Proud

I'm proud to announce that, due to the 2006 success of our advertising campaign for the "Salon Nautique de Paris", the organisers gave us again their confidence for 2007 and probably will for 2008.

The two adverts (one for sail boats, the other one for power boats) have been reused, but we have add one for the equipments with a new pic…

You may see them here wait until the 3 adverts appear one after the other…

The "Salon Nautique de Paris" is a huge annual meeting with more than 300,000 visitors and 1,200 exhibitors and lasts 9 days…

For the record you may see the last year advertising campaign, here

YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!
YES!

Me too!

Asher

THANKS!
THANKS!
THANKS!
THANKS!
THANKS!
THANKS!
THANKS!
THANKS!
THANKS!

C'est Magnifique!

Congratulations, Nicolas!

Bravo, Nicolas!

Un big billboard at the metro - where people can get very close?
And shot with the 1 Ds-2?

Michael Fontana said:

Bravo, Nicolas!

Un big billboard at the metro - where people can get very close?
And shot with the 1 Ds-2?

Click to expand...

Yes Sir! amzaing resulti and no stitching…;-)

Nicolas Claris said:

Yes Sir! amzaing resulti and no stitching…;-)

Click to expand...

I agree, a powerboat is hard to stitch....

Ok so a hardware-RIP, then?

Both soft and hardware, but those billboards don't require a lot of resolution (beewen 30 and 50 dpi if I remember well).

These pics where made with the best spotlight one can dream and were very clean (shot at 100 iso). The latter (equipment) were shot in studio, quite clean too.

I'll post tomorrow from the office the exact resolution I did send the file… was quite huge though…

These image for advertising did need a lot PP in CS (i.e. the original sail was dark blue and had to be changed to orange…) I remember the file with 6 or 7 layers was quite "heavy" to manipulate even with a dual G5 fully loaded with ram;-)

That's interesting; 30 - 50 dpi only for a close view; I remember this resolution beeing used for billboards in a bigger distance to the viewer's eye, p.e. on a house wall.
Must be definely a good RIP!

I bet that was still a big file.

Wow! Huge congrats, Nicolas! Well deserved!

Great news Nic!! well done, so nice to have some good news to start the day!!!

Hi Nicolas,

Congratulations! It's great to see that your work's appreciated.

Could you give us a few more details about the shoot? For example:

Were the ideas preplanned and given to you to execute, or did you come up with them yourself?

If their yours, did you know exactly what you wanted before you started the shoot?


How many people were involved in the shoot itself?

Thanks,

Tim

Thanks all for your congrats.

Tim: It's working time now, but I'll answer you this evening.

Michael, as promised:

Working PSD 3.5 Gb 16 bits
Final output 10,000x10,000 pixels 350 Mb 8bit (cmyk) - 270 Mb (RGB) - about 60 dpi for the billboards.
The format is almost square as it had to be displayed in portrait and/or landscape…

Below is the fianl version of the "Equipment" display, shot in studio with the 1DsMkII and below a 100% crop:





remember this is 4x3 meters billboard at 10,000x10,000 pixels 60 dpi (advert text added later)

Nicolas Claris said:

Below is the fianl version of the "Equipment" display, shot in studio with the 1DsMkII and below a 100% crop:

Click to expand...

First I want to add my congratulations, it's nice to be appreciated (especially by paying customers!).
I like the subtle addition of a blue light/gel/reflector to hint at outdoor use. Just curious, which lens was used to shoot it? What method did you use for upsampling/output sharpening?

Bart

Hi Bart
Thank you ;-) yes always good to be appreciated… and paid!

the gel was orange (for the overall look that need to be… oranged) and the (intentional) blue light comes from real daylight…

The lens was 70-200 ƒ2.8 IS @ 125MM ƒ32 100 ISO - 0.8s (with tripod of course)

upsampling one step thru CS2 bicubic sharper - then my sharpening action

Nicolas Claris said:

the gel was orange (for the overall look that need to be… oranged) and the (intentional) blue light comes from real daylight…

Click to expand...

