Leica Camera will be present at The Photography Show being held in Birmingham, England on March 21-24. The Photography Show takes place in hall 5 at the NEC and you can visit Leica at stand C31. There are a host of events planned including talks and demos by Tom Stoddart, Matt Stuart, Richard Seymour and Wayne Johns. This blog series will feature these photographers and the stories behind their favorite images. Next, Richard Seymour shares insight into his favorite automotive shoot.
Q: Why did you select this image and why do you feel it best represents your photography?
A: This is a great example of combining real world photography with CGI.
Q: Could you tell us the story behind this photo? Where were you and how did you shoot it?
A: This was shot at the stunning White Sands National Monument in New Mexico in the United States. One of my favorite places on the planet – it was my second shoot there. The ultra white gypsum sand is unique. With a mountainous backdrop of the White Sands military firing range, one can’t fail to be impressed by the environment.
It was a personal project to showcase my skills combining original landscape photography elements with a CGI rendered car. The entire shot was pre-visualized by myself to ensure that we didn’t miss any elements when we arrived on location. The shot is made up of complex composite elements: the landscape environment is composed of three dune landscape elements, plus a backplate of the water pool and surrounding sand and finally a sky. All were shot within a couple of hours of each other. The car is a combination of real world assets taken back in the UK (wheels, lights, and front grill) combined with CGI rendered bodywork. The CGI is created by using the Porsche bodywork engineering data of the car. The final element is called an “HDR reflective dome,” which is a technique whereby I photograph a large panoramic of the entire scene from the exact position that the car will eventually be positioned. This is then used to create realistic reflections in the glass and bodywork – without doing this the picture wouldn’t look realistic. It was a stormy, wet day in the desert when we shot this scene, but I was happy about that. It gave me the opportunity to shoot a great sky, which has done much to add to the drama of the final execution.
Q: What camera did you use to take this picture?
A: All the landscape elements are shot using my Leica S with the 70 mm lens. It’s the only camera I would trust in this situation – a robust sealed body, great high resolution sensor and it’s ultra reliable in all temperatures and conditions.
Q: What do you hope the viewer takes away from your talk at The Photography Show?
A: I think my main aim is to give the audience a bit of an insight into some of the more specialized forms of commercial photography. I’m going to talk about how to shoot aerial photography both from a helicopter and using drones. We are hoping to have a large scale drone in the hall that day. I am then going to cover how we create these complex composite shots using original photography combined with CGI. Professional photographers increasingly have to collaborate with other specialists and I’m keen to share how to do this for maximum returns both creatively and financially.
Thank you for your time, Richard!
– Leica Internet Team
Richard will share advice and tips on how to shoot aerial photography on Monday, March 23 in the “Behind the Lens” theater at The Photography Show at 3:00 PM. Richard will also join us at the Leica stand (C31) on March 23, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM for a meet and greet. Follow along on social media using the hashtag #LeicaPSB.
Connect with Richard on his website.
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