Hatchet Job

[Loose Canon]

Had to have a little firewood to stoke the fire today!

All fingers accounted for!

[chauncey]

That is quite nice

[Craigie]

Before I log off for tonight, great image.

[Rita]

Love it!

[marlunn]

very clever, very well done !

[mknittle]

very clever, very well done !

+1

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I like it!

[madcrow]

Love it, awesome piece PP. Have to show my ignorance but how did you do it.

[Loose Canon]

Appreciate the comments guys! Thank you for viewing.

Love it, awesome piece PP. Have to show my ignorance but how did you do it.

Hi Maurice!

I don’t normally post the ‘how” on this site unless someone asks! This site is not a particularly big site for this kind of work and unless someone asks I don’t figure anyone is particularly interested. So I don’t usually take the time on the original post.

But? If someone asks (and that’s all one has to do), I’ll be glad to break it down! After all, the exchange of ideas is one of the purposes of this site and why we are here. If the interest is there.

And since you did? I apologize and thanks for asking!

I’m not sure if you are asking about post production (since you mentioned PP), or about the actual shoot, or both! I consider them two distinct and equally important aspects of any shoot.

If you would like to say what you are interested in Maurice, I’ll be happy to say what happened here!

I just don’t want to bore anyone with my typically long-winded responses when they aren’t necessary (though I probably will anyway!)!

[mknittle]

Appreciate the comments guys! Thank you for viewing.



Hi Maurice!

I don’t normally post the ‘how” on this site unless someone asks! This site is not a particularly big site for this kind of work and unless someone asks I don’t figure anyone is particularly interested. So I don’t usually take the time on the original post.

But? If someone asks (and that’s all one has to do), I’ll be glad to break it down! After all, the exchange of ideas is one of the purposes of this site and why we are here. If the interest is there.

And since you did? I apologize and thanks for asking!

I’m not sure if you are asking about post production (since you mentioned PP), or about the actual shoot, or both! I consider them two distinct and equally important aspects of any shoot.

If you would like to say what you are interested in Maurice, I’ll be happy to say what happened here!

I just don’t want to bore anyone with my typically long-winded responses when they aren’t necessary (though I probably will anyway!)!

You could never bore me with this kind of work i love this kind of thing!

[bnnrcn]

Hi Terry Could you please explain how you created this stunning image ?

[Loose Canon]

Allllllllllrighty then guys!

I’ll be happy to say what happened with this shot! But you have been warned! It will be long and boring!

The idea is to shoot a still life that gives an illusion of action stopped in a moment. Well, hopefully! I wonder if that takes it out of the “still life” category? And in a way that is exactly what happened here.

In the original “drawing board” phase, I figured I could get the shot in one frame, which I did, but I knew it would take me several tries to do it. So I set the scene such that the shot could be repeated as many times as necessary. Also, if I decided at any time I need to composite I would be covered.

I split the log about ¾ of the way down and opened it up a bit. Set it in a small table and sandbagged it at the bottom so it wouldn’t move.

I hung the hatchet from a boom arm with some stiff wire and positioned it at the angle you see in the split log. That’s it for the composition!

To light it I decided on a version of a classic portrait lighting scheme customized for the subject.

The “key” light is camera left lighting the broad side of the hatchet and the log. It is wearing a strip box and that box is angled to match the angle of the hatchet handle. It is also responsible for the highlight down the broadside of the handle.

The “fill” light is behind a diffusion panel on camera right. Also wearing a strip box and is responsible for the other two sides of the hatchet head. It was powered such to give those areas just a touch of light to keep the lighting uneven and avoid flat lighting.

There is a rim light fired wearing a reflector and barn doors. It is to camera right and behind the subject. It is responsible for the highlight on the top of the handle where the handle rounds over. It also gives a boost to the head, that side of the log, and helps with the flying wood chips on that side.





Then I “splashed” it!

I chopped up some dust, splinters, chips, and pieces from another stick of firewood and tossed it at the scene. I had to be picky about where it hit the scene with the chips and naturally it took me several shots to get something I thought I could work with in post.

This is that shot pretty much SOOC.



As one can see I had a lot of cleaning up to do in post and that’s what took the most time. The original shot had too much debris for my taste and I wanted it a little cleaner. But I liked the splash position in relation to the hatchet and log.

I also warmed up the WB a little and added some local contrast adjustments in addition to my usual workflow.

Typically, when I shoot on black, I make sure to adjust the black point such that the majority, if not all, of the BG goes to clipped black if it isn’t there already.

Then, if I need to clean up things against the background I can add a layer below the cleanup layer, fill it with black, mask the cleanup layer, and then just paint on the mask. A non-destructive approach. If I decide I took too much out, I can paint it back in at any time.

And that’s pretty much the shape of it!

[bje07]

Nice result, even if IMO there are too much chips to seem realistic; but very good idea and good lights.

[Wavelength]

Sheer magic; i just love this

[Loose Canon]

Nice result, even if IMO there are too much chips to seem realistic

I think I would have to agree Jean and the thought occurred to me that there may be too much debris! But I'm not sure what is believable in this shot! Of the three elements (log, hatchet, debris), the log is the only thing that I would think might be believable!

I’ll just chalk it up to very dry wood!



Thank you Nandakumar! Appreciate you viewing!

[mknittle]

Is it supposed to be realistic? To me it doesn't matter it is a superb image.

[marlunn]

it looks to be a very dry almost rotten log - so to me the chips etc look about right for the force to plant the axe that deep into it and the split in the log it would generate - but +1 for Marks comment its believable so that works - realistic? Reality and belief are often unhappy bedfellows

[kristent]

terrific image!

[bnnrcn]

Thanks for explaining Terry The amount of the chips may not be realistic but the image certainly conveys the feel of crash. So, I didn't even think if the image was realistic or not when I looked at it.