Topic: 'Making of' - a 14m print of a view at dusk (Read 6964 times)

keith_cooper · « **on:** May 07, 2012, 02:18:51 pm »

I've currently got a huge print on display at an exhibition in Leicester and have just written up a 'How it's made' article that I'm hoping is of interest to anyone looking to go really big for their prints, or just curious as to what went into it.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/14m_pano_print.html

It covers everything from initial ideas about how it could be done, through to my printing it and hanging it on a wall.

I learnt an awful lot during the process and wanted to share some of what I found...

I now know for instance that an iPF8300 may be happy going to 18 metres for a print, but at over 60k pixels width, there are 'issues'

BTW if anyone knows of a RIP for the iPF8300 that definitely handles much bigger pixel counts, I'd like to hear of it. Canon UK and their dealers all went very 'hazy' over this aspect of specifications.

dgberg · « **Reply #1 on:** May 07, 2012, 03:10:51 pm »

Keith,
I have a special appreciation of your accomplishment here.
It is all those unknown issues that pop up along the way that make wide format printing the pleasure it is.
Job well done.

keith_cooper · « **Reply #2 on:** May 07, 2012, 03:26:41 pm »

Thanks Dan - there were several times during the process, I really did wonder if it would make it on to the wall ;-)

mac_paolo · « **Reply #3 on:** May 07, 2012, 03:32:12 pm »

Amazing work of science and art. Thank you for sharing those tips

149113 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 07, 2012, 05:20:28 pm »

Props... Great work

Alan Goldhammer · « **Reply #5 on:** May 07, 2012, 06:06:58 pm »

Really nice work; hard to imagine Ansel Adams doing anything like this in a darkroom!

Jeff Magidson · « **Reply #6 on:** May 07, 2012, 06:37:55 pm »

Thank you Keith! You are a credit to the profession.

Best,

~ Jeff

Mulis Pictus · « **Reply #7 on:** May 08, 2012, 03:44:17 am »

Great work and very nice exhibition!

Quote from: keith_cooper on May 07, 2012, 02:18:51 pm

I now know for instance that an iPF8300 may be happy going to 18 metres for a print, but at over 60k pixels width, there are 'issues'

BTW if anyone knows of a RIP for the iPF8300 that definitely handles much bigger pixel counts, I'd like to hear of it. Canon UK and their dealers all went very 'hazy' over this aspect of specifications.

I think Qimage would handle it easily in poster/tile mode (largest I printed so far was 4.5x1.1 meters though, on ipf8300/300dpi), unfortunately it is windows only software. One has to slice the image to many parts, each on one page. Qimage then prints them seamlessly.

The printing mode of the ipf8300 driver is not specific to Qimage, so there might be other applications which can use it. It is enabled by the Banner Printing checkbox in the Roll Paper Options in the driver Print Setup dialog. Might be even possible to print one slice after another from the Photoshop with Banner Printing enabled, didn't test that though.

keith_cooper · « **Reply #8 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:57:07 am »

Thanks - I'd not explored this aspect.

I'll pass it on to the Canon people I've been discussing this with, since I don't have vast amounts of free ink and paper to experiment with, and many issues only appeared when the pixel count gets high enough to hit problems that just don't appear for 'small' 60k pixel images ;-)

TylerB · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2012, 01:39:46 pm »

Hi Keith, ErgoSoft supports the Canons, and I had a 6300 in here for a bit to test with it so I know it works just fine. There are also RGB drivers for it so you don't have to get into all the complicated n channel stuff if you don't want to. I've never made a print that long, and imagine planning the setups of the queue, spool size and location, available space, etc. will be issues to look at. Other RIPs may well do fine, I'm just familiar with this one...
Tyler

keith_cooper · « **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:00:46 pm »

Thanks for the suggestion...

However... Ergosoft may support the iPF range, but it's the maximum number of pixels that it can handle in a document that is the information that seems very hard to get from anyone.

I'll see what info I can get, but this one specification is something that got me rather too many 'should' answers than 'definitely will' ;-)

framah · « **Reply #11 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:10:42 pm »

Looks great! My question is how did you deal with the mounting.

TylerB · « **Reply #12 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:20:43 pm »

you need "definitely will" before making that kind of investment. Ernst is the guy for how to do these kinds of things with qimage.. which of course is way less...
There are also the utilities like ImageNest, might be worth looking at.
Tyler

keith_cooper · « **Reply #13 on:** May 08, 2012, 04:51:09 pm »

It's only up for a month - so see the bit in the article towards the end.

It's stapled to a line of battens on the wall. It took three of us to get it up, two handling the lining up/stapling, with me gradually unwinding it.

The idea is that it can be rolled up again at the end of the mont. As to mounting it more permanently, that depends on where it goes next...

AFairley · « **Reply #14 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:10:24 pm »

Terriffic job, Keith. Something that could not have happened without the considerable amount of thought and pre-planning that went into it!

keith_cooper · « **Reply #15 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:21:46 pm »

Quote from: TylerB on May 08, 2012, 04:20:43 pm

you need "definitely will" before making that kind of investment. Ernst is the guy for how to do these kinds of things with qimage.. which of course is way less...
There are also the utilities like ImageNest, might be worth looking at.
Tyler

QI is interesting, but I've not used a Win PC for many years. If it makes use of installed drivers, then it too would suffer from their data limits?

I've used ImageNest quite often with the 8300, but as yet it doesn't support opening .psb files (I've done testing for them in the past and seemingly I was the first person to ask for .psb support) It also goes through the Canon driver, which has problems, as I've discovered

The search moves on :-)

TylerB · « **Reply #16 on:** May 08, 2012, 06:11:49 pm »

I think there are some Qimage workarounds for big prints... Ernst has mentioned them but since I don't use it I did not pay close attention. Qimage my do just fine in BootCamp or other windows methods for the Mac, ErgoSoft runs very well this way. Just a thought, the entry fee is certainly the most reasonable..
Tyler

wolfnowl · « **Reply #17 on:** May 08, 2012, 06:36:25 pm »

Congratulations! Well done...

Mike.

bill t. · « **Reply #18 on:** May 09, 2012, 12:49:23 am »

I guess this means I no longer hold the Guinness Record for Unreasonably Large Inkjet Print Made Under Impossibly Cramped Conditions!

Congratulations!

I don't even want to know how many beer bottles, cigarette butts, soda cans, and doggy piles you had to rubber stamp! Hope you didn't miss any, like right at the end.

keith_cooper · « **Reply #19 on:** May 09, 2012, 03:16:00 am »

Quote from: bill t. on May 09, 2012, 12:49:23 am

I don't even want to know how many beer bottles, cigarette butts, soda cans, and doggy piles you had to rubber stamp! Hope you didn't miss any, like right at the end.

Very few actually - the perspective means that only stuff really close is that obvious.

The place is quite regularly patrolled with drive round sweepers. I left some gum spots though, since nowhere is that clean ;-)

Author Topic: 'Making of' - a 14m print of a view at dusk (Read 6964 times)