dannyk6
FollowThis is a composite of 4 different photos and the castle is actually one of the buildings on the Syracuse University campus!...
Read more
This is a composite of 4 different photos and the castle is actually one of the buildings on the Syracuse University campus!
Read less
Read less
Views
2215
Likes
Awards
Member Selection Award
Featured
Runner Up in Mix It Up Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Mix It Up Photo Contest
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
All Star
Genius
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
Top Ranks
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo is actually a composite of four different photos. They were all taken in Syracuse, NY. The "castle" is actually a building on the Syracuse University campus. The wheat field was a short mountain bike ride from my house, and the girl was taken in a photo shoot in my backyard.Time
All the images I used to create this were taken late in the day, near sunset. This is usually my favorite time to capture images as the colors and lighting is usually at its best.Lighting
All the images I used to create this composite were taken late in the day, near sunset, or in the case of the girl, on a cloudy day where the lighting was flat. Flat lighting is great for composite work because I can use photoshop and a little dodge/burn to create the effect of directional light, ie. sunset in a particular direction.Equipment
The images here were all captured with a Sony a6000 camera and natural light. Additionally I used the 16-50mm kit lens along with the 55-210mm lens for the castle.Inspiration
I'm a huge fan of surreal landscapes, concept art and fairytale-like scenes. It all started with the wheat field I stumbled across while mountain biking. It's not something that's normally seen where I live (Syracuse, NY), and the lighting was really great, so I took a picture of the empty field. Later I was up at the Syracuse University campus doing some photography and captured the building you see here. I really wanted to create a photo using the wheat field, so I decided to play around in photoshop and add the building. At that point the image took on the fairytale quality here and I decided to add the girl to add a human element to the scene.Editing
Yes, there was a lot of post processing done on this image. I usually start out in Lightroom, and lower the highlights, and raise the shadows. Then, I'll export to Photoshop to combine all the images using layer masks to hide the unwanted parts of each image. I'll also use brushes to add/emphasize the lighting and do some dodge/burning. When it looks good in Photoshop, I'll bring the photo back to lightroom and apply clarity, split toning, noise reduction, sharpening and a vignette.In my camera bag
My bag is actually pretty small! In addition to the Sony a6000, I'll have the 16-50mm kit lens, the 35mm f1.8 prime and a 55-210mm zoom. I just recently got a speedlite, so I'll have to find some room for that in my bag now!!Feedback
It's all about the idea. If you have a scene in your head it's usually not hard to turn it into a reality. I frequently look through older photos I've taken and try to imagine what I could add to the photo to make it better using other images I have. If I don't have a particular image I'm looking for I'll see if there's something/someplace in my hometown I can use that will work for what I need.