Product: Outdoor studio, Sports Poster

This is an assignment where I explored a poster for a sports expo. The client was a bicycle helmet company and they wanted to highlight their product with a bike. There was no way to get an action shot, so a static shot had to work. I wanted a scene that was dynamic, colorful and pulled the viewer to the product. I used several scenic components as layers, lighting each one uniquely to build the final image. I worked in a dim environment in the late evening for maximum flexibility. This old tree stump in a neighbors yard was an interesting backdrop for the bike and the helmet.












I started with just the bike, and added in the helmet last. My biggest challenge was managing the black hole beyond the tree where the fence line was. I had to bring it up just enough to not draw the eye into the blackness, but not overpower the foreground.

Using different colorized gel transparencies over the lights, I was able to modify the appearance to look like moonlight. My experience in the community theatre world has helped me a lot with contrasting and controlling lighting on a scene to set the desired mood.

I worked my way forward as I added components into the scene. Originally I tried the helmet on the ground, but it was not prominent enough there. 

I continue to build up, at this point I have background and foreground lights to highlight the surfaces of the tires, the frame and the top of the bike. 

Here is the scene with the helmet on the handlebars, but I have the black hole problem again. I have to back up a little and turn off some of the lights to get that under control.

A little more blue, and a little bit of reaiming and we end up with the final shot, here again.