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My Award winning Project in The Communication Arts Photography Annual 2017

The Winning Image!

Communication Arts Photography Annual 2017

Its things like this that make all the blood sweat and tears worth it in this industry. Through crazy clients, tight deadlines and hauling gear up the side of a mountains, its amazing to be recognized by your peers for the work that has been put in.

I have been selected to be featured in the Communication Arts 2017 Photography Annual.

This is a highly prestigious achievement for me as this image was chosen as one of 141 winners out of 3736 Entries from elite photographers around the world.

Communication Arts is a professional journal for designers, art directors, design firms, corporate design departments, agencies, illustrators, photographers and everyone involved in visual communications. Through its editorials, feature articles and the annual competitions it sponsors, Communication Arts provides new ideas and information, while promoting the highest professional standards for the field.

I was contacted by an art director colleague asking if i would be interested in working with Noise Digital on a new project they had coming up.
After some preliminary conversations, the team was commissioned to shoot some images for a print and online ad campaign by British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s PLAYNOW sports betting on the NHL playoffs

We were commissioned to shoot the model as if they were being smashed up against the boards in a hockey arena like they would be in a game. These images were going to be used for print and online ad campaigns in Canada.
The goal for the campaign was to create some eye catching and intense images of a hockey player being checked into the glass wall in an arena, without actually being on location.

We had a great team solving problems as they arose, but we all had a good idea of how to move through the shoot systematically so that the post work was relatively pain free.

The shoot was a lot of fun for everyone.
It was a great atmosphere, and especially funny when trying to get some “realistic” face squashing and saliva coming of out his mouth, everyone had a good laugh.

It is always fun to work on projects that allow the team to be creative and try new things.
One of the biggest challenges was mounting the plexiglass to be able to press someone’s face against it without it moving at all.

We came up with all kinds of crazy rigs that didn’t really work and eventually settled of the good old trusty  C-Stand to hold it in place, which worked great.


We had good reference materials, which gave us a good idea of the lighting scenarios in a hockey arena and this is where we were lucky to work
with an amazing retoucher Istvan (Steve) Pinterwho was able to guide the team and give some advice on how to go about creating an image that would be easy to be worked on later in post.

Here is a small write-up from the retoucher Istvan (Steve) Pinter:

“An excellent example of a simple yet challenging image. Erich took care of the key feature of the talents face smushed against the glass. I was tasked with heightening the impact, combining the studio shot with a location background and some stylistic changes. The most challenging one was the concern that our hero should have a white helmet instead of the black one. With the help of a couple of adjustment layers and masks applied to a frequency separated helmet, and voila black helmet turned white. Other key changes involved the jersey. Creative direction changed and the jersey needed to look more polished. I ironed the wrinkles with a bit of frequency separation. The original logo was removed and the sleeves and collar made more “NHL” looking without invoking a specific team. All this is wrapped up with a nice crunchy treatment to the image to heighten the drama.”

After some final image changes from both Noise Digital and the client, we reached a consensus on the final image.

HERE IT IS:

ESP15338_Boards0200_RGB_AWARDS---2400px

I want to say a huge thank you to all involved in the project, it was a pleasure working with all of you and I look forward to all the future projects together:

ERICH SAIDE, photographer
AARON AUBREY, assistant photographer
GARY SYLVESTER, art director
BRIAN KRENZER, creative director
ISTVAN (STEVE) PINTER, retoucher
ARROW TYAS, hair stylist/makeup artist
RYAN CRANE, Richard’s International Model Management, model
NOISE DIGITAL, ad agency
BRITISH COLUMBIA LOTTERY CORPORATION, client

Erich Saide

I am a Vancouver, Canada Based Commercial photographer shooting fashion, editorial, bands promotional material, model portfolio's and more

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