cheng-han

Iceland #1

From the first shot in Iceland, I felt such a strong obligation to faithfully capture the sheer vastness of the panoramic views belonging to a land that truly f...
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From the first shot in Iceland, I felt such a strong obligation to faithfully capture the sheer vastness of the panoramic views belonging to a land that truly felt like a different planet. Beaches of smooth polished black sand, an endless landscape of sharp lava rocks covered with a soft bed of thick moss and lakes fed endlessly by a never-ending glacier forming hulking icebergs presented a scenery which looked more like a CGI-ed or Photoshopped backdrop.

As my photographic interests have never been in pure landscape photography but more in contextual portraits, I sought to create a story about fictitious inhabitants of this landscape, taken as epic, surreal snapshots of them appearing naturally within their home, at times unaware of a camera.

Each image is shot using normal - telephoto lenses but made from 20-35 stitched images to achieve a wide image without the distance distortion of a wide-angle lens.
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Jan, 2015

Views

1984

Likes

+340

Awards

Contest Finalist in Creative Landscapes Photo Contest vol3

Contest Finalist in Iceland The Beautiful Photo Contest

Featured

Judge Favorite

Peer Award

+127

Outstanding Creativity

+30

Superb Composition

+17

Absolute Masterpiece

+15

Top Choice

Magnificent Capture

Genius

All Star

Superior Skill

Virtuoso

Emotions

Impressed

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photograph was taken on one of the lava fields in Iceland. The field is made from black, sharp lava rocks covered with a layer of 3cm thick moss which provided the texture of a gigantic mattress covering the entire area.

Time

The image was taken during the late afternoon.

Lighting

The image was lit with a single Elinchrom Quadra just enough to light the model. As the image is actually a stitched panorama of around 35 images, the light was removed in post using a final shot of the location of the light with the light removed.

Equipment

Canon 5D mk3, 24 - 80 I believe set at around 65mm. Single Elinchrom Quadra to light the model.

Inspiration

From the first shot in Iceland, I felt such a strong obligation to faithfully capture the sheer vastness of the panoramic views belonging to a land that truly felt like a different planet. Beaches of smooth polished black sand, an endless landscape of sharp lava rocks covered with a soft bed of thick moss and lakes fed endlessly by a never-ending glacier forming hulking icebergs presented a scenery which looked more like a CGI-ed or Photoshopped backdrop. As my photographic interests have never been in pure landscape photography but more in contextual portraits, I sought to create a story about fictitious inhabitants of this landscape, taken as epic, surreal snapshots of them appearing naturally within their home, at times unaware of a camera.

Editing

I didn’t like the sky from a particular shot and wanted to re-shoot it. However, the landscape from the original shot was really flat so I needed a clear view all the way to the horizon showing a gradual compression of clouds leading to the horizon. I had to find a location back in the UK which had these characteristics so I could re-shoot a sunrise or sunset. I needed a perfectly flat landscape offering an uninterrupted view into the distance - the sea would be ideal. Googlemaps showed me a perfect strip of land poking out of the south coast of Wales (Porthcawl) which stuck out leaving a clear view across the Atlantic westward. I drove 180 miles out there, waited for sunset and clambered over rocks by the sea to photograph the sky at sunset which was finally used in the shot.

In my camera bag

Canon 5D Mk3 and Ikelite Housing for my underwater work and a Pentax 645Z for non-underwater work. Elinchrom Quadra for lighting at my studio and on location. Favourite location lens for my panoramic images are the 50mm (Canon) or 55mm for the Pentax to preserve the distance compression you'd normally see with natural eyesight. 24mm underwater.

Feedback

CONCEPT Try to tell a story. Who are the characters and why are they there? PANORAMIC TECHNIQUE With stitched panoramic images, you can pretty much use any equipment but it would be to use a lens as close as possible to the perspective of natural eyesight - 50mm at SLR format. It means a lot of images to make a wide field of view stitch but the results feel natural and appear the way it did when you were there. It looks 'real'.. MODEL I prefer the model to look AWAY from the camera so the image doesn't become all about her. I'm then a witness rather than a photographer snapping a shot.

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cheng-han

cheng-han

Iceland #1

From the first shot in Iceland, I felt such a strong obligation to faithfully capture the sheer vastness of the panoramic views belonging to a land that truly f... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow cheng-han

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From the first shot in Iceland, I felt such a strong obligation to faithfully capture the sheer vastness of the panoramic views belonging to a land that truly f...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.