How I Shot It - Unexpected Hack to Get the Hazy Look

Can you guess what I used to create this hazy look on the image above? You might be entertained to find out:

This was one of those lucky shots, because truly, everything seemed to be fighting against me at this shoot. This was actually a personal shoot I did with a good friend of mine, Jessica, as my beautiful model. The whole point of this shoot was for me to achieve a "natural lighting look with artificial light and/or modifiers". In my head I was going for the Anthropologie catalog look, so I knew I wanted the final image to seem effortless and yet evoke some feeling.

Well, effortless is not how I would describe the process to get this shot! 

When I mentioned everything was against me it was mostly because my babysitter plans went down the drain and so here I was, shooting with a 10-mo baby girl hanging in front of me on one of those baby slings. As a result, there went my hopes of fidgeting with setting up huge lights and scrims on location, on my own, AND with a baby on my lap at all times.

So instead of using additional lights I went for a simple white reflector. Because the setting sun was behind Jessica (backlight), that white reflector really brought more light and pop to her face. 

But that wasn't enough for me (you know, to carry a baby, handle a camera AND hold a reflector, haha!). I knew I wanted the hazy sun look, with light drenching from everywhere and possibly some dust in the air to help set the mood.

So first we tried actually throwing dust in front of the camera and shoot quickly. We were at a farm setting so I found a piece of old cardboard and used it to throw the dust towards my patient model (thanks for being a trooper, Jessica!). But when at my third trial my sloppy hand-throwing skills had both me, my camera and especially baby girl coughing and all covered in DIRT, I caved in that it wasn't a wise idea. =P

Ultimately, that hazy look was achieved by putting an object right up against the lens of my camera. In this case it happened to be my baby girl's hair that was getting in the way of most shoots anyway. LOL Talk about resourcefulness! ;)

So if you ever feel like your image needs that little extra, give this technique a try:

1- Find a flower, bring a chrystal, and I've even seen it done with white cellphone cases.

2- Hold it right up against the lens so as to make it lose focus and suddenly bring in that amazing effect to your frame.

3- Voilà!

FAQ - How I Made My Dream World

I know I promised I would be posting the rest of the series of my conceptual shoot, but believe it or not I've tried doing a dozen times already and for some reason my computer seems to get cranky EVERY single time I try to save specifically those files only in JPEG.  Anyway, I can't wait to share it with you all besides an awesome fashion shoot I did while in Brazil--coming soon!

Back to business, I've been wanting to break apart my dream world composite, more as a proof to myself that I can pretend to be C.J. Burton occasionally. ;) 

Basically, I used three different main elements for my final image:

A picture of a girl

A picture of the ice cream (to be the ice cream tree)

A picture of a perfectly shaped drop of ice cream (which took a few trials)

 The secret to making your own composite image and make it look realistic (as much illustrative as it may be--like mine here) are the following variables:

1. Perspective
2. Lighting
3. Grain/Noise
4. Edges

Perspective: It's rather obvious when the elements of a composite were not captured from the same angle. Not how the images I used where taken from an "above" angle. Making sure the images were taken from the right angle is key to a realistic optical illusion.

Lighting: I believe this is one of the most important variable for a realistic composite image. Make sure the direction, intensity and color of the light is the same for all elements of your final product.  Don't forget that when I say "color of the light" I mean the type of lighting--natural, artificial or both. These different types of light give off different washes of color, and when mixed with another kind of light (including natural light) this will make your color correcting trickier. Moreover, the use of shadows greatly benefits the "reality" of the composite.

Grain (for film) or noise (for digital) can also interfere with how real your composite may look. You might be thinking how, but the reason is the following: sometimes the resolution and amount of noise in a certain element of the composite may be different than another one. Imagine if the ice cream tree wasn't as sharp as the little girl? Or if an image had been originally darker than the other and when exposed further it showed random colorful pixels all over the place? This is the type of noise you want to get rid off in any image.

Finally, edges, when closely looked at may give in that the image is not "real". When selecting the edges of a subject, remember that optically in real life edges get slightly softer, therefore remember to [almost] always feather it about .5-1%. Photoshop has great selection tools, including the "Refine Edge" option, included in the later versions of Ps.

So those are the tips I have for making your own composite and the basic explanation of how I made my very first, entitled "Where Ice Cream Grows on Trees". 

The final image: "Where Ice Cream Grows on Trees"