# How did they make giant photo posters fifty years ago?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-giant-photo-posters-fifty-years-ago/756909>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 9, 2016, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-giant-photo-posters-fifty-years-ago/756909 "2016-06-09T09:25:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-giant-photo-posters-fifty-years-ago/756909/21 "2016-06-11T11:04:43Z")

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> [@SlackerInc](#):
>
> Nice find. Is there a discontinuity between the top and bottom half of the LBJ images there, or is that just a shadow?

It’s identical on both (at least the one to the right of LBJ’s head) so more likely to be a discontinuity than shadow, well spotted.

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**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-giant-photo-posters-fifty-years-ago/756909/22 "2016-06-11T11:44:57Z")

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> [@Aeschines](#):
>
> By the way, until pretty recently, outdoor billboards and other large-format ads were simply painted:

[Some still are.](http://imgur.com/4F5IRoy)

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-giant-photo-posters-fifty-years-ago/756909/23 "2016-06-12T08:12:42Z")

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> [@Aeschines](#):
>
> By the way, until pretty recently, outdoor billboards and other large-format ads were simply painted:
> 
> [Billboard - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard#Painted_billboards)

Not in all parts of the world. I notice that the wikipedia article suggests that the sheets where hand painted before posting, not painted on the billboard, but I’ve never even seen that: billboards around here were printed even in the 70’s.

FWIW, I’ve read that when there were painted billboards in Aus, they were mostly painted by immigrant Americans.

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**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-giant-photo-posters-fifty-years-ago/756909/24 "2016-06-12T09:18:02Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> It’s not like the tech to do blowups didn’t exist at the time.

Which is why there is a famous [film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowup) from the era about the matter.

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**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-make-giant-photo-posters-fifty-years-ago/756909/25 "2016-06-14T08:35:05Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> It’s identical on both (at least the one to the right of LBJ’s head) so more likely to be a discontinuity than shadow, well spotted.

Thanks! Although looking at it again, there’s also a darker shading that extends at an angle below the “seam” on the right side of each photo. So even less likely to be a shadow, but maybe it’s some kind of horizon in the actual shot?

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