing!!!!! Full res all the way!!!! Crystal Clear its unbelievable!!!!!! The print is huge!!! They did a great job at Staples!!!!

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[ajst222]

This is why this phone is amazing!!!!! Full res all the way!!!! Crystal Clear its unbelievable!!!!!! The print is huge!!! They did a great job at Staples!!!!
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/08/30/u2ute5un.jpg


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That is nothing short of a breathtaking picture! I love it

 

[Aldiggi]

That is nothing short of a breathtaking picture! I love it

Thank you very much.


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