Distance from subject for life-size blow-ups?

JeremyMcG · Jul 29, 2015

I have a ‪question: I want to take an image for use on a backdrop. The backdrop is a display that 119"w x 94"h. The idea is to take a photo to have printed on material of that same dimension and have it" life size".

I need to take a photo of a bar - the kind with the mirror in the center with bottles and glasses around - then have it blown up to the 119"x94" size.

How far away from the bar will I have to get to make sure that when the image is blown-up to that size that I'm not looking at one gallon shot glasses and 20 gallon whisky bottles?

I have everything from 18mm to 200mm lenses.

TCampbell · Jul 29, 2015

Go to a real bar. Measure up 94" height. Frame the camera so that this 94" height just barely fits within the vertical dimension of your camera. When you print that 94" high, you'll have "life size" objects.

You may want to use this website: http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/calc.htm

You will probably want to use the "dimensional field of view" calculator.

If you want a higher resolution version of the image, you may need to take many images of smaller areas then put these together into a mosaic so that the final image still has fine detail even when inspected at close distance.

Dave442 · Jul 29, 2015

Nice FOV calculator. I came up with 17' 2" away with the 35mm lens to have the 94" vertical height using that calculator. But I would also try a multi-image shot, at least stitching together a set of vertical shots.

I've done a few large prints like that on vinyl for shows and they generally work well as long as the final viewing distance is at least a few feet away.

A graphic artist can fix up the final image in Illustrator so it prints to size as long as you are close to start with.