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 was thinking beyond-max-sync-speed as well, but I have no idea what that background is. I think this process would be much easier and less guesswork (more technical evaluation) if we had a high-resolution shot to go by. Then it’s much easier to tell what has been Photoshopped, what’s natural, and see subtle details we can’t see from a web-sharpened image.
I’ll laugh if this is from the iPhone.
You shot this with your D3 to get the detail in the knotty-dread. Using hard window light late in the day you popped a strobe from behind the subject, lighting the soccer ball.
It CANNOT be a test shot! because there is hint on the picture alt text.
it’s actually from Chase’s portfolio. and there are actually some info there already..
with the info given .. here’s the guess.
this shot.. the camera was shot upside down.
sync at a speed that is little faster than the camera sync speed (so .. something like a 1/320 or 400.
the ball is light with Continuous light, with a parabolic reflector to emulate the sun. aiming at the ball and the guys left shoulder
the other is a strobe, pumping out same amount of light as the continuous light. placed right side of the guy, between guy and background.
since the sync speed is high enough, it cuts off the bottom (the top since the camera is upside down) and therefore the background is partially light by ambient only!.
after that.. crank up the black in post…
whether is on location or studio? well.. depends on where’s that background.
btw, it is 30/32 of the commercial portfolio 😛
almost forgot the ambient fill.. somewhere on the right of the guy… far away.. to get the harsh texture on the background and the little yellow glow on the bottom of the ball.
shot on location (at the beach), natural sun light (backlit), and frontal flash light (with softbox), post-pro (removing background and adding it photoshop). High constrast, saturation and unsharpen mask. High key kindla of look overexposing the light values of the picture.
Thats my guess :P.
Its been fun.
-Shot with d3 and emailed to your iphone, then processed in a filter on Best Camera.
-or shot with iphone and put directly into Best, but I think shot with dslr first