[stevecalifornia]

The final pictures are so heavily over-produced that they look incredibly fake-- which is a shame and leaves me totally baffled. It looks like someone literally painted the figure on the picture.

The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner.

[vonwong]

Sorry you feel that way :( We had home-made budget costumes that were hand painted so this was the best solution.

On the flip side though, I think you'll enjoy these behind the scenes without photoshop :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp...

(theres more on the dropbox link:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl...)

[snowwrestler]

If I were you, I'd take another crack at a few with the opposite approach--hide the safety gear but otherwise show the amateur costumes honestly, bad lighting, flaws and all. It would deliver a much deeper version of the empowerment message you're going for in the text of your post.

Seeing a super-hero in a dangerous position is not really impactful--that's what superheros do.

Seeing a regular person who is trying to look like a superhero (but subtly failing) in a dangerous situation tells all sorts of stories about the roles we each imagine and hope for ourselves--and the fronts we put up for other people.

[vonwong]

I'd actually love another go to create these images all over again. If I can find another rooftop, I would definitely give it a second shot. Thanks for the feedback!

[snowwrestler]

A reshoot sounds cool too, but I meant go back to the original RAW files and process them differently.

[nostromo]

Yeah, the raw photos are more intense for me.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... <- wow!!

All are awesome though, great work.

[Stratoscope]

Oh my. Yes, the raw untouched photos - with all safety equipment showing - activate a completely different part of my brain. Now I know these are real people, really leaning over the edge of a skyscraper.

It was a bit like seeing the Mission Impossible movie and admiring the great CGI that made it look like Tom Cruise was swinging from a rope off the side of the Burj Khalifa, and then seeing the "making of" video and realizing he was swinging from that rope.

[cletusw]

Here's the "making of" video. Holy crap, he's insane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16BFrEBZQS4

[Stratoscope]

And after a hard day of movie making, what better way to relax than to sit barefoot on the spire that tops the building!

http://www.tomcruise.com/blog/2013/06/13/tom-cruise-sitting-...

I can't say I've ever been a real Tom Cruise fan, but man, I have to admire his guts.

[CyberDildonics]

There was actually a lot of tricky paint getting the safety wires out of the reflections at Imax resolution.

[wmeredith]

Holy crap, these are awesome.

[acdha]

Wow, yes – I think a lighter-touch on the post processing would be even more impressive.

[RIMR]

Honestly, I feel the same way as stevecalifornia.

I figure, if you are going to process the image so heavily, why bother even using a real rooftop. These images don't look real. They are, so why shouldn't they?

[aagha]

You know what? And I say this with all respect: screw how s/he feels.

This is art. And it's not art of the kind where I decide to strip down to my underwear, decide to throw spaghetti and sauce at a large white canvas and say, "hey look at what I created".

What you've done is impressive and I'm willing to bet unlike anything anyone else commenting on this post has ever done.

It's cool. It's edgy. It's different.

Sure he's got an opinion, and that's fine. He likes RAW better than your final shots but so what? He might also like my spaghetti splattered canvas.

Your shit is cool--cool enough that you think it's worth showing and therefore, cool enough for you to be proud of it the way it is.

Great job!

[cylinder]

They look like illustrations. I don't get it either.

[wavefunction]

I think they look great. I'm not a very good amateur photographer but I like the post-production.

[artenix]

Your selfie on the video looks amazing too.

[turar]

If you want some anxiety, I suggest this guy's pictures and videos:

http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/

Couple of highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDYtH1RH-U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJkuCzgg7fo

http://raskalov-vit.livejournal.com/136573.html

[spydum]

the shanghai tower crane climb is INSANE.

[wmeredith]

I'm glad someone else had the same reaction. I also thought they looked like composited photos, so what's the point? I really liked the post and the thought behind the project though, so I felt like an A-hole.

[Puts]

This was exactly my thought too. Why bother with all this hustle when the final images are so blurred that they might as well have been painted from the start. :-O

[aaronbrethorst]

There was a trend in photography that began at the end of the 19th century called Pictorialism, which emphasized soft focus and significant retouching[1]. It began to fall out of fashion in the nineteen-teens when its most prominent voice, Alfred Stieglitz, embraced modernism[2]. Interestingly, even Ansel Adams started as a pictorialist before embracing "straight" photography. Adams became an incredibly outspoken critic of pictorialism, going so far as to call the last well-known pictorialist, William Mortensen, "the antichrist" years after Mortensen's death[3].

Of course, these things have a way of going full-circle, and—today—digital pictorialism is the big thing. It'll pass in a few years.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism (some images below the fold are NSFW'ish)

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz#O.27Keeffe_and...

[3] http://www.ishootfilm.org/blog/2014/10/20/11-the-incredibly-...

[001sky]

This is just a glorified commercial-style shoot. Look at the credits at the end.

[kordless]

> The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner.

Especially the one guy giving a thumbs up toward the middle left. There's no way he's tied in and he's standing on the ledge. One misstep by anyone there and he goes over. At least that's the way it looks.

Edit: Here's the sidewalk immediately below the location shoot: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.7...

[bambax]

Totally agree; I think the project is absolutely brilliant and a perfect idea, wonderfully executed, but the final images have a "fake" look that just kills them.

It shouldn't be hard to produce another rendering from the same sources though.

[guelo]

They might as well have used photoshop for the whole backdrop.

[snowwrestler]

From the GIF, it looks like the people were tied in, and the tie-in gear was then photoshopped out. Which means that in terms of the truth of the situation, it's not much more impactful than simply photoshopping the people onto the ledge in the first place.

If people want to see the real thing, take a look at:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/high-times-meet-the...

Or just Google something like "urban exploration skyscraper".

[Shivetya]

there are enough videos out of Asia and Russia if you want to feel real anxiety. The daring do of so many young people never ceases to amaze me.

While I appreciate the attempt to artfully present this type of thrill seeking little beats a go pro on a stick or one handed hanging from building framework. Dressing up makes it too hollywood and who needs that when real life is all more impressive

[danellis]

It's 'derring-do', just so you know.

[platz]

this tends to be the style for the professional/marketing photo business. Realism is not actually the goal. Glossy eye-popping photos (think HDR) are what the customers actually want. If you want natural-light and documentary-style photos, that is better suited for an "art" photographer, not a "commercial" one.