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I would like to take you behind the scenes of this bold blue beauty shot and show you how it wound up on a 48-foot-wide by 14-foot-tall ArtPop Street Gallery billboard.
This photo appeared on a billboard just off Rt. 309 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for 12 months in 2019.
Yes, a micro four-thirds image — tack sharp — on a 48-foot wide by 14ft (4.27 m) tall billboard. Pretty cool, eh?
ArtPop Street Gallery
How did this happen? I am honored to have been selected as the People’s Choice Award Winner in the ArtPop Street Gallery 2019 Billboard Competition in my area. So what does that mean? Well, there is this incredible organization called ArtPop Street Gallery whose mission is to promote local artists’ work and make art accessible to communities through available media space.
ArtPop Street Gallery was founded by Wendy Hickey in Charlotte, NC, in 2014. In the years since, she has grown the program to include competitions in 14 cities across the United States. Wendy partners with billboard advertising companies like Adams Outdoor — the company hosting my billboard — and these companies graciously donate unsold advertising space to host the winning billboards, turning roads, highways, and thoroughfares into opportunities for artistic appreciation. The winning artwork can be seen on billboards, buses, news racks, and at airports.
ArtPop Street Gallery is a non-profit organization that partners with local art organizations to organize and promote the annual contests.
Click here so that you can learn more about ArtPop Street Gallery and maybe even have your artwork featured on a billboard!
The Billboard
People very falsely assume that you need extremely large files and tons of megapixels to print a photo on a billboard, and they very falsely assume that once the photo is printed on the billboard, it looks really blurry up close and then really sharp when you are a hundred yards away. BOTH assumptions are VERY wrong. Printing technology has come a long way and, as you have heard me say MANY times, megapixels are highly overrated. I had images printed on billboards 16 years ago, taken with a 2.7-megapixel Nikon D1, that were only 2,000 pixels wide.
The file required to print this billboard was only 7,300 pixels wide at 300 dpi. That is only 24 inches (0.61 m) wide. The color profile was also set to CMYK to facilitate the printing process that is used to print the images on vinyl.
It was actually quite impressive to watch the billboard being installed. The total time start to finish — including removing the previous billboard — was just 27 minutes with a three-man crew from Adams Outdoor Advertising.
After the vinyl billboard is stretched across the backing, it’s held in place with PVC pipes that are slid through the sleeves on the edge of the vinyl and then tension-strapped to the back of the billboard.
The Concept
I routinely scour Amazon.com for costume retailers, Chinese fashion retailers, and just about anyone who sells interesting, unusual, colorful things I can use for a photo. In this case, I found this bright blue set of Cosplay wigs, and I decided to build my shot idea around it. I always look for ways to reuse props, as long as it’s not too obvious that they appear in several images.
I knew from the beginning that I was going to do a composite background for this shot, and I was initially thinking along the lines of a Japanese anime feel. While I was in the studio, I remembered I had these blue plastic balls and realized I could use them to create another one of my calm-in-the-middle-of-chaos shots.
The Setup
I wanted this to have a bright, commercial vibe, so I went with a 28-inch beauty dish mounted directly in front of and above my subject.
The white Walmart reflector just underneath and out of frame serves two purposes in this shot. It provides some fill from below to create the faux clamshell effect, and it is the reflection that you see in the bottom half of her glasses. The purple tint is from the sunglasses — that wasn’t added in post — but I did add saturation to it.
The real challenge was maintaining the symmetry in the glasses with the reflection of the beauty dish and foam core — it required very slow and deliberate communication with my model. It was essential to keep her calm and focused and to remind her not to move. I told her that breathing was completely optional — don’t move!
I did this shot in front of an Ocean Blue Savage Seamless paper background, using two lights on either side to evenly light the background, and then two more — one on either side — aimed back at the model to create rim highlights on her wig and shoulders.
This was a total of 5 Interfit Honey Badgers — but you could easily do it with speedlights or pocket flashes.
When I was done photographing my model, I photographed the blue playground balls separately, so I had several variations to composite later.
The Gear
The shot was made with my Olympus E-M1 Mark II and the M. Zuiko 45mm f/1.2 PRO lens, which is a 90mm full-frame equivalent. The ISO was 200, the base ISO for the Mark II, the shutter speed was 1/250th of a second, and the aperture was set at f/8.
I was shooting tethered with Tether Tools TetherPro cables and using Olympus Capture software to manage the camera and downloads. In camera, my images were saved to Delkin Devices V90 Power Cards
Post Production
The final image of the model required very little post-production beyond the usual color, contrast, and sharpening, and of course, removing blemishes — I say this just as a reminder of the importance of great hair and makeup.
My next step was to remove her from the background in Photoshop and then extend the image to 16:9. I then added the blue balls one at a time, applied some motion blur, and a radial blur to achieve the final result.
Summary
Inexpensive props, costumes, and bright colors = fun photographs. So have fun — I sure do.
Also, PLEASE — don’t overlook the importance of organizations like the ArtPop Street Gallery. Art is essential, and even though we are all creators, we also need to support organizations that support us. I hope to see your work on a billboard soon.
And last but not least… please — worry less about gear, how big and how much, and who says what… instead, enjoy the art of creating with a camera.
Update – 9/10/20
As of September 2020, this image is displayed on a digital billboard on the side of the GA Tower in Mandaluyong City, Manila, Philippines.
I hope you found this information useful. Now go pick up that camera and shoot something! Because – “Your BEST shot is your NEXT shot!” — Joe Edelman
