Bite Me, Hallmark
UPDATE: Photo now links to Zach's walk-thru on his blog.
__________
Reader Zach Hodges, whose family was apparently really into the Twilght movie, decided to unload a full can o' Hollywood with his Christmas card this year. The up-to-the-minute spoof guaranteed prime refrigerator placement for every recipient under 30, with an equally resounding "What the...?" from everyone over 40.
The subjects were shot separately and composited together, which made it possible to do the whole thing very easily with just three speedlights. Canon 580 EX in a homemade beauty dish on the main light, with a 580 and 430 on the back/sides as rims.
Only after Zach started the project was he surprised to find out who shot the actual movie poster. Zach's card was done as an homage, and he wishes the original photog all the best and kindly hopes that Joey will not hunt him down and beat him to death with his skateboard.
Check out Zach's site, linked above, to see the cool work he does when not shooting the familial undead. (And click the pic above for the full walk-thru of how Zach did the composite shot.) Also, you can see more of Joey L's work here.
And if you did a killer holiday card this year, hit us with a link to the image in the comments.
-30-
__________
Reader Zach Hodges, whose family was apparently really into the Twilght movie, decided to unload a full can o' Hollywood with his Christmas card this year. The up-to-the-minute spoof guaranteed prime refrigerator placement for every recipient under 30, with an equally resounding "What the...?" from everyone over 40.
The subjects were shot separately and composited together, which made it possible to do the whole thing very easily with just three speedlights. Canon 580 EX in a homemade beauty dish on the main light, with a 580 and 430 on the back/sides as rims.
Only after Zach started the project was he surprised to find out who shot the actual movie poster. Zach's card was done as an homage, and he wishes the original photog all the best and kindly hopes that Joey will not hunt him down and beat him to death with his skateboard.
Check out Zach's site, linked above, to see the cool work he does when not shooting the familial undead. (And click the pic above for the full walk-thru of how Zach did the composite shot.) Also, you can see more of Joey L's work here.
And if you did a killer holiday card this year, hit us with a link to the image in the comments.
-30-
__________
New to Strobist, or lighting? Start here.
Now shipping, in DVD box set or download: Lighting in Layers
Connect: Discussion Threads | Reader Photos | Twitter
Posted at 12:00 AM.
67 Comments:
While I didn't get all Strobist style for this shot, it was fun one that's gotten some attention:
Mariza tossed!
Just downloaded Chase Jarvis' latest podcast - a CD-sized piece of digital video glory! Shows your presentation (along with the other David's and Chase') in all its hour and a half glory.
Thanks for the information!
Pretty interesting idea, although when you realize the people standing in for the teenage lovers are related ... ew :)
Nothing says Merry Christmas like a spooky card. Nice work.
Love this site, you do a great job.
Here's my Xmas card this year...
http://www.pbase.com/jrdigitalart/image/106886395
...and I captioned it: Some of you may wish to picture a man leading donkey with a woman on the path in foreground, others are welcome to savour the peace and tranquility I experienced as I released the shutter. Me? Oh, I just wish you all the very best for this season and beyond.
Sincere regards, Jim R
Hi David, Zachs Xmas card is seriously cool, here is a a link to a Xmas card of my own.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3123/3122783700_f99a707579_b.jpg
It is actually a 15 shot composite Matte painting. Finished off on After Effects, there is also a video on flickr.
Happy Xmas folks.
Rich
Amazing picture, he's done a really good job keeping the peoples' perspective size.
You've just inspired me to check out my JoeyL video again and try some of his Photoshop techniques :-)
This is a great example of how simple hot shoe flashes (and DIY beauty dishes!) can give the same results as powerful and expensive studio strobes, which I guess JoeyL used.
I did three christmas cards this year!
The first one, where Santa is recycling last year's presents, the second one, where Santa is on vacation and the third one, where Santa shows how badass he really is!
