I decided to change the language of this entry for few reasons. The most important one being the fact that I've learned nearly everything I know about lighting from David Hobby, the author of the single
most influential photography blog in current millennium. In addition to teaching the basics of lighting to a generation of eager photographers, he also stresses the importance of working as a community. The information distribution model is no longer from one to many. It's from many to many and the potential in that is mind-blowing. So here's my attempt to start giving back to the community.
The following picture was shot for a poster of the improvisation-theater I've been a part of couple of years. Featuring in the photo, also our lovely dance group in their orange tees.
My last entry (in Finnish) presented a small challenge to figure out how the end result of the freezing photo shoot was post processed. Some of the guesses were partially right, but no-one managed to find all of the details, which of course makes me very satisfied. If you haven't seen
the photo before, I urge you to take a look at it and try to reverse engineer it before reading the following making of section.
So here's how the puzzle was assembled. 100% of the insanity going on in the photo has been shot outside, but not in one frame. We first built the composition by giving all the models a place to stand in and an activity to perform. Being actors and dancers, the people adapted the roles easily so all I had to take care of was to make sure, that no-one would cover the other and that I'd be able to press the button when the cannonball was in the air. After finding the positions it was time to get rid of the excess clothes and start the freezing picknick. The temperature was around 0°c at the time. We originally planned to shoot the picture the previous weekend, but it was around minus 25 then, so we decided to value functioning fingers and toes more than a cool story to tell for our children.
I loved the first frame. It had everything I needed for the post, but it seemed foolish to prepare for the shoot for hours and take just one frame. So we did it again just in case. It turned out to be a good idea, because the other frame had some important elements too.
The photo below is a direct raw conversion so yes, the guys are in the water. I only added the red circle to point out which elements I left in the final composition from this frame, although the circle is a bit too small. This frame worked as canvas for the following elements.
I wanted the poster to look like a continuous transition from snow to sky so the trees here were problematic. I had to shoot the frame using gigantic wide angle of 14mm lens because the only way to get to a proper shooting angle was to climb to the railing which you can partially see in the frame. The distortions of the lens make the people further away look like ants and the focal length bends the people standing on the right quite a lot. I'll just have to start saving for a crane of my own.
And here's finally something for the strobists. The scene was lit with two profoto 600r flashes positioned just outside the frame on the right. I wanted to add at least some sunshine and form to the flat ambient. The flashes draw the cannonball out of the back round, which makes the guy look a bit photoshopped (which he undeniably is), but that doesn't lessen the value of his job one bit. I can tell you the water he jumped into was rather chilly.
Here's the professional high quality lighting diagram:
As I said, the trees were a problem. The frame cut the tops so borderless transition was impossible. It would have been possible to frame them out with a longer focal length (as the next picture indicates), but that just wasn't an option here.
Because of the ridiculous restrictions the "reality" gave us, I again had to make it more suitable for our needs. I was shooting in the other side of town the day before, and the perfect horizon presented itself almost accidentally. Yes, there is a tennis net in the front, but that's a completely different story.
The first frame would have been suitable for the poster directly, but I wanted to challenge myself a bit and take the slightly better elements from the second frame and embed them into the first. I used the guys in the boat and the grill party with bigger flames and slightly better position of the bystanders. Unfortunately the redheaded girl was looking at the camera, so I took her head from the first frame. Here's the second frame, again from the camera.
The final composition includes a bit of perspective distortion adjustments, though I couldn't get rid of them completely. I also cloned the flash reflection away and moved the red skier a bit forward and added some snow to the bottom of the frame for balance.
So that's it. I think that the biggest photoshop-givaway here are the now absent trees reflecting from the water. Apart from that, I'm pretty satisfied that at least the untrained eye (no offence anyone) couldn't pick up the shenanigans.
As far as I know, this is how big part of the commercial photos are made, so I really think that it is important for the consumer to realize that photographs do lie. In fact some say that they do nothing but lie. Small enhancements in the reality makes things more interesting, but I still think that
credible result can be achieved only from
outstanding starting point. In this case, bunch of amazingly cool people who think posing for a photo in bikini and shorts is a great way to spend a midwinter evening.
I'd say that Annamaija got it the closest by guessing that the horizon is added later. So feel free to collect your passport-photo prize at any time.
Ps. David, I do hold you accountable for your promise to pack and come to Finland to hide from snow. As you can see, it's not a problem here. Just make sure you're not taking the train for they don't seem to share the attitude.
