Today we bring you the final image from the Von Wong Does Europe Tour. Congratulations to Ben and Erwin on a great concept and successful tour. You did a fabulous job and we are so excited to have been part of the journey!
The First and The Last
The very first photo shoot of the tour also became the last image to be released. But we are definitely glad we waited. The photo was based around Belgium Retouch Artist Chester Van Bommel. I can only image the pressure of retouching a portrait of a professional retoucher. It is a fine art that goes far beyond technical skills of the average Photoshop user.
“I learned through this process that it wasn’t about the new techniques, about which buttons to click. What really mattered was the vision behind it. As a creative, you want people to hire you because you are an artist, not because you are a technician.” ~ Von Wong
Behind the Scenes – Bringing Dreams to Life | The Mind of a Retoucher
Setup and Post-Processing Retouch
The more work done in camera during the photo shoot, the better chance you will be able to realize the image during the post-processing phase.
When shooting a large space, avoid distortion created by wide-angle lenses by stitching together several shots using a prime lens. For this image, Von Wong used a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 on a tripod with his Nikon D700 . This allowed the vastness of the space to be communicated without making it look malformed.
When a space has a lot of natural lighting, from say – missing a roof, additional lighting can be accomplished fairly easily. Here you see a pair of speed lights in a soft box as a backlight and an umbrella as front fill to light the subject. Additional frames were taken without the subject with the speed lights on the floor to light the arches for more definition and depth.
But that is only the beginning. After 60 hours of retouch work and a massive 8Gb+ Photoshop file, the concept was built piece by piece, literally. The results – dreamlike.
To see more from this photo shoot, click here.
For the Gear Heads
Nikon D700
Nikkor 50mm f1.8
SIRUI T-2205X (Lovinpix.com)
Pixel Pawn
Explorer Mini Battery Pack by Innovatronix
SB-900
SB-700
Photography and Retouch: Von Wong and Chester Van Bommel from Artsome
Video: Erwan Cloarec – Visuals
Until Next Time . . .
Stay Inspired ~ Jules
CREDITS: Photographs by Von Wong have been used with permission for SLR Lounge. Do not copy, modify or re-post this article or images without express permission from SLR Lounge and the artist.
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