I don't shoot too many family portraits these days, but I can always count on the Morris family to jump head first into something interesting. For their 2016 edition, the family wanted to recreate the classic look of workmen taking a break on a beam high above NYC. I thought the idea was cool, but Goshen, Indiana doesn't have any skyscrapers under construction... or any skyscrapers for that matter. So photoshop would be the weapon of choice this year.
Mom procured the costumes, and dad made the beam out of wood and painted it gray. Now all we needed to do was get them off the ground 90 feet or so. Since the dog is afraid of heights, we propped the beam up on a couple of buckets and shot the family using only sunlight.
For the background shot, we enlisted the help of a friend of the family who has a drone. He got us this lovely shot of downtown Goshen. Bringing the two images together was a bit challenging as the focal lengths are at odds. The drone shot is quite wide angle, while the family shot is more in the normal range (roughly 50mm). I had to crop and warp the drone shot pretty extensively to get it even close.
As realistic composites go, it's certainly not perfect. But it was a lot of fun. The family was pleased to befuddle family and friends by putting it on their Christmas card.