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.
Was going to say exactly the same as point357, but also add in a bit of tweaking in The Best Camera iPhone app.
IMAGE CONTENT: I am going to assume the image content has not been substantially modified, that this is not a composite, and that the crop is reasonably close to its original capture. Also assume that the ball is not suspended by string, but actually being bounced off head.
POSITION OF MODEL: The bg is in focus across the entire length of the picture (altho midtone contrast could have made this appear so). As well, the stitching of collar to the shirt and the player’s number are in focus. Suggests the player is positioned relatively close to the bg. Position of player’s head and chest suggests he is azimuthally rotated ~30deg from profile relative to cam position.
CAM SETTINGS: With so much in focus, I speculate f/ratio of 8 or higher. Lack of any obvious distortion suggests no wide angle lenses. Slight out of focus on ball suggests shutter speed of 1/60 to 1/125 sec. Assuming bg texture is vertical, then image has been rotated in cam or post ~13deg. Cam is also shooting low to high (probably located mid- to slightly lower chest ht relative to the player), as evidenced that you can see under the chin. That there is a tightening of the bg pitch, suggests the cam is not perpendicular to the wall.
1ST SOURCE: positioned near the bg, high & to rear of player. This source is probably a kicker, lighting the ball, back of R shoulder, hair, L cheek & nose, and fingers. Shadow angles suggest the lite is tilted at a polar angle ~21deg down from horizontal and azimuthally rotated (possibly feathered) 33deg behind vertical axis of ball. Assuming 5′ horizontal separation of light from player, player’s ht=5’10” and std 22cm diam soccer ball, then the lite is at least 2.5m high.
2ND SOURCE: The highlight on the chin is perhaps the most perplexing. Light rays are obviously coming from slightly above head ht, as evidenced by lip shadow and harsh shadow on neck. There also appears to be a very slight rim light on the bottom of the ball (hopefully I’m not looking at a jpg artifact), all of which suggest the light is directed/gridded.
3RD SOURCE: That the bg so cleanly goes from texture to blowout suggests a source is aimed directly at the bg to achieve that precise look.
There are strong suggestions that the 2nd/3rd sources a single lambertian source. One could approximate a lambertian source by shooting thru a silk. Advatage of lambertain sources is that they give incredible wrap around light, unlike any directed source. But not knowing the nature of the bg, I cannot see how to retain the bg texture with a rear lambertain source, so I am led to dismiss these speculations.
3 days w Vincent and another afternoon w Art, that’s enough for today w Chase.
Rick Allen
St Paul, MN
iPhone under a bridge or summink on a sunny day. Sun is high right and is blowing out the wall and the right side of the ball. Blown out left of player is wrap reflected off wall. Player and wall detail is just ambient.
Lol. Or is it a D3X and some strobes? Same sort of set-up, nuking the wall with something snooted or gobo’d. Maybe a bit of fill on axis for player detail, but it could be just ambient. I think the reveal will show you’ve done a lot with not very much.
I think this is a tight crop of another picture taken at an actual soccer game. In post the picture has been over-saturated and given an overexposed look. The soccer player and ball were both cut out of the original picture and placed on a white background. The background texture is a picture of wood grain with similar effects done to it as the soccer picture and then it was feathered to the white background and placed near the top of the picture.
First, the background. Its texture looks really similar to a concrete wall that was (combed) you can say. Then the color and contrast of that were twisted altered and brought to life through aperture then pulled into Photoshop. Seems like you used your broncolors for this guy here, so I guess ill list my guess of the equipment. Two broncolor strobes, not sure of what model.(one strobe as a main light, one as a fill) NIKON D3s at f9 ISO 800 and seems like probably 1/8000 shutter speed. One reflector board or beauty dish. Your angle for the shot was actually cropped wider than this before post, id say originally you could see more of his torso and you angles the camera upward to give the surreal emphasis of him looking up with the floating ball going up as well.