Step 1: Come up with your concept. Our concept is to have an extreme snowboarder in dazzling 3D. For added effect, let's add in some animation. We can obtain the deepest 3D by bringing separate elements into Photoshop and placing each element on separate layers. Photographing in true 3D (by using a multi-lens camera or single camera on a slider or track) provides nice rounding effects, but severely limits the amount of depth available. We create an informal storyboard, similar to what you see in Step 6. This forces us to think about what images we will use for different "depth cues" in the finished piece.

Step 2: We start photographing our elements. We look for a shot that has several of the elements we desire. Blue sky with clouds. Snow capped mountains. Trees at varying distances. A snow covered meadow to help traverse distance. The hill our snowboarder launches from was photographed separately and brought into the foreground. We may photograph individual trees, clouds, and different skies. The airborne snow clumps were thrown in the air and captured in multiple photographs. We combine all our elements for the perfect background composite.

Step 3: Our next task is in our photo studio. We print out the background image and pose our model to conform to the background. The model can be on the ground or suspended from a hoist. We later changed the color of his pants, gloves, and sunglasses for better contrast and depth cues.

Step 4: We bring all our elements into a single Photoshop file. We convert some of our photo shots from 2D into 3D by separating trees from backgrounds, etc. Each element is placed on separate layers. When trees are cut out from the background, we need to clone in the voids created. This is highly detailed work.

Step 5: We add in subtle details to enhance the 3D perception. Adding snow highlights to some of the tree branches gives added contrast and provides better depth cues.