OSIRIS Clone Neon Skate Shoes

There's magic that can happen when starting a photo project with the mindset of a Photoshop artist. Photo compositing is a type of photo manipulation that involves taking two or more photos and merging together selected parts of each into one image. Photoshop artists will do just that but often use stock images to complete these projects. When a concept is thought up prior to photographing it, all photos can be captured in a way that makes them much more compatible when merging them together. 

Here are two captures that I merged together for one of the more simple composites.

And the result

The feeling I got from these Osiris Clone skate shoes was wet, shiny paint. So I wanted to show the neon color of the shoes dripping off like it was wet paint. I started sketching and visiting paint stores to find the right colors of paint.

A sketch while planning the concept

I built a set where I could suspend the shoes in the air using fishing line. I knew this would be a several day project. I couldn’t afford to take up my portrait studio space with this construction of 2x4s so I was in the garage for the next several nights and my car got the dog house. After photographing the shoes in each arrangement I set up dummy shoes in the same way and poured paint mixtures over them as I photographed them. When I was done photographing I had the photos of the Osiris Clones (same shot with various lighting setups) and I had hundreds of photos of paint dripping over the soles of much cheaper and some worn out shoes.

Behind the scene in my garage

When it came to choosing the exact paint drips and placement I worked together with master Photoshop retoucher Mehmet Turan (35milimetre.com) on 3 of the photos. Sometimes a project just needs another set of eyes especially when working with a shorter timeline. You can also learn a lot by listening and observing how another professional tackles the objectives at hand. Mehmet and I passed back and forth Photoshop project files, each making adjustments and leaving notes for each other. It was really quite a fun process!

Just a few of the photos used in the creation of this final edit

1. Overhead lighting 2. Edge light camera right 3. Edge light camera left 4. Highlights for lower shoe 5. Example of a paint dripping right shoe 6. Example of a paint dripping left shoe. Final image below.

A 5 light set up

Although this was completely a personal project, after posting the photos on Instagram the marketing team at Osiris asked if they could use this one below on their social media.

@osirisshoes instagram feed

One of the shoe stunt doubles taking a break after it’s paint bath session

Of course I had to include my daughter

Behind the scenes look at Ross playing with paint