run, man | run

this image is fake. it took me about 20 minutes to create:

a man runs back to get his suitcase.

a well-made fake photograph needs a good caption. that’s why i called it “a man runs back to get his suitcase”. i could have written: “wrong train, hurry!” or: “platform 8, man, not 18!”

the running man is three dimensional object from a 3D library. his running motion is also from that library. this is what he looks like in my 3D animation software:

our running man is a synthetic 3d character.

as you might see, i lit him up with a background orange light source. i also added a pinch of motion blur, which is a typical effect when photographing fast moving objects.

below is the original photograph. it’s the only “real” thing in this experiment:

frankfurt main station. photo: ms/pictureAlliance

aesthetically the composite image is better, because it’s so well belanced. the original lacks a foreground, a key visual element. the train serves as a wall of reflected light, and the people on the platform are too far away. the man running towards us is filling this gap with an controversal motion.