Superheros at my door

I have been very very busy lately and have felt like i've been chained to my office chair. So friday after work i said to myself "not touching my camera this weekend. Going to read, go for a run or three, and thats it." Then Friday night two superheros rang my doorbell. I had my lighting figured out before the cat ran outside. Main light up high pointing down at a 45 degree angle (sb flash zoomed in to 85mm and at full power), background light behind them pointing directly at their backs and zoomed to 85mm at full power. With superheros they will complain if you dont use full power. Its all or nothing. I laid on the ground in front of them with a 24mm lens to maximize the sky which was looking pretty cool. Managed about 10 shots before their bedtime. In photoshop i upped the clarity, used topaz detail 2 a bit, and then imported back to lightroom to use the bleach bypass preset filter (i think that was the one i used). I did this on a seperate layer so i could lower the opacity and flavor to taste. I also retouched my lightstand out of the background and darkened the houses and car that was on the road. I overdid the image a bit with sharpening and detail and drama but felt it needed every bit. I got up at 8 this morning and saw the two of them, back in costume, running up the sidewalk by my house. You can never go wrong with a couple superheros in the neighborhood.

dramatic sky hdr

I had a few minutes tonight while leaving a wedding and the sky and light was very nice. Grabbed my tripod and did a 9 stop bracket of this building with a 24mm lens. I ran 5 images through photomatix and then used topaz detail 2 on most of the image (did the whole thing then masked out the sky and a bit of the foreground). I applied a heavy vignette and masked out the building and a bit of the flowers. The flag was moving so it was pretty messed up. To fix it i opened one of the images and stripped in the flag. I retouched a bit of the messy one out. I was going for nice and dramatic.

145 layers

I was very fortunate to work with a great team recently to produce a photo that i was very very happy with. I photographed 142 individual people one evening over a span of three hours and spent the entire next day selecting people and pasting them into this one comp. I have done this type of work before several times but this was the most amount of people i have done in one image. I used the photoshop 6 beta and it worked perfectly. Not one hitch or crash, however i did save often. For selections i used the quick selection tool and then the refine edge command with smart radius selected with a radius of 10 pixels and a feather of .3. For most i then had to zoom in and use quick mask to tweak my selection as patterned clothing did not select well and the white hats had some troubles also. I used an action for refine edge as i did it on each image. I would then drag the person onto the comp and use another action for matting - defringe by 1 pixel. I then just arranged the layers for look which was the fun part. I was exhausted after this job was complete but it was well worth it when i saw the look on the conference attendees faces when they saw it for the first time.

photoshop cs6 beta

I have been using the cs6 beta since it was released and i really like it. One of the new features, used in the photos above is the tilt shift blur in the filters menu. I have created it on this blog before but it was a much longer involved process. Now its just a filter and very easy to use and modify. I put together the images above very quickly and if i had taken more time i would have put the blur on its own layer and then made the transition from sharp to blur more subtle. Away from photoshop now and on to photography. Its funny how some photoshoots go. Sometimes you predetermine your setup, have the lights all prearranged, and even know the poses that you will do during the shoot. Sometimes however you wait and let the subject determine what will happen in the shoot. For this one i did a standard more traditional setup for a "safety shot" and then let my subject, or in this case my subjects waredrobe, dictate the rest of the look. For the shot on the left i used one strip softbox and for the shot on the right i used two of them. I placed the dark suit against a bright background for contrast and moved the light around till it hit him the right way. The right way of course is different for everyone, there is certainly no one "right way". I was very happy with the shots and had a great time. What more could i ask for.

Bodybuilder Photography

I started my weekend with a great shoot with a local bodybuilder. I have been thinking about this shoot for about two weeks and trying to decide how i wanted to light it. What else did i have to decide really. I didn't stress about what aperature or shutter speed to use, he brought the muscles and the gym, so lighting is all thats left. I spent two evenings practicing on myself and i am really glad i did. I was not happy after night one and nailed it pretty early into night two. I ended up with three lights, two behind him and one in front as the main. Not sure if this image is the best representation if that setup as i think i moved the rear lights more to the side (cross) but in the other shots it worked like i had envisioned. I mainly just moved them because i had switched to a wide angle lens and they would have been in the shot if not. I played with the image in lightroom and then opened in photoshop and ran it through topaz detail. I did some retouching, added a vignette and sharpened and that is about it. I was very, very happy with the shoot and i really owe the success of it to my model, V. Thank you again. I just finished downloading and havent looked at many of the other images but i will and will add more soon.

