Photographer
the lonely photographer
Posts: 2342
Beverly Hills, California, US
Quick question, any photographers know the minimum mp needed to scale up for a billboard?
Photographer
PhillipM
Posts: 8049
Nashville, Tennessee, US
Best I can remember, I did a crop @ 1200 dpi, and the billboard folks upsized it from there.
I would contact the billboard company.
Photographer
J O H N A L L A N
Posts: 12221
Los Angeles, California, US
Because a highway billboard is meant to be viewed at a great distance away, I'd think you wouldn't need particularly high resolution. Now, if you're printing a huge in-store display that is meant to be viewed at relatively close distances, that's different.
Photographer
Herman van Gestel
Posts: 2266
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
PhillipM wrote:
Best I can remember, I did a crop @ 1200 dpi, and the billboard folks upsized it from there.
I would contact the billboard company. LOL  …NO!!!!!
No, DPI says nothing how many pixels there are…it's just a density, it still won't say if it's 2 pixels or 10.000….you can still place 2 pixels very close to each other at1200 and still ending up with an image of 2x2 pixels….
..
so what he would be needing what dimensions would the image needs to be in pixels...
in any case to answer your question, depends on viewwing distance, but i've done 6x4 meter (or yards for that matter) and even 12x8meter on a Canon 5D mk2, so i would say starting from around 18 MP…
The printing company will assign a sufficient dpi to the image regarding viewing distance…it can range from 16 dpi to 100 dpi then…
remember ppi/dpi is about how many marbles there are on a given distance, (a meter for example), but won't say how big your bag with marbles have to be …it could be only 2 marbles..
this was done on a Canon 5D2
![https://www.dutchcowboys.nl/images/upload/Sapph_Centercom1.jpg]()
![https://www.hermanvangestel.com/mm/sapph-highway-billboard_n.jpg]()
Herman
www.hermanvangestel.com
Photographer
MMDesign
Posts: 18647
Louisville, Kentucky, US
Download a template from their website.
It varies per the size of the board obviously but the size I was doing for one customer was built at something like 12" x 3.375" at 300 dpi (that's not exact, just me guessing from a few years back).
Photographer
Tilt Photo
Posts: 111
Los Angeles, California, US
You should confirm with the prepress facility but I believe billboards are 1" = 1' @ 300dpi (so if your image occupies 20 feet of billboard space, you'd need 20"@300dpi). And you can find megapixel calculators on the web that show the equivalent MP based on the number of pixels.
Photographer
Kent Art Photography
Posts: 3588
Ashford, England, United Kingdom
J O H N A L L A N wrote:
Because a highway billboard is meant to be viewed at a great distance away, I'd think you wouldn't need particularly high resolution. Now, if you're printing a huge in-store display that is meant to be viewed at relatively close distances, that's different. And the printing process tends to be quite crude, too. Plus, most billboard pics tend to be heavily worked up, and are often combinations of images.
Photographer
the lonely photographer
Posts: 2342
Beverly Hills, California, US
I'm only concerned if I have enough to work with in the first place. It's going to be the billboard company's problem to print it. CMA if my client decides to do a billboard and the stuff I shot don't have enough to look good. Could rent an 80 mp digiback to cover all the bases.
Photographer
Herman van Gestel
Posts: 2266
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Tilt Photo wrote:
You should confirm with the prepress facility but I believe billboards are 1" = 1' @ 300dpi (so if your image occupies 20 feet of billboard space, you'd need 20"@300dpi). And you can find megapixel calculators on the web that show the equivalent MP based on the number of pixels. That would be a dpi of 300/12 =25 dpi…but again depends if it s a billboard for highway/ Times Square or waiting hall of a train station..it can as low as 10-12 dpi…
but ask them…but if you have a 18-21 MP camera you will be mostly fine…off course, higher is always welcomed , but needs processing-power...
Herman
www.hermanvangestel.com
Photographer
MMDesign
Posts: 18647
Louisville, Kentucky, US
the lonely photographer wrote:
I'm only concerned if I have enough to work with in the first place. It's going to be the billboard company's problem to print it. CMA if my client decides to do a billboard and the stuff I shot don't have enough to look good. Could rent an 80 mp digiback to cover all the bases. No need at all, I shot plenty of them with a D2x and used stock images off of iStock for many others and they worked fine.
Photographer
Jay Leavitt
Posts: 6745
Las Vegas, Nevada, US
I'd be comfortable with anything with 6.3 or more for a typical billboard.
Photographer
D. Brian Nelson
Posts: 5477
Rapid City, South Dakota, US
In photo school, this was one of the many trick questions. "What film format should be used for a billboard." The answer was, as several have noted, "It doesn't matter." Billboards are viewed from a distance.
Don
Photographer
Herman van Gestel
Posts: 2266
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
D. Brian Nelson wrote:
In photo school, this was one of the many trick questions. "What film format should be used for a billboard." The answer was, as several have noted, "It doesn't matter." Billboards are viewed from a distance.
