BTS - I want to see Paris (Bioshock Infinite)

1. This was the edited RAW shot from the camera. I bumped up the colour temperature in Camera Raw to make it look warmer like the colours of Columbia in the game. I got Pockami to pretend that she was opening up a portal in front of a lot of strangers on the Town Hall steps. LOL.

2. Next, I created a ripple effect via zigzag tool in Photoshop. Then I proceeded to add a spiral zoom effect on it. The intention of this was so that it looked as if the portal is fluid to our eyes. I do like my edits to be somewhat fantasy like but still grounded in reality (if that makes any sense).

3. I created a copy of the ripple and played with the blend mode of this layer. I proceeded to go with the “lighten” option and overlay it on top of the original artwork.

4 & 5. I placed this composite in front of the chosen background of Paris. And boy was it difficult to find a stock photo that will roughly match to what I had in mind. Finding the right combination of the Elizabeth photo and the BG photo took AGES to do. In hindsight, I should have chosen the background photo first before attempting to merge 2 photos together. It’s hard enough to find a photo of Paris that somewhat resembles the one in the game, let alone trying to match and balance the right colouration.

6. I added a strong sepia filter followed by a medium strength warming filter in Photoshop. I want this scene to look vintage to match the ambience and atmosphere of the Elizabeth composite.

7. You can actually see the REAL Eiffel tower in the photo, but since the Elizabeth composite is going to obstruct it, I had to put in ANOTHER Eiffel tower in the photo. The fake tower was deep etched and added with a colour overlay on top to match the photo.

8 & 9. This is the result of putting the 2 images together. It’s the best match that I could possibly do with my limited knowledge, time and resources. I am quite happy with the result to be honest. To further add the story element to the photo, I added a light flare (which was appropriate given the original photo was taken against the light) and the Songbird.

Let me know what you think of this BTS in the comments below. Would love to hear from you.

Andy