Tearsheet

I am not one to toot my horn, or whatever you would like to call it, but i noticed last week that my photos made the covers of both the english and french visitor guides put out by NB Tourism. I have had many shots published but usually kind of know what they will be used for and am not surprised when i see them. Not the case for these which i found quite comical.

Orchard Walk

I went for a little walk with my camera and tripod tonight looking for an hdr background image for some compositing i want to do. The images i shot for that were ok but really just so so. As i was leaving the orchard i found this cool looking piece of tree laying there looking at me. I couldent do any hdr as my tripod does not go directly to the ground so i just held the camera to the dirt and shot. I ran this one through topaz detail, silver effects pro (made the black and white a luminosity layer which brought out the detail in the sky) and added a curve in photoshop. It was a great night weather wise and i ended up with one shot i liked. Well worth the walk.

Photoshop World 2012

I was very lucky to be able to attend photoshop world in washington dc last month. It inspired me immensely and i truly feel my shooting has improved because of it. I also had fun, alot of fun. I dont often get the time to just walk around and shoot for the hell of it. I still have not had a chance to look at many of the photos i took but i will for sure and will post a bunch here. I did process one so far. I did an hdr from three photos, ran it through silver effects pro, and then through topaz detail. This elephant was in one of the art museums we visited, cant remember the name of it right now.

engagement shoot continued

A couple more images from a great shoot.

engagement photo

I had an engagement photo session this weekend and was truly thrilled with the results.
I could not have asked for a better couple, and the red dress was incredible.
I tried to keep the shoot spontaneous and fun and to help me accomplish that i kept my flashes in the bag.
I shot 90 percent of the images with available light, even some with the sun behind them and exposed for their faces.
In this photo i laid down on the bridge with a 24mm lens and had them run towards me. I set camera focus to continuous and the drive speed to continuous low. I was lucky that more shots were in focus than were out as they would go through areas of shadow and then bright light. I kept the aperature set to f2.8, iso 100, and shutter speed wherever it fell.
I have only had a chance to go through a couple of the photos but will be adding more very soon.

still building

Played with one more angle and liked it also.
Hdr converted to black and white and a vignette added.

building hdr

This was made from 5 images sent through photomatix pro.
I then used lens correction and added a vignette. Made a mask to take the vignette off where i didnt want it.
I then mistakenly desaturated but was on the wrong layer so only the vignetted part became black and white.
I however liked the mistake and kept it as a final image.

light test

Just setting up lights for a shoot today and thought i would have some fun.
Funny part was that the door to the studio was open and a girl walked by and didn't know what i was up to.
In photoshop i cranked the clarity and then boosted the contrast. Sharpened alot also.
Added a grunge border i downloaded from the internet.

available light at f1.4

Of course i mentioned in my last post that i was a flash photo kind of guy but this weekend i kept them in the bag and used available light for a couple shots of my son. He was putting on his shoes in the first one and i ran and grabbed my camera. Getting ready for bed in the second and was lit from the tv. I thought it looked pretty cool so once again i said "dont move" and ran for the camera again.
I have been playing with a new to me black and white software called nik silver efex pro 2. It is sweet. There are lots of presets and then you can take it way further and selectively alter various areas of the image. I haven't used it much so i still have alot to learn but so far so good.

recent shoot

I did a shoot recently and happened the scene above by fluke.
I did a bunch of different setup shots that the client wanted and i mainly used two sb flashes bounced into large umbrellas for light. I had finished out back and moved to the counter shots but needed something to stand on. I went back out back to get a milk crate and this guy was cutting a muffler off. I just so happened to have my camera around my neck so i started shooting. The only light was from the torch and burning metal, with ambient bringing up the rear. I cant remember what lens i had on the camera, a 50 or a 35mm. All i know is that i wanted to get closer but was worried about getting burnt. Large groups of sparks were hitting the ground and spreading fast. I got as close as i dared and shot alot of frames.
I would certainly call myself a flash kind of guy as in pretty well every situation i am always thinking "flash would make this look great". Once in awhile i do get a surprise from the ambient.

