Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Portrait Retouching Tutorial
I've had a few people asking me about my post production workflow for portraits so I thought I'd share. Photo retouching can be a daunting task and it's hard to know where to start. Too often, photographers rely on "magical" plugins and expensive Photoshop actions that supposedly offer one-click retouching (hint: no such thing). I've yet to find a one-click solution that doesn't destroy all the detail in a person's skin. In the words of the Beatles, "Photoshop is all you need." Well, you also need to develop an eye for retouching, but that will come with practice. A word of warning: Photoshop is a very powerful tool and the beginner's ...
September 1st, 2010 | 4 Comments | Trackback | Tags: photography, tutorial
Underwater
Summer is upon us. It's been well over 100 degrees the last two weeks with no end in sight. The secret to beating the heat is to never, under any circumstance, leave the pool. You want your photo taken? Sure! As long as I don't have to get out of the pool. Here are a few pics from a just-for-fun shoot with Amanda, aka Salamanda. I had one day left on an underwater housing rental and wanted to try something different. We didn't have time to put together a wardrobe so Amanda pulled something from her closet - a wedding dress. Light came from a single 1.2Kw HMI. It was pointed into ...
July 22nd, 2010 | 3 Comments | Trackback | Tags: photography, underwater
Wireless DSLR Tethering to iPad
I love shooting tethered. Viewing my photos on a large screen *while* shooting makes critical evaluations of exposure, focus, and composition much easier. Clients love it, too. They get a confidence boost from being able to see the photos as they're taken. On commercial shoots, tethering is a must. You can't have the client, art director, and make up artist all crowding around a tiny 3" screen on the back of the camera. As much as I love shooting tethered, sometimes it's just not practical to lug a computer around, especially on remote location shoots. More gear means more crew. And more crew means bigger budgets (something that's sadly lacking in the industry ...
June 21st, 2010 | 34 Comments | Trackback | Tags: iPad, photography, solutions
Stop Motion, Stop
I've been itching to try some stop motion lately and luckily found a project that seemed suited to the technique. Here is a TVC I created for a women's health fair event (sidenote: TVC is industry-speak for "television commercial"). The challenge was to visually show a connection between "health, fitness, and fashion." Shooting stop motion allowed for some creative transitions that helped tie the three themes together. Notice there are no cuts in this spot. And now some technical details. We shot this on a blue paper backdrop. It was lit with a couple of kino four-banks from the front. I went with hot lights instead of strobes to eliminate any potential ...
April 20th, 2010 | Comment | Trackback | Tags: BTS, commercial, lighting, MKII, photography, video
High-Output Beauty Dish
Here are a few MadMen inspired shots of my friend Jim. Though I'd never seen Jim smoke a cigar before, this is how I always picture him in my head - a bit of daring, with a dash of dashing. Jim has a long resume that is full of acronyms like CEO and MBA. I don't know what any of those mean but I do know that Jim is a nice guy and a good friend. Lyn and I set up a little photoshoot last week to test out the newly arrived backdrop (ordered it here: neutral gray), and the new high-output beauty dish. The lighting setup for these shots was pretty simple: beauty dish ...
February 9th, 2010 | 2 Comments | Trackback | Tags: lighting, photography, stuff I use
On-axis Fill
Had a little free time last week so I pulled together an impromptu shoot with some friends. This was an experiment to test out some lighting setups with on-axis fill. On-axis light is light that is on the same axis as your camera lens; e.g. your on-camera flash. This kind of light illuminates everything very evenly, creating a flat, and generally unflattering image. It's akin to xeroxing your subject. The idea here is to create shadow and depth with some off-axis lighting and then let the on-axis ring flash (AB800R) act as a fill and lift those shadows out of the dark. Daniel (pictured) mapped out the the setups on his nifty Strobox ...
January 11th, 2010 | 4 Comments | Trackback | Tags: lighting, photography
Fashionistas
My wife is slowly teaching me what it means to be well dressed. Thus far I've learned: shoes and belt color should match, and denim does not go with MORE denim. During this little impromptu photo session with Lyn (wife) and Kallie (friend), I also learned that with you can never have too many layers. This is true in Photoshop, too. I'm all about the layers. I usually make a new layer for every step in the edit. Healing brush, dodge and burn, sharpening, curves - each major step lives on its own layer. And I always keep the original layer in the stack, too. That way I can go back if ...
January 4th, 2010 | 3 Comments | Trackback | Tags: camera test, lighting, photography
Lance & Laura Nuptials
Finally finished up the edit for my cousin's wedding back in Colorado. Here's a gallery with a few of my favorites. It was fun seeing some of the extended family, many of whom I hadn't seen in 10 years or so, including my cousin Matt. He was a great resource for me when I was first learning about photography. Back in 'those' days we shot film and had to walk to the photo lab, through the snow, uphill, both ways, etc, etc, kids these days with their rap music and digital cameras... Since I traveled to Colorado by plane, my gear was limited to what I could fit in a carry on ...
November 23rd, 2009 | 4 Comments | Trackback | Tags: photography, wedding
Skate ‘N Strobe
Here are a few spur-of-the-moment shots from the local skating rink. We threw this shoot together very last minute with the help of a Facebook casting call (don't forget to follow via Facebook and Twitter!) I first tried setting up the light on a stand and had the skaters roll by as I shot. This yielded horrible results. I quickly realized that I needed to get the camera and light rolling along with the skaters, at a consistent distance, to get consistent focus and exposure. Well, it just so happens that I spent a good portion of the '90s roller skating on a weekly basis. Yes, I was THAT kid. I skated in ...
October 18th, 2009 | Comment | Trackback | Tags: MKII, musings, photography
Prouty Wedding
Lyn and I had the honor of shooting Ryan and Nancy's nuptials a few weeks ago. Here are few of our favorites. ...
August 31st, 2009 | 4 Comments | Trackback | Tags: photography, wedding
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