Artwork Size

This has been bugging the hell out of me for a while. I usually design for the screen (72) but lately i feel that if im putting massive amounts of time/effort into a piece.... that I dont want to deny myself the option of getting it printed down the road. Now here is the catch...my camera is only 2MP. So the best i can do with that is an 8X10 @ 150dpi which isnt much (its ok quality.....i have an 11X14 @150 hanging on my wall thats decent).

So now when i go to create a new piece i dont know what size to make it. I cant jam up the ppi to far cause i dont have that kinda quality photograph...but i dont want a small document set to 72 cause if i want it res it up i get an extremely small print.

Like 2 examples...one piece i have i made 612x792 (8x10) but its at 72..so if i wanted to print it at 150 (at best) it's going to be really small (4x5... if that). Now another piece i made is 1000x1294 @72 (a large 8x10). Now with this size my 1600x1200 photographs fit fine and if i res it up to 150 i can still achieve an ok 8x5.

So now what do i do. I cant make an 8x11 @ 300 ( i dont have that kinda quality) but i hate the fact that an image i put so much work into can only print like 3x4.

Any suggestions....what sizes does anyone else use for personal work??

Sorry if any part of this is confusing. I hate print...really Anti-print. I took a digital pre-press class and wanted to kill myself at the end of it lol

Honestly, you can get away with running it at 250dpi. It will still be a sharp looking pic. As well, if you go to a good enough printshop, their lasers can do wonders. We took an 8x10 PDF at 275 dpi and blew it up to over 4feet high. It looked perfect. If you really want a good print, then spend some extra cash and go somewhere good. Make your image at the largest you can at the res you want. Save it as a PDF and tell them the output size you want. I think you will get some nice results. It takes some faith (I didnt believe blowing up an image would work at all) but it turns out nice.

8x10 PDF at 275 dpi and blew it up to over 4 feet high

DAMN!!! lol. Thats pretty good

Make your image at the largest you can at the res you want

Thnx. That pretty much takes care of any confusion ive had. I wasnt sure if it was even worth making large images with crappy resolutions but your 4ft. story is inspiring lol.