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Only In My Dreams Project Week 34

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ISO 100 | 17mm | f 8.0 | 1/250 sec

Woke up today with a to-do list that was 3-feet too long and a deadline that was 2-months too short.  I knew that if I didn’t set to work immediately things would never get done.  Summoning all my energy and will-power, I marched over to my desk and dropped into my chair, ready to face the task of tackling the silent monster lurking in front of me.

For a moment I stared blankly at my computer screen and the mass of papers that cluttered the desk, uncertain of where to begin.  My mind was still slow to catch up to the enormity of the job, and I sat silently and waited; I know not for what.  That’s when the barrage began.

It didn’t happen immediately or in a flash, but it sneaked in gradually, like the slow trickle of an ever-growing stream.  First came the thought that I needed to change the oil in my car the next chance I got, which was quickly followed by the reminder to call one of my clients to setup a meeting next week.  The urgency of my deadlines rushed back to the fore-front of my mind, but it was rapidly replaced by the ever-repeating lyrics of an annoyingly catchy pop song I had heard two weeks ago.

Things only went downhill from there.  Thought after thought came and left my mind with the rapidity of a ping-pong ball on one side of the table during a WCPP Championship Tournament.  Memories, dreams, ideations, deductions, rationalizations, cogitations, musings, deliberations, and perceptions flooded my entire consciousness like the onslaught of a mighty river, and the roar grew steadily louder as the voices in my head increased in number and volume.

Realizing I was outnumbered and destined for defeat, I surrendered and let my thoughts wash over me in a torrent, allowing them an avenue to flow in hopes of being able thereby to soon return to my duties without getting distracted.  I hated to admit defeat, but what other choice did I have?  How could I possibly hold my own in the face of such a barrage?

I’m trying to get stuff done, but I can’t get these voices out of my head…

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Whew, glad to see this one make it on the board, wasn’t sure if this one would make it out of pre-production.  And in other exciting news, I just hit 20,000 view this last week!  Thank you all for continuing to come back and catch up with what’s happening on the blog.  Looking forward to what’s ahead!
Quick breakdown, in concept this is a very easy shot to manufacture, but in practice slightly more challenging.  With your camera set on a tripod and the props in your shot stationary throughout the shoot, masking in your various poses in Photoshop is quite simple.  What isn’t so easy is getting your proximity to your “other selves” just right so that you don’t end up with elbows in other peoples’ heads, etc.
The big thing is to try to visualize the location of each of your characters before shooting, and then paying attention to your positions while shooting (I also found that quickly flipping through the images on my camera during the shoot to compare locations of my different characters helped a lot in getting the posing just right).  I don’t hold this image up as an example of perfect execution of this technique, but hopefully it gives you some ideas of the possibilities.
The lighting was pretty simple, three strobes, top-center beauty dish for key light, and two umbrellas on either side for fill.  This setup gave me pretty soft even lighting so that I didn’t have to worry about shadows too much except for those characters on the extreme sides of the image.  With so many composited characters, it can get complicated having to worry about shadows.  With this front/fill setup, I only had to make a few additions to make it look believable.
Hope you enjoyed this one, it was a joy for me to shoot, had a lot of fun with this one.  As always have a good week, stay inspired, and don’t be afraid to try something new.
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