Don A better answer would be "depends on viewing distance"
here is a Print Resolution Calculator 
and then found this little beauty for simplicity…
view = 3500 / dpi
or for a given viewing distance
dpi = 3500 / view
(The viewing distance is the distance at which you can resolve a
line pair drawn at the given DPI).
If you want to view the billboard from 50 feet we have:
viewing distance = 50 feet * 12 inches = 600 inches
dpi = 3500/600 = 6 dpi
Now it only remains how big the billboard by itself is  Herman
www.hermanvangestel.com
Photographer
Azimuth Arts
Posts: 1490
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
the lonely photographer wrote:
I'm only concerned if I have enough to work with in the first place. It's going to be the billboard company's problem to print it. CMA if my client decides to do a billboard and the stuff I shot don't have enough to look good. Could rent an 80 mp digiback to cover all the bases. If you suspect your client may want to make a billboard out of the photos you take it is best to find out the possible specs BEFORE the shoot. Billboards are often a different aspect ratio than print - if you are shooting primarily for a magazine in a portrait aspect ratio (say an 8.5 wide x 11 high page) but the billboard it needs to go on is 20' wide by 10' tall you will either need to shoot a separate photo for each, or shoot the same image with adequate framing to allow for both crops.
The best CYA is to get the client to confirm ALL SPECS BEFORE you shoot - and make sure you can deliver - then everything is suitably covered.
Just my $0.02
Photographer
PhillipM
Posts: 8049
Nashville, Tennessee, US
Btw... My first and only billboard was shot with a d60
Photographer
the lonely photographer
Posts: 2342
Beverly Hills, California, US
Azimuth Arts wrote:
If you suspect your client may want to make a billboard out of the photos you take it is best to find out the possible specs BEFORE the shoot. Billboards are often a different aspect ratio than print - if you are shooting primarily for a magazine in a portrait aspect ratio (say an 8.5 wide x 11 high page) but the billboard it needs to go on is 20' wide by 10' tall you will either need to shoot a separate photo for each, or shoot the same image with adequate framing to allow for both crops.
The best CYA is to get the client to confirm ALL SPECS BEFORE you shoot - and make sure you can deliver - then everything is suitably covered.
Just my $0.02 that's the Italian guys qoute lol
Photographer
MMDesign
Posts: 18647
Louisville, Kentucky, US
That's the great thing about model mayhem, you can offer all the advice in the world regardless whether you have a clue what you're talking about or not.
Photographer
the lonely photographer
Posts: 2342
Beverly Hills, California, US
MMDesign wrote:
That's the great thing about model mayhem, you can offer all the advice in the world regardless whether you have a clue what you're talking about or not. I'll take it all under advisement.
Photographer
MMDesign
Posts: 18647
Louisville, Kentucky, US
the lonely photographer wrote:
I'll take it all under advisement. I would recommend that you take under advisement the info provided by those who have actually produced a billboard, but that's just me.
Photographer
Danny Steyn
Posts: 66
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US
Some years ago, the agency at the time handling Hard Rock Cafe purchased a 6MP image from me that was used as a full bleed image on a billboard. The image was shot on the original Nikon D1 SLR
Remember viewing distance is the key here.
Photographer
Mike Collins
Posts: 2880
Orlando, Florida, US
When I worked for an ad agency some 20 years ago one of our clients used a shot we did for them shot on 35mm transparency. It looked great. Any current crop of dslrs will work. Let the printing company handle it.
Photographer
Andrew Thomas Evans
Posts: 24079
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
Azimuth Arts wrote:
If you suspect your client may want to make a billboard out of the photos you take it is best to find out the possible specs BEFORE the shoot. Billboards are often a different aspect ratio than print - if you are shooting primarily for a magazine in a portrait aspect ratio (say an 8.5 wide x 11 high page) but the billboard it needs to go on is 20' wide by 10' tall you will either need to shoot a separate photo for each, or shoot the same image with adequate framing to allow for both crops.
The best CYA is to get the client to confirm ALL SPECS BEFORE you shoot - and make sure you can deliver - then everything is suitably covered.
Just my $0.02 It depends on the billboard too and the use. If it's a full image for a specific size then yes, this is something to keep in mind. If it's just some image floating in white (or some color) then no, they can move things around as needed for the specific site.
What you really need all the specs for is pricing, or to find out if their offer is in the ballpark or not.
Andrew Thomas Evans
www.andrewthomasevans.com
Photographer
photoimager
Posts: 5164
Stoke-on-Trent, England, United Kingdom
1 - it is ppi not dpi
2 - billboards have been done from 4 Mp cameras in the past
3 - the only people who can give the correct answer to the OP's are the people who are printing it since they know the specifications that they use.
Photographer
MMDesign
Posts: 18647
Louisville, Kentucky, US
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…NO!!!!! 
