Shooting for large blow up ?

[guitarbug]

Have a friend who wants me to shoot him with his new termite/bedbug sniffing dog for a ad to blow up to box truck size! Whats the best format to shoot this in ? I am shooting the D80(Nikon) will I be able to use a file shot from this camera ? Also, do the ad people normaly do the interpolating or is that done before hand by the photographer ? Thanks for any help.

[PeteQ]

Who is doing the printing? Is it a graphics company or a sign place, etc.? If it is a graphics company they will likely just take the RAW files. If it is a sign place you may need to send them 8 or 16 bit TIFF files that you get from your processed RAW files. Heck they may even use jpg's. Regardless, shoot RAW and process to what they need....

Most likely they will do the interpolation otherwise you will end up trying to handle a file that may bell be several hundred megs in size if not larger. If all else fails, ask the people you will be delivering the files to. That's the best way to know what they need. Determining your clients' needs is part of the consultation process. This is one of those questions you should be asking them....

[guitarbug]

Thanks Pete! You gave me some good questions for me to give my friend. Right now I don't know who would be doing the enlarging so I will give him your advice and will go from there! When I find out more I may be asking some more advice on this. Again thanks so much.

[CaptainTom]

Pete(r) is correct.

Find out what the company who is making the graphic for the truck needs.

Their machine can upsize your image to their exact specifications.

You may want to crop the image to the scale they will be using. Another question to ask them.

[guitarbug]

Hmm, crop to scale! Oh boy! Here we go again! Whoever thinks being a photographer is as easy as just taken pictures is dead wrong, lol! I have know idea what that means, but I have an idea. Like I said before, I have to go to him with a bunch of questions then come back here and pick ya'alls brains some more! Thanks again Tom.

[CaptainTom]

Bring back the numbers from the client and we'll help.

i.e. the truck image will be 8'X10', shoot your subject with 8X10 format in mind.

When you meet with the client, have a piece of graph paper with you.
When you decide on the proportions (8x10) of the final print, mark that proportion out on the graph paper and work with the client to sketch out what they are looking for.
If you can envision what they are hoping to get, it will go a long way to ease your chore of getting the final shot that they will approve.