This crow and dove series was shot with dry ice and focus stacking

We are big fans of Felix Alejandro Hernández Rodríguez and the way he uses creative ways to shoot scenes in camera. After shooting a world war II plane fight with power, he came back and shot a fantasy boat with some dry ice.

We approached Felix and again to gain some insights on his photos.

… Is such a big pleasure to create… It is almost like a drugs (which I don’t take!). But you still get addicted to it.

For me photography is about replicating what exists out there, but to portray what exists in me… It is not about a boat or a boy or a crow and a dove, neither the fog or the light. It is also not about the mix of scaled models with real models, or the camera, the lens or the studio gear…

… It is about the creating a story, it is about story telling. It doesn’t matter if it’s only one frame or the fact that neither you or me knows the complete tale.

All the techniques, all the knowledge, all the setup is at the service of that one magic instance which will be frozen in our memories forever and that makes us believe and create or own world.

Gear

I used a Canon 5D MIII with a 24-105mm Lens: @ 55mm, both for the scaled boat and for the real model

I also used 3 studio strobes with huge modifiers

Settings and Process

I shot at f/8 @Iso 100. But when you are this close, even at f/8, the focus is not good enough, so I used focus stacking. Focus Stacking is a technique which requires you to take different shots of your subject, focusing from the very first plane (the closer part of the subject towards your lens) to the furthest plane of your subject and in between. In the end you will have an “X” amount of individual shots of all the planes of your subject in focus – individual images that you will process in software like Photoshop to get a final image with all it’s planes in focus. Overall there are 15 photos of the boat each with a different focal point.

As far as lighting goes, I placed two strobes pointing at the backdrop to get it to be almost completely white, and another big octa for both the boat and (at a different time) the boy. You can see the white board reflecting some light on the back while blocking the big background light.

Another part of the shoot was creating the fog, and this was done using some dry ice. We did this for the boat…

… and again for the boy

A nice quality of dry ice is that it is heavy so it sinks down and stays. This allows for some great fogy shots

Lastly, the actual dove and crow were obtained from stock photos

To see more of Felix’s work, you can visit his Faebook Page, agency site, 500px stream, and Youtube channel

Haroen Dilrosun

Super
- Felix Alejandro Hernández Rodr
  
  Thanks Haroen!
mike

Again this definition of “in camera” that includes a shit-ton of post processing.
- steve
  
  I’m of the same opinion. Since when is a 20+ photo composite that has been combined on a computer considered “ín camera?”
- Felix Alejandro Hernández Rodr
  
  … Hi Mike… I have to quote the editor’s copy: “the way he uses creative ways to shoot scenes in camera.”… and I do shoot the scenes and effects In camera!… No one is saying that this is one shot. But all the elements and the effects (except the dove and the crow) are shot in camera!
  - steve
    
    We are not trying to attack your credentials and your work is amazing Felix. The argument is that the editorial is misleading, the use of phase “in camera” suggests that the final picture was created inside the camera. “In camera” doesn’t always mean that it was done in a single shot (i.e. multiple exposures) however it does mean that all the elements (the boat, the bird and the boy) were already combined before you imported it into lightroom/photoshop. You may have captured all the elements yourself WITH a camera however the scene was not layered IN your camera. Your photo-composites are great however you do need to acknowledge that they are composites which were layered after the photoshoot with software and not during the shoot using multiple exposures.
- Voltax
  
  blahfasel….
Kambis

Why focus stacking instead of using a narrow aperture when the shot with the boat has nothing else in fore- or background?
- Felix Alejandro Hernández Rodr
  
  Hi Kambis…. even if you shoot a “small object” at f.32… you will not have it all in focus… To give the sense that it’s a real scale model, the way to go is focus staking to have a final image focus in all it’s planes…. By the contrary… you can make a landscape to look like a toy scene using a lens baby, which only focus on one small part of the scene…. Is just a way our brain measures scale and the way our brain has been thought to see!
  - Kambis
    
    Thank you for the reply. The extra work might be worth it to achieve perfection, which I enjoy in your works, but I think at some reasonable finiten resolution f.32 is all in focus, especially to the eye of a non-photographer. As far as I can tell (please correct me if I am wrong) Michael Paul Smith (https://www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/with/7478826512/) does not use focus stacking, yet the result is believable for most people and amazing for the simple looking setup.
    - Voltax
      
      his 24-105mm lens does not go up to f32.
      f22 is max and diffraction is an issue too.
- Voltax
  
  because it will not work well for small objects.
  
  and why not use the tools at hand?