Alexia Sinclair Shoots Macbeth

This video was just sent over to us by a reader and I am so glad it was because I am now a huge fan of Alexia Sinclair. In this video Sinclair was hired to shoot the campaign imagery for the New Zealand Opera's performance of "Macbeth". The production value of the shoot alone is amazing and her retouching is amazing to watch as well.


Alexia Sinclair: Behind the Scenes - Macbeth from Sultana Studios on Vimeo.

Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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24 Comments

Wonderful!

What a crazy amount of post work. The attention to detail is phenomenal, I couldn't tell what was happening a lot of the time! Inspiring for sure...

I just want to know how they did that hair!

dont get me wrong here, i love the work, however at what point do u say theres too much post processing...

The level of technical skill paired with the talent & artistic vision is staggering.

@ Lee:

I was on that shoot as an assistant to the second photographer. The hair was a construction of different wires on one side. You can see the stylist holding the models hair at one point because it was too heavy to hold for more than two minutes.

I think it took them three hours to make.

Amazing work by Alexia and a great team on set!

Thanks Stephan!

Loving the attention to detail, but indeed a crazy amount of post.
@Lee, download the video from vimeo and use your video editor to play it in slowmotion ;)

Incredible...Totally wish they would do a two hour retouching walk through, but I may try the slow motion playback to catch more of what is going on. Beautiful work here!

@Matt and @Roy, the post processing, if you'll notice, wasn't for dramatically changing the image as shot. I htink of this kind of work like a painter who goes in steps.

First, they paint the main subject, a portrait perhaps. Then, as they paint around for the background, the subject changes slightly.

She (or her post op) was just painting to add to the image - remember how strong it was when we saw the shot on the macbook screen, and how it was just as strong in the final?

It looks more like a design process, not just post processing :)
Great vision and Art work

Who cares if there is too much post processing. I think if you want to take your photography to the next level the goal should not be to get it all right in camera but rather produce something that makes people stop and admire the work. I rarely see images like this in many people's portfolios and that is why I was so drawn to it.

Another great Aussie artist! She's got a new exhibition 'The Royal Dozen' coming out at the end of the month. Hopefully there is some BTS for that :)

http://www.acp.org.au/events/2010/sumptuously-speaking-floor-talk

fantastic! visionary.

Way over the top in post production it seems like the client kept on changing their mind on approval which entail means more $$$ and breaking budgets. This always happens with an indecisive marketing department or a client that thinks he or she is the true photographer or creative director, a re-shoot turns out to be too costly so lets just PS it forever.

Some say "as long as the client pays who cares?" but to me that is bad business as no one wants a client to go under due to their budgeting errors.

Oh yeah!....

We as graphic artist are simply nothing but design whores the truth be told..... I literally had a client one day in my office while I was making design revisions on her project in photoshop, scream with exultation .."YES! YES! YES!" over and over with each design change.... my co-workers in the adjacent area were perplexed as to what was going on in office......I had to turn my head to conceal the laughter that about to explode on my face.... it was hysterical....

Loved it but as some have already said a bit too much PP for my liking.

There's a point where you can tell that an image has been manipulated and this one is right up there.

Wow! That was amazing. The amount of work put into post is incredible. Thanks!

This is an old video been online on her site for about a year. Also to correct it is she not he. Anyway it is good video and I do admire her work.

Would love to see the post work explained in pseudo real time.
Not lengths I'd go to - but interested.

definitely a she - i've done a few workshops with alexia and she is a fantastic teacher as well as a great artist. fwiw, those claiming "too much post", she is a digital artist first, photographer second, and her fine art background allows her to approach traditionally photographic projects with a fresh perspective - love her work!

This is really old