nfscd # 2

Dancing and leaping • click to embiggenBack in the days before Photoshop, creating pictures like 'dancing and leaping' was a long and demanding process. In this case, our intrepid subjects, Rod Woodson of the Pittsburgh Steelers and a dancer from the Pittsburgh Ballet, were required to leap, jump, twist, turn and generally contort their bodies every which way over and over and over again.

In today's PS universe, a photographer can work with each subject individually in order to capture the 'perfect' body language and then paste the 2 separate images together in PS. Back in the stone ages of the analog photography world, it was necessary to keep shooting and shooting until the photographer felt he 'had it' in the can. Notice, I said "felt he had it", because there was no way of knowing for certain that you 'had it' until the film came out of the soup.

The difficulty / challenge of getting 2 subjects to get the right body language at the same instant is, well, difficult and a challenge. In this case, a series of pictures for a Pittsburgh tourism campaign, the degree of difficulty was mitigated by the fact that I was able to photograph a professional athlete and a professional dancer who were, in a sense, just 'doing their thing(s)'. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if I had to use models who would have had to fake it.

Just thought you might like a glimpse at life before faking it has become the way to go.

Comments

[aaron]

So...you don't think a professional studio photographer with a $30,000 digital hasselblad and $100,000 in lighting and studio equipment wouldn't do it this way today?

I mean I'm sure the production department would "touchup" skin blemishes and wrinkles in the clothing, but why wouldn't it be done the same way with all of today's hi-tech camera and lighting advancements?