Nicole recently wrote a nice post explaining the megapixel madness we’re experiencing right now, and why in some cases it makes sense. I want to add to her article by sharing my perspective.
I understand the argument for more megapixels when you want to print big. It’s a valid argument. I know a lot and I mean a lot of photographers. I don’t know very many at all who print big. In fact the majority of the photographers I know don’t print much at all. So it’s unlikely they would need more megapixels for that purpose.
But for those who do want to make large prints, there’s a way we’ve been making really large prints since way back in the day of seven and even three megapixel cameras. It’s called a RIP – a raster image processor.
When you work with some of the big professional printing houses, they often use very high-end printers with software that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars over time. This software can be used for many things, including up-resing prints. The RIP is primarily used for grouping together lots of smaller jobs into big jobs and for speeding up and managing the printing process for commercial printers. But this same software can also be used to make enormous prints without detail or quality loss.
Back in the day, I had a client order 10’ prints for his office from images that I drum scanned from film. We did 10 and 18 megapixel scans and ended up with gorgeous, very large, very detailed images from a Kodak Lightjet printer. I used this system dozens of times and got superb results. The prints we made we so large they had to be trucked to the installation.
I have seen 20 foot prints from the 16 megapixel Fuji X-T1. These prints blew my mind. How did they do it? They used a RIP.
So while you can use more megapixels to print large, you can also print just as large with the smaller image files you get from every day digital cameras as long as you’re working with a commercial printer who knows what they are doing and uses the right software.
Just something to think about.
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Filed under: Opinion, Photography Tagged: megapixel madness, printer, printing, RIP 
