Printing to a huge scale

Hey guys,

I recently passed a billboard from a telecommunication company that had a photo of a whale swimming.

It got me curious, what sort of equipment is needed to produce an image that can be blown up that large?

Is it still only large format film photography that is used by commerical photographers for that sort of work or can digital shots be used to that size as well?

Thanks

Cal!

Hey guys,

 

I recently passed a billboard from a telecommunication company that had a photo of a whale swimming.

 

It got me curious, what sort of equipment is needed to produce an image that can be blown up that large?

 

Is it still only large format film photography that is used by commerical photographers for that sort of work or can digital shots be used to that size as well?

 

Thanks

 

Cal!

Actually Digital printing or inkject print or large format print is different with poster, paper or flyer printing.......normally for print billboard use 50 to 100 dpi only. It becouse u see from far far away and u can't see how fine is the printing is......

If u asking me how many MP needed for Billboard printing???? i will tell u is depend on what kind for machine u use.....like normal wall murral at shopping mall u need higher MP to get sharpness....

Pls correct me if i'm wrong.....

Ive seen an image from a D300 on the side of a huge appartment building. It was side by side with a large format photo, and you could not tell the difference. Worse, the large format photographer picked the digital photo as 'his'. This was on some BBC show about a year ago.

Believe that if the image is enlarged properly (such as Photoshop) there are algorithms to help and take account of the mega sizing and smooth lines etc..

However clever maths can only go so far in matching medium format resolution and large scale.

(p.s. Feel free to shoot me down as this is only a recolection from the dim cavern at the back of my brain.)

Cheers,

Richard B.

Interesting!

Thanks for the responses

Cheers

Cal

To print large size high resolution photo many people use plugins like Genuine Fractals from OnOne software. OnOne developed the underlying math to resize images 600-800% under contract for NASA. If you are interested free trials can be downloaded from their website. If you want to buy it you can usually get a discount if you are a NAPP member.