Creative on a Dark Knight

We all love a great photograph yet most people will think nothing of what it takes to make a one. The importance of knowing how to create a great photograph is having the skill to convey a message or tell a story whether it be for personal or business, if it’s for a business it can be the deciding factor in getting that call to action. Technology has played an important role with today’s photographer in capturing and creating a great image through extensive improvements in workflow, image quality and editing.

In this post I have photographed a few superhero toys, what you’re seeing are my DC collectibles: Batman, Superman and the Joker. I’ve wanted to photograph this project for a while and I’m glad that I did it was a lot of fun and I got to try out a few new techniques. The other the reason why I wanted to do this project was because I was thinking of my mom. I was remembering a time in my childhood I was 5 or 6 and was playing with my Batmobile, it was made of die-cast metal and had rubber wheels. It fit two small figurines – Batman and Robin with little plastic missiles that could be launched from the trunk, a model replica from the late 60’s TV show starring Adam West.

One afternoon during summer I was playing with the Batman figurine and the die-cast car in the yard, in a moment of distraction I dropped my Batman of about one half inch in size into the grass. I scrambled to the ground to where I thought it had landed, panic set-in I started to cry as I ripped away at the grass he was nowhere to be found. I became so distraught I blamed everything and everyone including God for hiding my Batman. I ran inside the house shouting with tears pouring down my face, my mom tells me she thought I was hit by a car or something worse.

“My mom went in search through the grass for this tiny little Batman figurine that was the most important thing in my life at the time.”

When I caught my breath and explained why I was crying she wasn’t pleased. Mom then went in search through the grass for this tiny little Batman figurine that was the most important thing in my life. I stood behind her crying, wishing it was Robin lost in the grass and not Batman. Eventually, my mom the true hero found and saved Batman including me, it took close to an hour for her to do so. I will never forget it among the many things she’s done in my life and because of her I was inspired to create these photos.

By the way, I still have that Batman figure today.

Without getting to caught up in the traumatic memory of this story lets go back to why photos should be composed to tell their own story. Take note that when looking at the unedited / unprocessed photos to notice the dull mood it expresses. When you look at the initial unedited photos in their original state know that my objective at this point was to photograph clean images with neutral color balance and experiment with different mood lighting setups including composition. My setup involved: cleaning the props, touch up of toy models, testing angles of view, positioning lights and bouncers, experimenting with camera settings: f-stops, ISO, shutter speed, focal distance.

In my pre-edit photos you see a very simple photograph a simple product without any punch – this is what we call the ‘pre-edit’ phase. There`s no mood, tone or style its plain and simple.

To make these photos stand out I edited the images in post production software. Our business projects involve a very similar process after which the goal of the final promotional photos will be to utilize select media touch points within their digital ecosystem to build a presence with the ability to tell their story via website, social media, video, etc. Photography and Video play a vital role for an online presence, it’s an investment it keeps a company’s market informed about: who they are, product and service updates, helps to grow customer base and more.

This photo assignment was a personal project for me the style I was after here was dark and edgy. I drew my creative inspiration from a graphic comic book that was published over 25 years ago. You can see and feel that this Batman is very different from the heroic crime fighter we grew up watching on TV.

My photos are based on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a four-issue comic book limited series written and drawn by the man who forever changed the way we view Batman, “Frank Miller“. This story was based on the return of a middle-aged Batman who after a decade of retirement at the age of 55 comes back to fight crime in a dystopian era of a near future version of Gotham City. In his return the Dark Knight also has to deal with opposition from Gotham City Police, the United States Government and Superman!

We hope you enjoy the photos and invite you to leave your comment below. What are your impressions of the pr-edited photos to post edit? Do you think of photography or video as an investment or expense for business? Either way we welcome your input.

For creative purposes you can use the photos to design something cool or have as a wallpaper. If you design something up… let us know and will feature it here.

---

Next Post

Portrait of a Vancouver Personal Trainer