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.
My suggestion:
1. at the left you’ve used a flashhead with the flash bouncing in the background to create create the light at the chin, neck and shirt, even by this effect you created the little lighting at the downside of the ball.
2. at the left, above the flashhead you’ve used a flag to create the shadow at the topside of the background.
3. at the right, a flashhead above the talent in an angle of 45 degrees, close to the background to create the lighting on the ball, maybe flagged out at the background side.
4. at the right, a flashlight at, I think with a10 degrees angle above, a little distance away from the background to create the light AND shadow at the sleeve of the shirt, the back of the shirt, the hand, the hair and the cheeck of the talent 😉
5. over exposed the background lighting (you can see a little when you do some adjustment with photoshop, you can see the lines of the shirt)
Am I right? 😉
Shot at 1/250th f/4.
Background: Seamless white
Lighting: One profoto head to the left of the model, snooted/gridded and aimed at his chest. Another profoto head on a boom stand above the model. The boomed light is fitted with a medium sized softbox and is feathered slightly towards the camera.
Post: The texture is composited into the top of the frame. The highlight in the ball was drawn in with a masked curves layer. The contrast was boosted via channel mixer and color balance was used to add a bit of yellow.
-Jack
I recon …….
2 Gridded spots firing into the wall to white it out.
The reflection from the wall blows out the guy’s shirt.
The light above the white on the wall and on the back of his head/face is (I recon) low/setting sunlight or a spot with an amber gel
Football looks like it’s been flipped in post to create the double-take factor.
CW
Soccer player in Sunlight against a textured cement wall. There is an overhang casting a shadow on the wall. The player is under a covered walkway. The ball has been bounced up into the sunlight. In post production the contrast was enhanced and yellow hue added.
Well, I haven’t seen this idea yet, but it intrigues me…I have been interested in pointing the camera toward the light lately, and breaking the “rules” of good photography. The camera seems to be pointed at the wall (looks like brushed concrete) at around a 45 degree angle, and either the camera was dutched or the photo was rotated in post. I can’t decide whether the ball was spun 180 degrees in post or if a flag was positioned in front of the ball, but it looks like the bright light source (maybe a continuous spot light) is either cast along the wall (parallel to the wall), or there is a light source that is long and panel-like (a low window exposing the sunlight, a panel of Kino’s) emitting light away from the wall and toward the model. If the ball has been rotated in post, then the light nearest the wall is the only light here. If the ball was not rotated in post, then there was a flag of some sort blocking the light nearest the wall and either a reflector positioned above the ball or a light source at the same temp shooting light toward the ball from the upper right of the camera. In post the darks/blacks were darkened and the highlights were brightened up, where the mids were left alone for the most part.
Anyway, there is my guess.