Teach it Tuesday.
This weeks photo was taken in an abandoned schoolhouse near downtown Jaksonville.
I used my Nikon D700 with a Nikon 50mm prime stopped all the way down to f/1.4. There is a lot of debate about shooting at f/1.4 especially at this distance because of the reduction in sharpness but I really wanted to push my depth in the foreground (and background) as much as possible.
The original photo was not adjusted before being imported into Photoshop. Once loaded in PS I immediately bump up the sharpness (which I would have done even if I shot this at f/5.6) and started to increase the saturation and detail on the graffiti. Then I went to work adding contrast to the ceiling, floors and walls. Once I felt good with the base I loaded in the wings, which were shot with even light on a white background. I went through several iterations adjusting detail, opacity and size and added shadowing to make them appear more believable.
Then I started playing with light and shadow. Painting in darkness and shadow to add some drama and to help bring the focus to our beautiful model.
I played with adding a light source, a lens flare and some light glare but decided to remove it and go with a simple texture that put a little extra light on our fairy. With a photo like this there is a lot of trial and error and it really comes down to your own voice and vision... that is what makes projects like this so much fun. You get to decide what is right or wrong and when you are done.
I hope you enjoyed it, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know. rob@robfutrell.come
The final image