I have art directed a similar
project. A 800 x 600 pixel image in a
PowerPoint presentation is very forgiving at the viewing distances
your
audience will see them from. The images will look much better on
your
computer screen than they ever will on the big screen (but is fun to
see
them so big!) If you look at a video projection screen up close,
each pixel
is something like 1/4 inch wide (think about 800 pixels spread out over a
12
or 15 foot wide screen and you get the idea...)
I am in the very early stages of this project, so admittedly, I have much
to learn. I saw DLP demonstrated at Texas Instruments in
Richardson, TX just before it was introduced globally about five years
ago. I could not have been more impressed with the
technology. While it is hard to imagine, the chip that is in the
projection engine, contains a mirror for each pixel. The projected
image is bright and the image is as sharp as you could ask for it to
be. I have been anxious to employ the technology. Currently,
I am developing the project on my regular computer screen and then
subsequently viewing it at about 1.3 meters x 1.7 meters on a wall behind
me. I am viewing it at a distance of about 3.7 meters.
Everything seems perfect at this viewing distance. I am planning on
projecting in the future at a maximum screen width of 3.7 meters in a
room with minimum ambient light, with a 1300 lumens projector, with the
average audience participant being a distance from the screen at the same
proportional distance as I am in my viewing environment.
Theoretically, I think I will be OK.
I am not opposed to by-passing the film process if it will do an adequate
job. Yesterday, I saved Nikon D1 JPEG images off the web,
especially all the macro images I could find, put them in PowerPoint
slides and projected them. Some were beautiful, some had
limitations to the critical eye. With the assumption that the
typical viewer will not have a master photographer's critical eye, is
accustomed to the prints from "point and shoot" cameras,
"mini-lab-one-hour" prints and TV screens, perhaps the images
are super-super-adequate. The jury is still out in my
mind.
