Over the weekend, one of our readers sent us this amazing behind the scenes video for the bicycle saddle manufacturer Brooks England. The basic concept for the photoshoot was a couple saving a fox from a bunch of hunting hounds while out in the British countryside. Photographer Frank Herholdt and his team had to balance two models, a tamed fox, four hounds, forest smoke, well placed studio strobes, and the natural elements to pull of this classic looking image. This is such a great example of taking your photography to the next level by pushing your concept and focusing on production value rather than just lighting a simple subject correctly. If any of our readers have any opinions on one of these saddles specifically, let us know on our Twitter because I'm in need of a new bike seat myself!
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NICE! Great video. Thanks for posting.
That is planning. Nice BTS video. Thanks!
Excellent video.Cool technique in using his name on poster board to achieve critical focusing. I love when commercial stills evoke a good story within the images.
Was it for focusing or for white balance reference ? Anyway, really nice shoot !
Can't see how you could set an accurate white balance on that.
I really liked this one :) the fox was supper cute :)
It always shows in the image when people actually spend time planning the shoot. :)
The final product did not do the prep work justice. Looked photoshopped and fake.
Saddles from brooks are fine! Use one myself
Name poster boards or cross hairs can also be used to aid perfect alignment of a layered composite in post production. In the above scenario the board would be removed on the last shot to get tree detail. This technique can really help a lot when a background has many dark colors, the details are relatively small in size, there aren't too many straight lines and accidental camera movement.
It is better to use two boards placed in different corners away from the main subject, you would remove the boards one by one on the last two shots to record the under lying detail. I'd also recommend using a remote release to reduce any camera movement and shoot slightly wider to allow for cropping if any misalignment is found in post production. Paste you cross hairs paper to a thick piece of card when creating your boards and stick or clamp them to a weighted base as you don't want them moving.
This technique isn't too far from CMYK printers which use at least four cross hairs placed in different corners to attain perfect alignment for each ink.
Photo link seems broken for me... Nice vid though, learned a lot from that, cheers!
needed a www., should work now
still broken dude, tried on chrome and safari
it's good now dude. jpeg vs jpg was the culprit
Brooks saddles are the best investment you can make if you want long term style on your bike. I have a Brooks on my track bike... But Warning these are REAL LEATHER SADDLES......you will have a nice break in time. It takes about 6 months of daily riding to get the benefits from dropping the $100+ on a bike seat. But once you get them worn in to match your "area" the comfort and durability is un-matched. if you like bikes Check out our Bike Club video @ http://www.vimeo.com/23355971
and learn about us @ www.redbikegreen.org
Is there not a irony in saving a fox while using leather for your saddle?
That was well done.
Thank you.
Great BTS...Great final image.
Very fine
Great behind the scenes! Like the result, nice editing. Men, I want the same smokemachine, like the used in the video! Then i can stop using little smoke bombs :)
that came to my mind too..... does anyone know what smoke machine they are using?!
it looks homebuild. i'm having a hard time finding such a powerful but handy machine.
What a nice shot which tells such a great story! It is very inspiring.
thanks for posting
Great concept, great location, great BTS, great perspective ...not-so-great photoshop.
I think too the shadows of the dog make this less convincing. Then again, for advertising this kind of thing happens all the time.
Anybody know what type of fog machine they were using? It looked industrial!
I have a Brooks Saddle on my Pashley, shame though that this location, Burnham Beeches, have an anti-cycling policy and since I was a kid have always prevented us from cycling in the woods.
Brooks makes the best saddles!!
great!!