Behind the Scenes - Grand Finale
Greensquared
Registered Users Posts: 2,115 Major grins
Well I guess I'll officially start, since I don't have much to lose! 
The idea for my image, Stepping Through Time, came to me partially and it took me a while to figure out 1) What would someone "stepping through time" possibly look like? and 2) How in the heck could I translate that in a photograph?
I began with the "old time". I had the exact dress I wanted in my mind, and despite friends trying to reason with the practicality of renting something, I went ahead and got the pattern and fabric. Some 12 hours later, my creation was complete. I was amazingly able to get ahold of a skirt hoop too. Here's the best use my Bowflex has been put to in about 2 years:
Next, I made the trek to downtown Atlanta, with my wonderful husband as a chaperone. My goal was to capture a busy city street. I also wanted to add a personal touch, and so, being a big Gone With The Wind fan, I wanted to tie that in. I made sure I got the city scene first, so I could match the light of the woman to it later (rather than attempting the reverse). I ended up at the intersection of Peachtree Street looking down 14th Street. This is precisely one block from where Margaret Mitchell was killed (GWTW author). There were hardly any people there during the Friday rush hour time, so I had to take several shots to build my pedestrians up.
I then went 4 blocks down the street to the Margaret Mitchell House where she once lived and shot that for my "old time" image. I didn't want it to dominate, but knew I wanted something in the window.
Next was how to get my model appropriately lit and posed. I chose a shaded location and since the weather was exactly the same, I set up to shot at exactly the same time as my city street, only on the following day. I rigged up a pole, hung 2 sheets of black felt, stapled folded tin foil to the edges and tried to shape it into something of a "tear". I then did my model's hair and make up, and shot her stepping through the tear.
This gal is a dream to work with! She has awesome expressions, is simply gorgeous, completely willing to try just about anything...and she even dyed her hair for the shoot! (Yes, this is the same girl as in the Hanging the Moon shot.)
Anyway, tack on about 10-15 hours worth of Photoshop, and voila, my image is finally complete:
I have a total of around 30 hours in this shot and am still totally exhausted, but I have achieved my goals which were to 1) Have fun, 2) Learn and 3) Complete a personal challenge. Yes, it's an obvious composite and I'm really looking forward to the future and working on different types of images, but I'm still happy with where I've gotten and am really thrilled with my whole LPS experience.
The idea for my image, Stepping Through Time, came to me partially and it took me a while to figure out 1) What would someone "stepping through time" possibly look like? and 2) How in the heck could I translate that in a photograph?
I began with the "old time". I had the exact dress I wanted in my mind, and despite friends trying to reason with the practicality of renting something, I went ahead and got the pattern and fabric. Some 12 hours later, my creation was complete. I was amazingly able to get ahold of a skirt hoop too. Here's the best use my Bowflex has been put to in about 2 years:
Next, I made the trek to downtown Atlanta, with my wonderful husband as a chaperone. My goal was to capture a busy city street. I also wanted to add a personal touch, and so, being a big Gone With The Wind fan, I wanted to tie that in. I made sure I got the city scene first, so I could match the light of the woman to it later (rather than attempting the reverse). I ended up at the intersection of Peachtree Street looking down 14th Street. This is precisely one block from where Margaret Mitchell was killed (GWTW author). There were hardly any people there during the Friday rush hour time, so I had to take several shots to build my pedestrians up.
I then went 4 blocks down the street to the Margaret Mitchell House where she once lived and shot that for my "old time" image. I didn't want it to dominate, but knew I wanted something in the window.
Next was how to get my model appropriately lit and posed. I chose a shaded location and since the weather was exactly the same, I set up to shot at exactly the same time as my city street, only on the following day. I rigged up a pole, hung 2 sheets of black felt, stapled folded tin foil to the edges and tried to shape it into something of a "tear". I then did my model's hair and make up, and shot her stepping through the tear.
This gal is a dream to work with! She has awesome expressions, is simply gorgeous, completely willing to try just about anything...and she even dyed her hair for the shoot! (Yes, this is the same girl as in the Hanging the Moon shot.)
Anyway, tack on about 10-15 hours worth of Photoshop, and voila, my image is finally complete:
I have a total of around 30 hours in this shot and am still totally exhausted, but I have achieved my goals which were to 1) Have fun, 2) Learn and 3) Complete a personal challenge. Yes, it's an obvious composite and I'm really looking forward to the future and working on different types of images, but I'm still happy with where I've gotten and am really thrilled with my whole LPS experience.
Emily
Psalm 62:5-6
0
Comments
Thanks Nik!!!
dak.smugmug.com
Why wait? We have never waited on LPS judging before to post a "Behind the Scenes" thread. Erik, if you feel it's inappropriate, please let me know.
I agree. I actually gave my behind the scenes background when I was polling you for feedback on which image to enter. You shot, which I love, made me wonder about a few things and has got me creative cranium in high gear
I always get the most of the rounds from reading how people did what. At the same time I always feel I never have anything to say :cry
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Jesse
I remember when I use to have time to do stuff.
Wow, that's brilliant. Your son looks sooooo the part in the astronaut costume. :-) This is an amazing behind the scenes. Thank you for sharing.
