Delusions of Grandeur

TheBigYin

TheBigYin

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Mark
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As per usual, anything half decent that I get around to shooting for the POTY competition ends up in here... The brief for June was actually "It's Alive" though my personal title for the shot is as per this thread title.

Actually, this isn't the exact shot that I entered for the POTY - frankly, the competition shot was a little hurried in the processing, and 5 minutes after submitting the shot, I looked at it again and spotted a couple of problems that made me cringe. So - tonight I finally had a couple of hours to play and decided to do a "reboot" of the shot.

Anyway, enough of my rabbiting. On with the Shot...

Delusions of Grandeur (reboot) by The Big Yin, on Flickr
 
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Now that is very clever Mark. Was it a pain setting this up?
 
Clever, what spoils it for me is the blemish in the wall by the horse's front legs.....My eye goes straight to it.
 
Love it, a brilliantly concieved idea. I may have to pinch it.....;)

Andy
 
I absolutely LOVE the idea. The only thing that puts me off are the rather strange proportions of the horse in shadow, but that's probably just me being a pedantic *rse. :)
 
I actually saw this in the POTY thread when I came across it by accident -( why is it so well hidden as can never find it when I look or it) and it intrigued me then. Really like the idea, might like a slightly sharper shadow and without that blemish in the wall as my eye is drawn more to that than the chess piece. Makes me think of those innocent items that create scary shadows on the wall
 
Dave in Wales said:
Clever, what spoils it for me is the blemish in the wall by the horse's front legs.....My eye goes straight to it.
Click to expand...

Yeah - I must try and improve my plastering technique... I'm afraid that wall is a bit too much Rustico in the Stucco Rustico.
 
viv1969 said:
I absolutely LOVE the idea. The only thing that puts me off are the rather strange proportions of the horse in shadow, but that's probably just me being a pedantic *rse. :)
Click to expand...

Well - again, that's my technical shortfall, I'm afraid... I basically just drew a "stylised outline" of a horse, albeit with a "nod" to a certain car companies logo on a sheet of black paper, then cut it out with a pair of scissors.

I've never been much of an artist, I'm afraid, but didn't want to be accused of using copyrighted materials in my shot.
 
Kerioak said:
I actually saw this in the POTY thread when I came across it by accident -( why is it so well hidden as can never find it when I look or it) and it intrigued me then. Really like the idea, might like a slightly sharper shadow and without that blemish in the wall as my eye is drawn more to that than the chess piece. Makes me think of those innocent items that create scary shadows on the wall
Click to expand...

To be honest, the shadow was as sharp as I could manage with the kit I had to hand... I took the horse outline, sandwiched it between 2 sheets of photo-frame glass and used it as a sort of "big slide". Ideally, I'd have scrounged up a projector or something similar to ensure proper focusing of the shadow, but I decided to run with what I'd got on hand.
 
feek said:
Now that is very clever Mark. Was it a pain setting this up?
Click to expand...

Pretty much my standard tabletop rig - half sheet of plasterboard with "stucco rustico" as the backdrop, tabletop on a box in front of the wall, with chessboard on it. Single studio flash head with snoot and honeycomb to make a "circular spot" on the wall - though in the end this shot was actually shot using the "modelling lamp" rather than the flash.

2 images shot, one with just the chess peice, one with the "glass slide" in place casting the shadow. Images hoovered up into CS5 and the shaddow matted into place on the plain image. Converted to B&W with a slight silver/blue toning. Base images were...

7561102866_d3c7897ea3.jpg


and

7561102478_b42148290f.jpg



Andysnap said:
Love it, a brilliantly concieved idea. I may have to pinch it.....;)

Andy
Click to expand...

You'll probably do a far better job of it than I did Andy (y)
 
Kerioak said:
I was imagining you trying to hold a cardboard cutout without getting your fingers in the shot, interesting to hear how you did it
Click to expand...

yeah - when I first thought about it, I was going to use thin card and spray it black, then use a guitar string or some other thin strong wire to put it in place, then, while looking through my archive of film shots, came across a bunch of glass-mounted 120 slides and had a "moment of clarity" :LOL:
 
I love it Mark.
A really inspired idea and interesting to see how you did it. I had a feeling that you'd come up with something clever rather than just adding the shadow in PP.
And TBH I'm glad that you didn't get hold of a projector for a perfectly crisp shadow - there's something more "real" about the slightly fuzzy edges of what you've got. I even like the uneven wall in the background.

Not wanting to create another challenge for you, but if you ever revisit the idea, for some strange reason I can just visualise something like this lit by warm firelight and the shadow being cast by flickering flames . . . now there's a creative lighting challenge :LOL:
 
you're about 4 years too late on that one, I'm afraid - don't have the "real fire" anymore... I have toyed with the idea of using one of those "Log Fire DVD's" on a nearby monitor for shots - wanted to do it for the film version of this one but couldn't get my act in gear in time for the competition deadline, and just never bothered afterwards :(
 
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