Recently I’ve read a lot about creating composite images using Photoshop and layers. There was a time, before digital cameras, computers and Photoshop where things were created in camera! I was fortunate in working with clients that gave me total control over an image. This image was created for a magazine cover. We created the background using coal . Then each battery was placed in position. Our medium was a 4 x 5 camera and in this case we decided to use color negatives, just in case we had to do some retouching. Each bolt of lightening was created using Kodalith material. On the day of shooting we brought in twenty pounds of dry ice. Pieces were carefully placed behind the batteries to give the fog appearance. We then started the process of exposing film. First we had to capture a number of brackets for the entire set. Next we captured each bolt of lightening testing with Polaroids as we went along. Last we captured the sky using a projected 35mm slide image. In total, each piece of film had 7 exposures. Time to build the set, two days. In total it took us half a day to create all the negatives. Once processed we picked the best exposure along with the best placement of lightening bolts hitting battery terminals. A 16 x 20 print was then made. Retouching was done to two terminals where the lightening just missed. The client then used the final image to create the cover. We used this technique several times over the years that I worked with this client and others/
If you find this interesting, let me know, and i can share more of how we used to create composites in a world long gone. BTW we used about 30 Polaroids to test progress of the image.
