Wasn’t sure where best to post this, so I’ll put it here.
Long story short, I’m after a couple of opinions on how to handle this.
I don’t do a lot of freelance these days, but I have one returning client who makes christmas displays/grottos with artwork wallpapered on the inside. I’ve done artwork for him for years, making cosy cottages, candy wonderlands, ice caves and all kinds of stuff. All illustrated, drawn or otherwise digitally painted.
Illustration, in short.
His client this time wants photorealism. Like, actual photographs. A snowy landscape with pine trees and an aurora borealis, the works. I’ve painted this before, but this time his client doesn’t want an “illustrated image” but something totally 100% realistic.
I’ve spent hours trawling Unsplash, iStock, Adobe Stock and even Google trying to find photos I could somehow cannibalise into something decent. Even the largest images require upscaling, and look strange after doing so. I’ve even signed up to Midjourney (yes, I know) as a test to see if I could generate some useable elements there… it does not know how trees work and it will not be used.
Long story short. I don’t know if I can deliver on this one. If anyone has any great resources on where to find useable images, or techniques to build images like this, or just a nice way to decline/reframe the job, I’m all ears.
He’s a great client, and at this point it’s not even about the money, I would just like to be able to help and prevent any loss of work for him as well as myself, lol.
Have you checked out Topaz Software products?
Their Photo-AI and Gigapixel software can do some interesting things. It does reach a point though where the AI may start to miss, and the result may resemble the quality you see in a really good game segue animation (kind of plastic but realistic.) Depends on how large you really want to go.
They have trial downloads.
(I don’t work for them but I do large format printing have used it with Client permission.)
It’s okay to tell clients you don’t have the skill set for a particular creative direction. You say “I don’t have the necessary experience to produce that type of work, but let me help you find someone who can.”
Or, if you are concerned about introducing your client to someone who could take your place, you subcontract with an artist who can produce the design and you would serve as art director on the project. Your client would deal with you and you would deal with the artist.
The other thing you might try is checking for photographers that do the sort of work you’re looking for. Not stock sites. You can often contract a deal that pays usage on imagery directly with them. It’s not cheap though.
And I’m sure you know that photo imagery at large scales only has to be max 150ppi. For scenic drops and stuff, we usually recommend 50-75ppi and with HD Broadcast, you can get away with 25 cuz you have to put a hefty blur on it. But where this is “live”, yeah, 50-100ppi should do for ya.
I’ll admit, I’m very close to just holding my hands up and saying “I’ve looked into it, and I don’t think I can do this one”. Though I don’t know anyone who could do the work instead.
I don’t understand the job’s particulars beyond what you’ve written. However, I’ll say that seemingly good ideas are a dime a dozen (to use an American idiom). For that matter, quickly winnowing out impractical ideas is one of the primary skills of a good designer that clients pay for when they hire us.
Getty has plenty of pricey high-resolution photos that meet your description. Even the royalty-free stock sites have some good photos.
However, since you’ve already done the searches, I assume there are other reasons these photos won’t work.
With that in mind, obtaining realistic, high-resolution photos that don’t exist isn’t a shortcoming brought on by limited skills. Instead, it’s a matter of the client not being able to afford to hire a company with the resources to create them out of thin air.
I’ve needed to course-correct many of my clients when they stray off the path of practical reality.
So I just had a chat with the client and he’s persuading HIS client that blown-up photographs might not be the way to go, but a detailed painting instead. That I can (just about) do! So, result
Did a quick test piece and we’re going to see if something like this would work for his client. Took about 2 hours and is very much outside my usual style. Imagine that, but more of it, and with more variation in the trees etc, covering some walls top to bottom.
and it will not be used.
