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 guess:
Shot in front of a textured or combed concrete wall. Soccer player is leaning backwards about 30-45degrees while heading the soccer ball.
One main light source positioned behind the model’s body (to the right of the set-up).
Camera settings at f4 with the focus at the soccer ball and the model’s head. A relatively slow shutter speed was used, enough to capture the ball in motion while overexposing the light around the model’s body. Perhaps 1/250s.
The resulting image is rotated and cropped so the model appears to be standing upright. This also produces the angular lines in the background from the concrete.
Some post-processing to increase saturation and contrast (especially the colour of the background)…and voilà.
Ok here goes…
1. Bouncy head guy shot with iPhone down the park.
2. Textured background shot from car window at speed. Yep with iPhone.
3. Composite and masked layers in CS5
4. Straight down the pub for beer and whiskey…
Please send my prize to London, UK. 🙂
Looks like a composite with the following:
a….soccer player studio
b…..white background Photoshop….with effects for blowing out background
c….cool background with texture
d….the three elements were masked
im going to go with a photo composition. 2 images. background image was blasted with flash but purposefully synced at something higher than 1/300th.
I dont think its a studio shot because of the motion blur on the ball. Or at least shot in a stadium. Light source from top left down casting the shadow on his face except his chin. Ambian stadium light coming over his shoulder from the right
Hi Chase,
Here’s my answer.
Two flashes. One camera left with a snoot. Another camera right with a warming gel.
Background looks to be added in postproduction. So the actual shot was taken with a greenscreen. The background and subject looks to have different degree of noise to them. Then the background image was done using a mask in post. And a mask was used to blend and match the subject’s front.