Photo Shoot question(s)

MikeF15 wrote:

I have a Panny GX7 and have been asked to shoot some scenarios for a local hospital. Their intention is to display these on a "banner",.. likely several feet across.

Is the resolution "good enough" on the GX7 to handle being blown up that large? ( I'm assuming each photo will be about 1.5 to3 feet across and lined up along the banner.

I will be bringing my 12-35 2.8, 35-100 2.8, 15 1.7, 25 1.7 and 42.5 1.7 lenses,. so I'm not too concerned about the available light,. just ability to have clear/well resolved photos.

Should I upgrade to the GX9 for better stabilization and the higher resolution??

(I may bring along my Fuji X100F as another camera to get a different look,..)

Any help is appreciated!!

Cheers

Mike F

Hey Mike,

The simple answer is yes. I run a design agency and produce banners all the time. What has to be remembered is almost every camera in use today doesn't have the native resolution for a pixel crisp banner print.

However here are a few things to remember, magnifying an image that large will make shallow DoF appear more shallow, so shoot a little deeper (stopped down) than you would otherwise (light permitting).

Shoot at a reasonably low ISO, and don't feel like a larger format will save you here, if you are stopped down to get more in focus, larger formats will simply have to stop down more and raise their ISO accordingly. But don;t be wasting light with 1/500 sec shutterspeeds at ISO 1600 when people posing can easily be shot at 1/100. That will keep more of the bite in the image.

Use your primes, they are simply sharper overall and will help that bite.

Production notes: Make sure you upres your image in an image editing software before placing it in artwork. This is a crucial step as many printers will simply scale in layout software which will dramatically reduce the final quality. Scale generally to the final output size at about 150-200 dpi (banner printers are not 300dpi photo printers and do not benefit from the resolution plus the materials they use also are not very high quality). Make sure you do your noise reduction step lightly in RAW, do a slight noise reduction during the upressing and a final sharpening step viewing your file at about 60% on screen until you see a tiny bit of "bite" in the detail you are trying to bring out.

Hope that helps, and remember to work with your subjects, direct them when needed.  Oh, one final note, shooting for print make sure you are framing well, if th ebanner is very wide use you 16:9 setting on the camera to make sure you are framing in a way that keeps your subjects in the final print, the same for a square print, take advantage of the 1:1 aspect ratio to ensure good framing.

Best of luck!