Originally posted by MJKoski @fenwoodian
You hit the nail to the head. That is why I do not print small, ever. Going above 1 meter wide side you are already pushing 36MP files and it really matters whether you have mush to show at close range. Unacceptable.
One of the guys on the forum, though he's not around much anymore, Eddie1960, had a cousin in the large print business, selling his 5 ft to 6 foot prints for $3k to 6k a print as I recall. That was long before even 36MP cameras.
You assertion that people will buy the image that is clearest up close is compete nonsense. I've seen a lot of low res images on hospital walls and professional offices that filled the whole wall, but didn't look terribly good up close. The problem with this argument as far as I can tell is that there will never be two equivalent images shot at different resolution side by side.
The claim that people will buy the highest resolution image is unsupported by anything. It's one man's opinion. They'll go for the composition they like. Art is about enjoyment of the image, not enjoyment of the tech. that produced it.
I've seen an awful lot of art hanging on walls that sold for thousands of dollars, that in your world would be "unacceptable."
But I do wonder, how many of these large prints have you sold. Honest, if your going for the high res, and want to sell images for the big bucks, shoot film.
The 20 Most Expensive Photos Sold at Auction (As of 2017).
Most of these expensive prints were done with film.