We Love Composites
Projects that consist of heavy compositing are often our favorite projects in the studio, for several reasons.
First, they are usually the most challenging to pull off, which tests our skills and abilities. It tests us photographically because the execution of pre-production is so important to successfully pull off the image. We often have to photograph bits and pieces for retouching that must be lit in a specific way to fit in the scene or be positioned in an extremely specific way. It tests our retouching skills because we have to take many different pieces and parts and make them look they are all realistically a part of the same shot - something very difficult to pull off.
Second, they are usually the most creative or fantastical images. There's a reason we had to spend the time to composite, rather than just shoot it, and that reason is often that the subject matter cannot be photographed for one reason or another. Either the subject doesn't exist, shooting the image practically would be far too expensive, or the laws of physics must be broken to take the shot. No matter the reason, it almost always leads to a beautiful image.
Lastly, they are our favorite because they allow our creativity to really go crazy. There is often no reference for these images so you have to really rely on what you see in your head. What would a young girl turning into an eagle look like? How would Cleveland Browns eggs look? How do you make a box wear a suit? You really have to rely on your imagination and creativity to allow this craziness to come to life.
With all that being said what are our favorite composites we have ever worked on? Well, we asked around the studio and quite a few jobs were mentioned as people's favorites. We counted all the votes and below are our top 5, in no particular order. Click on the images to see how we did it!
This image was part of a series of images where the food was it's own packaging. It's a really cool concept and we use the images all the time in our portfolio. The food was shot at many different angles and all of the pieces were composited together.
We always enjoy working with our partners at Great Lakes Theatre. The boat was a small model ship photographed in the home where we discovered it. The talent was photographed in studio and the water and sky were composited from stock photographs. We created a video of how we put the image together. Check it out here!
Everyone loves Flo, and we love getting to work with Progressive. Flo is photographed and the background is composited from many different pieces of stock images and photographs. This image won an American Advertising Award!
The grass coat image was done for Global Prairie and involved us buying strips of sod and photographing it at many different angles. All of the individual photographs were then composited into an image of a coat.
This image was a part of a series done with Innis Maggiore and won an American Advertising Award! The car was shot separately, the house image was a stock photo and the crash aspect was illustrated in post.
Let Your Compositing Projects Come to Life
Don't be afraid to bring your project ideas to us. We love the challenge of making turning your creative ideas into beautiful imagery. Let us know if you've got an idea that our studio can help you with.
