As I mentioned in a previous post on shooting
band promos, my studio isn’t quite large enough to accommodate several people at once. So when a local Christian rock band called Adalee (which consists of 5 members- all of whom go to my church) approached me about shooting their promo, I immediately began thinking along the lines of digital compositing. If you’re not a regular reader of my blog and aren’t quite familiar with that term, it basically means taking individual shots of each member and then later combining them together in Photoshop.
This is my favorite method of producing band/group shots, because it allows me the freedom to select the best individual poses for each member. When they're all blended together into a seamless composite, it appears as if the stars just aligned perfectly and everyone gave you the ideal expression and pose simultaneously, and in the same frame. I gotta tell ya, it sure beats shooting for hours and hoping for this sort of thing to happen organically (believe me-- I've been there!).
Anyway, here are the 5 original unedited shots:
In order to make the composite look believable and not scream “PHOTOSHOPPED”, I had to completely replace the background, because as you can see from the above photos, there are some major differences in the lightness levels from one shot to the next. So I basically created a nice, smooth gray background from scratch in Photoshop using the radial gradient tool. To put the finishing touches on the image, I darkened the bottom half to draw the viewer’s eye more toward their faces, where the focus really oughtta be. Here’s the final result:
For further examples of my work, including high school senior pictures, baby & family portraits, and fashion & glamour, please visit my website at http://RussRobinsonPhotography.com
Questions? Comments? Please leave me a comment below, and click “Like” along the way!
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