There’s no doubt that smartphone cameras are getting better and better. But still, we often hear that large prints of smartphone photos can’t look nearly as good as those taken with a DLSR or mirrorless. In his latest video, Nigel Danson decided to test this and made 30 x 24” prints of his smartphone photos. And despite some people’s claims – they actually look pretty impressive.
Interestingly enough, this was Nigel’s first time to print smartphone images this big. So, it’s interesting to observe his reaction when he sees those huge prints. He used a Canon printer that makes up to 24” large prints, so he made 30 x 24” prints.
He chose several images in Lightroom, taken on different iPhones. One of the scenes was also captured on his DLSR, so he printed both photos really big to compare them. His phones have 12MP sensors, and printed at 240 dpi should, in theory, provide around 16” wide print (on the long edge). Therefore, Nigel used 120 dpi to print the 30 x 24” photo. Huge prints like this are viewed from a bit of a distance, so they don’t need a lot of dots per inch. If you’re not familiar with dpi and ppi, you can read more about it here. Nigel printed his photos in several sizes, from A3 all the way to 30 x 24”. He noticed that they’re usually a bit less sharp in the corners, but the rest of the image looks great. As I mentioned, he even compares the same scene shot on an iPhone and on his Nikon DSLR. He made huge prints from both images, and they both look wonderful. Make sure to check out Nigel’s video to see what he ended up with. And the next time you have second thoughts about printing your smartphone images large – just do it. It’s likely that you’ll end up with much better results than you would expect. [I tried PRINTING a PHONE PHOTO really BIG via FStoppers]
