Scalvert's 'GirlDog' - How was it done?

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

05/06/2010 09:36:10 AM · #1

I brightened the background of

Scalvert's image in the Exposure challenge just for curiosity to see what Melethia was talking about in the comments w/regards to color noise on the background. I then saw what you see in the image below which is a strange darker band going across the entire image. I would like to do a similar shot and have been disecting this to see how he was able to do it with such astounding details in basic mode.

What impresses me most is that he was able to get his daughter's ear intertwined with the doghair and that the dog nose is higher in the image than the dog hair several places - but not everywhere. But it worked out so it fits perfect everywhere in the image, all within the dark band.

I've seen Scalvert do wonders before so I have absolutely no doubts as far as the legality of the image in basic mode, but I would love to hear how he did it or possibly a picture of the setup if he has it. I haven't tried this myself yet, but would have thought a lighter area in the transition area would have appeared due to light bleeding through between the 'flaps' as opposed to a dark band with fairly distinct edges.

Could you pretty please show us how Scalvert? I love these types of effects but can't seem to pull them off.

pamelasue

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

05/06/2010 09:47:17 AM · #2

His "how I did this" notes are in the details of the pic ...

JulietNN

Canon EOS R7

Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount

05/06/2010 09:48:42 AM · #3

~~Look in his notes it is all in there~~

Pam beat me to it

Message edited by author 2010-05-06 09:48:58.

05/06/2010 10:01:23 AM · #4

Originally posted by pamelasue:

His "how I did this" notes are in the details of the pic ...

I saw that :) But the way he explained it doesn't explain how the transition does not appear to be uniform and how it appears that some pieces are intertwined. But it could of course just be me not seeing it right, or understanding how this works.

05/06/2010 10:20:49 AM · #5

I almost always write the details on my shots, although I was rushing to beat the deadline when I wrote this one. Here's a picture of the box I used:

The cardboard box provided a structure to shoot through (I taped it to a small table with the camera on a tripod aimed through the open end). I covered the back end with a gift box to block light from the corners and seams. As you noticed, I cut a pair of curved flaps in the opening to help get the nose and eyes together (an "accurate" shape wouldn't have mattered since positioning the dog would never be exact). The gift box was rigid enough to make stiff flaps, yet not so thick that it would create a sloppy seam. I taped strips of paper to the inside of the box to block light from the sides of the flaps:

The alignment was guesswork and incredible luck. Most of the shots looked like this:

In most cases I didn't even bother with the second half of the exposure because the dog looked away, my daughter wasn't ready or I held the wrong flap open. One time, my other daughter ran in to grab the dog and got my model by the ponytail instead (the room was totally dark). Oh, if you look closely at that last image you'll notice that she had a blue ponytail band. Fortunately there was no other blue in the shot so I was able to desaturate and darken the blue and cyan channels to hide it in Basic.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

05/06/2010 10:27:35 AM · #6

Originally posted by TrollMan:

the transition does not appear to be uniform and how it appears that some pieces are intertwined.

The transition is a result of the box and flaps being close to the camera. I did that intentionally since the out-of-focus flaps would make a fuzzy edge that picks up part of each exposure and blends the two together. Ordinarily I would use a wider aperture, but I had to keep it somewhere in the middle (f/7.1) so the manually focused image would still be sharp if my models moved a little.

As for the "interwining," that's just an optical effect of the exposure. If you look at the misaligned outtake I posted, you'll notice the edges are not smooth. The shadow and highlight areas pick up different amounts of light, so it makes a rough edge that just happened to line up amazingly well on a lucky shot. ;-)

Message edited by author 2010-05-06 10:31:17.

Spork99

OM System OM-1

05/06/2010 10:32:50 AM · #7

Don't B.S. us with this talk of boxes with flaps, dark rooms, strobes and the like. You've been conducting genetic experiments on your kids, haven't you?

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

05/06/2010 10:40:04 AM · #8

Originally posted by Spork99:

You've been conducting genetic experiments on your kids, haven't you?

Umm... no? ;-P

smurfguy

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

05/06/2010 11:00:58 AM · #9

Awfully kind of you Shannon to go to the trouble of explaining your methods with pics to boot.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

05/06/2010 11:41:02 AM · #10

Originally posted by TrollMan:

...would have thought a lighter area in the transition area would have appeared due to light bleeding through between the 'flaps' as opposed to a dark band with fairly distinct edges.

The band would be lighter if the background was light, but this background was black muslin. The only thing "leaking" through the transition area for each half of this shot would be completely black while some of the light for each model is blocked, hence the darker band. I actually darkened the shadow side of the histogram with Levels in case some voters' monitors were set bright enough to see that band.

senor_kasper

Nikon D800

05/06/2010 12:27:32 PM · #11

Originally posted by TrollMan:

Originally posted by pamelasue:
His "how I did this" notes are in the details of the pic ...

I saw that :) But the way he explained it doesn't explain how the transition does not appear to be uniform and how it appears that some pieces are intertwined. But it could of course just be me not seeing it right, or understanding how this works.

The transition is intertwined due to the band in the middle that allows for partial exposure of both fields, this is due to the intentionally less than perfect match between the two fields of view. I did this

using a similar technique a few years back, only my interface (the dark band) was diagonal; people suspected it was not basic editing (and penalized me accordingly) until the picture was validated 3/4 of the way into voting.

tate

Apple iPhone 15 Pro

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

05/06/2010 12:31:23 PM · #12

If only my dog (or daughter/s) would cooperate like this.
How lucky you are =)

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

05/06/2010 12:43:56 PM · #13

Originally posted by tate:

If only my dog (or daughter/s) would cooperate like this.
How lucky you are =)

He bribes them with dog biscuits and HoHos...

R.

05/06/2010 01:43:53 PM · #14

Thanks

Scalvert!

I thought maybe you had some sort of a contour on the flaps but I can see how the light reflects differently on different features and gives it a very nice effect as long as you get a good shot.

I have now tried a dozen shots with my two boys but not quite as lucky. The hardest part is to get them to stand still and in the position I would like them to be. The other issue I have is that I don't have a big enough dark room and the sun in Norway this time a year doesn't set until 9:30 pm and their bedtime is at 7! So I'll try a few shots with myself and the remote control. When I first start trying these things I almost never give up until I master it so it could be a loooong night! :)

Thanks for details though - I appreciate it!

05/06/2010 03:27:41 PM · #15

Originally posted by TrollMan:

The other issue I have is that I don't have a big enough dark room and the sun in Norway this time a year doesn't set until 9:30 pm and their bedtime is at 7!

Tack bankets or cardboard over the windows to make it dark during the day. Shooting through the box will reduce light levels, too. It doesn't have to be completely dark for a long exposure if you use a black background for your photo. You'll just lose a little contrast. ;-)