On Our Own: How I Shot That

This is a quick run through with the process used for making the series "On Our Own."


 The children were shot inside a studio with a simple two light setup. A medium softbox was setup to the camera right with a grid attached to the front. The light was at a 30 degree angle to the camera. The grid ensured that the light did not spill into the lens but directed at the subjects. It was placed slightly behind the subjects and set 1 stop over the key light to create a dramatic rim light. The key light was set forward of them and directly opposite the rim light. A large softbox was placed over the light to create a soft fill to the subjects. The camera was kept on a tripod for each shot, but I changed the angle and height to create a different look for each shot. After I got a shot I liked, I wrote down the information on placement of the camera (tripod height, angle, focal length). The aperture, shutterspeed, and ISO were kept the same.

The next step was to find the location I was going to fill the background in with. Once I decided on the location I would set up the camera using the information I wrote down back in the studio. I used available light only and shot in areas where there was not any discernible direction of light.

After getting the shots I wanted, I combined the image together using Topaz Remask and Photoshop CS6.

I saved back into Lightroom 4 and edited them some more.

For the final touches I used Color Efex Pro 4. The filters used were detail extractor, glamour glow, and cross processing.

WIP: "On Our Own" Photo Shoot

So, apparently I forgot to hit the publish button on my last post. Sorry about that. I am still trying to figure out how to work this site.

Anyways. The photo shoot went well. It was rather hectic though. I had seven children in the studio at the same time with toy guns. You can imagine the noise. Two of the parents were there to help and they were great.

The shoot was one of the most involved shoots I have ever done. Normally I just shoot away, worrying only about changing the lighting and re-positioning myself. This time I had to jot down all the information about where my camera was and what it’s settings were including the angles (I was shooting with the Canon 7D which has an artificial horizon which was very useful).

Below is one example of the progress of this series. This is far from done, but I figured I would at least show where it’s going