Question about unquestionable pro Photographer

A buddy at work (fellow photographer) brought a National Geographic to me today. He wanted me to see an article on Katrina and the aftermath of the hurricane on Louisianna.

The photographer was David Burnett. The first picture looked extremely staged to both of us. I looked him up online and found his website. Guess what, that is the opening image on his website.

What do you guys think? What is his Technique? Is this staged? Kinda looks like it could be a lens baby shot.

http://www.davidburnet​t.com/

(mustang in the sand)

http://www.davidburnet​t.com …ry.html?gallery​=Aftermath

Most of these were in the National Geographic magazine.

I would be interested in knowing what equipment it was shot with. Though I am not an expert by any means, I understand that large format (think 8 x 10) can have that shallow of a dof at that distance.

Without further info, it is hard to say.

Just on a "what it looks like" basis - I think it looks like a Hot Wheels sized car shot with a macro lens.

I think lens baby is less likely as the blur created by one is usually circular, rather than planar.

My 2 cents.

Rad

The lens baby remark was more sarcasm than anything. My "what it looks like" reaction was obviously the same as yours.

If you browsed his aftermath section, I think he over uses vigetting (sp). He is an outstanding photographer obviously since he does work for National Geographic.

I'm not trying to insult the man. I am not worthy of being in the same room with him. I would however like to know how he achived that effect.

You can get that kind of a look with any camera that has lens tilt/shift. View camera 8x10, 4X5 etc. or with a Canon DSLR with a T/S lens. You can also simulate this in Photoshop however being a 'Photojournalist' I'm assuming he did it in camera.

Another Photographer that uses T/S to shoot cities from Helocopter.

How to simulate in Photoshop

Possibly because of this?

Article from that same nat geo.

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haha, nice!

"RTFM"

Thats what I was thinking, that or maybe a model car, some wet sand and twigs with some buildings from a model train set.

my 2 cents anyways

I like it. It's like looking at a diorama shot, giving you the impression of shallow DOF.

There's another shot of heavy machinery digging up rubble and it looks like a toy Tonka.

More pics here..
http://www9.nationalge​ographic.com …/feature1/multi​media.html

I love the way these images look. My idea of a digital future in photography would include something similar to the equipment used for these shots....stunning.

Ryan

I had the same impression when I 1st saw the picture.

The old adage stands "...its not what you know its who you know..."

You can be the greatest photographer in the world if you don't have the right connection nobody will know you or your work.

Its a technique called frame tilting and you can a bit more read about it here

http://www.discover.co​m/issues/jul-06/rd/toys/

I've seen this model/toy look before and I love it. Definately makes me want a T/S lens or a large format camera. I belive that in the same way that you can increase dof you can also decrease it just by tilting in the opposite direction. Hence making it look like photo of a small toy taken with a macro/close up lens.
After this link I bet half this site wants a Canon T/S lens, I sure do, Dellboy.
ps third party T/S lenses are available, check on eBay, there quite cheap too

Heh, thats how I got my job.....

It depends what means staged. If staged means small car models etc. as someone mentioned then it's definitely not staged. TS (tilt shift) lenses do exactly this, and you don't even need large format camera for this. It works same way on 35mm too.
If staged means that people were posing for him, then yes they were staged.