34 Images of “Mayfield Madness” – Dallas Portrait Photographer
Unlike other Dallas Portrait Photographers, the creation of your Photillustrator Portrait begins with a Concept Sketch where every detail is planned out.
Not every Portrait, however, turns out the way it was sketched.
You’ll see what I’m talking about in today’s breakdown of “Mayfield Madness”.
Let me start off with a moment of transparency.
The artistic process can be very frustrating at times, but I have come to better appreciate the process and accept it’s undeniably chaotic route to expression.
Hopefully you’ll see what I’m talking about by the end of the “Mayfield Madness” breakdown.
Mayfield Madness
As I just mentioned, each Photillustration first begins with a Concept Sketch where each detail is first thought through.
Here’s the Concept Sketch for the Mayfield family, and their Photillustrator Portrait called, “Mayfield Madness”.
The Concept Sketch gives me the opportunity to translate what I see in my brain, so you have a better idea of what your Portrait will look like, I can visualize the Portrait before we start, and I can create a detailed shot list of the images we’ll need to capture for your Portrait.
Clearly I’m a better Photillustrator than sketch artist, but it gives us a good idea of what we’re working towards.
Early on, in my journey as a Photillustrator, I would find myself very frustrated by the common fact that your final Portrait would frequently look different than the Concept Sketch I came up with.
I have come to realize, as long as the important details are included in your Photillustrator Portrait, you could care less if it looks like the Concept Sketch or not.
So, today during the Discovery Session, I frequently tell my clients, “The next step is where I take all the ideas and details we’ve talked about today, and I’ll create a Concept Sketch of your Photillustration, which you’ll approve at the Approval Session, then I’ll create a Portrait that looks nothing like your Concept Sketch.”
I say it in a joking manner, and we all get a kick out of it, but truth-be-told, it’s almost 100% what will actually happen.
Breaking Down Mayfield Madness
Just to clarify what the differences are between the Concept Sketch and the final Photillustrator Portrait of “Mayfield Madness”.
The original concept called for mom, the dog, and the little boy catching the baseball, to be in the Suburban on the right side of the frame, and the baseball flying through the air to be hitting and breaking the windshield.
Upon digging deeper into the Portrait, I decided I did not like this idea because you would less of mom, the dog, and the little boy.
That just wouldn’t work, so I changed the concept, which I believe turned out better than the original idea.
#1 Josh Mayfield: It was fun to see Josh come to life, as though his son just hit a grand slam home run.
#2 Jacob: Jacob did a great job posing, but I had to composite the selfie stick in to give it more dimensionality.
#3 Jameson: This little guy was so awesome, and actually looks like he’s looking at the baseball.
#4 Jackson: Is a home run hitter, so there wasn’t much acting here.
#5 Grandma: Doing what she does best, cheer on the family.
#6 Shelly & Jolee: This image came on the last frame of the 15 images we took of them.
#7 & #8 Suburban: Black cars aren’t the easiest things to composite into a scene, as they reflect everything, and it’s up to me to be creative in hiding the reflection of the house across the street.
#9 Road & Curb: This is a road and curb about a block away from my house.
#10 Pitcher’s Mound: Captured this from a ball field near my house.
#11 Batter’s Box: Captured from a ball field near my house.
#12 Foul Line: Captured from a ball field near my house.
#13 Field Grass: Captured from the ball field the boys play their baseball games in.
#14 & #15 Baseballs: These weren’t initially intended to be in the scene, but I thought the space needed something, so I added some baseballs.
#16 Outfield Fence: The actual fence from the ball field the boys play ball in.
#17 Photillustrator Ad: Shameless promotion.
#18 Scoreboard: Jumped the fence at the actual ball field the boys play they’re games in, and didn’t get arrested. Ha!
#19 Klayton: The dunking master was composited together using two different images, which would make this a 35 image Composite.
#20 Basketball Hoop: I got this on a basket ball court near my house.
#21 Pond: Another image I captured a block away from my house, and it just so happens that Globe Life Stadium has little ponds out in front.
#22 Lights: Captured at ball fields near my house.
#23 Tree: This was a cool old tree I ran across when photographing Globe Life Stadium.
#24 Field: Another image from near my house.
#25 & #26 Trees: More trees I captured near Globe Life Stadium and great to frame the portrait with.
#27 Baseball: I quickly photographed this while photographing the individual family members.
#28 & #29 Fellowship Church: I did an entire series of this church to make sure I had enough to Composite together for this portrait.
#30 iPhone on Selfie Stick: I photographed this separately so I could make it look like it’s coming into the frame more than if he were just holding it.
#31 Apple Logo: A stock image of the Apple logo.
#32 Globe Life Stadium: Photographed on a cloudy day.
#33 & #34 Sky: Several stock images I’ve captured along my Photillustrator journey.
#35 Birds: I like to add birds for realism, but this is really image #36.
ARTWORK ENHANCEMENTS
#1 Scoreboard Numbers: The scoreboard wasn’t turned on when I photographed it, so I had to add my own numbers.
#2 Dust: It would look a little strange if there wasn’t any dust at the feet of the kid who’s hitting a home run.
#3 Lights: I’m not a fan of turned off lights, so I turned these on in Photoshop.
Behind the Scenes Photos
To give you a better idea of where “Mayfield Madness” came from, here are a few of the RAW images I used straight out of my camera.
That’s a Wrap
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the artistic process is a strange process, and a process I do not understand.
Fortunately for you and me, however, the changes always result in a better Portrait than if they hadn’t been made.
I hope you have a better idea of the chaotic process of creating your Photillustrator Portrait, and while it may seem crazy, it really is fun and exciting to see your final Portrait displayed on your wall.
