Blog #161 6/9/16
Model: Anna Laryn (New York Model Management), “in” Grand Central Station, NYC
There remain photographers and others who frown on the use of Photoshop, considering it the same kind of “impurity” that, many decades ago, others considered color film. For me, it’s a technology, a digital “darkroom” of sorts, with no particular “morality.” It has allowed me to do things that would have been almost impossible, and certainly implausible, before Adobe gave us the gift. Of course, like special effects in movies, it has to be utilized well.
It is not terribly difficult to use Photoshop to place a model photographed in the studio into a surrounding she doesn’t actually occupy. The challenge –- and it’s a big one – is to do it perfectly, in a way that the background and the model match seamlessly. The camera, lens, perspective, and distance must be exactly right and the lighting a perfect fit for the place and the person.
Here’s how I did this image that makes the model, Anna Laryn, appear to be modeling a beautiful dress in Grand Central Station in New York City.
I went to the terminal with my assistant, without the model, searching for the ideal background for my fashion photograph. I set my camera on a tripod and measured its height – in this case only about six inches off the ground. Then I placed my six foot tall assistant in the framing (the model, in heels, would be that tall). I focused on him, measuring and noting down his exact distance from the camera, as well as the f-stop.
I also placed a small piece of tape on the floor where he was standing, and made a photograph of him, standing there in the glorious background.
I had him step out of the frame and without changing anything made another image; the piece of tape on the floor was my indicator for placing the model in post-production. Careful, exacting notes and drawings were made, of course.
In my studio, I then made the image of the model using the same camera, lens, f-stop, focal distance and height from the ground. The crucial challenge was to light the model as if she were illuminated by the ambient light in Grand Central at that exact location.
Using Photoshop, I removed the studio background and placed the image of the model into the Grand Central Station image using the tape I had placed on the floor to place her exactly where my six-foot assistant had stood.
Voilà!
These are a few other images made in a similar fashion for this editorial:
Model: Gate Haile (Click Model Management), “At” Lincoln Center, NYC
Model: Cecile Barreau, (Code Model Management), ”On” The Brooklyn Bridge
Model: Jeanette Thevenin, (Click Model Management), ”On” Broadway
Model: Cecile Barreau, (Code Model Management), “On” Broadway
Model: Suzanne Pots, (Elite Models), ”On” 55 St
Fashion Editorial “Eccentric in New York”
Victim Magazine, Italy, Germany, New York
The creatives who worked with me:
Stylist: Nikko Kefalas
Hair: Algene Wong
Makeup: Diane Da Silva
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Glitterati Incoprorated, the publisher of the Retrospective, Schatz Images: 25 Years is now offering the two- book boxed set at a discount from the original price. The set comes with an 11″x14″ print of the buyer’s choice.