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BTS: Lost In The Flood By Tomer Jacobson

Sep 22, 2013 by Guest Author 2 Comments

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BTS: Lost In The Flood By Tomer Jacobson

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” –  Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

When you direct or plan a photograph it seems that you control each and every aspect of that photo.

In street photography you try and capture a decisive moment, which is completely out of your control. In a stage shoot, however,  you can try and create a reality from scratch. The more you put into planning and preparations, the more you can get closer to that perfect image you conceived  in your head.

I have given this a lot of thought when I started working on our last photograph in the song series. The ambitious idea was to shoot a staged photograph with multiple models tens of meters into the sea while everyone is standing on rocks. It quickly became obvious that there are many technical challenges to such photoshoot and I will talk about a few of them in this post.

Pilots makes perfect 

BTS: Lost In The Flood By Tomer Jacobson

If there is one thing we’ve taken away from while working on this series is that it take many pilots and tests to get the final photograph as close as possible to the photograph you have in your mind. Try and think back to that first day at a new job where everything is strange and unfamiliar. Now think of the same place, a week later. This is the familiarity I am talking about.

And this photograph was so technically complex that we took so many tests and pilots that we lost count.

Shooting at sea took a lot of our control over many parameters (with or without pilots). A day before the shoot, we were still not 100% at ease as the forecast was talking about meter high waves (read – there goes our plans). Luckily the waves were ideal – covering most of the rocks, while still allowing to sit on top of the them comfortably. The fact that most rocks were under the waves, eventually gave a stronger feeling of desolated location and models.

Closer Is Better

BTS: Lost In The Flood By Tomer Jacobson

Most pilots and tests were done while we were “comfortably” sitting on the beach with the models or stand-ins being about 60 meters into the sea. Mainly because we afraid of getting our gear wet. We thought that shooting from the beach with a 200mm lens will solve the getting the gear wet issue. We were also planning to shoot on a tripod which would be kinda hard at water with sea-sand underneath.

Yup, this seems just about right. However, with all the preparation and commotion we forgot about one fundamental thing – Perspective. Actually, perspective is one of the aspects of the photo that you, as a photographer has complete control over. I am not going to go into the theory of perspective, but a brief summary would be: a picture taken from afar will look like a picture taken from afar. Or as Robert Capa coined: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough“. (and if they are still not good enough, get even closer)

So instead of shooting with the 200mm lens we used for the pilots,  we shot at 31mm (about 46mm in uncropped sensor values). If you’re wondering how we used the tripod, luckily we found a nearby rock which were a perfect fit for my Slik tripod.

Some BTS P0rn

There is no better way to show how the photo was shot than a behind the scenes video. It has all the prep work, 9 (NINE) pilots, and a good look on what went on the day of the shoot.

Pay close attention on 2:45, where two of my strobe try to free dive in the salty water (and sadly succeed). Now, take 5, dial that volume up, go full screen and hot play.

Both me and Maxim Golvanov who, as always, was integral to the production feel this is the best photograph of the series yet. We’d love to hear what you think and take any questions in the comments.

And just before we farewell, here is the full list of credits:

  • Photography & Post processing: Tomer Jacobson & Maxim Golovanov
  • Models: Helen Mountaniol, Herut Almog, Yair Gottesmann, Omri Shlomo, Matan Sarusi
  • Color correction: Adam Shul
  • Thanks to: Tal Zigdon, Dvir reder, Jasmin Podmazo, Roie Galitz, Ziv Shenhav, Ido Meirovich, Hakol Dvash, Shmil Neshakim, Dafi & Dror
  • Music and inspiration by Bruce Springsteen and the E street band

About The Author

This post is by Tomer Jacobson, a freelance on location photographer based in Israel. Tomer runs a lighting intensive Hebrew blog, luckily you can read it using google translate (if you don’t mind the mechanical English sound :)

P.S. This photo is a part of an ongoing series inspired by music, you can watch the entire series here.

P.P.S. Another BTS of this series for the song Black by Pearl Jam cna be found here.

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Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Projects

Guest Author: from diyphotography.net

About Guest Author

We love it when our readers get in touch with us to share their stories. This article was contributed to DIYP by a member of our community. If you would like to contribute an article, please contact us here.

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Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

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David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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