Cool, it works as intended.

The lens was 70-200 ƒ2.8 IS @ 125MM ƒ32 100 ISO - 0.8s (with tripod of course)

upsampling one step thru CS2 bicubic sharper - then my sharpening action

Click to expand...

Hmm, f/32 and Bicubic sharper, that's a creative choice of parameters. It seems to have worked nice enough.
I wonder, would you be interested in making the original 16-b/ch camera file crop available, to see if anyone can improve on the upsampled result? Just the small crop, and we could see if alternative number crunching up to the same output size would have made any difference.

Bart

Thanks Nicolas for showing it and the info's: looks GOOD!

>Hmm, f/32 and Bicubic sharper, that's a creative choice of parameters.<
yep, I had to laugh, too ; plus the zoom must be a bloody good copy!

Edit: Nicolas. you might give PhotoAcute Studio a try, for enhnancing resolution.

Bonsoir Bart and Michael
to tell you the truth, I was pretty amazed too when I looked to the exif this morning with that ƒ32!
This shot was made last spring and I recall I made plenty with different composition and different shutter speed/aperture.
Then we compared the result -independantly of parameters- and we kept the best one, but I didn't keep the others…

As for Bart's request, there were so many manipulation of the file (colors, move of objects) that the original file has nothing to do with the result… I'll have a look tomorrow to see if I can find the raw…

Tim Armes said:

Were the ideas preplanned and given to you to execute, or did you come up with them yourself?
If their yours, did you know exactly what you wanted before you started the shoot?

How many people were involved in the shoot itself?

Click to expand...

Bonsoir Tim

OK some history!
As you may know, besides of being photographer I run (with my wife Marine. With such a name, this was her destiny to meet me!) an advertising agency.
This kind of budget is usually devoted to Parisian ad agencies.
The client organized a competition between five Parisian agencies, after two rounds they came-up with no good result, then someone at the client board said, well for the next round we need to have the right one, so why don't we call M&N Claris Organisation to replace the worse competitor.
So they did. We won with 100% of the votes…

This is to explain that we couldn't organize a photoshoot (remember it was an unpaid competition), we had to do with our own stock (more than 110,000 photos…).
The claim was for one layout covering sail and power boating.
We answered with 2: one for sail, one for power - completely different markets.
Explaining our theory of one layout/one target/one message so we don't melt things and don't confuse people.
We defined our concept a new (to the client) color sheme (orange) instead of the endless navy blue, the systametic presence of a person enjoying our being acting.

We made a choice of 3 different pictures for each theme (sail/power) and the client did choose.

We also modernized their logo and the placing of the texts above the picture.

This was for last year and was reconducted this year, plus the "equipment" layout posted above.

For both sailing shots I was alone shooting, with some "amateur" characters, chase boat for the power boat, for the sail shot I was onboard the boat that were racing at the time.

For the "equipment" shot, in studio, we were 3, Marine (our A.D.) and an assistant. Took 2 hours.
The "studio" is an 9Sq m (97 Sq feet) empty room with a table just upstairs our office.

As you may see, this is a kinda "do it yourself with your fingers", but we won, because:
a/ our understanding of the market
b/ we had the pictures!

Nicolas Claris said:

As for Bart's request, there were so many manipulation of the file (colors, move of objects) that the original file has nothing to do with the result… I'll have a look tomorrow to see if I can find the raw…

Click to expand...

Bonsoir Nicolas,

Don't feel pressured, and take your time. I just think it might be a good learning experience for all of us, while waiting for the 1Ds3, to see how well the 1Ds2 stands upsampling. As you've demonstrated, it's already adequate for serious enlargements that pay back for some of the investment (in hardware, mastering the camera's particulars, and processing its files).

