NZPhotographer Issue 56, June 2022

Behind The Shot with Gary Reid
GARY, REMIND US WHO YOU ARE AND
WHAT YOU DO!
I am originally from South Africa and have been
living and working in New Zealand along with
my wife for the last 17 years. Before I started
photography, I had a passion for wildlife, which
began while I was still in primary school. So, when I
started my photographic journey, it was natural to
combine the two.
I love the creativity that photography in all its forms
produces, from being able to take my camera and
go for a walk in search of something to photograph
to coming up with a concept that may require
multiple photos to be creatively combined in
Photoshop, as in the case with this shot.
Although I am a self-taught photographer, I have
been fortunate to have met and got to know a few
professional photographers at various stages of my
photographic journey and have been able to pick
up huge amounts of information and guidance
from them.
Coming from a film and slide background has
taught me that mistakes cost money. Digital makes
it so much easier, but the same principles apply, so
planning is essential no matter what you’re shooting
- don’t rush into creating a photo.
WHAT ARE YOU SHOOTING WITH?
I use a Canon 7D as my main camera. I also have
Canon 30D and Rebel as my backups. Lenses
consist of 50mm, 17-85mm, 70-300mm, 160-500mm,
and I also have a flash, tripod and monopod, and
studio equipment.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS
PHOTO?
I often see how something can be reproduced
using a camera, whether I’m looking at other
photographers’ images or concepts and gaining
ideas that I can then try to replicate, or taking
inspiration from paintings and trying photographic
versions of artworks.
I got the idea for this photoshoot from a photo I
saw many months ago on Pinterest while looking
for ideas and recreated it in January while I was on
leave, using my garage as a studio.
WHAT WAS YOUR SETUP FOR THIS SHOOT?
The background was cardboard painted black, set
on a black tabletop. Two studio lights with softboxes
were placed on either side and slightly in front of
the cardboard, with my camera mounted on a
tripod with a remote trigger. I also had six packets
of Oreo biscuits and 2l of milk to hand!
I had to predetermine the position of the Oreos. For
the Oreos that look like they will fall into the glass,
I punched holes in the cardboard background
with a toothpick. Using a drill bit the size of the
toothpick, I then hand-drilled holes in each Oreo
biscuit and mounted them onto the cardboard
using toothpicks. It took quite a few test shots to get
the lighting just right before I started pouring the
milk!
Pouring the milk was the tricky bit. I had to take the
photos (using the remote trigger) as I was pouring
whilst also trying to catch the milk splashing onto
the biscuits (to create the droplets) and at the
same time trying to get the milk into the glass and
not all over the table and the other Oreos.
It got messy, requiring cleaning up after each test
shot before being able to repeat the process. As
you can imagine, it took multiple shots before I got
it just right.
It was surprisingly quick to set up and photograph,
probably no more than 2hours, it was the postprocessing
part that was time consuming, taking
me close to a day to complete.
WHAT HAPPENED IN-POST?
First, I had to select one photo that would be the
base or main photo. Then I had to select and blend
in other photos, a photo with a sharper Oreo, or
a different photo with more or better-placed milk
droplets etc. In the end, I used a combination of
four different photos.
Using Photoshop, I selected the parts of each of
the other two photos that would be needed and
inserted them into the main photo by creating
layers. Working on one layer at a time (there were
about six layers), each layer had to be resized
and repositioned, and the background of some
of the layers (milk and parts of the glass) removed
using the eraser tool. The layers were then merged
together. Next, I repaired or fixed any irregularities
on the photo using the clone tool. I blended
the milk layers together using the healing brush,
clone, and brush tools. Finally, using the brush tool
I worked on the background. This step alone must
have taken me about 4 hours as it meant going
around each milk droplet, each Oreo, as well
as the glass trying to keep the sharpness before
blending in the background to create an infinity
look. Once all of the above was done, I turned to
fine-tuning the photo’s colour and contrast.
4 June 2022 NZPhotographer