Baby and the Tramp

Today I’d like to offer some insight into how I created one of my favorite portfolio shots this year, ‘Baby and the Tramp’! It’s a shot of my two boys, and it came about as I was starting to put together a trampoline in the backyard. Growing up, all the trampolines I saw looked like this one. Today, they have padding around the perimeter, plus a vertical net to keep the kids from flying off. I decided to do this shot right before I put the final netting up, and some fun Photoshop tricks made it all possible.

The first question I always here is ‘Is that baby really flying in the air?’. The answer of course is ‘no’, but I always like to let people think that what they are seeing is what actually happened. While I did use some lighting gear for this shot, you can do something similar at home as long as you have a tripod. You’ll need your camera on a tripod because you take multiple shots. Here’s how the shoot went:

1. Place camera on tripod at the scene.

2. The older child (child #1) jumps up and down, and I took several shots. There were people to the left and the right, outside of camera range, making sure he didn’t fall off.

3. Because there’s a lot of motion involved, I go through the shots and make sure there’s at least one that is somewhat sharp before wrapping up.

4. Separately, I brought in child #2 and held him in the spot where he would be if he were bounced around. I did this so that he would be lit with the same lighting setup that child #1 was. Here’s a shot of that set up.

5. In Photoshop, I placed the second shot on top of the first (in a new layer), and then painted out everything except child #2. I rotated him clockwise as well. I had to paint in some of his legs and clothes, because my hands were covering them up.

6. I added a little motion blur to their bodies using the Wind filter. I masked this effect so it was mostly around their arms and feet.

7. I also painted a trampoline shadow for child #2 that looked similar to the other shadow.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video that shows the shoot in a little more detail.

So how can you apply this? Well, if you have Photoshop and a tripod for your camera, try taking multiple shots of subjects and then compositing them in Photoshop. For example, if your kids won’t smile at the same time ever, take multiple shots and use the best ones for a picture. Obviously this technique won’t work everywhere, and things can get crazy pretty quick. But it’s one photo trick to add to your bag that allows you to create what you see in your mind, even if your subjects aren’t cooperating!

If you have specific questions, feel free to write them in the comments area and I’ll address them. Or, if you’ve done something similar, post a link here for all to enjoy!

Eric Doggett is a Austin, Texas photographer. He just relaunched his new site which includes tons of images and several behind-the-scenes videos. He also runs BoxOfficeBaby.com, a site where you can order custom birth/party announcement cards and posters - including some unique tech birth announcements. You can reach him at doggett (-at-) doggettstudios.com.