4 ms·

The final pictures are so heavily over-produced that they look incredibly fake-- which is a shame and leaves me totally baffled. It looks like someone literall

The final pictures are so heavily over-produced that they look incredibly fake-- which is a shame and leaves me totally baffled. It looks like someone literally painted the figure on the picture. The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner.

Shivetya 12y ago
there are enough videos out of Asia and Russia if you want to feel real anxiety. The daring do of so many young people never ceases to amaze me. While I appreciate the attempt to artfully present this type of thrill seeking little beats a go pro on a stick or one handed hanging from building framework. Dressing up makes it too hollywood and who needs that when real life is all more impressive
- danellis 12y ago
  It's 'derring-do', just so you know.
kordless 12y ago
> The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner. Especially the one guy giving a thumbs up toward the middle left. There's no way he's tied in and he's standing on the ledge. One misstep by anyone there and he goes over. At least that's the way it looks. Edit: Here's the sidewalk immediately below the location shoot: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.78h,83.23t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sr8EIdMu5UwKdu7stAI8SSw!2e0 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.7...
vonwong 12y ago
Sorry you feel that way :( We had home-made budget costumes that were hand painted so this was the best solution. On the flip side though, I think you'll enjoy these behind the scenes without photoshop : https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzlOILxaDIa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl...)
- snowwrestler 12y ago
  If I were you, I'd take another crack at a few with the opposite approach--hide the safety gear but otherwise show the amateur costumes honestly, bad lighting, flaws and all. It would deliver a much deeper version of the empowerment message you're going for in the text of your post. Seeing a super-hero in a dangerous position is not really impactful--that's what superheros do. Seeing a regular person who is trying to look like a superhero (but subtly failing) in a dangerous situation tells all sorts of stories about the roles we each imagine and hope for ourselves--and the fronts we put up for other people.
  - vonwong 12y ago
    I'd actually love another go to create these images all over again. If I can find another rooftop, I would definitely give it a second shot. Thanks for the feedback!
    - snowwrestler 12y ago
      A reshoot sounds cool too, but I meant go back to the original RAW files and process them differently.
- wavefunction 12y ago
  I think they look great. I'm not a very good amateur photographer but I like the post-production.
- RIMR 12y ago
  Honestly, I feel the same way as stevecalifornia. I figure, if you are going to process the image so heavily, why bother even using a real rooftop. These images don't look real. They are, so why shouldn't they?
- nostromo 12y ago
  Yeah, the raw photos are more intense for me. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzlOILxaDIa?dl=0#lh:null-BTS_Brent-2.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... <- wow!! All are awesome though, great work.
snowwrestler 12y ago
From the GIF, it looks like the people were tied in, and the tie-in gear was then photoshopped out. Which means that in terms of the truth of the situation, it's not much more impactful than simply photoshopping the people onto the ledge in the first place. If people want to see the real thing, take a look at: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/high-times-meet-the-russian-kids-who-take-the-worlds-riskiest-photos-20140506 http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/high-times-meet-the... Or just Google something like "urban exploration skyscraper".
guelo 12y ago
They might as well have used photoshop for the whole backdrop.
Puts 12y ago
This was exactly my thought too. Why bother with all this hustle when the final images are so blurred that they might as well have been painted from the start. :-O
- aaronbrethorst 12y ago
  There was a trend in photography that began at the end of the 19th century called Pictorialism, which emphasized soft focus and significant retouching[1]. It began to fall out of fashion in the nineteen-teens when its most prominent voice, Alfred Stieglitz, embraced modernism[2]. Interestingly, even Ansel Adams started as a pictorialist before embracing "straight" photography. Adams became an incredibly outspoken critic of pictorialism, going so far as to call the last well-known pictorialist, William Mortensen, "the antichrist" years after Mortensen's death[3]. Of course, these things have a way of going full-circle, and—today—digital pictorialism is the big thing. It'll pass in a few years. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism (some images below the fold are NSFW'ish) [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz#O.27Keeffe_and_modern_art_.281918.E2.80.931924.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz#O.27Keeffe_and... [3] http://www.ishootfilm.org/blog/2014/10/20/11-the-incredibly-bad-taste-of-william-mortensen http://www.ishootfilm.org/blog/2014/10/20/11-the-incredibly-...
  - 001sky 12y ago
    This is just a glorified commercial-style shoot. Look at the credits at the end.
bambax 12y ago
Totally agree; I think the project is absolutely brilliant and a perfect idea, wonderfully executed, but the final images have a "fake" look that just kills them. It shouldn't be hard to produce another rendering from the same sources though.
turar 12y ago
If you want some anxiety, I suggest this guy's pictures and videos: http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/ http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/ Couple of highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJkuCzgg7fo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJkuCzgg7fo http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/136573.html http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/136573.html
- spydum 12y ago
  the shanghai tower crane climb is INSANE.
wmeredith 12y ago
I'm glad someone else had the same reaction. I also thought they looked like composited photos, so what's the point? I really liked the post and the thought behind the project though, so I felt like an A-hole.
platz 12y ago
this tends to be the style for the professional/marketing photo business. Realism is not actually the goal. Glossy eye-popping photos (think HDR) are what the customers actually want. If you want natural-light and documentary-style photos, that is better suited for an "art" photographer, not a "commercial" one.

