Posted
Semi-transparent objects can often be a bit of a pain to photograph and cutout. Here I show you one of our recent photoshoots, where just such a challenge presented itself. We needed the Addy award cutout and usable in any composition. The only problem with that is that any transparent object you photograph brings with it the information behind it. So lighting without shadows was critical. We chose the smallest of our offices so that we could fully control the lighting situation setup the lights and got to work... Here is a step by step rundown of the different phases.
We start with the basics... setup the shot.
Adjust, adjust, adjust...
Brandon played with the lights to get things just right...
Then we had the shot! Just enough color transparency and information to really make a wonderful final product. At this point a transparent item does't look like much but just you wait.
We then take this shot into Photoshop to adjust it and enhance it's qualities...I know I know it isn't supposed to be orange, but that's just the cutout. There we go a properly cutout image... but it looks a little.. well drab. Lets adjust the color and transparency.
Woah, where did it go... I guess transparent objects are tough when viewed on white. I'll go ahead and add a background layer at this point so that we can really see what it will look like on a background.
On the left is before shadows and the right is after... Big difference
Last but not least we adjust the plate to make it look metallic again. Maybe if Brandon had gotten the lighting right we wouldn't have had to simulate that in post... oh well.
And here is the final comp, after this stage we save out a version to incorporate it into the website.
