Nice Photo of the Week - Unplugged
Jun 16th, 2008 | By Mr.K | Category: Photo of the Week
The Idea:
I know what you’re thinking, “Not another picture of some shirtless guy with a newspaper Christmas light hat. Didn’t Horst already milk that cow to death? Just a joke. Everybody calm down.
“Unplugged” has a very specific message, though the way I told it, there’s a chance know one will understand what I meant. Before I tell you what I was going for, look at the image, the expression, the props, the details. What do you think I was trying to say?
Ready? Well, I wanted to make an image about America’s obsession with TV news, or rather how I felt that obsession affects people. The Christmas lights represent the neurons in the brain firing off. The newspaper is the news, no big stretch there. The lights are on even though the socket isn’t plugged in (hopefully implying the emptiness or disconnection from reality).
If you thought it was saying something else, no problem. If I needed everyone to think the same thing, I’d start a 24 hr. news channel. If you just thought it was an interesting photograph you’re okay in my book. And if you still have no idea what I was trying to say, I’ve done my job.
The Tech:
“Unplugged” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 50mm 1.4 at f9 1/80 sec. I exposed the image to get the Christmas lights how I wanted them to look. Then I positioned the subject so his back was almost right up against a large window for the rim light and pointed the business end of a 580ex right into his face to imply the light from a television. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:
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Nice!
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love the expression!
have to wonder about the empty left side? why didn’t ya put a tv set there or something to add to the meaning? just like the glimpse of the case, not the whole body of the tv set
i didnt realize that his hat was newspaper
greetz jim
I love it!
I missed the message until I read your description. When I considered the question of why there’s light shining into his face, I stopped at “because the photographer put a light camera left.” I was too focused on how and not paying attention to why.
Technically, I was surprised you could pick up the ambient (Christmas lights, backlight from the window, and just the right level on the plug) and keep the background black.
That’s a great sense of outrage in the model’s expression and posture.
Hi,
Sorry I just don’t like this photo at all. I can’t finger why exactly, but it bugs me enough to want to move on as soon as the page loads. I’m not posting this just to be critical, more to make the point we all see things differently - as do our clients!
Thanks for the comments everyone.
W4yne: TV set would definitely have explained it more, but I think, or at least hope, the black void adds to the meaning. Maybe not. That’s what I was going for at least.
Kurt: The trick to keeping the background black was its distance from the light (about 12 feet) along with a large flag.
Jay: No problem. Because of the message of the image, I felt the image needed to be off putting, so although I would prefer that you liked how off putting it is just being put off by it is okay by me, too. Now, if you said you thought it was pretty, then I’d be worried!
i LOVE this image. Dont know why… just love it.