El Dave Photography

The R-Type fighter arrived late last week from Wolf Airbase in an undisclosed location in New Mexico. If you have never played R-Type, Wikipedia has an excellent summary of why I love/hate it so much:

The original R·Type was well-received by most gaming critics. However, it was also infamous for its relentless difficulty. It earned 7th place in IGN's Top 10 most difficult games to beat. The gameplay of R·Type is noticeably distinct among shoot 'em ups. Invariably the player will lose, not because of an inequality in firepower, but because of the design of the levels themselves. There is usually a 'correct' way to get through a level, but players must learn these by experience - ie. by losing and restarting from earlier in the level.

Had I been a smarter kid and simply walked away from the game, there's no telling what riches I may have today. I might even have enough to just buy my own arcade cabinet (soon my precious, soon). No matter how insanely difficult the levels were, I loved R-Type. To this day I love R-Type.

I am a fool.

The setup for this shot couldn't be more simple. Grab a fitting picture of a nebula (outer space in general is pretty) and pose the fighter in front. Open the F-Stop all the way up to F22 so we're sure to get the ship and the background in focus, and hit the shutter. Import the file to Photoshop and reopen the space backdrop as a new Layer. Move the image with the R-Type to the top Layer and add a Layer Mask. From there all you have to do is paint over the plastic stand and viola! Instant quarter grabbing goodness.

I'm the last EXIF Fighter.

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	15 sec (15)
Aperture:	f/22
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:03:24 12:17:58
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:03:24 08:57:39
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:03:24 08:57:39
Shutter Speed:	-256041/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	3888 pixels
Image Height:	2592 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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