Although your results will be a challenge to meet or beat, maybe it can be taken even a little further which would be nice if one needs to crop a bit. When the 1Ds3's dynamic range and tonal smoothness (and its focus reliability) turn out as hoped, it would even add more usability in a small package (without the immediate need to invest in a new lens arsenal).

Bart

Michael Fontana said:

Edit: Nicolas. you might give PhotoAcute Studio a try, for enhnancing resolution.

Click to expand...

Bonsoir Michael

Never heard before of this software, but as a funny coincidence, ther's another post in OPF about it tonight (here) so I didn't have to google it!

I've downloaded the trial version, but it requires to have at least a burst of 2 shots (can't understand why…) so it's a bit late for a trial on the previous job!, but I'll give it a try at the 1st opportunity.

It doesn't know about the 1DsMkII! too much resolution already? ;-)

Do you use it regularly and are you happy with it?

Nicolas, as a newcomer here, and feeling a bit a newcomer to photography among this group....far be it from me to opine, yet I must. Outstanding work. It helped to understand the project, which has until now been a mystery to me. Both inspiring and also a goal to which to aspire. (not likely, but worth a shot)

Votre photograhie, c'est magnifique. (No cheating, that's the best I could do without cross checking) (Ecole secondaire en Francaise......decades ago)

-Greg

Thanks Greg!
but boats and the sea are "magnigique"! it helps!

Bonjour, Nicolas

no, I had'nt try it, as I saw the announcement just before I wrote that post.
As it might be a good thing for your big billboards, I just wanted you to let it know.

Concerning the support of the 1 Ds-2, a email was send to the developers. For my needs, it does make more sens to enhance the 17 MP of the 1 Ds-2, than a cellphone ;-)

Nicolas Claris said:

I've downloaded the trial version, but it requires to have at least a burst of 2 shots (can't understand why…)

Click to expand...

Nicolas,

The software uses the fact hat the camera moves between frames to recreate the detail that simply can't be captured in one shot. The more frames there are, the better the final result will be.

They claim that even on a tripod this works well. Due to shutter shake, noise characterisitcs and other influencing factors no two consecutive images will be the same, and they can extract information from this.

Very clever.

Tim

Hi ,

Thanks for the details. I think it great that you can go out without any assistants and pull off such a big advertising deal. I real inspiration for the rest of us...

Tim

From Bart:
it might be a good learning experience for all of us, while waiting for the 1Ds3, to see how well the 1Ds2 stands upsampling. As you've demonstrated, it's already adequate for serious enlargements that pay back for some of the investment (in hardware, mastering the camera's particulars, and processing its files).

Although your results will be a challenge to meet or beat, maybe it can be taken even a little further which would be nice if one needs to crop a bit. When the 1Ds3's dynamic range and tonal smoothness (and its focus reliability) turn out as hoped, it would even add more usability in a small package (without the immediate need to invest in a new lens arsenal).

Bart

Click to expand...

SOoooooooooo!

I happily provide a link to download a 100% crop of the orignal together with a crop of the same area, final output.

Below you'll see low res pix of :
original uncropped
final output

you'll see that some PP work has been done! i.e.
horizontal flip
change of sail (background)
colorization of sail
slight crop
increase of height (adding up and down matter)
some objects have moved…
tonality
sharpening

original uncropped:


final output: (The format is almost square as it had cropable to be displayed in portrait and/or landscape…)



Download the 16 bit hires files (15.2 Mb)
upsampling is about 220% only - thanks to 1Ds Mk II

See the final 100%crop

Nicolas Claris said:

Download the 16 bit hires files (15.2 Mb)

Click to expand...

Nicolas, I am unable to open the Zip file (it's reported as corrupt, or not a Zip). I tried downloading and opening it on two different computers, same result.

Bart

Sorry bart
I'll repost tomorow from the office, I don't have the file for now (home early for once!)

Nicolas Claris said:

Sorry bart
I'll repost tomorow from the office, I don't have the file for now (home early for once!)

Click to expand...

Okay, no sweat. Enjoy.

Bart