recreating a photograph

Luke

Legend
Location
Milwaukee, WI USA
Name
Luke
My photography project this afternoon is to recreate a photograph. I may use it for an advertisement for my record store. You can see the photograph here..... Snap Galleries : Keith Morris: Nick Drake, running man, London 1969 . It's an iconic photograph and should be fairly simple to get it right since we can practice over and over again (compared to the original which was captured instantly like a real street phootgrapher would), but I'd like to cut down on how often I have to set-up the shot, so I'd like to get most of parameters right before I trip the shutter.

My employee Terry, will be playing the role of Nick Drake standing against the wall. I will be playing the role of a paunchier "running man". My question to you all is what do you think the original photographer's EXIF looked like. We have a sunny day here, though I may prefer a wall that is in the the shade for more even light. Focal length, aperture, shutter speed? I'll likely cheat and shoot Terry first and then have him just actuate the shutter as I take several attempts to get the right amount of blur and be placed properly in the frame and then combine them in post.

Any other suggestions for small details I may miss. No one will mistake it for the original since the individuals will look quite different, but we'll get the clothes close to right (without buying anything new). Suggestions from the peanut gallery? I'll share the results later if we get it done right.

ooooh, nice. I just found a video with the whole contact sheet from the original shoot. Enjoy the Nick Drake.....
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To get a nicely blurred self, you will have to watch your shutter speed and keep it sufficiently low (or move like Batman, if you can).
Maybe shooting later in the day, with a nice but not so bright light?
Looks like fun, I'm intrigued to see the results.
 
Even when I was younger and thinner, I never moved like Batman. The good thing is that he's not THAT blurry....just soft, really. I'm wondering if 1/30 will do. I should bring along a couple ND filters if I can find them. I can always fake some motion blur in post, but I'd rather get it in camera.
 
I think it might look pretty good. It was too sunny to get anything even close enough to a blurred runner (forgot to look for an ND filter), but found a suitable location. Because of the longer focal length to get the correct perspective, I was not able to work the shutter and be running through the image so I'll need to a little Photoshopping. I should have a result finished tonight, but I have some errands to run. Thanks all for your advice.
 
Amusing DigitalRev video about recreating a photograph -- which has no bearing on what you are doing whatsoever, lol.

[video=youtube;BRZzltLPdR4]
 
Hey Luke, that's pretty good. Oddly, the bricks in the not-so-good original (when compared to the forgery), are of different sizes and color ... you have different sized bricks as well...

Gary
 
You're right. Unfortunately, the tighter I crop, the more my bad Photoshopping shows. I'm disappointed to say the least.

Try adding a little horizontal motion blur to your mask to soften the edges and enhance the idea of movement. Don't be afraid to punch of the contrast at the expense of shadow detail. Get some grit into it. I think you're close.
 
Overall it's a good start. If you cropped it here, try to get in the curb edge if you have it, it's part of the layered framing, curb, sidewalk, wall. Show less above and more below [you have extra space above their heads]. Then you need to work on your contrasts, the original has true black [or close to it 0a0a0a] and white [ffffff] in it and yours is more of a gray scale. The detail of the bricks should be delineated with their color, not their overall sharpness. The sharpest thing in the original is Nick which draws the eye to him as the main focal point even if there is the running man-- the image is clearly about Nick. You can also tweak you assistant's pants and lighten them a little too so he's not all black and in that way you don't lose the detail you have through adding contrast. Your clothing contrasts are actually nicer than the original and I would keep them-- however if you want to draw the attention away from you as the running man and make your assistant stand out more then lighten your pants. The original running man is graytoned where Nick is more black and white.
 
All good points. I'll try all that with my next run.

btw, I looked like an idiot as I tried that run about 20 times. Also, I need a remote shutter release. Poor Terry can't take a non-blurry photo even when the camera is on a tripod. Good think I'm supposed to be blurry.
 
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