three lights and a model

One of my favourite models i might add, and just any old three lights.
Had a main light shooting through a 24" umbrella, a hair light pointed direct but with a snoot made out of black foil, and a background light point direct and zoomed in to control the spill (sb 900 flash zoomed to 135 at a power of 1/32 and 4 steps from background).
I processed the black and white in lightroom and used a preset called b&w creative creamtone. I then tweaked the sliders a bit and opened in photoshop. Just did a little retouching and burned the floor and legs down a bit as they were quite bright.
Total time of shoot was about 5 minutes and mabey 10 more in computer.

shoot through umbrella

I was asked to do a quick shot of someone on a phone for the web the other day and he was nice enough to let me post it to my blog. I used a shoot through umbrella (medium size) with a sb flash. I placed it above the back of the computer to camera left.
My worries were many as usual, will pointing flash at his forehead blow it out in comparison to the rest of tones, will it be too bright on white computer, will body be too dark due to computer blocking light, can i get the light far enough to left due to wall, is background distracting due to window on right of image. Some of these concerns turned into small problems but overall i accepted these as what i could do with what i had available. When he looked at middle of screen his eyes were dark so i had him look at top left corner of screen and kept joking around with him for an expression (note: this is not the image that will be used on the web, its just one i liked). The shoot only took about 10 minutes, was fun, and will work for the intended purpose.

starting 2012

A new year once again and time to reflect on the past year and one to come. I have read alot of blogs of photographers speaking about the same thing but i was late in putting my thoughts into the mix.
Speaking of last year, it was great. I was happy with my work, tried some new things, and worked with some wonderful people.
Moving ahead to this year, I would like to continue, full steam ahead. One thing i would like to do is more one on one shooting, mainly for fun. I want to do a few portraits and try some new lighting things that i have been thinking about. Shoot more perhaps also, although i dont take any lack of photos in the course of a year. I bought a book for some new inspiration and have read it off and on over the christmas break. I also want to work out at the gym like a madman, in my spare time of course.
Hopefully the year will be healthy, and very happy.

christmas trees

This is more a test of posting a longer photo than anything but also wanted to put a few images up of helping a group move 700 christmas trees from a woodlot into town. Great day.
I walked around for a bit with a 24mm lens and took about 200 photos. At the end of the day i met and had a long talk with a very interesting 80 year old man who showed me his camp and told me all about his woodlot and the history around it. What i really wanted to do was photograph him in his camp but would have had to walk back to my car to get my camera which was not close at all.

fun group

I shot these individually on a white background and stripped together in photoshop.
These jobs are always fun and i love doing them.

fun night

Had a great time at state of the city address tonight and got a few good photos too.
I will post a photo in the next couple of days to explain why i have not been posting lately.

Movember

Hard to show the stash as it was very light in color but did some selective burning and dodging and put two heavy vignettes on it and masked out the areas i wanted light.
Just used one light here, softbox up high to right side. I retouched it out of the glasses.

hdr at dusk

I shot this building for a client and they requested it be done at night. That to me means go just before the sun goes down and shoot until its dark out. There is a time when you can get that nice blue in the sky and still have it look like its at night. On this one i blended 9 images in photomatix and then played with the photo quite a bit. I cant really remember what i did as i was just playing. Now i want to photograph my son and his friends on their skateboards at night and strip then into the scene.

quick portrait

This portrait took all of about 2 minutes to shoot. I set up an off camera flash and when i took the first photo i turned it off. The remainder of the shots (about 10 in total) were with natural light. The raw photos were really flat and blah. I spent far longer in photoshop tying to go a little into the dramatic. First of course was a conversion to black and white, and then multiple layers. I would duplicate my background layer and then darken it, or whatever, and then create a mask to bring her face through from the original layer. I probably did this 5 or 6 times and then went into gaussian blur and did the same thing. I blurred everything except the face and a bit of the shirt. I then did some selective burning and dodging and sharpening and pretty well had it. I really was not sure on how to crop it and still not 100% sure that this one works. The birch tree in the center of the frame really throws the composition for me.