Shivetya 12y ago

there are enough videos out of Asia and Russia if you want to feel real anxiety. The daring do of so many young people never ceases to amaze me. While I appreciate the attempt to artfully present this type of thrill seeking little beats a go pro on a stick or one handed hanging from building framework. Dressing up makes it too hollywood and who needs that when real life is all more impressive

danellis 12y ago
It's 'derring-do', just so you know.

kordless 12y ago

> The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner. Especially the one guy giving a thumbs up toward the middle left. There's no way he's tied in and he's standing on the ledge. One misstep by anyone there and he goes over. At least that's the way it looks. Edit: Here's the sidewalk immediately below the location shoot: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.78h,83.23t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sr8EIdMu5UwKdu7stAI8SSw!2e0 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.7...

vonwong 12y ago

Sorry you feel that way :( We had home-made budget costumes that were hand painted so this was the best solution. On the flip side though, I think you'll enjoy these behind the scenes without photoshop : https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzlOILxaDIa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl...)

snowwrestler 12y ago
If I were you, I'd take another crack at a few with the opposite approach--hide the safety gear but otherwise show the amateur costumes honestly, bad lighting, flaws and all. It would deliver a much deeper version of the empowerment message you're going for in the text of your post. Seeing a super-hero in a dangerous position is not really impactful--that's what superheros do. Seeing a regular person who is trying to look like a superhero (but subtly failing) in a dangerous situation tells all sorts of stories about the roles we each imagine and hope for ourselves--and the fronts we put up for other people.
- vonwong 12y ago
  I'd actually love another go to create these images all over again. If I can find another rooftop, I would definitely give it a second shot. Thanks for the feedback!
  - snowwrestler 12y ago
    A reshoot sounds cool too, but I meant go back to the original RAW files and process them differently.
wavefunction 12y ago
I think they look great. I'm not a very good amateur photographer but I like the post-production.
RIMR 12y ago
Honestly, I feel the same way as stevecalifornia. I figure, if you are going to process the image so heavily, why bother even using a real rooftop. These images don't look real. They are, so why shouldn't they?
nostromo 12y ago
Yeah, the raw photos are more intense for me. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzlOILxaDIa?dl=0#lh:null-BTS_Brent-2.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... <- wow!! All are awesome though, great work.

snowwrestler 12y ago

From the GIF, it looks like the people were tied in, and the tie-in gear was then photoshopped out. Which means that in terms of the truth of the situation, it's not much more impactful than simply photoshopping the people onto the ledge in the first place. If people want to see the real thing, take a look at: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/high-times-meet-the-russian-kids-who-take-the-worlds-riskiest-photos-20140506 http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/high-times-meet-the... Or just Google something like "urban exploration skyscraper".

guelo 12y ago

They might as well have used photoshop for the whole backdrop.

Puts 12y ago

This was exactly my thought too. Why bother with all this hustle when the final images are so blurred that they might as well have been painted from the start. :-O

aaronbrethorst 12y ago
There was a trend in photography that began at the end of the 19th century called Pictorialism, which emphasized soft focus and significant retouching[1]. It began to fall out of fashion in the nineteen-teens when its most prominent voice, Alfred Stieglitz, embraced modernism[2]. Interestingly, even Ansel Adams started as a pictorialist before embracing "straight" photography. Adams became an incredibly outspoken critic of pictorialism, going so far as to call the last well-known pictorialist, William Mortensen, "the antichrist" years after Mortensen's death[3]. Of course, these things have a way of going full-circle, and—today—digital pictorialism is the big thing. It'll pass in a few years. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism (some images below the fold are NSFW'ish) [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz#O.27Keeffe_and_modern_art_.281918.E2.80.931924.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz#O.27Keeffe_and... [3] http://www.ishootfilm.org/blog/2014/10/20/11-the-incredibly-bad-taste-of-william-mortensen http://www.ishootfilm.org/blog/2014/10/20/11-the-incredibly-...
- 001sky 12y ago
  This is just a glorified commercial-style shoot. Look at the credits at the end.

bambax 12y ago

Totally agree; I think the project is absolutely brilliant and a perfect idea, wonderfully executed, but the final images have a "fake" look that just kills them. It shouldn't be hard to produce another rendering from the same sources though.

turar 12y ago

If you want some anxiety, I suggest this guy's pictures and videos: http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/ http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/ Couple of highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJkuCzgg7fo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJkuCzgg7fo http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/136573.html http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/136573.html

spydum 12y ago
the shanghai tower crane climb is INSANE.

wmeredith 12y ago

I'm glad someone else had the same reaction. I also thought they looked like composited photos, so what's the point? I really liked the post and the thought behind the project though, so I felt like an A-hole.

platz 12y ago

this tends to be the style for the professional/marketing photo business. Realism is not actually the goal. Glossy eye-popping photos (think HDR) are what the customers actually want. If you want natural-light and documentary-style photos, that is better suited for an "art" photographer, not a "commercial" one.