Trade Show Booth Graphics?

[kcrossley]

What's the best way to upsize an image for use on a digitally printed trade show booth?

The image I'm working with is from a DJI Drone. The current size is 5472 x 3648 pixels at 72 ppi. The booth size is 110.5" x 89.5". I know I can change the image size to match the printed output, but what ppi resolution should I use? Also, is it better to use Photoshop's Preserve Details 1.0 or 2.0?

I also tried using Topaz's Gigapixel AI, but that doesn't seem to be much better than PS. Any help and or advice on how to pull this off is greatly appreciated. 

[John Waller]

Are you producing the graphic yourself or outsourcing it to someone else?

Have you spoken to the printer that you will use to produce the graphic? They should be able to give you exactly the info you need.

[Theresa J]

It has been awhile since I produced large format graphics but when I did they were always built at .25 scale, usually at 150 - 200 ppi. Ask the printer what they want. You may be surprised at how low of a resolution you can get away with. If the printer won't provide a specific required image size ask them to do a test print. 

If you need to upscale the image you can try the new detail enhance which is available through Adobe Bridge and now also in Lightroom. Here is a tutorial I recorded for Creative Pro Double Image Resolution with Bridge.

[D Fosse]

You will most likely get the best visual result by doing precisely nothing, except sharpen the image very carefully. Optimal sharpening is critical here! If your image orientation is already correct, so that you can use the full 5472 pixels, you'll probably be fine as it is.

The ppi number is a function of the print size. Pixels per inch! The bigger it's printed, the lower the actual ppi number. So try to set the final printed size in the Image Size dialog, and see what the ppi number turns out as. If it's somewhere above 60-70 ppi, it should work out well.

Keep in mind that a traditional computer screen is around 80-90 ppi. Imagine standing at the same distance. It looks sharp, right?

Upsampling will never improve anything. That said however, having more pixels will make everybody involved feel better, including the printers. If you have access to a raw file, try the Super Resolution feature in Lightroom/ACR. It will double the linear pixel dimensions, using AI to minimize the damage. Again, it won't look better, but it won't look any worse either.

If your original is a jpeg, don't upsample! Jpeg compression artifacts look horrible when upsampled.

[chanaart]

Best is to talk to your printer first and talk to him about his printer set up.

chana

[Jay Jangid]

knowledgeable