As promised in the previous post, here is the follow-up to the poker face portraits created from the Vegas shoot. This group shot is a 60″ x 40″ poster titled “The Kings of Estonian.”

Concept: To feature the players as formidable forces in the game; additionally to create the look of an out-of-home billboard or wallscape. The color scheme is inspired by the street sign that represents the players’ mutual home. The poster was commissioned for final display in the home.

Tech: Shot on a Canon 30D using a snooted bare speedlight as key on the subject’s face at camera-right; and a silver umbrella for fill at camera-left-low. Each player was shot individually with the same lighting setup and then composited in Photoshop CS3. The artificial aurora backlight was created in photoshop along with subject shadows, rim light and type design.

Copyright © Tyler Kongslie, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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During a recent visit to Las Vegas, I photographed three professional poker players who wanted over-the-top self portraits created for use in their homes and to share on their facebook profiles, etc.

The objective was to capture each player’s “poker face” that you would encounter if you sat at the Texas Hold ‘Em tables yourself. Because of their online play as well, their screen names were included. A lightning storm as a background was a client request and the rest was up to me in creating a hard-hitting image. Although the images were purely made for fun, I took the project very seriously because I wanted to create something that far exceeded the guys’ expectations; it was my goal to create 3 unified images that made a lasting impression and could be likened to an evocative and dramatic movie poster.

I photographed the players with my Canon 30D and two speedlights. One light was positioned directly behind the subject, high above, and aimed downward at roughly 30˚ toward the top of the subjects’ shoulders and head. The second light was camera-left and just above the subject’s eye level to create dramatic side-lighting.  I added some fill light on the opposite side with white poster paper acting as a bounce.

In post, I retouched skin blemishes, adjusted skin color, brought out color and detail in their eyes, applied a number of layer adjustments to achieve the color balance and desaturation I wanted, dodged and burned areas for more drama, and finally sharpened the image with a combination of unsharp mask and the high pass filter. I created the type treatment and poker suit “jewels” from vector shapes. All elements were composited in a 16″ x 20″ canvas and submitted for final prints to be done by Adorama in New York City.

More work is being created right now for these guys…next up is a 60″x 40″ composited group shot. Check back soon for the image and details!

Copyright © Tyler Kongslie, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Michael Bartlett, the writer and director of the Portland indie film, House of Last Things approached me in March of 2009 to commission the designing of a promotional poster for his film. His complex, thriller/drama had many layers in the story that we discussed in depth to find the best singular visual representation. What we came up with initially is seen in the notepad sketch above. The idea was to make the key character in the movie–the boy–prominent and innocent looking. Upon further inspection you see his mirrored image in the balloon and feel a sense of control and omniscience. The house is deliberately placed beneath the boy and the balloons to demonstrate the dominance the boy has over the house where the story takes place. A sense of space, depth and height are created in the poster by showing the other balloons vanishing upward into the sky. One of them acts as the ‘O’ in the title design.

In the construction of the poster, I used low-res images found on the internet to help bring the rough sketch to greater clarity in a proper digital layout. This helped to assess how the many elements interacted in their space so as to achieve balance and a pleasing composition. Once the low-res comp was looking good, plans for the photo-shoot were made. Shooting in the house basement in front of a black backdrop, I photographed the boy and the balloons using my Canon 30D and two Vivitar 285HV speedlights. Other elements like the flag pin and trees were shot later on location. The house and cloud images were pulled from the internet.

In post-production, using Adobe Photoshop, I retouched the boy’s skin, adjusted color balance and shadow/highlights in the individual elements and globally. The balloons were enhanced to bring out their depth and supernatural qualities. The title was designed in Adobe Illustrator and brought into Photoshop for its coloration and further manipulation. A number of layer adjustments were made to achieve the haunting tone and feeling that Michael and I wanted in the poster. The final composition is a 27″x40″ one-sheet poster seen above. A digital version of the poster is used throughout the official website, the facebook page, and more for promotional purposes to attract investors and create interest in the project.

Copyright © House of Last Things, LLC. 2010. All Rights Reserved.