The Fine Print
Despite appearances, Pollo Del Mar did not actually travel to Japan to shoot the photos for the "Live in Japan Town". We found that Photoshop was much cheaper than four plane tickets. I had a lot of fun putting together the CD booklet, and assembling the shots of PDM in Japan. We hope that one day we will be able to tour Japan, but in the meantime, this will have to do.
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The Ventures "Live In Japan" is one of my favorite albums, and I wanted to pay homage not just musically, but also to the visual style of The Ventures. |
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After some searching, I found this photo. Its really nothing more than a tourist snapshot taken outside a temple. |
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The first step in the process is to remove the distractions. Who ever invented the cloning tool in Photoshop is an evil genius, and probably worked for the CIA in the misinformation department. I showed this image to our photographer Lisa Straube, and she adjusted her camera location to match the perspective of the original. |
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Lisa set up about 30 ft. away from us, in front of a spare background (which makes it much easier to remove later). We assumed the pose... to capture the vibe of the photos from the 60s, it is very important to have a consistent angle for the guitar necks. |
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Here are the two photos merged. The most important part of creating a convincing illusion is adding shadows. There are lots of ways in Photoshop to add shadows, but I have found that cloning shadows already available in the background look the best. |
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This is my favorite. First we start with this totally anonymous snapshot taken in a sushi bar. |
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The band was cracking up setting up this shot. We had to do a little method acting here. Notice Jeff pointing up at the menu? |
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We probably could have found a sushi bar in San Francisco, but this was more fun. |
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This pose by Gerry and the Pacemakers is pretty funny. |
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For a background, I found a snapshot of this temple. Notice the angle of the pathway. |
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Once again, we set up the the shot taking into consideration the angle present in the background. |
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Having the angles alligned makes for a seemless merge. |
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This was another possibility for a cover shot, the inspiration starts with this mildy dorky promo shotof the Buddy Holly band. |
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And this is a well know shopping area in Tokyo known as the Shinjuku Disrtict. the huge signs are ads for an electronics store, and the pink sign on the left is a bus stop. |
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And here's our mugs... but I tell you this, put any criminal in a turtleneck and sport coat and he looks damn presentable. |
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Voila... travel toJapan without ever leaving home! |
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