Photography Info

Info on various subjects, what I am doing etc.

large format printing

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I have had a number of customers ask me if such and such a photo is suitable to print at say 6 meters x 4 meters. Well it all comes down to viewing distance, large billboard prints are almost always viewed from a distance, so are often printed using only a 12 dpi image. We don’t print many large billboards but do print a lot of roll up banners. The banners are mainly 845mm x 2000mm and we often use cropped images. We normally like to print with a 100 dpi image as the banners are often viewed quite closely. The actual print resolution that we print at is 720 x 1440. It takes a lot of printed dots to make up a single coloured pixel. I have found that a 6 megapixel image from a digital SLR scales up very well and the print looks great even with your nose almost touching the surface of the banner. We normally use  PhotoZoom Professional for resizing our photographs. Adobe Photoshop also does a great job if you do it in say 5 to 10% increments. Most of our stockphotos are now taken with either a Canon 50D or 5D Mk II so we can even crop tighter if necessary. I have found that many point and shoot images do not scale up very well, SLR’s with their larger sensors do give a considerably cleaner image that is more suitable for up scaling. The conclusion is that most images from modern SLR’s can be scaled up for almost any use depending on viewing distance. Once having said all that a 20 megapixel image scaled up to billboard size will look somewhat cleaner than a 6 megapixel image.

Example of roll up banner stands using stock photographs
Example of roll up banner stands using stock photographs

Some Zimbabwe travel tips.

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Lion walk at Antelope Park

  • Take US$ lots of low value notes $1, $5 and $10.
  • Don’t keep all your money in one place.
  • Keep photocopies of your passport and travel documents in your luggage.
  • Use a water purifier, I used a Steripen brilliant.
  • If travelling make sure you have a knowledgeable guide.
  • If fuel is not available at the service station, check the local pub etc. as there is a black market in fuel.
  • If buying diesel buy in clear containers so you can check for contamination.
  • Take your own toilet paper everywhere.
  • Take tissues, a packet of wet wipes and hand sanitizer.
  • Men buy a suitable hand bag for your travel papers and guard it well.
  • Take a camera but don’t photograph police, army, government buildings etc.
  • Take iodine in a small bottle, great antiseptic for cuts etc. and can be used in an emergency to purify water.
  • Take a suitable power adaptor.
  • Don’t rely on the power to charge your camera, phones etc. have a 12V backup.
  • Don’t forget your personal medicines, headache tablets etc. and have a copy of a letter from your doctor to say the medicines are necessary.
  • Get all the necessary vaccinations including rabies, the monkeys can be vicious, they tried to bite me a couple of times , our guide chased them away, but they turned on him and chased him back, was very funny to watch.
  • Don’t put valuables into your checked luggage.
  • If your carry-on luggage is over weight, especially with camera gear, wear a camera vest or coat with big pockets so you can put lens etc into the pockets if needed. Our carry on luggage was never weighed, I practiced making my camera backpack look very light.
  • Make sure that you always have your car keys with you, do not put them in your checked luggage.
  • Most important have travel insurance and read the fine print as I found a lot of policies don’t cover travel to Zimbabwe.
  • Pay for travel with a Gold VISA card if you can as the free travel insurance can be better than your paid insurance (have both paid and VISA insurance).