Sully's Transformation into The Mandalorian

At the beginning of November, I was approached by my friend Missy, asking about my experience with Photoshop. It seemed like a loaded question, but I bit and said that I am learning something new every day. We texted back and forth and shared a photo of her ten-year old son, Sully, in his awesome Mandalorian Halloween costume. Several years ago, Sully had professional photos taken as Thor with lightning bolts added. Sully wanted updated photos, but make it Star Wars.

I told Missy I was up for the challenge, albeit very nervous. Sully is an awesome kid, and I definitely did not want to disappoint him in these photos. I am not a Star Wars fan (dodges thrown rotten tomatoes thrown her way). Buuuuut my husband and children are. So, I talked to my husband and asked his advice on settings and scenery. Nathan informed me that The Mandalorian takes place in a desert. Everything is dry and dusty. Hmm, ok. Missy and I brainstormed possible locations. Could we maybe do a sandy beach like Raccoon River? Finally, we settled on The Ledges State Park in Boone. The huge rocky backdrop was similar to the setting of the show.

It had been years since I had been to The Ledges, and I didn't even consider the fact that the giant rocky crags would impede cell phone reception. Luckily Missy and her caravan of adorable curly haired boys found me.

The photo on the left is my SOOC (straight out of camera) photo. I was quite pleased with my exposure and white balance in camera. The photo on the right is how I transformed the photo to make it more epic for Sully.

The planet, Mon Cala, where The Mandalorian takes place is a dusty and desert planet, as previously mentioned. I had my work cut out for me with creating that scenery. I did a lot of composite work by cutting Sully out and placing him in different backgrounds and creating dust storms around him. Grogu, my boys' toy, also joined Sully for a few shots. The photo above on the far right may seem subtle but I had to cut and paste both Sully and Grogu and create shadows so they don't look like they're just floating.

I also had to remove the green leaves and grass in the photos to try and replicate a desert. It was time consuming, but from what Sully offered in feedback, it was definitely worth it.

Sully had to explain to me that the Mandalorian is neither a good guy or a bad guy. He's just a bounty hunter and sometimes he helps the Empire and sometimes he works for the Resistance.

I'm incredibly pleased with how the photos turned out. I've already received a Christmas card from the family, and I was ecstatic to see that one of the photos made it into the card. I learned so much during this process. The creative wheels were turning, and it fed my soul to create. Sully was also a dream to collaborate with. He's a decade old but he has amazing ideas.