I posted this Composited Portrait of my family a few days ago and received a lot of requests for a breakdown of the photos I used to bring it to life.
So, here are the 30 photos I used to bring “Knocked Out” to life.
The Purpose of “Knocked Out”
I should start by letting you know I didn’t create this image the way I create my Creative Family Portraits.
Mostly because I created this piece for a completely different reason.
I have always used Composite Photography to either practice my Photoshop skills as with my portrait “The Wrestler”, as free promotional work as with “Rick Fairless’ World”, for marketing purposes as with “A Day at the Zoo”, for Creative Family Portraits as with “Ranch Life”, to prove a point to the PPA as with “Oh, Crap!”, or for personal reasons as with “Bad Hair Day”.
For this Composite, however, I created it so I could demonstrate how you can take your Composites to the Next Level with Pro-Level Extractions.
So, rather than tell a story, which this does in a weird way, I created this image to include everything from the simplest of extractions as with the tennis ball and wine bottle, to the most complex of extractions as with my son Niko flying through the air and the sky of the scene.
Now, on to the breakdown of “Knocked Out”.
Knocked Out in 30 Photos
Nearly every Composite I create begins with a sketch, as you can see in my Sketch Book, giving me the ability to see the image before the photography ever begins.
For this Composite, however, I not only didn’t do a sketch to plan out all the details, but I didn’t even know what the scene was going to be until we drop by it and stopped to photograph it.
I would highly recommend more planning for your Composites.
1. Left Lower Scene
2. Middle Lower Scene
3. Right Lower Scene
4. Right Middle Scene
5. Middle Middle Scene
6. Left Middle Scene
7. Left Top Scene
8. Middle Top Scene
9. Right Top Scene
10. Sky
11. Sky with Sun
12. Flying Birds
13. Plane
14. Wine Bottle
15. Wine Bottle Top
16. Tennis Ball
17. Canon 5D MarkII
18. Canon 80D w/ Rode Mic
19. Camera Bag
20. Canon 6D on Gitzo Tripod
21. Niko
22. Niko Shirt Fix
23. Dingo the Dog
24. Luka
25. Wine Loving Taren
26. Awesome Jason
27. Sculpture Piece 1
28. Sculpture Piece 2
29. Sculpture Piece 3
30. Power & Light Building
Behind the Composite
So you can get a better idea of how this image was created using 30 different photos, here are some before and afters.
Starting with the scene, which was Composited using 15 of the 30 photos.
Here are a few of the B/A photos used for myself and other characters in this crazy Composited portrait.
That’s a Wrap
Hands down, one of the most common places most Composites fall short on is the extraction process. It’s a dead give away if your extractions are too sharp or too soft, which makes it super important to know how to achieve Awesome Extractions.
Do you want to take your Composites to the Next Level?
