Cosplay At 1000 Feet - Superheroes Pose On A Skyscraper Edge

Fanghawk

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Cosplay At 1000 Feet - Superheroes Pose On A Skyscraper Edge

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong represented superheroes the only way he knew how - putting cosplay models on a skyscraper edge and taking their picture.

that made ordinary people look like athletes, Von Wong recreated the scope of superheroics by putting cosplayers on the edge of a San Francisco skyscraper before taking their picture.

"It's a fantasy we've all had at some point," Von Wong wrote on his website. "We imagine ourselves standing on the edge of a building, overlooking the city, hair blowing in the wind. As we get older, we stop dreaming. We stop believing that anything is possible because we've seen too much of what isn't. And that is why I wanted to photograph ordinary people as superheroes - so that they could see themselves as they had once dreamed.

"I wanted to capture the fearlessness of superheroes - without a green screen or cheap special effects."

Von Wong picked out a group of ordinary employees from SmugMug Films - specifically "dads, engineers, and customer service" staff. Each model brought their own costume before being hooked up to a safety cable, inching as close to the drop as possible, and posing for a photograph. The camera itself - a Nikon D800 - was attached to a triple riser steel boom stand and controlled remotely by the camera.

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The results are gorgeous to look at, and more than a little thrilling when you consider the perspective wasn't produced with computer effects. Speaking personally, I'd have a lot of trouble getting close to that edge no matter what I was wearing, but the models seem to have enjoyed themselves immensely by the end of the day. (Perhaps partly because they could go home and hug their loved ones.)

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It's too bad there weren't any Superman or Batman shots in there - the capes would have looked fantastic from that height. But regardless, there are now two things cosplayers can do that I haven't: Make impressive costumes, and stand on a building's edge without completely losing their nerves.

Source: PetaPixel

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Skeleon

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Andrzej Sugier said:
Is it only me, or do those photos look incredibly fake?
Yeah. Assuming these are real, they still - and I don't quite know how - look like the skyscrapers are some sort of 3D-rendered backdrop rather than the real deal. Maybe it's something to do with the lighting? Or the editing done to remove the necessary safety apparatus? Weird.
 

Angelous Wang

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Oct 18, 2011
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Andrzej Sugier said:
Is it only me, or do those photos look incredibly fake?
Yeah, that because even though they are pictures of real people in real posses they've had to photoshop all of the health and safety gear out and then photoshop the rest of image to match the photoshoping.

It very hard to just photoshop a specific area and magically have it match it match the original, which leads to more and more photoshoping.

Also the human eye/brain get a bit weird processing birds-eye images especially with a focus item in them. Just go look up skydiving on goggle images and a lot of the legit images will look a little weird (though you will find plenty of real fakes there too).
 

Ukomba

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Those costumes are pretty week, and they went through a lot of effort for a picture that might have looked more real if it were faked. I think the problem is the angel. If they'd taken the picture with a telephoto lenses from another building over, it might have looked better than a straight down shot.
 

Guffe

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I first looked at the pictures... frist thought "Those guys are fucking retarded, I would NOT step onto a skyscraper without safetygear"
Then I watched the video and was like "phew, but still too little safetygear for me" :p
 

Scarim Coral

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The Mystique photo look more like a drawing (it's the lighting effect on her body).

Also no offence to the two ameteur costume guys but if you're going to get an incredible shot, their costume should also look incredible to matched it. Still I rather be happy with the result they got then to get all superficial about it.
 

LordLundar

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Skeleon said:
Andrzej Sugier said:
Is it only me, or do those photos look incredibly fake?
Yeah. Assuming these are real, they still - and I don't quite know how - look like the skyscrapers are some sort of 3D-rendered backdrop rather than the real deal. Maybe it's something to do with the lighting? Or the editing done to remove the necessary safety apparatus? Weird.
It's the foreign angle. It's one that is not often (if ever) seen in reality that the human mind cannot comprehend it properly. As such it tries to find a frame of reference that matches it and the closest thing is fictional works that are either heavily edited (chroma key) or completely fabricated (like in comics).
 

DoPo

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I didn't know Harley Quinn was a super hero. Or Mistique. Though, I suppose most mutants from X-Men can be called "super". Even then, Mistique isn't usually the hero type (although, I'm sure she had done heroics at various points in time).
 

Batou667

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Nice concept, but the end result looks so fake they may as well just have CG'd or greenscreened the whole thing.