Concentration
Wanted to do a floating image with different items.
Wanted to do a floating image with different items.
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Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Aperture f/8 ISO 200 Shutter 1/250 Focal Length 24/1 
Houston, Texas, US
Feb, 2019Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my son's actual bedroom. Of course it involved some cleaning but we were able to get it done. The bedroom isn't really big so having a wide lens helped at the time of taking this.Time
This shot was taken early afternoon. i wanted there to be light coming in from the two windows of his bedroom to help.Lighting
I wanted it to look as real as possible and even though it does, it has that surreal look and feel until you notice the shadows of everything and the glow of the lightsaber. Once you start to notice all the details of the shadowing you start to feel the image is more and more real.Equipment
A Canon 5D Mark IV was used with a 24-70mm 2.4 lens. The camera was used on a tripod as low as I could get it to the floor. I used a YougNuo YN560 IV Speedlight.Inspiration
I love trick photography. I love getting people to do a double take on an image. I'm always inspired seeing others do floating objects in their work. I love everything Star Wars and we are huge comic book buffs. He of course was brought into it. He's had all the comic book stuff in his room before he even knew what it was. But also he was given the items in the picture as a gift and dealing with a child that has ADHD is a whole new learning experience. It reminded me a lot of the Star Wars character Kylo Ren. You totally have to do everything, as a parent, different than the way you grew up and the way your parents disciplined you. You have to learn a whole new way of disciplining your child. With that said, it feels like he has ups and downs and maybe thats why I describe him as Kylo Ren sometimes. When we tried to take these photos, boy o boy, to get him to understand what I'm doing and the way it will look afterwards. I want him to be comfortable doing it for me but that is a whole job in itself to try to convince him of that. He is my model for so many things even though he fights it at times. I think now, he's starting to realize what it is I exactly do and how I do it and how cool it will look afterwards.Editing
Good lord yes I do. What photographer doesn't now days. This involved compositing 4 photographs. I did edits in Lightroom with lighting and so forth. Then I brought all the photographs into Photoshop and did the compositing there along with adding more shadowing and the lightsaber glow and effect. In the end I think it turned out pretty well.In my camera bag
Normally if I'm just carry my bag around I have my 50mm prime lens and a 100-400mm zoom lens. I carry my prime to test and push myself to think about my shots that I will take. It gets me to think more creatively. Other than that I have extra batteries and extra memory cards and my tripod. Maybe a lens ball.Feedback
Try to plan out what you are doing, even write it out if you have too. Plenty of times I'll think of a shot in my head and what it would involve and in the middle of it I'm like oh yeah, I forgot about this and that. So this just helps you gather everything you need. Some more advice is be patient. Somethings will rarely come out perfect the first time so sometimes you just got to keep trying and trying and push yourself. Trial and error happen a lot, especially if you are just learning a new technique or want to try something new. Sometimes the shot you're not happy with ends up being the best one after all.
