Tips for taking a photo for an A1 print with a Canon 1100D?

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PaulCameraman

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Hi,

I have to photograph a very large piece of artwork for an A1 print. I'd like the quality of the print to be as good as possible.
I see the image dimensions are set to a maximum of A3 (@ 350 dpi) on the 1100D, which is frustrating.

Here's the first test photo I've taken: http://imgur.com/FcctVjD

The picture was taken in my art studio, I used a flash, the room strip lights were on and there are ceiling-high large windows behind me.
Since the colour in this test photo is not correct I plan to not use any artificial lighting next time. Instead I'll use a long exposure time and the natural daylight coming in through the windows behind the camera.

Can anyone please give me some good tips to ensure I have the best chance of achieving a good quality A1 print using my Canon 1100D camera?

Thank you,

Paul
 
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I can't give you much advice on technique for such a project, but I will say that at A1 size you can use half or less of traditional 4-colour process printing DPI which is 300.
 
PPI (not dpi) is only a number that is used to define the size of the print at any given pixel resolution - nothing else. So if you lower that 350 to say 175, you can now print that same image at A2. To print at A1 you can go to image size and remove the resample check box. Drop the PPI to 87.5 and your size will now equal an A1 print.

Many will tell you 87ppi is too low...... It's not. It will be perfectly fine at that size.

Regards colour, do a custom white balance before you do the shoot (whether using flash or daylight). That way the the colour should be more accurate.

I'd also sharpen the image a bit.
 
Correct Chris - Or a billboard close up. Probably 10ppi or less ;)

87.5 will provide a perfect print quality without having to interpolate making the image any bigger.
 
The lighting is crucial, if the print is lit from directly behind the camera, expect reflections - a large central hotspot if you're not careful. It's difficult to predict, because the light level is low, but when your exposure brings the light level up you're lighting it at the worst possible angle. Take spot readings from the corners and centre of the image to check the light falloff.

Ideally you need to light it from both sides at about a 45deg angle, if it's a proper job, hire a couple of lights and softboxes.

If you have no chance of alternative lighting, try a large diffuser behind the camera. You're stuck with the long exposure anyway, so a diffuser eating a couple of stops of light won't hurt. The type of white muslin sold as studio backgrounds would be OK.

The best lens for the job would be a short Macro - they generally have great flat field characteristics, a 50mm Macro on FF would be perfect. Failing that, any std length lens is OK but again, the most important thing is that the lens is central to the image and is perfectly straight vertically and horizontally.

As above there should be enough resolution in your camera, but if you want to produce a high quality product, a flat field lens and multiple exposures would build a really high res image. Maybe 4 or 5 overlapping vertical frames?
 
EOS_JD said:
Correct Chris - Or a billboard close up. Probably 10ppi or less ;)

87.5 will provide a perfect print quality without having to interpolate making the image any bigger.
Click to expand...

The large format print jobs I've worked with have usually been spec'd at 36 or 72dpi - final sizes not quite as large as a billboard but artic trailer size.
 
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