The Low-Tech Era
This
photo was taken with the model placed in front of a light box with a translucent
panel
painted
to look like the sky. Photos below show the setup.
Many of the effects shots seen on the Portfolio pages were composed using "low-tech" methods such as perspective, "modeled" backgrounds or the physical retouching of a photo. This was often a lot of work and sometimes money had to be spent so it wasn't done often. With the acquisition of a computer and assorted photo retouching software, the task became easier. It also cost nothing to just sit at the PC and experiment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, it usually becomes a learning experience and no funds were sacrificed in the process. The following are experiments that worked.
This
photo was taken with the model placed in front of a light box with a translucent
panel
painted
to look like the sky. Photos below show the setup.
 |
This image is rotated 90 degrees clockwise. |
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
The
above photo was taken with the model suspended in front of a
rear-projection
screen with a slide of an actual astro-photo projected onto it.
The
model was hung and photographed upside-down to make
the
string harder to spot in the photo.
(Above
and below photos by Rob Lind)
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
This
shot was perhaps the easiest of all. The model with base and foliage
was
placed on an open window ledge. The camera's exposure was set on
the
outside lighting and a flash was used to illuminate the model.
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
| This photo was achieved using "Forced Perspective". The model was placed on a table on the curb opposite the house (my house) in the photo. The camera, model and background were then lined up so that the edge of the table was in line with the opposite curb from the viewpoint of the camera. The camera was then set for longest depth of field, allowing a focus on both the model and background, which were about 35 feet from each other. |  |
All
of the photos below were altered using photo editing software. For
the
earlier photos, Arcsoft Photo Studio 2.0, a very simple program was used
for
photo editing. Later on, Corel Photo Paint 7.4 was added.
These photos are in roughly chronological order.
The
above and below shots were early experiments with Arcsoft.
The
display bases, visible in the original photos, are blacked out.
Background
stars were hand drawn, pixel by pixel.
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
| This was my first experiment with cutting and pasting an image. The 3 inch X-1 model is superimposed onto a photo taken from an overlook at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. | 
|
The
above picture is a combination of a picture of Saturn taken by the Cassini
spacecraft
from the location of Jupiter, a space background courtesy NASA's
Solar
System Simulator and an image of the Voyager model.
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
In
a scene not depicted in the film, Discovery fires its main engines to place
it on a course to Jupiter.
Below
are the two photos that were combined to create the above image. The photo
on the right
is
an International Space Station image of a Moonset from Earth orbit.
 |
 |
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
Lens
flare courtesy Corel Photo Paint. I like it!
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on the above image for a high-resolution image
The
scene above was created by cutting and pasting sections of the archway's
brickwork
and re-assembling the pieces as the wall surrounding Skull Island.
The
photo below is the original, un-altered shot.
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
The
Enterprise approaches the cheesy looking Planet of Big-Haired Women.
Click
on the above image for a high-resolution image
The
above photo combines an image of the model, a hand rendered starfield (pixel
by pixel)
and
an actual image of Jupiter taken by the Cassini spacecraft en route to
Saturn.
This
photo shows how photo editing software can fix a bad photo. In the original,
below,
not only was the cardboard panel that the model is sitting on at an apparent
angle
to the curb across the street, but Sharon was mistakenly directed (by me,
of
course)
to stand in the street, thereby, cutting off her feet. (Ouch!) The curb
was
extended
on the right using cut-and-paste and Sharon's feet were drawn in.
I wish
I could take credit for the entire image below but that must go to Arthur
C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick and Douglas Trumbull,
who
was in charge of making sure that the film 2OO1:
A SPACE ODYSSEY became
the cinematic marvel thet it was. The Earth
and
Space Station 5 are part of a still from the movie. The Orion III spaceplane
is the 3-inch model.
The History of Space Exploration
Figures: People, Creatures and Dinosaurs
