How to do Exploded View Photography

Have you ever wondered how those fantastic “exploded view” photographs of machinery, that we often see in magazine and books, are made. This brief but revealing video by Adam Voorhes, is basically a time lapse sequence of him setting an exploded view of a Kawasaki motorbike:

All the separate components of the bike are hung from a rig, in the correct position using wires and supported on boxes. Once all is set, the machine is lit and the images made. Some deft work in Photoshop is done to remove the wires and boxes resulting in the final, fascinating image.

exploded view photography

Finished Product (Click to See Larger View)

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3 responses to “How to do Exploded View Photography”

  1. Rick says:

    Photoshop piece by piece… Nah… In that case, it would have been even easier simply to get a CG model from the manufacturer. They musty have one and most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference!

  2. Randall says:

    Wouldn’t it have been easier to take an individual pic of each part hanging and layer them in photoshop rather than making sure each and every wire was the exact length to give it a dead on angle and alignment with the other parts hanging?

  3. Excellent! Very interesting.

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