need advice on an image

[gabagoo]

I posted this originally in the premium section but did not get any responses.

Here's the problem.

I am doing a job for a client who only does the install of the prints that I will make for his client.

His client wants a 62" x 25' sections of a digitally printed file that they selected from Getty images. The original file is 300 dpi @11" 17".

We all know how bad thats going to be, but I had no choice and was told no matter what I would be paid to buy it and get some sample prints done.

I did and had them cleaned up a bit and they don't look to good and are pretty grainy. Even when I look at the pic closely it looks grainey to begin with, almost like the photo may have been taken in a fog. It is basically a fall scene of trees in a forest.

I spoke to the online rep at Geddy and for $300.00 they can interpolate the graphic and get it up to 27" x 41" at 300 dpi. That will still leave me with a 150 dpi when I print it and I think it will still look very grainy and not what the designer wants.

The application is that the print is done on clear vinyl and then applied to glass panels that will run along a corrider in a building. people will be pretty close to it.


Just wondering now in this day and age of digital everything.... is it possible to get a very high res photo anymore? If so where online can I even send this designer to go find another pic?

thanks

 

[The Vector Doctor]

It is possible that the image was taken pre-digital and you are seeing the grain due to film speed (fast film vs slow film). I will let one of photographer experts here confirm

 

[rushworks graphics]

the doc may well be correct. do you have access to any image enhancing software? we have perfect resize and if you want i can try and enhance it some via that if that would help? you can always try and see what you think.

 

[gabagoo]

I have no idea how the pic was taken, but the strange thing is, i can take a pic off my Iphone and get better print results than this POS. $300.00 I had to dish out and I am in no hurry to buy another one to go through this again. Maybe I should just go out to the woods and take a snap or 2 hehehe

I have my designer doing some interpolating on it, but you can't do to much with a file like this.

 

[Hicalibersigns]

Pretty difficult to say without seeing the image. We just did one for a customer where we took an image of the same size (11" x17") at 256 dpi and enlarged it to ~45'. I don't remember the other dimension, because we cropped it to 12 feet since that was the height of the wall. Up close it was pretty rough looking, but about 25' is just about as close as you can get to it so all in all it looked pretty good. Customer was happy.

Frankly, if this is a foggy / hazy scene you probably can get by with more than you think. While people can get closer to it, in order to get the effect of the photo they will have to stand back at least a bit. That will forgive some of the "grain".

I experimented a bit with Photo Zoom Pro 4, and did see some visible improvement, especially when I used the remove Jpeg artifacts feature. This might get you some improvement, but it will cost you $299.00.

Being a long time photographer, I can tell you that you can get by with more than most folks think you can. Especially folks that are hyper critical about the sharpness of vector graphics and text on signage.

Here is a photo of the one we did.

 

[gabagoo]

Like I said, the pic is going to be mounted onto glass panels in a corrider. That means the farthest you would see it from would be about 8 - 12 feet.
I have printed another sample after having it interpolated and it looks much better, but still questionable.

I just want to know where could you get really high res images from online?

 

[Locals Find!]

Why not see if you can have getty get in contact with the contributor and see if they have a higher resolution image file. That possible wasn't submitted to the site?

Worth asking at least, worst case scenario your back at square one.