Large scale digital painting for print

[giofigueroa]

Hi everyone,

I have  been asked to create a digital painting of a man standing on a beach which will be printed 10 feet by 10 feet. The painting will be basically seen at a movie poster distance, its going to be in the back wall of a martial arts academy. I have never done anything this size before and have been reading up in various forums but still confused as to which approach I should take.

How would you guys set up the document in photoshop for print? (Dimensions, DPI, CMYK, etc)

Would you work on the piece at scale or at full size?

How would you save the final product? (psd, pdf, etc)

I really appreciate any help I can get with this!! Thank you in advance!!!

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Hi

I would advise the following:

1. Work in RGB - if you need to convert to CMYK later then it will be to a specific CMYK profile (talk to your printer)

2. Base your dpi on viewing distance. There is some good advice here :

What print resolution works for what viewing distance?

You should easily be able to work at full size following those guidelines. For example for a viewing distance of 12 feet you are looking at around 50dpi giving a pixel dimension of 6000 x 6000 which is easily handled in Photoshop. 36Mp  being a similar size to a digital camera output

3. keep your file in PSD as you work maintaining all layers etc and talk to your printer about the final format requirement he /she needs to print it

Dave