1969

Groovy, baby.

Twelve years ago we shot our holiday photo in Central Park. The theme was "The Fifties." (It's a mid-'50s Buick, so let's say 1957.)

We decided to re-create and update the photo. Because I'm very good at math, I added twelve years to 1957 and came up with 1969.

Here's the locale: Upper West Side, near the 81st Street entrance.

Here's the raw photo, pre-Photoshop:

I liked this shot because of the way Ethan's left leg jutted out at the camera--very Jagger. (Paul Revere and the Raiders? Herman's Hermits?)

We tried various cars for the background, but none looked quite right: the lighting was off, the shadows were off, the angle was off.

As soon as I put in the red Jag, I said, "This is it."

A few Photoshop notes:

1. The yellow leaves reflecting off the windshield were a complete coincidence. I didn't have to do anything in Photoshop. :)

2. I copied part of the background (leaves on the ground) and layered it over the top of the car's ground shadow, then gave it about 50% opacity. That made the leaves appear under the car.

3. The foreground of the photo was too sparse, so I copied and pasted some leaves from further back in the photo to add more color.

4. Since this was 1969, I added an small "ERA" political button to Jen's lapel.

5. Minor detail: I removed the sign from the lamppost in the background. It didn't look 1969.

6. The Checker cab in the background was the hardest part. I found the image on the web, reversed it, shrunk it, and laid it into the photo.

I gave it 10% motion blur (thanks for the suggestion, Ethan):

Then I copied and pasted some foliage over the front end and pruned it back just a bit:

Finally I copied and pasted the bridge railing over the top and manually erased the area between each rail. Voila:

The font is "Psychadelia." I gave it a "Distort>Bulge" for an extra 1969 groovy feel. The pink flowers are a font called "Suri's Flower Ding." 

And there you have it. Peace, Love, out.