Look Ma, No Photoshop!
This blog post is my homage to a photographic era of yester-year, the days before anyone had even heard of a little program called Adobe Photoshop, back when making a digital scan of your photo meant purchasing THOUSANDS of dollars in special equipment. This didn’t mean people didn’t do crazily creative things to their images, Man Ray was creating images like his one titled “Kitty” over 60 years ago.
Photo by Man Ray circa mid-1900s. Think about doing this one without photoshop.
Obviously special effects for the sake of the effect don’t make the images better, but in the world of creative expression every tool has power, and this post is all about creating images with three simple tools. A camera, a lens, and a flash.
The Challenge!
Here’s the challenge, I’m going to post three images, each one was created in-camera with only limited cropping and color correction in Photoshop. If you think you know the techniques I used to create them then post your guess in the comments! To make it fair I posted a full equipment list I used for each image.
Image One
Hint – I did not use a fog machine and color effect was created in-camera.
Full Equipment List:
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM, Elinchrom 300RX Monolight, Rotalux Midi Octa by Elinchrome (53″), Pocket Wizard Multimax 32 Channel (2), additional ambient light (regular ceiling light bulbs) were on.
Image Two
Hint – The subject is parallel to the back of the camera so a large aperture isn’t enough to create this effect.
Full Equipment List:
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm 1.2L, Elinchrom 300RX Monolight, Rotalux Midi Octa by Elinchrome (53″), Pocket Wizard Multimax 32 Channel (2)
Image 3
Hint – This was created with one click of the shutter.
Full Equipment List:
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm 1.2L, Elinchrom 300RX Monolight, Rotalux Midi Octa by Elinchrome (53″), Pocket Wizard Multimax 32 Channel (2)
Test your Camera IQ!
These results would be pretty easy to accomplish in photoshop, but pretend you’ve never heard of Photoshop and explain how I accomplished these inside the camera… it’s not very hard by the way! Just label your responses 1, 2 and 3.
Once enough people get it right (could happen quickly) I’ll post a full explanation. Good luck!
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19 Comments
14 January 11 at 2:19pm
1
2: Tilt-shift hand holding the lense 3: long exposure + 3 flash exposures
14 January 11 at 2:19pm
2
1 - Multiple exposure. One picture of dress for texture then another of the model 2 - vaseline on lense (or on uv filter) 3 - multiple exposure with use of tripod.
14 January 11 at 2:21pm
3
My guess is esentialy the same for all three. double exposer. its obviously true for 1 and 3 but i think #2 could be done on two different frames and then combined in the dark room.
14 January 11 at 2:39pm
4
I only have a guess for #3. The room was dark, and you flashed 3 different times with a slow shutter speed, and she moved between each flash?
14 January 11 at 2:47pm
5
1 - panty hose over the lens 2 - Holding the lens and tilting it (not mounted on body) 3 - Multiple flash pops
14 January 11 at 2:48pm
6
#1 no idea. #2 Handheld tilt shift (the vignette suggests this to me)? #3 Long exposure and trigger the flash manually multiple times
14 January 11 at 3:02pm
7
1. Change in white balance, I see a texture on her legs though, so not entirely sure 2. Free-lens technique, sometimes called tilt-shift 3. Multiple exposure, or in the case of digital, multiple flash
14 January 11 at 3:23pm
8
#1: Wingardium Leviosa #2: Disillusionment charm or Diprimo #3: Petrificus Totalus
14 January 11 at 3:27pm
9
I completely agree with Carlie
14 January 11 at 3:38pm
10
Ok ok, my guess for number one is you jammed up your white balance flooded the sensor till it was almost completely overexposed and then popped a flash as she jumped in the air Number two the FCC finally decided to cover up your awesome imagery so they forced you to blur the image via the lens tilt shift effect, or vaseline but you didn't list that or filters in your equipment so im pretty sure that wasn't it, or she has the amazing ability to keep her head completely still while violently shaking every other part of her body during a long exposure thus blurring everything but her face (but i don't really think that....) and number three one shutter click three flash pops right after you knocked her over the head and she was on her way fainting to the floor, lol
14 January 11 at 3:57pm
11
1. Not sure. 2. Free-lensing http://lukeroberts.us/2009/12/freelensing/ 3. Long exposure, multiple pops with the flash.
14 January 11 at 4:41pm
12
1- Long exposure + flash when she's in the air. For the orange effect and lack of contrast, i'd go with a flash flaring in the lens. 2- Lens not attached to the body and tilt with the hand. 3- Long exposure + 3 flash pops while she's moving.
14 January 11 at 5:16pm
13
One of you is pretty close, one of you is very close (maybe even exactly right), and Carlie - well Carlie wins for the most entertaining guess! I'll post the results soon, feel free to keep guessing!
15 January 11 at 2:06pm
14
1) Overexposure and warm white balance 2) Vaseline on the lens 3) Slow shutter speed, and multiple flash pops
15 January 11 at 4:25pm
15
I think they've been covered by different people... except I'm surprised nobody mentioned custom WB: 1) Pantyhose over the lens and/or custom white balance 2) Looks like a tilt-shift, with the vignetting, it could be tilt-shift to the extremes of a tilt-shift lens, OR a hand-held lens off the camera, OR a home-made tilt-shift 3) 3 flash pops during one exposure
16 January 11 at 1:52am
16
1. No idea 2. Vasaline 3. Long exposure, multiple pops with the flash...
16 January 11 at 2:27am
17
1. color settings of camera. this is not just a warm kelvin thing, but also changing the color tones in the color grid of the camera (can't recall what's it called without it in front of me). 2. indeed a good smear of vaseline or nose wax ;) on lens or filter. otherwise only possible with lens baby or of course Tilt Shift. 3. one click on camera - long exposure (about 2 seconds) and two fires of flash on that exposure. cool post.
17 January 11 at 6:27pm
18
A couple of you are right now! So for the rest of you here are a couple hints: 1. Used an auto white-balance setting, but it may have been confused by a unique situation. 2. I used NOTHING that wasn't mentioned, including no Vaseline or pantyhose or special lens. 3. Canon 5D Mark II does not have a multiple exposure function. Instead of creating your own guess try guessing who got it right! I'll post the explanation soon!
18 January 11 at 11:08pm
19
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