Final Image: The Death of Painting

Lighting played a huge role in this project and I think that's where I learned the most in this recreation. I checked out a light kit from Kendall's equipment facilities and even though I didn't have any gels, I bounced the light off of different colored paper to achieve the effect I was going for. I was really looking to bring a warmth to the piece, so I used orange paper to reflect the light. After much playing around (and a few too many shots that made the set look like it was supporting a bad fake tan) I finally found the right balance.

This project was much more pre-production heavy than any of the other projects I've done so far and that made me realize how important time management is. Not only did I have to factor in time to build the set, but also time to find the materials needed. I didn't paint the building early enough, so while shooting I was still adding more coats of paint. Under the bright lights you could still see the Pop-Tarts logo through the light-colored paint, which then, in turn, left me with more post-production work than I had originally intended.

Death of Painting: Test Shots

Pre-Planning: The Death of Painting

For this project I plan on recreating Cezanne's Chestnut Trees.

To do so, I will reconstruct the scene in miniature using items found in nature, such as sticks for the trees in the foreground, leaves for trees in the background, dirt for the path, and rocks for the wall. The background will be painted on white paper and the building will be constructed out of cardboard and paint. As for the grass, I am unsure yet as to what material will be used. The final construction will be photographed in the lighting studio. Below are images of different materials I will use, as well as a very rough set up of the foreground trees.

Rough layout of Trees. Final set-up will be wider.

Possible background tree #1.

Possible background tree #2.

Dirt for the path.

Panorama: Final Image

Stitching together a panorama turned out to be a whole lot difficult than I expected. Especially since I wasn't able to use a tripod due to such a low camera angle. After many reshoots of the same scene, I finally got a set of images that I could successfully piece together. In this project, I also learned to use a lot more tools in Photoshop than I had ever before. The clone stamp was a HUGE help on the stump and in the grass.

In the end I was very proud with the finished result. I was really glad that I decided to bring the animal and dinosaur figures into a makeshift landscape as opposed to shooting them in the lighting studio (even if that meant many hours more spent working in post). It added more character and story to the overall image.

Panorama Shots