My name is Chris Conway, and I am one of the assistant photo editors here at the Daily Tar Heel. Part of working on the photo desk is creating photo illustrations – in other words, making set-up photographs to visually convey the point of a story. Sometimes, illustrations work really well and make for awesome front pages, but sometimes they don’t make the cut to get into the paper.
For the paper on Valentine’s Day, a story was pitched about online dating. Love’s hard to find for college kids these days, so, as with all things, we turn to the internet, right? I had the idea to illustrate online dating by portraying someone literally “dating” a computer. I wanted to create an intimate, romantic date scene with a man and a computer, possibly sharing a candlelit dinner and glass of wine or something of the sort.
The first step to creating this photo illustration was to find a model. We wanted someone handsome and mysterious to help convey the romantic date scenario I had imagined when I heard the pitch. The choice was obvious. I had our photo editor Katie Sweeney call up my friend and roommate Bryan Chadwick to convince him to take part in our shoot. With a little sweet talk, we had Chapel Hill’s most eligible bachelor on board for a glamorous night of modeling.
The plan for the shoot was to get several angles of the romantic date scene and work some Photoshop magic later to better isolate the pair at the table.
The next thing we needed was a location to create the scene of a romantic night out with a laptop. We set up a makeshift studio, with DTH visual managing editor Allie Russell’s MacBook making a cameo as the lucky lady for the night. The lighting situation was as sketchy as many online dating sites, but Katie and I were able to rearrange the lamps in the room to get the dim, sultry type of lighting we wanted.
I arrived on location and poured a glass of wine to set the mood (Not really. The glasses of wine were props for the photo). I sat and pondered the possibilities.
So we began. The air was thick with romance as I started to shoot. We used a light source at four corners around the table and I also used an external flash to bounce light off the ceiling to brighten Bryan’s face as well as the table settings. Using this lighting strategy, we were able to get a decent amount of light on the table without making it look too bright. You can get an idea of the lighting set-up in this photo.
And here’s how it came out on film.
We tried several poses, just feeling it out, seeing what felt natural. Katie held the lights as needed, Bryan posed, and I shot. We came up with new angles as the shoot progressed and everyone was satisfied when it was all over.
Here are a few angles we went for. None are edited as they would have been had the illustration gone in the paper, but I think that almost makes the emotions feel all the more authentic.
Sadly, this love story doesn’t have a happily ever after. The story’s focus ended up shifting from online dating to a broader commentary on the dating scene for UNC students. The illustration was too specific and didn’t accurately represent the story.
But we still wanted to give love a chance, so we decided this photo illustration experience was worthy of a Visually Speaking post. Even though it didn’t run in the paper, I think we all answered some important questions that night. Is romance still alive? I can’t say for sure, but one thing is for certain: sparks flew across a couple of glasses of Cupcake Merlot that night.
Email photo@dailytarheel.com to purchase prints, ask for dating advice, or get Bryan’s number to thank him for being a good sport.
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