Deconstructing the work of others has been–and continues to be–one of the most influential things in my technical development as an artist. I’ll always bring my own vision, but I’m constantly asking myself, how in the hell was this, that, or the other photo made?
That said, we’ve dug into this before on a similar post that proved to be quite popular and–according to feedback–fun and helpful. As such, I’m interested to hear how YOU think I created the above LuluLemon Athletica advertising image. Was it in studio? Location? Composited? What was the lighting? The circumstances? The camera settings? The equipment used? Tricks?
I’ll reveal the details in a followup post. The person who gets the closest to describing the actual means of my creating it gets a signed book, a high five, or something interesting. G’head and let ‘er rip, love to hear your thoughts. Please don’t be shy… […click the ‘continue reading’ link below] —
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Here's my wild ass guess:
Light 1: Softbox hanging around 8' over the model
Light 2: Up at around 15' pointing down slightly on the basket from the left hitting the wall and leaving a shadow of the hoop… Snooted/Grided. It looks like there's a 2nd level going around there so maybe up on that?
Light 3: A snooted/grided light low camera left aimed higher to hit the model's back, head and legs and not run along the floor
Light 4: Bare strobe in far back right corner to kill the shadows. Creates that reflection on the floor in bottom right?
Camera: D3
Lens: 70-200 2.8
Settings: 85mm 1/125 f8
OK HERES HOW I TOUGH U DID IT.
YOU USE ONE MAIN LIGHT A HUGE SOFTBOX ABOVE THE OBJECT. THEM U USE A SECOND LIGHT IN THE LEFT OF U TO FILL A PART OF HIS FACE.
ANOTHER THING IS THAT I SEE A SHINING REFLECTION ON THE FLOOR THAT TELLS ME THAT U USE ONE FILL LIGHT IN THE BACK RIGHT BEHIND THE OBJECT.
AN THEN FOR THE BACKGROUND THE WALL U USE TWO HARD LIGHT, BOTH TO WAY HIGH. ONE U USE IT TO ILUMINATE THE BASKET. AND THE OTHER ONE U ILUMINATE THE RIGHT OF IT.
TECHNICALLY U USE PROBABLY AN F8 OR F10 . 1/125 / 1/160. YOU SHOOT ON LOCATION. WITH ONE MODEL. THE IN POST-PRODUCTION U USE A LITTLE VINTAGE THING. AND BASICALLY U USE 5 LIGHT.
Location shoot
Main light: a flash over him with big softbox (Octobox or 4×6, 6×8) about 10' above subject.
Fill light: 20-30 degrees off camera left, angled down about 20 degrees with grid and/or snoot. I don't see any catch lights in the eyes, so it could be a reflector, but I doubt it. I think they may have been removed in PS.
Camera: about 1 foot off the ground and about 10 feet from your subject. Using a higher ISO to record the ambient light. Angle of view and lack of distortion suggests something more around a 70mm on a DLSR or equivalent on a medium format. As for shutter speed, a faster shutter speed around 1/125 @ around f/5.6.
Post production: Increasing the warmth of the image slightly, adding a slight blur in the foreground along with a slight vignette. Along with other standard touch ups to subject or scene (blemishes, marks on floor/walls.
I've been shooting a pile of yoga and dance poses in the past year, and this is my best guess from what I've been shooting. Looking forward to seeing the answer!
cgi – place doesn't exist!
Shot on location without any tricks because Chase is a honest guy.
Lighting: at least two strobes to boost ambient on the background and give definition.
One camera right in line with subject, soft-box directly above subject and low level fill on the subjects face.
Camera: Obviously low angle at about 28mm 1/60th F4