Phototaking of Portrait Drawing for Enlargement Purposes

[keoki]

Hi there, I need to make a super large format print of a religious buddhist portrait (thangka). The original drawing is about 21inch by 28inch, I need to blow it up to 7m tall. I was told the the best way is to use a high-end DSLR to take the pic of the portrait in hi-res (50mb), that way I will the best quality. The second alternative is to take the pic of the portrait in 35mm positive film and send it the film for hi-res drum scan.

I am not a photographer, I just need to know if the above methods are the best way. Any bros / sisters out here can provide the above services please PM me.
Thanks

 

[theRBK]

not exactly the right sub-forum...

in any case, how far away would the viewers be to the print? this would play a part in how large an image you would need to capture...

 

[enivre]

Hi there, I need to make a super large format print of a religious buddhist portrait (thangka). The original drawing is about 21inch by 28inch, I need to blow it up to 7m tall. I was told the the best way is to use a high-end DSLR to take the pic of the portrait in hi-res (50mb), that way I will the best quality. The second alternative is to take the pic of the portrait in 35mm positive film and send it the film for hi-res drum scan.

I am not a photographer, I just need to know if the above methods are the best way. Any bros / sisters out here can provide the above services please PM me.
Thanks

If you were going to take duplicate it onto film then scan it in and eventually enlarge it, why not take with medium format?

Digital or film, it would be best to setup lights for reproduction purposes, put the camera on a tripod, ensure that the film plane and portrait are parallel to each other and then fire away.

If your portrait can be taken out of it's frame, there are large format scanners that can scan it as well (assuming the portrait is printed on paper or canvas and can still be fed through the scanner).

 

[keoki]

The audience will be seated about 4m away onwards. Having said that, there are some activities going on in front of the portrait, so 'these' ppl involved will see the portrait up close.

The problem with the portrait, is that the 'frame' is a special cloth sewn / glued to the drawing. If it can be removed, I will be able to send it for scanning.

Is there any place that I can have the 'photo' taken with the appropriate light set-up?

 

[kandinsky]

Digital or film, it would be best to setup lights for reproduction purposes, put the camera on a tripod, ensure that the film plane and portrait are parallel to each other and then fire away.

I'm no expert, but I've read of this being done as well. For digital, you can also consider taking multiple frames and stitching them together.

What's the purpose? Fine arts exhibition? Permanent display? Decor?

 

[keoki]

Well its for a buddhist community event.
Stitching will be the most time consuming I guess.

 

[enivre]

The audience will be seated about 4m away onwards. Having said that, there are some activities going on in front of the portrait, so 'these' ppl involved will see the portrait up close.

The problem with the portrait, is that the 'frame' is a special cloth sewn / glued to the drawing. If it can be removed, I will be able to send it for scanning.

Is there any place that I can have the 'photo' taken with the appropriate light set-up?

Is the actual portrait on paper or canvas? I ask this because if it's on canvas the canvas texture itself will become very obvious once blown up.

 

[theRBK]

for display at 4m away, and for an event rather than say a museum exhibit, won't need to be printed to super high resolution... in any case, your printer (the people doing the print, not the machine) would hardly want more than 75dpi for this size of a print... so a rough estimate would be 75dpi x 5m x7m, which would give ~ 14763x20669... not that you would need so much pixels... with a sharp capture, a Photoshop upres by 4x should not be a prob, so you would need at most 3690x5167, which a Canon 1DsIII, 5DII, or Sony a900 should have no prob capturing... but really, with a sharp capture, this kind of viewing distance and print required, even lower res cameras, maybe even up to 10~12Mpixels, should not be a prob... or can as others have suggested, stitch multiple captures...

 

[theRBK]

oh, and properly shot, stitching would, while obviously not as fast as a single capture, still be faster than say shooting film and scanning it... say 10min, YMMV...

 

[keoki]

My 8MPs camera managed only a 2mb file of the portrait. Any people here keen to help for a small fee?

 

[photograpix75]

I can refer someone who can do the job quiet well. JinoLee and his website is www.jinolee.com.sg and he is available at contact@jinolee.com.sg

 

[chngpe01]

To the TS this is not the section to post this topic.

I will close this thread.

You can contact me, I will do it FOC as part of my contribution for Buddhist temple.

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