35mm beyond 14x17

Talk to a company that specializes in tradshow booth work and as a
second choice a company that makes industrial posters. We use both
of these types of companies for my business.. You are looking for
something that is durable it will both be professional and look good
from across the room.

One of the sets of panels for our pop-up booth was done from 35mm
slide film and digitized. Total area about 8 feet by 8 feet.

w..





HeroOfSpielburg wrote:

Hello,

This is a subjective question, mostly. I have an art show next week
and wanted to blow up a negative to a pretty large size, long print
about 20x40, for the fascade of my booth. The staff at the print shop
said beyond 14x17, it doesn't look very nice.

I imagine that the grain gets really large, and the color dots start
separating? I dunno, maybe it looks kind of cool, and the fact that
it's over three feet long overpowers any negative reaction from
graininess?

I'd just try it for the hell of it but a print that large costs me
over 120 dollars, so I'd like some feedback first.

Any and all opinions, thanks!

In reading through the comments the best quality example is what you
see from a slide projector.

One other suggestion that is worth doing is hiring a good industrial
artist is generally money well spent for this kind of stuff. They know
what is needed to overcome the effects of the display environment
and compensate for it. Over saturating to compensate for bright lights
for example and other tricks for other environments. They can
add a richness that makes things standout

I hate to say it but most of these folks are seriously under paid
for the skills they have.

w..
..

If you used fine-grained ISO 100 slide film, a 16x20 will look decent.

I've seen 20x24 prints from ISO 50 Velvia 35mm film and the look pretty
good too.



Hello,

This is a subjective question, mostly. I have an art show next week
and wanted to blow up a negative to a pretty large size, long print
about 20x40, for the fascade of my booth. The staff at the print shop
said beyond 14x17, it doesn't look very nice.

I imagine that the grain gets really large, and the color dots start
separating? I dunno, maybe it looks kind of cool, and the fact that
it's over three feet long overpowers any negative reaction from
graininess?

I'd just try it for the hell of it but a print that large costs me
over 120 dollars, so I'd like some feedback first.

Any and all opinions, thanks!

Thanks to everyone for the input! My goal is mostly eye-catching to
draw people into the booth, the photo will be hanging on the exterior
of my installation, flush against the throughway, so I don't expect
people will stop to look at it very long. I was thinking about doing
a 20x40" (cropped), but maybe 30" vertical is is a happy medium.

The output method my printer recommends is high-resolution scanning
and then using their digital printer (Durst Lambda 130). I'll do my
best with Provia 100 since I think it scans better, of course use
tripod, and set the camera to EV +0.7 for good measure.

"HeroOfSpielburg" wrote

I'll do my best with Provia 100 since I think it scans
better, of course use tripod, and set the camera to EV
+0.7 for good measure.

Whoops ...

If you haven't taken the picture yet, _don't_ use 35mm.

Rent/borrow a 4x5 for the best quality. At a minimum
rent/borrow a 120 MF. It need not be a 'blad or Rollei:
any half-way decent TLR (Yashica D, Minolta Autocord...)
or folder (Zeiss Ikonta, Agfa Super Isolette...) will produce
a picture with better blow-up qualities than the best 35mm
camera and the finest film.

There are lots of very good 120 cameras that are common
and inexpensive: Mamiya Press/Universal, RB67 & C220/330;
Bronicas by the score; Koni-Omega

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

I'll do my best with Provia 100 since I think it scans
better, of course use tripod, and set the camera to EV
+0.7 for good measure.

Whoops ...

If you haven't taken the picture yet, _don't_ use 35mm.

Rent/borrow a 4x5 for the best quality. At a minimum
rent/borrow a 120 MF. It need not be a 'blad or Rollei:
any half-way decent TLR (Yashica D, Minolta Autocord...)
or folder (Zeiss Ikonta, Agfa Super Isolette...) will produce
a picture with better blow-up qualities than the best 35mm
camera and the finest film.


Now is not the time to go through the steep learning curves of different
formats...especially 4x5!!

35mm can make a passable large print when drum-scanned and digitally
printed. Exhibition quality? No. But for her purposes, it can work.

It all depends on viewing distance. You can make a mural-sized
enlargement from 35mm that looks fine from 50-feet away.

"Mike M" wrote


Now is not the time to go through the steep learning curves of different
formats...especially 4x5!!

There's no learning curve. This isn't rocket science, it
isn't even baking a cake. If you can't figure it out in an
hour something is seriously wrong.

No pain - no gain.
--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

On Fri, 18 May 2007 21:04:13 GMT, "Nicholas O. Lindan"
wrote:

"Mike M" wrote

Now is not the time to go through the steep learning curves of different
formats...especially 4x5!!

There's no learning curve. This isn't rocket science, it
isn't even baking a cake. If you can't figure it out in an
hour something is seriously wrong.

No pain - no gain.

Not really any pain either. My first medium format camera was a 6 x 9
Wallace Heaton folder http://i13.tinypic.com/52xt45j.jpg. It took
me all of a couple of minutes to work out how to use it. The only
thing that wasn't obvious was that Compur shutters shouldn't be moved
between the top speed and any other speed after the shutter has been
cocked. Fortunately I was in the habit of cocking the shutter last so
I never risked damaging it in this way.

Mind you, it did take me more than a couple of minutes to get into the
habit of remembering to remove the dark slide.

--
Matthew Winn
[If replying by mail remove the "r" from "urk"]

On 2007-05-17 09:50:28 -0400, HeroOfSpielburg said:

Hello,

This is a subjective question, mostly. I have an art show next week
and wanted to blow up a negative to a pretty large size, long print
about 20x40, for the fascade of my booth. The staff at the print shop
said beyond 14x17, it doesn't look very nice.

I imagine that the grain gets really large, and the color dots start
separating? I dunno, maybe it looks kind of cool, and the fact that
it's over three feet long overpowers any negative reaction from
graininess?

I'd just try it for the hell of it but a print that large costs me
over 120 dollars, so I'd like some feedback first.

Any and all opinions, thanks!

Back 20 years ago Kodak used to routinely make "poster prints" for a
reasonable fee and they did quite well from 35mm. They were whatever
size posters usually are... something by 36 I think.

Michael