Lifesize cut outs!!

Crazyhorse

Crazyhorse

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Hi

Don't laugh ;) but I have been asked by my employers if I will photograph three colleagues. The photos will then be blown up to life size, backed onto something suitable and placed in shops in the community.

My colleagues will be wearing full fire kit probably with helmets on but the visors up. Their kit is grey and red, helmets yellow.

It doesn't matter about the background as the company will just be cutting round each firefighter.

Now, I don't normally 'do' people and I have told them that but they have seen my work and still want me to have a go.

My best lens is my 70-200 f4 L. I have a sturdy tripod, flashgun with defuser my camera is 40d, I have a couple of reflectors and some cheap and I mean cheap, studio lights but I prefer to shoot outdoors. I have a poloriser which I thought I might need as the helmets are shiny and the ff's have some reflective strips on their uniform.

Any tips, hints, suggestions? I'm sure I can do it but the thought of the prints being blown up lifesize is a bit scary as they'll obviously show any flaws. :'(

Please help. :thumbs::lol:

Many thanks.

Lisa x
 
Lisa I think your lens will be more than good enough but you will be better to use it at the shorter length for this so get as close as the lens will allow.

Your studio lights will probably be better than natural light because it will mean you can control the reflections better. If the helmets are shiney you probably want to show that rather than polorise and try to get rid of any reflections.

The reflective strips might cause you a problem if they pick up and reflect too much light but you would probably be better to work on that in PP by selecting and toning down the strips.

Go for a smallish app - maybe f8 or f10. If the company need to cut round the guys you will need to give them sharp edges to work with.

Hope that helps. Good luck
Andy
 
I'd try and use a plain background
I know they'll be "cut out" but it'll make the cutting easier and won't show any background if they "miss" with the (industrial) scissors
 
Hi

Thanks for the replies.

So I won't use the poloriser.
I'll go for the short end.
I'll mount camera on the tripod
I'll try f8 and f10

Good idea on the background, the background will either be the side of a building or the green derv tank, other than that, we don't have any other plain backgrounds.

I'll also use a remote shutter release. TBH, the studio lights arn't great and I'd prefer natural light but obviously not harsh mid day bright sunshine.

Just another couple of questions,

How much space do you think I should leave around the subject?

I don't really want to do too much pp work but obviously will want to sharpen, any 'no' 'no's' I should bear in mind in doing pp work which will be blown up?


Lisa x
 
leave as little space as possible, but make sure you get them in. since they are cutting them out, the less space the better the image they have to work with:thumbs:
 
fletch5 said:
leave as little space as possible, but make sure you get them in. since they are cutting them out, the less space the better the image they have to work with:thumbs:
Click to expand...

Thank you. :thumbs:

Do you think the image will lose any quality when its blown up? - As I don't know how that part works.

I will be shooting in raw and then after any pp work in cs4, flatten it and save it in one of their requested formats.

Lisa
 
make sure you fill the frame so you don't waste any pixels
 
Crazyhorse said:
Thank you. :thumbs:

Do you think the image will lose any quality when its blown up? - As I don't know how that part works.

I will be shooting in raw and then after any pp work in cs4, flatten it and save it in one of their requested formats.

Lisa
Click to expand...

it will "lose some quality"
but only if you stand 2 feet away from it
at sensible viewing distances it'll be fine

oh and do take some pictures of the finished results!!!
 
Ohhh, thanks it's just soooo scary. LOL!!!

I'll have to practice this weekend.

Lisa xxx
 
Hi again

I've spoken to the printers and they have asked me to save the files to a 1/4 of their final size.

The final size will be I'd say 6ftx 2.5ft. They also said save it at 300dpi.

Save as a jpeg or pdf. When its printed, it'll be 75dpi.

I'm not at my computer at the mo, so can't look at the settings.

How do I save to those sizes then?

Help appreciated.

Lisa
 
Thank you, I'll be doing some with the polarizer on too.

I'm just stuck with getting my head around the image sizes now. LOL!

Lisa
 
A 6' high photo at 300dpi?! :lol:

That'll be a 660Mb file!

Edit: sorry, just spotted you said 1/4 size. Phew!
 
Thanks, can you help me with saving the files to the correct size, I'm rubbish at maths.

Lisa
 
Erm... 18" tall at 300dpi...

So about 5,400 pixels high.
 
I would experiment with some shots using the longer end of your lens (obviously you will need to stand back a bit so as to still fill the viewfinder with the firefighters) this may reduce some of the distortions you can get using wider lenses (though 70 ain't that wide, so it may not make any difference)
 
Fragglerock said:
I would experiment with some shots using the longer end of your lens (obviously you will need to stand back a bit so as to still fill the viewfinder with the firefighters) this may reduce some of the distortions you can get using wider lenses (though 70 ain't that wide, so it may not make any difference)
Click to expand...


Thanks, I'll do that, going to practice this weekend. :thumbs:

Lisa
 
Crop factor Fraggle. Widest on a D40 with that lens isn't likely to be a problem.
 
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