Featured Photographer – Rahim Mastafa
Question:
Tell us a bit about the image
Answer:
This image is a composite image I created for my client who had spent six months getting in shape. He booked the shoot to capture and document all of his hard work and as he seen some of my other composites, he wanted to create something different to your regular fitness and physique shots.
Question:
What inspired you to take the shot?
Answer:
He loved the idea of dressing up like a Spartan and so, he had the costume custom made and bought other bits for the shoot. We decided to do the shoot at his apartment as we’d spoken about the shoot beforehand and he sent me images of his place. All I needed was a plain background so I could cut him out quite easily. We ended up taking a lot of photos during our shoot, this is just one of many. After the shoot we discussed what I would do for each image, i.e would it be dark and moody, what kind of back ground, what story does he want to tell etc and we settled for an “after the battle” feel as he looked like he was returning from battle. My edit was inspired by fantasy artwork feeds I’d seen on Instagram and movie and TV posters. I work exclusively in Photoshop when I edited and spent about 6 hours to create this work. Using brushes and other elements, I added all the blood and scratches manually, I used a a moody cloud and field stock shot from Shutterstock as my main back drop, added smoke, embers, swords, debris and a vignette. I added some motion blur to give it a sense of motion and action. As to his body, I did nothing to enhance his physique, he was that ripped! I simply lifted the shadows and boosted the clarity and gave the overall image a look.
Question:
What gear did you use for the shot including lighting?
Answer:
The kit I used on the shoot was all budget kit. I used a Sony a77 Mk1, a Sony 35mm 1.8 lens, two Yongnuo YN560ii speedlights, a 10ft stand and boom and a 20 by 20 softbox. My triggers are cheap £8 ones off Amazon/Ebay. And I filmed the shoot with a Canon Legria Mini X. Here’s a link to the video: https://youtu.be/iuI71KcNybY I love this sort of work. It’s challenging but it gives me a lot of creative freedom to create something different. None of his friends have a work of art like this, they all have gym based photos.
Question:
Tell us about the editing process?
Answer:
I shoot in gyms a lot, which can bring it’s own challenges as to how to make one shoot look different to another, so by doing composites, it sets my work out a different to your average physique photographer, as I am also a digital artist. It also helps my work to get seen by other audiences, such as Cosplay, which is huge. So, you never know who is watching and who knows, perhaps one day some big Hollywood producer may think my work is good enough for a movie! (I actually ended up doing a shoot for a BBC Sci-fi show called “Class” off the back of this shoot.)
Question:
How does this piece reflect you as an artist
Answer:
So my concluding thoughts are, if you are a photographer who shoots pretty much the same thing day in day out, go and do something different and show people just how good you are. Doors will open! I also film Behind the Scenes videos of every shoot I do, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/c/sugarboxstudiosuk My social media links are: www.facebook.com/SugarBoxStudiosUK/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/sugarboxstudios/ Twitter: @SugarBoxStudios I’d really appreciate a follow or a subscribe. 🙂