Great technique.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3066/3079031706_1a05f8ac7e.jpg?v=0
Strobist Info: Background SB-600, cross-lighting 2 SB-800's controlled by an SU-800 on camera.
Here's our Christmas Card to remember the wonder of Christmas and the reason for Christmas. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas this year.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30109937@N03/3130821188/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeboehmer/3044291989/
strobist info on flickr page
It's nothing as smooth or funky as Zach's card - and certainly not as edgy... but I was asked to do our Christmas card this year to celebrate our baby daughter's first Xmas.
If you don't like baby's or cutesy shots and so that you know I'm being totally transparent... the page/xmas card I'm linking to contains a rather cute photo of my daughter dressed in a reindeer suit. We did a full set of shots, using up to 3 strobes, but in the end the missus chose a shot where I was using just 1.
So here we go: Lana's First Christmas
Hopefully next year's card is going to be a lot more creative (as it's my turn to come up with an idea!).
The missus finished off the card last night, so I'll be posting shots of the final results in my flickr feed soon.
Merry Xmas to all fellow Strobists!
Merry Christmas!
http://flickr.com/photos/paulys_pics/3071727991/
Great work!
We tried to up the ante with our card this year, with a little homage to Guitar Hero World Tour:
http://www.doggettstudios.com/blog/happy-thanksgiving-its-time-to-rock/
Eric
My card on Flickr
Check it!
I personally find it extremely offensive when people attempt to literally take Christ out of Christmas by replacing "Christ" with an "X". Does your wall calendar say December 25th is "Christmas" or "xmas"?
Here is mine....Got the info on how to here...Thanks Strobist!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenduffy/3115301630/
Don't have a soft box. So, we played bouncing the light on a silver reflector for the portraits and I think it worked out ok.
Merry Xmas!!!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/3129591790_9a6bec1aa9_o.jpg.
Merry Christmas David Hobby!
Here is our card for this year. It too is a composite. There is a bit more information in the photo's caption.
Front:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhphotography/3110031467/
Back:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhphotography/3110850294/
Thanks for all the work you do for this blog and the photography community! I hope you will continue to be successful in 2009!
Dave
I typically don't meet the Christmas deadline, so this year we just planned for it. So, this is a preview of the holiday card that will go out on Christmas day by email.
http://www.jasonwallisphotography.com/cardindex.htm
To the indignant anonymous commenter dogging another commenter at 9:34 a.m. -
FYI, Xmas is not a slight at all. The use of an "X" as a symbol for Christ goes back over 1,000 years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas
Merry Xmas!
Here's our card for this year.
Hope everybody has a great holiday!
Nice card. Very cool idea well executed.
I went for a two-pronged xmas card attack this year - 1/2 serious (for the older folks) and half tounge in cheek (for the younger, or at least less serious):
Shots and setups at plusfourphoto.blogspot.com
AC lights, but still - it's the thought that counts, right....?
Happy Christmas!
Bwahahaha! I love it! I completely did a double take. Totally awesome work here.
_Nathanael
Yeah .... as a rule, I don't put any stock into anything written by a person that can't be bothered to identify themselves. Seeing as many non-Christians celebrate Christmas though, I'd have to saw that the holiday is about giving to many people, and not necessarily the birth of The Lord. Just like non-Irish celebrate St. Patrick's day. Just enjoy it for your own reasons, and don't give people crap over it.
For the benefit on my many Jewish friends, my 'Happy Holidays' card:
http://www.zzoll.com/Christmas2008.jpg
Nothing too fancy. SB-600 to camera right with a Lightsphere on it, shutter dragged to 1/30 to let in lots of ambient light. I couldn't get the cat to look in any direction reliably, so I just put it on timer, and looked in whatever direction she was looking when it was getting ready to go off.
Oh, and the texture is the men's room at work :)
Awesome Christmas card - and very cool example of what you can do with small strobes and some imagination. I wish I had that much imagination!
