What's the biggest size you can enlarge a 35mm negative without distorting the image?

Question

Say a 100 or a 400 ISO with the subject fairly focused.

Answer 1

Well, that depends on a lot of factors such as:
Speed of film
Type of film
Zoom level of shot
Lighting
Subject still or moving
How much in focus is shot.

Generaly, 8 x 10 / 12 x 14 is no problem regardless of above factors (Except original clarity) If you want to go poster size it may be a problem unless everything is perfect.

Answer 2

When was the last time you were in a movie theatre? The image on the screen is a 35mm image. Granted, it's not a negative but a positive that's being enlarged, but it's still the equvilent of 35mm slide film.

The problem you run into with enlargements is not distortion as resolution problems. If an image is the least bit out of focus, it might look good in a 3X5 enlargement, but look like crap in an 8X10 enlargement. Enlarging an image not only increases the size of the objects in the original frame, but it also increases any problems from the original.

The other problem is grain. If you're want to do anything larger than 8X10, you really need to be using a fine grain film. The more you enlarge an image, the more pronounced the grain pattern becomes. If you have a grainy negative, enlarging to 16X20 or 20X24 you can end up with something that looks like a photograph of multicolored marbles. Viewed from a distance, however, it will begin to look like the original image.

If you've got a fine grain film and are using a camera with a good lens (and I'm talking the quality of Nikkor, Canon, Zeiss, Leica, etc.) and a sharp focus you can enlarge a 35mm negative up to 30X36 with good results. If you want something larger than this, you should look at using slide film (specifically Kodachrome) instead of print film.

A good rule of thumb when using film is the faster the film, the larger the grain. ISO 100 will generally have more grain than ISO 50. ISO 400 will generally have more grain than ISO 100. And so forth.

Answer 3

There is no limit! Negatives are the best definition and better than digital. The larger the negative in the first place the better. For 35mm with a Leica lens I should think you could enlarge it to 3 feet by 2 feet without any problem but of course you need an enlarger height that is high enough to see the whole thing on a board. Or better still, scan it and produce it digitally. Then there really is no limit!!! The distortion will always be there or not from the beginning. It all depends on the lens you are using. A standard lens of 50 mm is the least distorting. A semi wide angle tends to distort more and obviously a super wide angle distorts the most.

Answer 4

There is no standard answer to this question without first telling us what kind of film you are using and by what means you are printing. But really this question boils down to aesthetics, because you can make mural prints using 35mm, but its not going to be exactly lifelike. Anyhow, The reason I ask these questions is because how large you can print depends on many factors, namely the ISO and the grain structure of the film as well as the resolving qualities of the lens you are using: camera and enlarger. For instance if you take Kodak Tmax 3200 which has very pronounced grain that is when you enlarge it, it has a salt and pepper like texture, and you enlarge it to say 16x20 your going to end up with a relatively grainy, as well as contrasty print. Although if you have ever seen Sebastio Salgados prints made from this same film, it is quite different, but then again the person in New York who prints his film is quite skilled and has been doing his job longer than you have been alive most likely.
Now on the other end of the spectrum you have really fine grain films like Rollei 25, which as the name suggests is rated at ISO 25. If you enlarge this particular film to 16x20 you are going to get a relatively different print compared to Kodak 3200. For one thing you are going to have a lot more tonality, and another thing is that you aren't going to have the pronounced grain. However this is not to say that you can't print beyond 16x20, because indeed you can and I have seen it done with a mural print of 6 feet in length. Certainly the image was a bit grainy and was starting to fall apart if you got up close, but generally you don't get up close to view a large print.
On the other hand if you want the viewer to feel as if they are there in the print, forget 35mm, and try 4x5 or 8x10. As most people these days are familiar with megapixels lets just say that the megapixel equivalent of such film sizes range anywhere from as little as 200-800megapixels. So if you are going to print large, then either get the biggest negative possible or start saving up for a scanning back.

Answer 5

It depends on the quality of the negative. If using ISO 100 or even 200 film and the negative is sharp (crisply focused) and taken with a good quality lens 16x20 is possible. Then there are negatives you wouldn't take past 8x10.

Answer 6

you're able to do it truthfully in Microsoft place of work image supervisor. yet earlier going for it, make a backup of unique image and then use Microsoft place of work image supervisor to resize it.