Seattle Times' Rod Mar, On Assignment
Rod Mar has written a long-form post on the entire process of creating this shot of Sonics' newcomer Kevin Durant for the sports section of the Seattle Times. He takes you from the conceptual process to the logistics of the shoot to screen shots of post production in Photoshop.Really nice post, Rod. If makes me feel great to see other newspaper shooters going full-blown 2.0. People like learning about this stuff.
(Thanks to Tim for the tip!)
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:: On Assignment: Rod Mar ::
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Posted at 12:00 AM.
16 Comments:
Frankly, it seems incredible to me that Mar wouldn't think of Kerry park instantly for Seattle skyline. The two are nearly synonymous for locals and tourists looking for photos. Simply go to Flickr and type in "Kerry Park"...
Cool images, but not sure I would have positioned the needle there...
Awesome first comment, but seriously I love that picture. Very cool concept and pretty well executed imo.
-B
I think the shot is good, light is nice. Setting is spectacular. But the cut off leg really bugs me. And I agree with the above needle comment, it seems like its impaling him. I would have thrown this frame in the trash.
I'm just being critical though, its still a great shot given he only had 15 min...
damn... i should try picking up a local paper once and awhile.
i don't know how you keep on top off all of this. most days i can barely find my @ss.
Just a question, really...
If this much Photoshop is OK, why not just shoot him jumping in a safer, controlled environment like the gym and Photoshop him into any background the shooter wanted?
This was a great article to read. I especially appreciate seeing the failed shots.
thanks.
Chuck
@max cho - RTFA. It says he DID scope out Kerry Park, but he didn't want to shoot from there because everyone else shoots there.
FTFA - "I'd recently shot a friend's wedding at Kerry Park, Seattle's most famous viewpoint that looks back at downtown. Like most photojournalists in the city, I try to avoid using this popular destination for my photos unless I absolutely have to. It's just so...cliche."
He was trying to think outside the box.
From Rod's writeup:
"And, like much of my work, it was lining bird cages and wrapping fish by noon on the day it was published."
I had never realized it before; that so many people's work just gets thrown away so quickly.
"If this much Photoshop is OK, why not just..."
What do you mean "this much Photoshop?" As far as I can tell from the article, the heavy lifting was done in the Camera Raw plug-in, and the rest of the Photoshop work appears to be nothing more than you would have been done in a chemical darkroom with film.
Kudos to him for essentially doing it all in camera.
When I first saw the image I thought, "Wow, a one legged basketball player".
Great tutorial! That's the kind of stuff that makes me want to grab the camera and head for the door.
Thanks.
Umm who remembers this photo? http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/2004/0308_large.jpg
Not saying you can't use or build of previous ideas and such but I sure as hell hope you would execute it a little better. (leg and needle)
Nice shot overall, but the Space Needle is pointing right at his crotch... Putting it off to the right would have been much better.
Oh, and he's only got one leg. I don't think he's an amputee.
p.s. Great tutorial, though. I don't want to take away from that.
Nicely done. Note that this doesn't seem to be a standard cross-lighting-with-the-sun technique, since the strobe is at about 45-degrees camera right, and the sun is at about 135-degrees, but *also* camera right.
Given that it's a light backdrop (the cloudy sky), this separates his unlit side nicely from the background.
I do wonder what a standard cross-lighting setup would've looked like though...
"If this much Photoshop is OK, why not just..."
Hold your horses right there cowboy!, another photographer would had gone to the old "Chroma key and heavy photoshop" to do the shot.
Rod Mar didn't used a chroma key, didn't used the "dave hill look", nor the "joey look" which do require heavy post processing and lots of time lost in front of a computer... he actually went on location, you not all pros have the time to play photoshop like you do with a chroma key.
You have to realize that many of us like Rod Mar prefer to deal with only RAW, levels and USM, than having to waste time with magic wand, layers, burn and dodge tools and other silly things that many use to cover their mistakes.
Think the camera or programs like ACR are the final step of your photos.
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