Freeze Fame: Hillel Dov

“This was one of the more memorable Lets Roll NY sessions to go down. Billy O’Neil, Jeph Howard, Chris Farmer, Dave Lang, OG NY rippers like Jon Ortiz, Ryan Jacklone, Dave Ortega and others I’m forgetting all showed up to session Pier 62. It was the first session I’d shot in a long, long time and I was having a lot of trouble keeping up with everyone. Farmer laced the soul up the bank ledge to drop soul on the straight ledge. Ortiz hit the backside royale with steez across the whole ledge that Billy O’Neill is disaster fishbraining. Dudes were going off.

I put together this 3D typography experiment for I Roll NY but it wound up not working for the original plans. It’s dope that it’s running now since it was just about a year ago to the day that this was shot.The photo itself doesn’t have a lot of manipulation to it. Standard levels, saturation and sharpening. (Seriously, and no I didn’t add the fucking lens flare in PS) But I did spend a bitch of a time in the new (at the time) repousse plug-in in photoshop. 3D ain’t easy. At some point you kinda have to accept that it’s never gonna look real (at least with my skills) and just focus on the lighting.

Lighting is everything. Even if the textures don’t completely make sense, your brain will accept the 3D as possible if the lighting is right. And perspective, that’s definitely a big one. The right perspective is what makes the text look like it’s sitting and not floating. Like any technique, you need to use it when appropriate. Like drop-shadows, 3D won’t always be the right execution. But to me it send the right message, which is, standing strong in the middle of everything” – Hillel Dov.

Tags: Billy Oneill, freeze fame, Hillel Dov