Intentional Flat Images

S

sbryan

Well-known member
Looking at a shot of Vincent Laforet's from the February 2008 National Geographic. The image is shot from a helicopter, looking down on an Arizona pool. It's flat. No noticeable curvature.

You can see examples of this at Vincent Laforet's website under Portfolio -> Air (specifically images 2 and 5).

How was this look achieved? Frame within a frame on a telephoto and crop to avoid curvature? Post processing?

This look is popular in National Geographic's "Visions of Earth" magazine section. Images aren't always shot from a helicopter.
 
My guess would be conservative use of a tiltshift lense to correct perspective.

Just a guess though. I'd be interested if anyone knew for sure.
 
Considering that he most likley wasn't shooting stright down by hanging underneath a helicopter, I would agree with Bryant that they were taken with a T&S. It's clear with some of the other photographs that a T&S was used.

I love the minature look that those lenses create for high angle subjects. It can easily be a gimic like a vertigo effect or fisheye lenses but when used for the right content it can be very powerful.
 
You can easily shoot that by hanging out the window from a helicopter with a 300-500mm lens. With a helicopter being so high up and zooming far, you will have a pretty close image like that. Then in photoshop you just pull and push corners / crop till you get a symmetrical looking image.
 
wes said:
You can easily shoot that by hanging out the window from a helicopter with a 300-500mm lens. With a helicopter being so high up and zooming far, you will have a pretty close image like that. Then in photoshop you just pull and push corners / crop till you get a symmetrical looking image.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, although I do know Vincent uses tilt shift lenses for other work, which you can see on his website.
 
aside from the helicopter vantage point, none of his portfolio seems really unique, just technique.
 
I'm in full disagreement.

Finding commercial success is a testament to both your skill and personality and does not diminish your credibility as an artist. Moreover, involving people in the process behind the camera seems to improve the images in front of it.
 
Different paths for different people.

There will always be those who will eat your lunch if you are not careful and they tend to be the quiet ones.
 
I fully respect this man for the photo's he captures. He is a very lucky man as well to get a chance to fotograph those images that he has for his portfolio. Whether it be skill, or just simply technique as you describe. I am just upset that I am not able to be in the situations he is to be able to take these amazing photos...whether it be the same thing we see in everyday life or not.
 
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