One Drop

Project Details

This is a real photo. Not some photoshop manipulated stock images of water, but actually shot this way in camera. How did we do it, you ask?

For this project, I had to train our photographer on the technique to capture this cover for Cirque du Soleil’s charity event One Drop.

The trick to pulling this off is actually quite simple… shoot your model in complete darkness. And having a very good model that can hold a pose for the time needed. By using a high powered flash in a darkened studio, you can multiple exposure an image to achieve this look over many shots. Just take good notes so you know you have all the parts of the “dress” sewn together.

This model was a trooper. About 4 hours of being splashed with tepid water without moving! Using every type of container you can imagine, from baking sheets to pitchers and various glasses, all those splashes are formed from 688 exposures.

Yes photoshop was used to polish the final photo and get rid of all the extra droplets and splashes unwanted or in wrong shape, However, the takeaway here is as follows: why settle for faux when you can do it for real? Don’t just take the easy path, the best concepts are often exponentially more rewarding if you just go that extra little bit (or mile). It makes a big splash in the final product if you just put in the time to exceed expectations.

This project was a turning point for my relationship with Cirque du Soleil and opened the door to “shooting the impossible” challenge that one of their shows presented me…. but that’s another story for another day.