Nothing as dramatic, but here's a link to my attempt at an original Christmas card this year, water droplets frozen in front of Christmas ornaments:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/3124018854_70b4c7ce10.jpg
Cheers, Brad
We got some good laughs from our family with this one and had a great time making it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/randymetcalf/3131323212/
My friends asked me to take pictures in their Elvis outfits for their holiday cards. Only time they were available was during bad weather. The sun was still too bright to overpower it with the strobe and the clouds where everywhere except where I needed them.
Things didn't go well. I banged my toe on a rock; I couldn't chimp because my D70's tiny screen is useless in the sun. My umbrella and tripod blew over despite being braced by huge rocks. My friends were shivering in the cold wind.
I suggested they jump up and down to stay warm while I change lenses. When I realized how acrobatic they can jump, I had my shot.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/franzusa/3109283445/
Oh, our girls would have loved that idea. We'll have to keep movie themes in mind for next year. I didn't feel quite as inspired this year as previous (click to see cards).
Here's ours for the year - we try to keep it interesting.
http://www.jacobgibb.com/?lb=c89deb091bfca42
Thanks to Kevin Coloton (www.coloton.com) for taking the photo!
It wasn't a spectacularly "strobist" shoot, but it WAS done with natural light and a single off-camera flash (which I never would have tried without Strobist's help).
Ian's 1st Christmas Card
Happy Holidays!
Hope to see you again Dubai!
Rob
I made my own cards this year, but they're landscapes rather than portraits so it would make no sense to post them here.
I somehow knew that JoeyL did the Twilight promotional photos but I just didn't make the connection until this post!
Great holiday photo!
My jaw TOTALLY dropped when I saw my picture on here! I'm a huge strobist fan and everything I know about lighting came from here, so I was very stoked/honored. Thank you David.
I just posted a blog @ http://zachhodges.com/blog with all the info about how this shot was done since I was getting so many questions. Hopefully I can be of some help to some of you on your lighting journey like you've been to me on mine!
Thanks guys, you rock!
-Zach Hodges
Hah! That's a brilliant Christmas card!
Here is mine (not hardly as awesome):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fieldtripper/3131652192/
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. I enjoyed looking at everyone's Christmas cards.
Been pursing this blog for a while but never commented before.
Been a fan of JoeyL for a while, think he grew up not too far from me.
Although not to complex, I decided that this year I would do a personal greeting and here is the one I came up with...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/3120793681_fd593b93bf_o_d.jpg
Nick
Merry Christmas, Strobists!
Matthew and Meadow's 2008 Christmas Card
Thanks for sharing. Here's a Christmas photo we did for a family. Complete with eco-friendly snow!
CHRISTMAS PHOTO
Love the shot. Great homage to Zach. I wanted something different but didn't go that far.
I did this with one shot using only side lights (SB-800s) fitted with very small diffusion. Tripod and self timer. Edited in CS2 with high pass filter a la Dave Hill. Friends and family love it.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/WRBSsUpb4RVitcyMpsE-HA?authkey=SpqWsJEe0Qg&feat=directlink
While my Christmas card is much more simple and totally non-processed I'm quite content with it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramdyne/3128645689/
The card in this post could equally have been a film poster for a Harry Potter movie ;-)
--
Andreas Sikkema
Just finished my own xmas card (even in time;). You can find it under
http://flickr.com/photos/benjamin_galle/3131269223/
Merry Christmas to all of you!
Benjamin
Awesome pic. Here is a link to my holiday card, celebrating the 2nd Great Depression! :)
Great Depression
It is purposely unsharpened, with just a simple off camera strobe.
My christmas card model is my sisters pet "thumper" the rabbit:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/3120598557_1b07862b7a_o.jpg
The headline made me pass milk, er eggnog, through my nose laughing! Nice one David.
I'm going to say Happy Chanukka to all, given everyone here celebrates the miracle of good light ALL year long!!
