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Deconstruct This Photo 3.0

chase jarvis soccer portfolio

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.

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53 replies on:
Deconstruct This Photo 3.0

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  1. Luca Viola says:
    May 6, 2010 at 7:56 am

    Hi Chase.
    I think you have a strobe upper the guy on the left, quite perpendicular on his face, 45° on his right (beetween him and the background) very zoomed in.
    There is a second light behind him, behind his left shoulder, just up his head but lower the first in position and power, wider diffused.
    The ball is lighted directly and placed in post production, that’s my idea, since I can’t find any shadow or bounced light from the ball surface on the guy.
    The background was placed in a second time and postproduced. I think it’s a wall with work in progress (prepared to glow a surface on).
    I see contrast, blacks and vibrance uppered.

  2. Geoff says:
    May 6, 2010 at 7:56 am

    you got the new PS CS5… took a soccer dude pic… played with the new masking tool options.. you thought, what’s up with the PS filters these days, ran a few… ran it up the flag pole.

  3. kd7 says:
    May 6, 2010 at 7:19 am

    …”shopped”… background with a light source at a low angle 3-5 meters from the picture area… for shadow contrast relief…and a yellow orange tinge white balance

    the person shot with strong (not reflected) light source front and rear and from the side… person is also shot at a high shutter speed to freeze the implied motion…

    ball done separately and brought into the pic to give the motion a purpose

    but i am probably totally WAY off… so ces’t la vie

  4. Adam Belnap says:
    May 6, 2010 at 7:12 am

    I think this is very similar to the “Hacking Sync” shot as the background seems to be very similar.

    If so, there is a softbox up on a boom high overhead. I think the shadows (different than hacking sync) are because the camera angle has changes in both shots (noting the direction of the texture of the wall)…but I think light on the left side (shirt and chin) would be coming from that….with the sunlight camera right adding to the seperation, background and his left shoulder.

    Or….this is all natural light, exposed to the right to fill in the shadows and give some flare and drama with the hot spots.

  5. erik neilsen says:
    May 6, 2010 at 7:05 am

    ok. It’s a slow shutter speed. We’re talking a few seconds or more. He is standing on the back of a truck or something that is moving. It’s night time and there are street light, car lights, whatever, patially blowing the background and his far side – that covers the background and the amount and direction(s) of light on him.

    There is a flash that goes off at the end of the exposure, camera high right. Someone throws the soccer ball from the street for a well timed header. Flash hits it, freezes it and his side that faces the camera.

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