Faking It

I love shooting on location. It challenges me and helps my image tell the story better and convey the models’ emotions to the viewer that much more. But finding great locations can be tricky. Sometimes you’ll find a location that looks amazing when you’re there scouting the place out, but it turns out really shocking or not what you’re expecting when you do the shoot, especially when the sun and time of day is playing havoc with your lighting.

[blockquote client_name=”JL”]finding great locations can be tricky[/blockquote]

Obviously it all works out nicely when it does look good in your head and on the screen/film, but what do you do when everything works out but the background? For one you could re-shoot in a different location, but that’s just a waste of everybody’s time. You could also shoot in such a way that the background doesn’t feature as much in your shots, while also making use of certain objects that are on location to be a feature in the image, and as such taking attention away from the distracting background. Your other alternative is to do a bit of photoshop and replace your background with something else. It’s definitely no easy feat, but it may be the only thing stopping you from having an amazing image.

[blockquote client_name=”JL”] what do you do when everything works out but the background? [/blockquote]

For this themed image, the shoot was done in my friend’s back garden. I chose it because he had some nice paths and some interesting creepers that I thought would fit the theme perfectly. The problem with the location or rather the specific spot that I wanted to shoot at, was that there was an ugly fence, some sprinkler pipes and some garden netting clearly visible in the background.

Solution: Use the burn tool to darken all the offending bits to sit nicely, out of sight in the background. Pretty easy this time around.

Here’s the progression from original to the final stages of the image. Take note of the background foliage in the top section of the image. (Click to enlarge)

[fancybox_image image_url=”https://justinlee.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Justin-Lee_example.jpg” fancybox_url=”” width=”500″ height=”249.77″]

Here’s the last image from the above series:[fancybox_image image_url=”https://justinlee.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/IMG_0002.jpg” fancybox_url=”” width=”500″ height=”750″]

Photographer: Justin Lee

Model: Anastasia Ferrara

Makeup Artist: Kate Fitzgibbon

Photographer’s Assistant: Mic Zingarelli