My images | My blog | My free course
Emily
I started the finals with a huge list of ideas. I recruited some models and every morning noon and night (nearly) I was shooting. As time went on and some of my pictures weren't turning out as good as I saw them in my minds eye, my list was shortening. However, on the short list was a scene that I have eyed up numerous times in the past...
I loved this scene for tons of reasons. First, being the colors, then the feel of it from all the different shades of rust, cracks, old sign, wear, old leaves, etc. Contemplating longer, I realized the most important reason to like it was the composition. The door and ashtray, the lines of the mortar, the angles of the stairs. Alone it was working. So I posted it with a few others asking for input and this scene was the favorite - but everyone thought the human element was needed. I agreed. I had my model ready in a golden dress that went just below the knees, and then a near-blizzard came. The more I thought, the more I realized that the scene was standing on it's own and I wanted it to remain the subject, so I had to be careful of the placement of my model. Then it occurred to me that one of my models has a rocker look to him with shaggy hair, scruffy face, etc., perfect to match the feeling that was already in the scene. So I placed him humbly in the scene, with his clothes blending into the existing colors so that he would not stand out too much, yet add a little more depth and interest. His position paralleled the angles of the stairs, which I thought worked perfectly. I sharpened the scene and entered it. Artistically, I am very satisfied with the results.
www.tessa-hd.smugmug.com
www.printandportfolio.com
This summer's wilderness photography project: www.tessa-hd.smugmug.com/gallery/3172341
dak.smugmug.com
The hard work your "Rocket Man" (what is his name?) put in for your image(s), he is also a "Little Hero", whether he gets to the moon or not eventually!
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
I have been thinking about putting fish in unusual situations ever since I saw an intersting fish bowl shot on Flickr maybe 8 months ago or so. In fact I made an attempt a variation of that shot for SF#2. That exercise was a bit of a debacle because I lost the bowl to the waves before I got the shot I really wanted. None-the-less, I put this together during that round:
Think Big (shot, but not submitted for SF#2)
In the end I submitted Former Glory instead. Good idea or not? I dunno. Anyhow, some time between SF#2 and SF#3 I came up with the idea of fish bowls hanging from balloons and decided that the Golden Gate Bridge was the perfect setting for that idea. During SF#3 I put together most of the setup but the fog was too heavy on the days I could shoot during the round so I had to fall back on last minute improved idea instead.
The Grand Final came after a very challenging project for SF#4, so I was grateful I had a few pre-packaged ideas sitting around. During the first week I tried a few things (including the bowl on the beach) that weren't working out so, with the encouragement of a friend, decided to take a shot at the ballons over the bridge on Tuesday of the second week of the round. Truthfully, I found this idea rather daunting and I didn't really think I could pull it off, but as time was running short and ideas were failing me, I decided I had to give it a shot.
I had the the camera (with 17-40 and 15mm fish), two fish bowls, 2 gallons of water, a boom stand, 30 pounds of counterweights, a large back pack, a helium tank, a bag of orange ballons and some string in the car as I left work early for the bridge. When I got there I first took just the camera up to the look out point to scout. Its a quarter mile walk and a I didn't want to lug 50 pounds of stuff up there unless it looked good. When I arrived, the sky was clear and the fog bank was maybe a mile offshore.
Back to the car I went to pick up the rest of the rig. I inflated 6 balloons, tied them to the harness, put on the holding the weights and the water and carted the everything up the trail. During this time the wind had picked up and the fog had decided to come in with a vengance. I set up the boom stand and the weights and then filled the bowl with water and hung it with fishing line. In the now heavy wind the balloons were blowing completely horizonally and wer hopeless so I pop them and cut the strings. However, the bowl and stand stood their ground and I was able to shoot. I took a number of shots of the bowl and bridge as well as maybe 30 shots of just the bowl from a different view points so I would have proper perspective shots to edit into the frame.
Here is what I got in camera:
The fog came in very quickly; I kept shooting as it came in, but the last half of what I captured couldn't be used because the fog was too thick. It was, however, a sunny day by San Francisco standards and the locals were out and maybe a half a dozen people manage to find the courage to ask what I might possibly be doing with a fish bowl hangning from a boom stand. Among them were a couple park rangers who informed me that taking pictures of a fish bowl apparently requries a permit. They were actually rather nice about it and let me take a couple more shots before I started packing up. At that point the fog had ended my useful shooting time anyhow. Start to finish it was 15 minutes from my first shot to my last. Here's a shot I took of the scene as I was headed out:
When I got home and reviewed my shoot, I decided that it was worth continuing. The next night I set up the bowl/balloon combo in the garage and the night after I took our long suffering gold fish out of the tank and plunked him in the bowl for a shoot. In both cases I side lit the scene with a scene with bare strobe to simulate the sunlight and used a 1/2 CTB gel to light a seamless backdrop as "sky." In particular, the fish is translucent so I had to get the background color at least close or he wouldn't sit well in the final scene.
From there on out, it was some tedious but not very difficult masking and layering to put the final image together.
