Im planning on setting up a levitation shoot, I want it to be outside in a wooded area. Iv heard that the best technique is to capture the photo when the person is jumping into the air. Is it true that this is best? I want to do as little photoshopping as possible to keep the real life integrity of the picture. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.
The biggest thing with Levitation shots you have to always keep in mind is the shadow! If you have someone jumping in the air and you do not see their shadow on the ground, it will not come across as believable and people will say "you just photoshopped the person to look like they are floating in the air".
Below is a self portrait of me floating on my back while my camera is floating with me! The feedback I got on this image is you don't see the shadow of my upper body on the ground. If the camera was at a different angle you would have seen it better as the shadow was more on the right side of my body.
Chuck Purnell wrote: The biggest thing with Levitation shots you have to always keep in mind is the shadow! If you have someone jumping in the air and you do not see their shadow on the ground, it will not come across as believable and people will say "you just photoshopped the person to look like they are floating in the air".
Below is a self portrait of me floating on my back while my camera is floating with me! The feedback I got on this image is you don't see the shadow of my upper body on the ground. If the camera was at a different angle you would have seen it better as the shadow was more on the right side of my body.
Chuck Purnell wrote: The biggest thing with Levitation shots you have to always keep in mind is the shadow! If you have someone jumping in the air and you do not see their shadow on the ground, it will not come across as believable and people will say "you just photoshopped the person to look like they are floating in the air".
Below is a self portrait of me floating on my back while my camera is floating with me! The feedback I got on this image is you don't see the shadow of my upper body on the ground. If the camera was at a different angle you would have seen it better as the shadow was more on the right side of my body.
I'm not really sure what you mean by keeping the image integrity but here's one from a practice session using photoshop. I set the camera on a tripod and took 2 photos, one with me on the stool and one with just the background with out me. Put them on 2 different layers and use a layer mask to erase the chair.
To make your life easier by doing it this way though is to watch your positioning on the whatever it is you're sitting on. I positioned half my butt off the chair so that it wouldn't flatten up and be able to tell I was sitting on something. it made post processing easier
Thanks! So it looks like Im going to get the best results by using a stool and layer masking in photoshop later. When I said "real-life" integrity I meant keeping the shadow as realistic as possible.
Alexander Rubinski wrote: Thanks! So it looks like Im going to get the best results by using a stool and layer masking in photoshop later. When I said "real-life" integrity I meant keeping the shadow as realistic as possible.
I think that might be your best bet. I see a lot of blogs with people in mid-jump when they are trying to look like they are levitating. It rarely works out like they think it is. The hair is puffy from falling mid-jump, for one thing. Clothes are billowing. They just look like they were caught mid-jump.
However!
Check out yowayowacamera.com. She's got a ton of levitation pics on her blog. Some work out better than others. Her photos should give you some ideas about what works out when you want to have the model jump for the levitation.
When you erase the stool some of the legs will be over the shadow, and then when you erase it you'll erase part of the shadow too. Just do a quick patch tool over the missing shadow part with content aware fill and that will usually give you enough blend to the shadows. I prefer the post processing method because you can realistically get it in 2 shots with the right facial expression. The jumping method could take a few tries
Easiest way to accomplish this is
A. Put camera on tripod and set up lights.
B. Take a photo of the background
C. place subject on ladder/stool whatever to elevate them
D. layer the 2 images and just use eraser tool to remove what ever you used to lift them up as well as shadow.
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