You know I love to deconstruct a photo. And I know from your previous feedback that you love it to, so let’s dig into another one.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. It’s always been one of the most helpful technical exercises throughout my career to try to dissect the images of others, and so here I am encouraging you to take your shot at this image today. (If you want to check out some previous versions of this exercise, check here and here.)
So now tell me–yes YOU–how in the hell was this shot made? Overexposed mess? Studio shot? Test shot? A masterpiece? How’s it lit? The circumstances? The camera settings? Tricks? This one is a bit more abstract than previous shots, so I’m dying to have you pick it apart. Especially the purists.
I’ll reveal the details in a followup post. The person who gets the closest gets a signed book and a shout out and whatever else I can muster. Don’t be shy. Love to hear your thoughts.
I second iPhone.
The first thing I’ll say is that the background looks composited to me. The ball and the guy also look like two separate shots, based on the fact that the light hits the ball hard from the right, but not the top of the guy’s head.
I think there’s been some pretty intense dodging going on around the guy’s chest and hand, with burning around his neck. Light on the guy was probably a low-powered softbox providing a little fill, with bare strobe from the right. The ball was shot similarly.
The background was again intensely dodged to partially blow out the image.
I’m really curious about the answer to this, as I think this is a huge amount of post processing and as such, difficult to deconstruct with any authority.
I think two unmodified studios lights from high up camera left and right
with the one on the camera left pointed lower to only hit the shirt and back ground but not the ball
heavy post processing to increase contrast
I’m likely wrong. But I’m thinking it’s the sun coming from camera right. In post I think it’s been warmed up a tad and something done to mess with contrast and such pixel trickery
The over/under exposed bits don’t bug me, but the fact that I can’t see much of his face and only two fingers drives me bananas. lol – it’s funny how we react to pictures.
Looking forward to learning the truth. Thanks for sharing Chase!!
looks like truck high beams on each side and tweaked to hell contrast 🙂