Behind the Scenes of my “Determination” Quarantine Image

The Starting Point

In the early days of the lockdown I got it in my head that it would be a worthwhile time to pursue a personal photography project. The theme of quarantining and the subsequent feelings of isolation and desolation and determination came to mind. The lockdown meant trying to bring these thoughts to life photographically in a way that could be done without leaving home. Enter the free stock photography site Unsplash.

If you are unfamiliar, Unsplash invites photographers to upload images that are free for anyone to use.

Their license reads: “All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.

More precisely, Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash.”

It’s a powerful resource when you are stuck at home so I perused the site keying in search words that fit what I was hoping to create and came across the above image. It instantly inspired a composition and I went about bringing that inspiration to life.

The Living Room Studio

With the help of my son Will I set up a temporary photo studio in my living room by temporarily rearranging the furniture so I could place a large white background and the three strobes I figured I needed to get a shot that would fit seamlessly into the background scene I chose from Unsplash.

In this behind-the-scenes shot you can see the white background, a strobe firing into a white umbrella overhead to simulate the light that would be cast from the large overhead light in the background shot, and two strip boxes on either side to light the front of my model and to give two vertical bands of reflection onto the visor of the gas mask. I liked the somewhat dystopian impersonal feel those reflections imparted.

If you look closely you can see a sheet of 8.5x11 paper just behind Will’s head. It’s taped to the light stand to block it out and make it that much easier to silhouette.

We worked through a series of different poses, and in the end, this one fit into the scene best and gave me what I was looking for in terms of mood.

Photoshop Time

After silhouetting him out, pasting him into the background shot and scaling him to the right size, I began the process of tweaking his look by balancing the tones, highlights and shadows to make him appear as if he was photographed standing in that exact location. The essence of compositing! I also retouched the background to remove some distortion, add some overall width and removed some elements to further the look and feel I was after.

Thanks for stopping by!