If you tuned into CSU social media this December, you probably noticed a healthy dose of Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl content. One particular post, however, was a bit different from the rest: the Canvas Stadium portal image.
Here’s an overview of what inspired the image and how we created it. Who knows, maybe it will inspire you for a future project too.
The concept
In early December, it was announced that the Colorado State University football team would play in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl later that month. Within days of the announcement CSU Social got to work brainstorming creative ways to generate content.
Brainstorming sessions are always fun because we have one rule: there are no “bad” ideas. It’s an opportunity to think out loud without inhibitions and let the creative process unfold organically.
One idea that stood out was capturing a dreamy, almost surreal-looking image inside Canvas Stadium, using long exposure light painting and composite image techniques inspired by YouTube creator Kyle Nutt in this video.
If you haven’t seen Kyle’s work before, I highly encourage you to check him out. He’s personally one of my favorite artists in the digital media space right now.
For a bit more information about light painting and composite images, have a look at the links below.
The equipment
Here’s a list of all the equipment used for capturing the Canvas Stadium portal image. The plastic shopping bag might seem strange, but hang with me here. It will all make sense.
- Camera (capable of 15+ second exposures)
- Wide angle lens (we used a 15-35mm)
- Tripod
- Aputure MT Pro RGB LED Tube Lights
- Lume Cube Mini LED Light Panel
- Collapsable light stands
- Plastic shopping bag
Photographing the portal
Ultimately, the final product would be a composite image. This means that multiple photos are merged into a single image in post-production. In this case, it was two photos. The first photo would become our base image and include the painted portal. The second photo would be our fill image featuring the illuminated football player subject.
Inside Canvas Stadium we selected a composition that felt satisfactory and positioned the camera on a tripod where it would stay for both photos.
We waited until just after sundown to begin snapping away. This is important because a 10-15 second exposure was needed to paint the portal. During daylight hours, this same exposure duration would result in a washed-out photo with too much ambient light for the glow of the LEDs to be visible.
Here is what our base image setup looked like.
In the base image my colleague used the mini LED light panel with a plastic bag loosely wrapped around it to draw the outline of the portal. The plastic bag works great because it creates more surface area for the LED and diffuses the light in a way that results in a beautiful, wispy texture.
It was a bit of a guess-and-check game. Several attempts were needed to get the timing and shape exactly right. This was probably the most fun part of the whole shoot. We couldn’t help but laugh at some of the initial results.
For the second fill photo we added our subject to the frame. Using the mini LED light panel, we painted the subject from both sides, giving the appearance that the glow from the portal was wrapping around him. The trick here was placing the subject slightly in front of the portal element in the previous base photo so they would naturally align in the final composite.
Editing the composite
Now that the photos were in hand, the next step was bringing everything into Photoshop to begin the composite edit. I started with making basic adjustments to the base image until I had a balanced exposure with more detail in the stadium background.
Next, I masked out the center of the portal and used a stock image of an Arizona desert landscape to fill the inside. The idea here was to use the visual element of the portal to connect Fort Collins with Tucson.
After that, the second fill image with our subject was added to the composition, using a mask to cut the subject out and place him in the scene.
Finally, I played with a few creative tools like gaussian blur, glow effects, dodging, burning and color grading to make the final image really pop.
Here’s another great editing tutorial that shows how some of these creative tools are used.
Overall, creating the Canvas Stadium portal image highlights the incredibly wide range of creative possibilities by combining just a few unique photo techniques.