Large scale photography by Sensory Productions

On February 25,”Tongue ‘n Chic,” a new dental boutique in downtown Elgin, had its grand opening. Sensory Productions was commissioned by Dr. Brandon Becker to create a large-scale photographic mural for the front waiting room of the office. At 18 x 11 feet, it was our largest scale project to date.

Located at 14 Douglas, the Elgin office is Dr. Becker’s third dental facility in Illinois, with an office in Lancing, and another on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. He describes his boutique as “a completely digital/paperless high tech dental office that combines general dental care with head/neck med spa services.” A far stretch from your average sterile dental office, Tongue ‘n Chic offers a warm and inviting atmosphere with amenities that you wouldn’t expect from a dental office. A comfortable waiting room, large screen TVs, and artistic décor are just the beginning of what sets it apart from other dental practices. Along with traditional dental procedures, Tongue n’ Chic offers an on-premises medical aesthetician who provides counsel for feeling and looking more youthful and healthy. These services include many treatments you would find at an upscale spa. Altogether, we found the idea to be unique, certainly to this area, and we were happy to see the idea come to Elgin.

Dr. Becker came to us with a basic idea of what he wanted in his reception area, and so the process of creating the large-scale artwork began. We first went to the location to see exactly what we were working with. The space was a reception room with an 18 x 11 foot back wall where he wanted the mural. At that size, we knew we would need a lot of camera resolution, and that could only be achieved with a medium format camera.

Our next step was to find 3 models for the photo shoot. We looked through shots of over 300 models and narrowed it to a manageable list of about 30 that Dr. Becker could choose from. We then sat down with him and chose 3 models that would achieve the aesthetic he was looking for. After contacting and hiring all 3 models, we were ready to begin the shoot.

As mentioned earlier, we needed a a high-quality, medium-format camera, in order to capture the resolution necessary for a picture of that scale that would be viewed close up by customers in the reception area. A standard 35 mm SLR (single lens reflex) camera, or its digital equivalent, would not be enough. We chose to go with the Hasselblad H3DII-39,which boasts an amazing 39 megapixels of resolution and the largest image sensor currently available—48×36 mm—more than twice the size of even the largest 35mm camera sensors. Working with this camera for the duration of the photo shoot was a great experience. We were able to hone our lighting and directing skills, and ended up with some great results.

Kelly in front of her photo at Toung 'n' Chic

After completing the photo shoot, we began the post process. This started with narrowing down the nearly 900 photos to a selection of the 10 best from each model. We then had to determine how they would best fit together, since we photographed each model separately. We came up with 5 variations of the final piece before coming to a final decision. Then began the long Photoshop process of putting the images together and enhancing them. If you have ever looked at a photograph on a billboard or in a magazine and thought that’s how the image came out of the camera, you’re not even close. Many hours, even days, go into each photo during the digital “airbrushing” process.

Finally, our job was done. We sent the digital image (almost 2 gigabytes uncompressed at this point) to Andres Imaging out of Chicago, where they printed it to vinyl and put it up on the wall at Tongue ‘n Chic. The image was unveiled at the the opening on February 25^th, where we got to see our largest photograph to date for the first time. Although a lot of work goes into a project of that scale, it was well worth it when we saw the final product.