available light

I heard someone say once when asked if they use available light or flash, "i use both, whatever is available". In my opinion, 90% of the time when shooting a portrait, you need flash. Even if its just to pop the eyes and you let ambient light do most of the heavy lifting, you still really need it.
The photo above did not need flash. It honestly was one of those fluke shots that i was not required to shoot but when you see a background like this and light hitting a subject like this, you need to shoot it.
Thanks to my subject for letting me post it to my blog.

family time

Used 2 sb flashes here pointed direct and self timer so i could run into photo.

something new

I am planning a self project with portraits and text, written by the subjects. I have the concept, have the people, and just need to play a bit with the design. This is just a test.

another skydome shot

I am still playing with panos i took at the skydome on vacation. I havent done the one yet that i really want to try but hopefully that will be next. This pano was made from 33 photos, shot left to right in three rows to get the whole scene in. I exported from lightroom to photoshop for the building of the pano.

vacation

I took a very nice, very needed vacation this summer. I didn't shoot much but managed about 1200 shots on a trip to toronto.
Here are a couple panos. I have another pano i will strip together of three rows of photos and then am going to make it look like a model scene.

engagement photo

My baby sister is getting married and i took a quick shot of the happy couple today for the invitation.
I used a sb flash bounced into a small silver umbrella, mainly just for a bit of light in the eyes, placed to the left and balanced with the ambient so it would not show up much.
I did a fair amount of work in photoshop mainly with color correction and retouching. Where i shot it on the lawn it was quite green from light bounce.
Now i am excited to see the invitations and even more excited that the wedding is getting closer. Should be a nice day.

color casts

As you can see the title of this post may be a bit of a play on words.
My sons casts come off tomorrow and my neighbors on wed this week. We of course had to get a shot of them together while they were still on. I was very happy with the shot photographically. I used one sb flash bounced into a big 60" umbrella (which the wind caught and destroyed during the shoot). The flash was on full power and in fairly close to them. They were standing in the shade and i think the camera was set to f8 or f11 and 1/250 sec at 100 iso. This of course darkened the sky and background down a bit but made everything from foreground to background in focus. In photoshop later i created a new layer and put a strong gausian blur on it (if i was being fussy i would have blended the layers better, you can see the problems in the grass). I then masked out the kids to keep them sharp. I applied a curve and a vignette, sharpened and was done. Time now to order some new umbrellas.

night time hdr

I was driving by a building i have shot a few times now and thought i would try a night shot, and of course feed some mosquitoes while i was at it. I bracketed 9 shots and chose 5 to run through photomatix. It was pretty much as easy as that. I did a curve but nothing fancy and sharpened and that was it.

Block Party

another welding shop

I shot another welding shop recently and was very happy with the photos.
For this shot i placed a sb flash behind him and pointed it directly at his back.
I placed another sb flash, into a silver reflected umbrella, high and to camera right.
I did not have much time to fiddle with the light as my vast experience in welding shops has taught me that welders are not fond of having their photos taken. They will tolerate the camera for a few shots and then walk away. I dont complain about the light not being at the exact setting i would like on these occasions. I am just happy to get the shot.

same angle, different light

I was coming back from lunch today and noticed the sky was very grey and mottled with dark and light.
I had my camera in the car and took a minute to snap 9 bracketed shots (camera on a tripod).
I ran three of the exposures through photomatix and then opened the image in photoshop.
I retouched dirt spots in the grass and then used the dodge and burn tool, alot, to create some dark and light areas and give it the feel i wanted.
I was very tired tonight after a very long week but i could not stop on this one till it was done.
I am glad i stuck with it and was able to stay awake.

