| Natasha Vasiljevic found that combining traditional outdoor photos with digital studio images gave her the right approach to simulate the wide-screen perspective of an opening film sequence.
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While visiting Detroit, Vasiljevic felt
the buildings and streets epitomized a
typical urban landscape she had seen
in American films. She captured images
using a Nikon 35mm with the intention
of creating a wide-screen perspective
from an opening movie sequence.
“I was envisioning how movies will
introduce a scene at an odd angle with
faces and bodies passing very closely by
the camera,” she recalls. “I wouldn’t be
able to shoot that kind of perspective
in the field, so I knew I would need to
incorporate digital images.” She scanned
the Detroit images, using an Epson 2450
scanner to get “that raw look a not-so-sharp
scanner can have,” then digitally
shot a model in her studio. To simulate
distorted camera angles, she opened the
Detroit and model images in Photoshop,
and used Free Transform (Command/
Ctrl-T) to enlarge and stretch them.
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Although the model shots would complete
the movie look, the Detroit images’
colors were key in producing the surreal
sensation Vasiljevic wanted. Before she
could boost their color, she needed
to return the photos to their original
contrast and color prior to scanning. She
added Curves adjustment layers to make the midtones darker, but was careful to
mask areas to prevent highlights from
being blown or darkening shadows too
much. Then she added a Selective Color
adjustment layer and increased the Reds,
Yellows, and Cyans in both background
images. “I used to apply Hue/Saturation,
but I think it alters an image too much,”
she says. “Selective Color does a better
job of punching color.”
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For the image of the model’s face,
Vasiljevic added a base Curves adjustment
layer to lighten the midtones and
shadows (while masking the cheek and
nose highlights from the adjustment).
She added another Curves adjustment
layer, filled its mask with black, and
painted with white on the eyes to isolate
them. She then pushed up the curve to
enhance the whites of the eyes. Comparing
the face image to the intended
background image, she noticed the skin
appeared cold, so she warmed the face
with a Color Balance adjustment layer
and moved the Cyan/Red slider toward
Red. Once the face was placed into the
background image, it was too sharp
against the background, so she applied
a slight Gaussian blur with a mask to
soften areas of the skin.
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With the studio shot of the model’s
hand and purse, Vasiljevic pumped the
Reds and Yellows with a Selective Color
adjustment layer to match the color of
the skin and nail polish with the background
colors. She then increased the
tonal contrast between the model and
background with a Curves adjustment
layer that deepened the shadows and
midtones, giving the purse and hand a
sense of outdoor lighting from behind.
The purse appeared too sharp, and while
a Gaussian Blur wouldn’t work here, a
texture would. She chose Filter > Artistic
> Film Grain and set Grain to 4, increased
Highlight Area to 3, and Intensity to 1 to
enhance the purse’s surface while decreasing
its sharpness. “I use Film Grain
as an easy way to tone down a digital
image that looks too much like a studio
shot,” she explains.
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The final images are shown at left (click to enlarge).
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Photographer Natasha Vasiljevic is based in Toronto.
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