As for my shot it was pretty simple I wanted to do something without photoshop I figured it would be different. It seemed like everyone was heading that route so I figured I go in the opposite direction. Anyway, I happened upon a group practicing for an upcoming race and took my entry photo. Simple and done.
Thanks again
Joe
www.tessa-hd.smugmug.com
www.printandportfolio.com
This summer's wilderness photography project: www.tessa-hd.smugmug.com/gallery/3172341
dak.smugmug.com
Hi Joe,
Thanks so much for your kind words. I think my image suffered due to the reduced size. Even I think it looks like crap in the small thumbnail since you can't see squat. Even in the gallery you really don't get the detail. If I'd known the images would have been viewed by voters at that size (and not the max 800), I would have shot something entirely different. I mean really, who is going to look at all the photos at XL size? So, live and learn. Or maybe nobody cared for it. Or maybe there were just so many others that were more impressive. Who knows? Thus is the crux that is LPS...all's well that ends well. The right person will get the cash and the fame. I am tremendously blessed as is and have no real complaints.
A picture would definitely help. Everyone I tried to explain the shot to looked at me like I should be packed away in a padded cell. Goldfish? Balloons? Huh?
I do too. The fish in the bowl is a beta rather than the goldfish I used for the final shot. The reason I used a beta for that shot is that during the contest round I found out that it takes a minimum of 2 weeks to prep a tank for any other kind of fish. Goldfish bowls, it turns out, kill goldfish because they are too small and not filtered. The problem with betas is that they are really pretty droopy most of the time and difficult to recognize as fish. When I was taking pictures of him I had to continually tap the surface of the water to excite him enough to get separate recognizable fins. Now that I have a goldfish (living most of the time in a 10 gallon aquarium), I can reshoot and get a more classic look for the fish in that tank.
On a side note, the aquarium I bought for the goldfish is the one I shot my LPS#16 entry Buoyant in. I'd bought the tank so I'd have a place for the goldfish I planned to shoot for SF#3, but since the bowl shot never worked out during that round, I didn't bother to pick up a fish. The tank was sitting in my house full of water but otherwise empty when LPS#16 started so I thought "what the heck" and started dunking wine glasses in it.
Thanks!
Here is an insight I had a while back about LPS. It really started when I was the digesting the feedback Andy gave when he was judging LPS#3 (not one of my best rounds
In Stepping Through Time you have done a fantastic job of telling the story but I think, to a degree, you have neglected the hook. As a result when people see it small they aren't drawn in to see it bigger. In approching your idea (which is a great one btw), I would look for a setting which grabs the viewer while leaving room for the story. Start by working on the the street shot with a stand-in for the traveller. Once you find setting, light and composition which create a strong image then you can start building the story into it.
BTW, I mean this not as a critique of your image (which I like) in general, but rather as a critique of it in the context of and online competition which is, by nature, a particular kind of beast.
Yes, or a traffic cone!!
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Emily, my 2 centavos are:
- I loved your image and studied it for quite a while. I looked at it at various sizes to see more detail, especially of the building behind the "crack".
- The concept was brilliant and I am really jealous about people who have your creativity
- Unfortunately, because of the concept and the quality, I immediately compared your image to all the Hollywood movies I had ever seen with the "space warp thing", e.g. the Matrix.
- Because of my instant comparison mode I started to see some minor flaws in the time warp crack, etc
I don't know about anybody else but I wanted to share with you what went on in my thought process and that subconsciously it seems that the concept of the image set a very high level to be compared against.I am now thinking about this more and wondering if, due to Hollywood movies, that the more obvious an image is photoshopped the higher the standard the image must be to surpass people's expectations?
I did only say it was 2 centavos worth of thought, which at the current exchange rate is roughly 0.0005 US cents.
My images | My blog | My free course
Ken, thank you for your thoughtful comments. This is totally the conclusion I came to myself yesterday. That an image in this area must have an immediate draw, big or small, to get someone to want to linger longer. I was hoping that the girl would work and I did work on her pixel by pixel, especially in the face. I played with a closer crop, but that seemed to lose some of the surrounding story. Like I said, if I'd known it would be viewed small initially by voters, I would never have even attempted this image. I am VERY glad I did though. It has been probably the biggest single learning experience yet.
Peter,
Absolutely brilliant point.
I did not know if I could make this image believable and I greatly hesitated on even attempting it because of this. The "rift" would be the biggest challenge and I had no idea if I could come even close. I figured the Grand Finale deserved my very best effort and so I went with the "you'll never know if you don't try" thought process. I mean, I coul have come up with another cute shot of one of my girls, but what would I learn from that? I knew those were not the kind of shots that would get through anyway, so I took the chance. After about 30-35 hours of work on it, I was happy with what I'd achieved and learned.
I totally understand where you're coming from now. In discussing the idea with friends and family, every one immediately said, "Oh, that kinda reminds me of the movie _________". I knew I was running the risk of comparisons there, but it didn't really occur to me that the level of my "special effects" would be scrutinized and compared to the of Hollywood's finest as well. Thanks for that epiphany! :bash
Neil...you really need to get off that cone and get in some shooting practice. I wanna see some images that match all your brilliant advice in LPS2!