Taking High Res Photos with P3P

Sarp Sekeroglu · Nov 5, 2015

Hey guys, new here. I am glad I found this forum.

I had a client who wanted some aerial shots but they wanted to use them at a trade show and was planning on printing the photos at 36-inches x 76.5 inches. At that size my test photos came out quite shitty.

I am wondering if the limit is the 12 MP camera or maybe I can advance my photos with adjusting settings.

Anybody had any experience using P3P for large size prints?

Thanks!

GadgetGuy · Nov 5, 2015

Are you shooting DNG or JPG? Use DNG. Set the frame size to 4:3 and do not use 16:9 (it just crops the 4:3 into a 16:9 frame, throwing away pixels). Use the AEB setting for 5 shot exposure bracketing to give you even more latitude in post. That's all you can do camera side, to get a good exposure with high dynamic range. Post process in LR and/or PS. Satisfactory big prints from a well exposed shot will depend upon the 3rd party software used to interpolate the result into a big print. There are some better ones than LR and PS. That being said, the P3P is a far better video camera than a still camera. Good luck!

dhaslam · Nov 5, 2015

They should look reasonably OK at that size when viewed from a normal distance. In the early days of digital photography a local supermarket made window posters using an A0 printer with product photographs taken with a 640k camera. Up close the posters seemed very unsharp but in a shop window they looked fine. You cannot do much to change the actual image but the shutter speed shouldn't be too low, even if ISO has to be increased a little. Also prop balancing might be needed. Use exposure bracketing and use cross lighting or back lighting of the scene if the light is very flat.

Sarp Sekeroglu · Nov 5, 2015

Thanks guys! Will try right away. I was shooting JPG + RAW so I will try to play with the settings and do the post processing.

iammrbt · Nov 5, 2015

GadgetGuy said:
Are you shooting DNG or JPG? Use DNG. Set the frame size to 4:3 and do not use 16:9 (it just crops the 4:3 into a 16:9 frame, throwing away pixels). Use the AEB setting for 5 shot exposure bracketing to give you even more latitude in post. That's all you can do camera side, to get a good exposure with high dynamic range. Post process in LR and/or PS. Satisfactory big prints from a well exposed shot will depend upon the 3rd party software used to interpolate the result into a big print. There are some better ones than LR and PS. That being said, the P3P is a far better video camera than a still camera. Good luck!

What better ones? Not arguing just wondering as I use those 2 and wouldn't be opposed to trying something new.

Meta4 · Nov 5, 2015

Start with the best image you can get, ensure there is no motion blur but it's only a 12MP camera and a very basic one so there are limits.
You could try making larger original images by shooting multi image panoramics like this

GadgetGuy · Nov 5, 2015

iammrbt said:
What better ones? Not arguing just wondering as I use those 2 and wouldn't be opposed to trying something new.

I don't use them, as PS and LR have gotten much better, but a dedicated enlargement program might be able to squeeze out a slight improvement.
Genuine Fractals, Perfect Resize, and an older article from 2012 with current comments discussing the topic can be found here:
OnOne Perfect Resize Software Review