Resolution on large custom document? URGENT

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
May 13, 2017
4 replies
808 views

I have created a custom size document in Photoshop 50cm by 150cm, I started working in it but when I zoomed in I found it very pixelated. I'm wondering if this is to do with the resolution? Any help/ answers would be much appreciated Thankyou!

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer D Fosse

I've made a few "walk-up" wallpapers, panels and banners in my time, and my experience is that 100 ppi is always enough to give a very sharp, crisp and detailed impression. You never walk as closely up to these things as you could. You'll still want to take in a fair proportion of the whole.

Consider this: the current state of the art in DSLRs is about 7000 - 8000 pixels long side. You need to use an incredibly sharp lens, as well as impeccable photographic skills, to fully utilize that resolution. Nobody ever complained that there isn't enough pixels in these sensors!

Such a file, at 150 cm long side, resolves around 120 pixels per inch.

My rule of thumb is that a high-quality file from these cameras, carefully prepared, will work for anything. If it's a "showpiece" designed to impress, and it's several meters in width, I may use composite files up to 20000 pixels or so, but that's rarely necessary.

D Fosse

Correct answer

Community Expert

I've made a few "walk-up" wallpapers, panels and banners in my time, and my experience is that 100 ppi is always enough to give a very sharp, crisp and detailed impression. You never walk as closely up to these things as you could. You'll still want to take in a fair proportion of the whole.

Consider this: the current state of the art in DSLRs is about 7000 - 8000 pixels long side. You need to use an incredibly sharp lens, as well as impeccable photographic skills, to fully utilize that resolution. Nobody ever complained that there isn't enough pixels in these sensors!

Such a file, at 150 cm long side, resolves around 120 pixels per inch.

My rule of thumb is that a high-quality file from these cameras, carefully prepared, will work for anything. If it's a "showpiece" designed to impress, and it's several meters in width, I may use composite files up to 20000 pixels or so, but that's rarely necessary.

K

kt6866Author

Participating Frequently

Hi thanks for all the help and info!! I'm actually creating an illustration not printing photographs though so should come out okay I'm hoping!

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

Photo or illustration, it's all the same. However, with an Illustration, you can often create an image that's not tied to the size of a camera's chip size. So you can make it as big as your system can handle. Many people create illustrations in parts in different files, as the size can get too large. This also allows you to make the various parts much larger to create fine detail that would be hard to create in a smaller file. It looks more realistic if you can reduce the res for the final image. Such as the parts for the below image:

Derek Cross

Community Expert

This poster is about 5ft high and presumably it will be viewed from a distance. You therefore can reduce the resolution quite a bit say 150 PPI (pixels per inch) or even less.

K

kt6866Author

Participating Frequently

Well it is for an exhibition and has lots of intricate detail that will be viewed quite closely, Although I am worried that such high resolution will slow down my mac or become too large of a file to save - would you still recommend lowering the resolution?