watching the light

I was mowing the lawn last night and noticed my neighbor, who is a very talented artist, working on a wood carving.
The sun was high and not in the right spot but was moving in the right direction. I would mow a strip and look at the sun, mow a strip and look at the sun, etc, etc. It was still probably 20 minutes from being where i wanted it but my lawn was done and he was about to mow his, so i was going to loose him. I grabbed a 50mm f1.4 and my 80-200 f2.8 and started shooting. The long lens was ok but the 50 set to 1.4 was where i wanted to be. I shot a bunch more to the front of him and was pretty well done when i thought i would try a side angle into the sun. Flare was an issue of course and i had to use a bit higher angle than i wanted and hold my hand above the lens as a shade. I was waiting for him to hold the carving in a way that i could see it a bit better but i didn't want to instruct in any way. I wanted this shot to form up all on its own.
In photoshop i did a couple curve adjustments, a couple vignettes, retouched a bit with the healing tool, and used the burn and dodge tool quite a bit. I dodged, set to highlights, around his right eye and the highlight on the front of the birds face. I wanted to try and create two points that would attract the viewers eye.
As usual i was very glad i grabbed my camera or it would have been another one of those shots that got away.

one light after dark

I haven't shot much lately and have been itching to get the camera out.
A new profile photo for facebook is always a good excuse and it worked tonight.
I set up one light (sb flash) bounced into an umbrella and up fairly high placed to the left of frame.
I wanted to capture some blue in the sky and there was not much there so had to shoot at f1.4 with a 50mm lens.
I set the flash to its lowest setting and used a long shutter speed, 1/10 sec i think to bring up the sky.
Hardest part was focusing as it was dark out and camera was searching alot. I had a couple shots that i really liked that were out of focus.

on my way to a shoot

Just on my way to a shoot and thought i would throw up a photo of the day.

nothing special

Nothing special today, just tired and heading to bed.

new hdr

I haven't shot an hdr image in awhile so thought it was about time.
I was going into an awards shoot and the doorman was looking to see if anyone was coming.
I hand held as i did not have a tripod with me and blended three exposures in photomatix pro (new version out by the way).
I was not centered and the right side was trailing off into the distance so i used the transform - skew and made it so the lines in the photo were straight and even and the right side looked more like the left.
I also used the dodge tool a fair bit over the doors where the text is.

f2 portrait

I took a portrait today that i was very happy with. Not only was the shoot fun but the results also met my expectations.
And I had some expectations on this one.
I had decided, before i arrived, that i would be using a 85mm lens set to f1.8 and two or three sb off camera flashes.
I turned the flashes way down (only used two in the end) and set one into an umbrella and the other pointed direct at the background from a sharp angle on the right hand side of the frame.
I set the main light (umbrella) as close to him as i could get it so the light would wrap around his face.
While setting up i had also decided to set this main light further around to the left and to shoot from a low angle. As much as i preach about having a idea before you start i also would say that if its not working then change gears. I didn't like the low angle but did not realize that until i shot from a higher one halfway through the shoot. I also moved the light around more so the light would hit both eyes and switched to f2 for just a touch more depth of field.
In photoshop i retouched a bit, not much, and added a vignette. I also increased the contrast using the method i have described in the past (new layer, desaturate,mode to luminosity,up highlights and lower shadows, and lower the layers opacity).
I had decided to shoot this in his living room as he has a house of color and was made to photograph in. That was my best decision of the day.

a walk around town

I went for a little walk on saturday morning and decided to bring my camera along.
These are just a couple straight up shots, no fancy work done to them.
I thought they went together nicely.

stand out in a crowd

I photographed the president of a building association recently and this is one of the shots.
The client sent me two photos as ideas and wanted to have her in amongst a crowd of hard hats.
The shot was supposed to be taken from above but i did this angle first and then moved to the higher shot.
I liked this one and the client likes the other. I never have a problem with a client liking a different shot, no matter how much i like another. I would not be shooting the image to begin with if it were not for them and at the end of the day i want them happy so they will have me back for more.
I lit this with two sb flashes pointed directly at the subject. My main was more powerful than my fill by a bit and i was careful to place her in the light and not someones shadow. I did not have long for this one as all the guys gathered around as soon as we got there and i hadn't even set up a light stand yet. The doors were also wide open in this warehouse and it was freezing in there. My guess would be 10 minutes max on this from get there to tear down.
In photoshop i darkened everyone except my subject by creating a darker layer and making a mask. I also put a lens blur on that layer as well.