Edmonton - July 2, 2009 - Photo Illustration from Sam and Tin's engagement photo session
at South Edmonton Common Theatres. PHOTO BY JIMMY JEONG

This photo illustration was actually inspired by a post I read on Strobist. (Hey, there's
no original ideas left. Only our own take on it.) The couple wanted to shoot
a portrait session in the movie theatre but we added a twist.

For me, photos should tell a story, or a least start a conversation with the
viewer. I find that with a lot of jobs you have to be pretty quick to find a
way to tell the story. This is usually the case for editorial jobs. But some
of the bigger magazines or commercial jobs will have some great art
directors to bounce ideas with. The worst is when you have a writer tell you
exactly what to shoot, ­ this just cuts off the creative process.

The Technical Stuff: This type of shot is actually pretty easy to do. It involves taking multiple photos and then just putting them together in Photoshop. The camera was placed on a tripod and then I just went around with the couple lighting them with a Nikon SB 900 speedlight in a small softbox. The camera was triggered with a Pocket Wizard remote (to prevent camera shake from someone pressing the shutter), which in turn triggered the light.

BTW, I call this a Photo Illustration because Photoshop was used (beyone the simple dodging, levels, sharpen tools) to create the final image. Faking images to trick people is not very cool. Hey, I'm an editorial photog at heart so I can't risk losing the trust of readers.