Prepare image for billboard?

I have an image that will be used for promotion of a bridal show and it will be on area billboards. I have asked for the specs from the marketing person but I have a feeling that the "marketing" person is a volunteer who may not know dpi/ppi, colorspace, etc.

What suggestions can you give me on how to prepare the image for that use. Even if I do a couple of versions.

Thanks!

Can a photo taken from a DSLR be blown up on a billboard?

You want to talk to the production person at the billboard company. Unlike a marketing person, they should be able to provide you the specs.

The required pixel dimensions depends of course on the print size. But a key factor often overlooked is that a billboard is designed to be viewed from a great distance. There comes a point where the limitations of human visual acuity are the defining factor. 300dpi is overkill. I hear that it is common for a billboard to be viewed from a highway to have a resolution of 10-pixels per inch or less. Although I've never walked up to one to look. Even the ones in train stations are not finely resolved. One of my 20D images (8mp) was displayed for years in the Long Island Aquarium at 3x5 feet. There were no complaints. It was soft if you walked right up to it, but that wasn't the intention. In my opinion any high resolution shot from today's SLRs would be fine. As someone has suggested, check with the folks who'll be printing it.

I just produced a stage back drop for a touring Rock band...30'Wx20'H. The file I produced was 100ppi at the final printed size. Looks great from the front row.

When we did bus wraps, the spec we gave out was 55 ppi @ final size. Viewing distance and vehicle motion makes anything more a waste. I suspect billboard spec to be in the 15-25 ppi range.

ThreeHounds wrote in post #17788853
When we did bus wraps, the spec we gave out was 55 ppi @ final size. Viewing distance and vehicle motion makes anything more a waste. I suspect billboard spec to be in the 15-25 ppi range.

This is accurate but make sure you give the production people all the pixels your camera supplies. Let them worry about the scaling.

People seem to forget that there were billboards long before 24mp cameras.

Thanks for the replies. I have been put in direct contact with the billboard company so I should be good.

For what it's worth, I wasn't worried about the image being large enough to print that big. As someone once said, "you can print as big as Texas if you're viewing from the moon."

NewCreation wrote in post #17789117
Thanks for the replies. I have been put in direct contact with the billboard company so I should be good.

So, just for the record, what did they say that they needed?

The rep sent me the spec sheet. CMYK/Tiff 216 resolution I didn't size it because they will add art/text to my image to make the billboards. I suspect the art department will send me further requirements on actual size of the image once they design the full layout. For now it's the correct color space, at least.

Thanks. It's interesting that they wanted it converted to CMYK. I seem to remember from other threads that the printing company had much better software for resizing than we did & would have expected that to also apply to conversion from the native format.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17789619
Thanks. It's interesting that they wanted it converted to CMYK. I seem to remember from other threads that the printing company had much better software for resizing than we did & would have expected that to also apply to conversion from the native format.

generally they would give you the correct settings for a Photoshop conversion … primarily dot gain and press type … as long as they are set correctly, it's not a big deal.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17789619
Thanks. It's interesting that they wanted it converted to CMYK. I seem to remember from other threads that the printing company had much better software for resizing than we did & would have expected that to also apply to conversion from the native format.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17789624
generally they would give you the correct settings for a Photoshop conversion … primarily dot gain and press type … as long as they are set correctly, it's not a big deal.

Well I'm hoping they don't screw it up. They're using this image

Photo from NewCreation's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (748801)

This is interesting stuff. I'm more interested in the contract terms and payment amount though. I don't deal with this stuff so it's always nice to know ahead of time before it comes up. I once had a guy ask to use one of my photos for product packaging and was shocked that I was going to charge anything!

Car2n wrote in post #17789100
People seem to forget that there were billboards long before 24mp cameras.

Well said. I imagine the artistry(?) of the production company would have a lot to do with the final results.