Cats BTS
When working with any large group, your client will inevitably want some sort of group shot. That sentence alone can strike fear in any photographer. Obviously the more elements involved, the more that can go wrong; more energy to wrangle on set, not to mention lighting more bodies. But since a group shot isn’t nerve-wracking enough, I decided to add a whole bunch of flour to one for my shoot with the Broadway cast of CATS a few years back.
Because of scheduling and the size of our space, I knew if we wanted a full shot of all 10 dancers I would need to enlist the help of my friend and Photoshop wizard Peter James Zielinski. We shot the dancers in two groups of five and made sure to keep the lighting consistent with both groups as shadows (or multiple Oprah hands) tend to be a dead giveaway of composites.
Our wild card of the shot—the flour flying through the air—proved quite the obstacle. It took a lot of trial and error to see what created the most visually pleasing result; too little and it wouldn’t read on camera…too much and it overpowered the image. Fortunately the dancers demonstrated a huge amount of patience. Before each shot Evan would go down the line of dancers and scoop flour out of the bag and portion small piles on their limbs as they held perfectly still. We’d do a countdown then take the shot as they flung flour around the studio. Repeat. With the Paul C. Buff Einstein on Action Mode we ensured everything was as sharp as could be.
Peter stepped in with some of his magical post-production work to merge our two shots into one. As he says: "Start by making a strong base for the composite and then rough-in all of the required elements. After that, there's a great deal of clean up and removal of any distractions or equipment. Special effects / lighting / color work are done to tie it all together and make the assets "all live in the same world." It gets finished with some color grading, assorted magic, and special sauce...and you've got your final image." He’s the Mr. Mistoffelees of MurphyMade.
Check out some of the solo shots and a behind-the-scenes video below.
Styling: DW
Hair and Makeup: Nicolette Gold and Keleen Snowgren
