Advice on large lightbox photo

[fcmarley]

Hello-

I have a faux picture window/light box built into the wall of a 10' x 14' room in my basement.  The "window" is in the center of the 14' wall and is approximately 60" x 40"; it is backlit by a fluorescent tube.  I need to replace the damaged transparency that was in the opening.  I plan to install a photo of a nature scene. The sign company I contacted said they can print on transparent film (from a roll) or directly on white lexan.  The lexan seems to be a better option since it would be much easier to install.  I have a few questions that I hope someone might be able to answer to help with this project.

1.  Is transparent film a good choice, or should it be printed on a film with some background color like white (or black)?
2.  Is printing on the white lexan a good idea?
3.  This will be in a room that gets little sunlight, do I need to use any special ink, or could you suggest what type of ink would be good for this application?
4.  What resolution (DPI) should I use for the finished image?  I've searched iStock and they don't seem to have any images this large with high resolution.  72 DPI was typical for their large images; would that be good enough?
5.  Any suggested sources for large high resolution nature images?
6.  I do have a 35mm negative that I'd like to use, but if scanned would it provide enough resolution when enlarged this much?

Thank you for any help.

CM

[hugowolf]

I have a faux picture window/light box built into the wall of a 10' x 14' room in my basement.  The "window" is in the center of the 14' wall and is approximately 60" x 40"; it is backlit by a fluorescent tube.  I need to replace the damaged transparency that was in the opening.  I plan to install a photo of a nature scene. The sign company I contacted said they can print on transparent film (from a roll) or directly on white lexan.  The lexan seems to be a better option since it would be much easier to install.  I have a few questions that I hope someone might be able to answer to help with this project.

1.  Is transparent film a good choice, or should it be printed on a film with some background color like white (or black)?

Backlit film is usually translucent (milky white), not transparent. If a transparency works at the moment, then you must have something in place to disperse the light from the florescent tubes?

2.  Is printing on the white lexan a good idea?

I don't know.

3.  This will be in a room that gets little sunlight, do I need to use any special ink, or could you suggest what type of ink would be good for this application?

I would imagine dye based inks would fade quite quickly. Pigment or UV curable is what I would look for.

4.  What resolution (DPI) should I use for the finished image?  I've searched iStock and they don't seem to have any images this large with high resolution.  72 DPI was typical for their large images; would that be good enough?

Most cameras automatically put 72 dpi in the resolution field of the Exif data. It doesn't mean anything. You need to find the pixel dimensions of the images, and divide the pixel width by 60" to get the final resolution in pixels per inch (not dpi). An image doesn't have any resolution until it is displayed.

5.  Any suggested sources for large high resolution nature images?

6.  I do have a 35mm negative that I'd like to use, but if scanned would it provide enough resolution when enlarged this much?

I don't think your average 35 mm transparency will work at 60" x 40".

Brian A