I admit that I am curious - who uses a 90" print and expects that the print be viewed from 18" away?. I get that increased resolution looks better, but past a certain point, people at conventional viewing distances can't see the improved resolution.
What’s a conventional viewing distance?
Someone buys a 90” print to put in the 5 or 6 foot wide hall in their office. People will see it up close. Salt Lake airport has prints on display and when you are on the moving walkway it puts you as close as 24” from the print. There are some that look quite bad. So should I use a lower resolution camera and just not sell to people who can’t restrict it from being viewed up close? Of course if its too low of resolution and looks bad up close (I print hundreds of images a year at my camera store which fall into this category), doesn’t that reflect on me as the artist as the quality of my work?
And who’s to say because a print is 90” that the only thing interesting to look at is the entire print? What if there are portions that draw you in and you want to get closer to see that section better?
I watch people walk through my gallery. For years the “conventional” wisdom is only photographers look at the work up close. absolutely not true, several of my pieces are often viewed, then examined more closely, usually followed up by them stepping back to take in the entire image again. Very common.
Obviously if the image up close is poor, there is nothing to enjoy.