Never, EVER leave your Wingman with Jesse Feyereisen

Words by Jesse Feyereisen - A Platypod Pro
Edited by Eryka Bagwell

"Never, ever leave your wingman.” - Jester, Top Gun

"A classic line from the original Top Gun that I decided to use as a theme for one of my photo projects. Here I’ve got a pair of TIE Fighters practicing some combat maneuvers as they’re screaming through space."

"This shot ended up being a little more complex than I meant it to be. First off, I have 2 different scale ships here, a large 15” wing version in the front and a much smaller 3” version in the back. I photographed both of them in frame together, but ultimately had to use 2 separate shots because I just couldn’t get both in focus in a single shot (note to self, learn focus stacking techniques). I added a 3rd shot of me holding a red Lume Cube just above the open cockpit of the front Tie to illuminate the inside of the cockpit. Black backdrop behind them and then lit the rest of the scene with a pair of Godox AD200s in softboxes, in front, and behind the tabletop setup. Setup my camera at an angle on my trusty Platypod eXtreme and Platyball Elite ball head and fired off some shots."

"Afterwards in Photoshop I combined the 3 shots (Front Tie, Rear Tie, and cockpit lights) and replaced the black backdrop with a star field. I wanted this shot to feel a bit chaotic so I added motion blur to both the star field and some rotational blur to the TIEs. Added some light to the front guns and duplicated the front cockpit onto the rear Tie as well. Finally added a good ‘ol lens flare with Boris FX Optics. Finished off back in Lightroom with a color grade and final crop."

Check out this shot and more like it at: https://www.jessefphotography.com/blog

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