How on earth is this done?

[richashcroft]

Hi ladies and gents, I am keen to emulate an image seen advertising the latest R1 motorcycle which looks like a HDR shot, but its moving so how can it? Maybe its a composite, maybe there's alot of photoshop (like what!!), certainly alot of planning - taking into account the sunlight and shadow (which looks too good to be true, but could be), experience in panning and understanding of angles and exposure. It looks a bit like Chase Jarvis's work, a bit of hero of mine - what do you think?

http://s418.photobucket.com/albums/p...7.jpg&newest=1

Any ideas or witty suggestions?

Rich

[flake]

I think this has been breathed on by Topaz labs software. Do a quick google search and you will quickly find them.

[OliverJohnson]

Looks like it's just a composite to me and not a very good one at that if you ask me.

The bike is illuminated from the front (very artificially) yet the shadow is also in front of it and the lighting doesnt match the light in the background. Also I'm not convinced that the bike is even a photo and 'just' a 'drawing' created in Photoshop, Illustrator or other such graphics package. Then it's just a case of layering the bike onto the background in Photoshop and adding the shadow in the wrong direction.

[PaulC 2]

Its also similar to some of Steve Demmitts work, though he does more cars than anything else.

[richashcroft]

Oliver,

Thanks for your comments - much appreciated. I was wondering if the bike was lit from the front where is the detail on the front tyre? Also, the detail of the bike, which I know well is extremely accurate. So my question is can you take a real image and then absorbe it into illustrator in some way? Do you think it is possible that the photographer has a studio light on the track in front to light and sunlight accross to create the shadow? If your theory is correct then the backshot was panned without the vehicle in situ. The second shot was the bike which was cut and pasted into place. Finall the shadow was added to match. But my original question remains: how did was the final intense appearance achieved? Have a look at this link for another example of the "look" I am talking about.

http://www.chasejarvis.com/#mi=2&pt=...3&p=1&a=0&at=0

All bright ideas or amusing comments welcome.

Thanks
Rich

[richashcroft]

Hi Paul C,

Just had a look at Steve Demitts work and that exactly "the look" I am talking about. Thanks for the link mate. ANy clues as to how he goes about them?

Cheers

Rich

[richashcroft]

Oliver,

I have had a look at your website and your images are beautfully exposed - well done. You clearly have an excellent eye. What camera do you use?

[OliverJohnson]

With the first shot I personally don't think that it was shot like this at all. Instead I think that a studio shot was taken of the bike, a location shot was taken of the background and probably motion blur was added to it in Photoshop rather than panning the camera as it's easier to get the exact amount of blur to match the 'fake' speed of the bike. Certainly the bike has had a lot of 'photoshopping' applied to it, for example the headlights are completely fake however the bike also has a graphic quality about it which could be simply down to post processing of the photo or it could be that the bike is not actually a photo at all and is perhaps a 'drawing' created in a 3D graphics program such as 3DStudio Max. The image is them exported and imported into Photoshop and layerd (alternatively the background was imported into 3DStudio Max and the whole image created in that instead).

As for the 2nd image, this is a much better example of this kind of effect but whilst I personally feel that the first image is entirely created, this one I think is real i.e. the car was shot on that background. I would hazzard a guess though and say that there is a good chance that the lens flare was added and/or motion blur was added or enhanced

[PaulC 2]

Originally Posted by richashcroft

Hi Paul C,

Just had a look at Steve Demitts work and that exactly "the look" I am talking about. Thanks for the link mate. ANy clues as to how he goes about them?

Cheers

Rich

Hi! think I read an interview about him in DCM a few years back. I remember that he uses lots of layers, sometimes upto 50 of them.

You can see some more of his work here http://www.emotive-imaging.com/ if you click on the the main photo a pop up box comes up with a few shots showing how the final shot was composed from other shots.