Photography for a Large Mural

[Billhyco]

I have been given the oppurtunity to shoot a mural for a business downtown. The subject I'm not so concerned with. My worry is image size vs quality. The mural will be 8ft tall and 16ft wide, but cut into quadrants. I am only shooting with a D90 so pixelation concerns me. I have studied a few murals up close and as with most art work it should never be viewed from less then 10ft. They are far from crisp clear images up close but from a distance they look beautiful. A mural of this size, am I even going to be able to produce quality work with my given equipment? Any recommendations on print companies/paper? Completely new territory for me so I am doing some homework first. Any help at all would be appreicated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Tony S]

If you know it's going to be cut into quads then shoot it in quads...... make 4 or 16 photos to make up the mural. The put the images together to keep detail.


Some of the resampling/resizing software out there does a pretty good job, Genuine Fractals is one that comes to mind (it's been renamed Perfect Resize) Genuine Fractals is now Perfect Resize 7 - onOne Software

I remember years ago that a picture of a T-Rex was taken and hung up in times square that was about 30 feet long, it was taken with a 3MP Nikon P&S and looked great. So with all the info and software available now a days the size you are looking to do seems pretty easy.

 

[KmH]

Will the image be applied, hung, ? to a wall?

If so, how? Inside? Outside?

 

[Billhyco]

it will be indoors, spray glue perhaps? but yes hung on a wall

 

[vipgraphx]

First you are going to have to know what type of printers they will be working with. I have done many jobs with printing large formatt printers and believe many businesses will use CMYK color profile with only 75% resolution needed but the file would ned to be at full scale. I would design my graphics in photoshop and illustrator with the size it was going to be printed but since it was only 75% resolution it was easy on the processors to render the graphics.

The reason I ask this is because in some cases as you mentioned murals will look best from a distance and you will not see any pixelation in the printing. You may need to rent another camera to get a bigger image to work with or not just depends. In some cases some type of panning device would be of great use so your camera is in the exact same level and distance and you would take pictures in 3rds or 4ths what ever you need to get the job done.

So I would ask them what they need from you first, once you know what they need from you, it will make your life easier and perhaps we can help because until then really no help will be suffice.

Cheers!!

 

[412 Burgh]

I have been given the oppurtunity to shoot a mural for a business downtown. The subject I'm not so concerned with. My worry is image size vs quality. The mural will be 8ft tall and 16ft wide, but cut into quadrants. I am only shooting with a D90 so pixelation concerns me. I have studied a few murals up close and as with most art work it should never be viewed from less then 10ft. They are far from crisp clear images up close but from a distance they look beautiful. A mural of this size, am I even going to be able to produce quality work with my given equipment? Any recommendations on print companies/paper? Completely new territory for me so I am doing some homework first. Any help at all would be appreicated. Thanks in advance!

Just nit picking and I know it's off subject, but OP I checked out your website and couldn't read a dang thing! I'm 20 years old and I found the font and the size of it impossible to read. Don't make your readers/viewers/potential clients struggle to get information. I would suggest changing the cursive font to something more traditional.

 

[Tony S]

Took me over a year, but I finally found a link to info on the Times Square T-Rex done on a Nikon Coolpix 990 by Joe McNally (yes, the same one from The Strobist).
Nikon Coolpix 990 for 65 x 43 foot print: Digital Photography Review