Here's our christmas card:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/3122086719/
Thanks for your very valuable blog, David. I wouldn't have made this card without your help :)
Merry Christmas to all
Cheers David
My Christmas card .......
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwestwood/3130906553/
Hi all, we did a white seamless composite Christmas this year. Was a fun project and once the process was down it took very little time. Calmshell on the family, texture added to the top. Happy holidays!!! Thanks Brian
http://www.flickr.com/photos/briangudasphotography/3091939212/
Last years Witchery tour card.. on holiday so I can't put up this years
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iseepeople/2119760651/in/set-72157603491828363/
http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/blog/?p=205
Merry Christmas David!
I would have never known about Joey L's photo and fame if I never visited your site.
You and your site encouraged me to get into photography and I"ve learned MORE here than I did at school. Understanding and controlling light is always on the brain.
Here's my Christmas card, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rone/3123697177/
A bit cheesy... but even nowadays cheese still sells.
Thanks for the inspiration and have a great holiday season!
Ron
I also did a composited image (four images) this year, but on the high key side, thanks to tips from Zach Arias' blog. Here is the photo that we used on our card. The interior greeting was "A little holiday magic makes the season merry".
http://flickr.com/photos/69283298@N00/3133756282/
Strobist info is in the Flickr! comments.
Very cool card that took a lot of work!
That said, Hallmark, and more importantly the Hall family, are very generous people but very low key. They give quite a lot here in Kansas City, but without splashing their names on all of it. I'll gladly buy cards from Don Hall.
Santa brought me (OK, I bought myself -- early) a couple PWs -- finally sick&tired of unreliable triggering from various optical slaves, have now done what you said: saved $$ on strobes (2xViv285HVs), spent it on PWs (PW Plus-II). Set up family room as per your Xmas morning plan, opposite corners, 28mm, ceiling bounce, light is GREAT for the purpose, just as you promised.
Thx so much for all the wonderful teaching, all best in the year ahead... John H.
Couldn't help by try this myself. The Edward spoof, http://nathanael.squarespace.com/blog/
Yeah, we did a pagan New Years card instead. :)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/3130706073_1b9f64ccfc.jpg
AB800 against beauty dish from top right. A bit of fill umbrella. Some background light through snoot.
That's really cool. Here's mine a first attempt at a card this year. Will do a new year one as well.
Merry Christmas
HO HO HO...here's my card
http://flickr.com/photos/hibiscusroto/3133817735/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adonisphotos/3135712592
Hey! that looks great.
We used Profoto heads and there were 2 lighting setups on seamless for all the promo stuff layed back to back. (One light, one dark, about 4-5 lights on each setup). The main light was a modified chimera soft box to set the flash tube deeper within the box, then directed with a grid and evened out after it leaves the box with a scrim.
Here's a video from the shoot-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KH_q1zJhCw
(there will be more video footage on the Twilight DVD from the actual shoot.)
Joey L
Hey Dave, thanks for reference to Zach's site. He's got some really nice work. I have added it to my bookmarks.
I took a little "Holiday portrait" of myself, you can find that image here
this is with the canon 135 f2 and the Rayflash ring light and a bit of ambient. Eventually printed it thru Shtrfly. Thanks for all of your energy this year, all of you.SRE.
http://fly-foto.com/xmas08/content/FSExmas08__1824_large.html
What an interesting, fun group of images.
Here's mine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35496702@N00/3145824810/
HNY
Here's some of the photos I sent to family and friends this year:
http://blog-pix.blogspot.com/2008/12/late-christmas-present.html
I'm already planning for next years!
We did a composite too. It was fun to do.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/3121139332_1b3cf48490_b.jpg
amazing stuff thse guys go.
Those are some great cards!
Here's ours for the year. It's the "It's a Wonderful Life" B&W one (top middle).
http://babynounce.com/babyGallery.shtml
Alan
Sweet idea and well done. Good thing he had the perfect set of family members to pull it off.
Cheers
Alleh
Post a Comment
<< Home