Cropping Question

As an example, I have a shot of a player that isn't as tight as I would like it. I crop my 4752 x 3168 RAW image to (4 x 5 ratio) 2000 x 1600 to get the composition I want. If I want to make a large print, what is my next step? Can I upsize when I convert to JPG or am I limited as to how large I can print before I see pixelation?

Thanks for the help!

How is it that your cropping ends up with those small pixel dimensions? What software are you using to crop, and what settings are you using?

I typically crop to my needed aspect ratio, then if needed I will resize to specific pixel dimensions. I don't have my crop tool set to produce a specific dimension in pixels. And, for most print jobs you don't need to resize. Sometimes it can help to size an image to either pixels or inches @ a ppi setting, but it sounds like you just have something off in your settings. Try taking out any pixel dimensions in your crop tool so that you draw your crop rectangle keeping the "native" resolution of that rectangle. Then you should be good to print at about any size, or, like I mentioned, you may want to fine-tune your image size for a particular print. But the dimensions you mentioned may be OK for an 8x10, although not at the best quality -- an 8x10 @300 ppi would be 2400x3000 pixels.

Tim S wrote in post #10924108
As an example, I have a shot of a player that isn't as tight as I would like it. I crop my 4752 x 3168 RAW image to (4 x 5 ratio) 2000 x 1600 to get the composition I want. If I want to make a large print, what is my next step? Can I upsize when I convert to JPG or am I limited as to how large I can print before I see pixelation?

Thanks for the help!

I don't have the lens I really need to shoot tight enough. I'm asking if a severe crop can be made into an acceptable large print. I thought I had read a discussion on upsizing but didn't find what I was looking for using the search function.

Well, that 2000x1600 image will, like I said, get you a pretty good 8x10. "Common wisdom" puts top quality printing resolution at 300ppi (2400x3000 pixels for an 8x10). At the other end is "OK but may be noticeably low in resolution/quality, and that is considered to be about 150ppi, so for an 8x10 you get an "iffy" print with a 1200x1500 pixel image.

The idea of resizing gets brought up with significantly larger prints and the thing to consider there is that larger prints are typically viewed at a distance that ignores the finest detail in an image. So, for example, I have prints from 4 and 5 MP cameras at 12x16 inches, framed and hanging on my wall where at a distance they look "great", but they aren't gallery quality prints by any means.

You have to realize that cropping that much effectively turns your 15 MP camera into a 3 MP point-and-shoot.