Friday, April 16, 2010

Before & After, Episode 12 | NEW TAMPA MUSIC PROMO PHOTOGRAPHER

For this episode I'm going to show you what I consider to be probably one of the best examples of Photoshop retouching in my entire portfolio. This shot's got it all― from color correction, barrel distortion, tons of dodging and burning, compositing― you name it. I basically had to throw the kitchen sink at this one, because I wanted to absolutely knock it out of the park and give this band some proper representation for the awesome music they create. Here's the before & after image (hold your mouse cursor over it for 3-4 seconds to see the difference):



To the right is a screenshot of my Layers pallette in Photoshop.  Actually, this still doesn't even show several more layers that I flattened beforehand, and several other minor adjustments that I have made since, but it gives you a general idea of the kind of work that goes into a shot like this.  I would guess that I logged about 10 total hours on this one, which is much more than my images usually require.

  1. As you look through my pallette, working from the bottom, you will see that the first thing I did was use a B&W adjustment layer for some subtle contrast (simply change the blend mode to Soft Light).
  2. I then used a simple "defog" action that I wrote to add a little bit of midtone contrast.  
  3. I forget what I did in the next layer, but above that you'll see that I made use of a Photoshop plugin called Imagenomics Portraiture to clean up their faces a little bit.  
  4. The barrel distortion layer fixed the "lean" of my buildings so that they stood straight up (check the before & after image again to see the change a little better).  
  5. I later desaturated the image slightly using another B&W adjustment layer, and then dropped in a new sky.  
  6. The sky was too warm to match the lighting in the scene, so I cooled it off with a Photo Filter.
  7. Next I made use of yet another plugin, called Topaz Adjust.  I absolutely love this plugin for adding local contrast and a variety of other effects.
  8. Some other minor adjustments were made next-- a High Pass layer for some contrast and selective sharpening, and a screen layer with a mask to selectively brighten a couple of the band members' faces.
  9. Then some dodging and burning for selective contrast
  10. A Hue/Sat layer to take some of the redness and saturation out out the guitarist's face (I actually took his whole body from a completely different photo (lots of compositing going on for this shot)
  11. I then had to work on the sky with some blur to remove noise
  12. Next I ran my defog action again, but masked out everything but the buildings in the background.
  13. Lastly (but not really, since there were other steps later), I did some more dodging and burning.
If you have any questions about any of the steps above, or would like further explanation/clarification on anything, please leave me a comment.  Otherwise, if you just wanna give me some feedback-- good, bad, or indifferent, please do so.  As I mentioned before, I absolutely LOVE hearing your comments!








20 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Southside Serendade - 4/10/10 | NEW TAMPA BAND PROMO PHOTOGRAPHY

I was asked to do a promo shoot for a local Tampa band called Southside Serenade recently, and I simply couldn't pass up a great opportunity to break into the local music scene with my photography business. I met the the lead singer, Addison Arfaras, when he responded to a Craigslist ad I had placed for a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe guitar amp. He soon saw all the cameras, lights, and other equipment I had sitting around in my home studio, and the conversation quickly turned to band photography. So Addison, me, and the rest of the band ended up driving down to the University of Tampa campus last weekend to do our shoot.

The band's drummer, Tony Martin, had recently spotted this old drawbridge near the campus, and thought it might make for a great shooting location.  However, once we got there, we discovered that the drawbridge was completely blocked off on one side, so we were forced to go across to see if the other side was open.  It was, but I quickly realized that there simply wasn't enough room width-wise for me to position my lighting gear far enough away from the band.  Plus, the ground was really uneven, being that it was essentially railroad tracks with a strip of rocks on either side-- not good for setting up expensive lights that could easily fall over into the water!

So we scoped out the area even more, and eventually found what I'll call a "grassy knoll", which allowed us to still get the drawbridge into the shot (albeit in the background), and also gave me plenty of room for my lights.  Here's a setup shot of the location, showing my 3 Alien Bees firing-- two on the sides/rear, and one in a beauty dish in front and up above the group:


That large, black, boxy-looking thing sitting on a stand on the left side of the image is my viewing station, which consists of a ThinkTank Pixel Sunscreen 2.0 with my laptop inside.  It allows me to check my exposure on a much larger screen than I get with the tiny LCD on the back of the camera (which is especially small on a Canon 1Ds Mark II).

I grabbed several frames of the band with that drawbridge in the background, but never could seem to find a composition I really liked, so I shifted everyone and everything about 30 feet to the right to get the downtown Tampa skyline into the shot.  Here's an unedited, SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot from this location, which will soon be featured in a "Before & After" post:










0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Before & After, Episode 11 | WESLEY CHAPEL SENIOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

This time around it's a double header, kiddies...so strap yourselves in and let's take a ride.  ;-)

The first image you'll already be familiar with, since I presented it in my last blog post.  I did receive a few questions from readers about the distracting background, and my response was that I simply wasn't shooting for portfolio images (and therefore didn't really care about it at the time).  However, I later realized that I had originally promised my "model" that he'd get a Facebook profile pic out of the deal, so off to Photoshop land I went....

I extracted him out of the original background using a tool called ReMask from Topaz Labs.  It's a fairly decent "quick and dirty" extraction tool when the item you're trying to extract has a fairly well-defined edge and there is clear separation from the background.  However, I wouldn't use it for anything too complex, because it starts to get a little squirrely with your edges, and you'll end up saying a few more curse words than you would if you had used a REAL extraction tool like Vertus Fluid Mask.  Anyway, I digress.

I found a nice stock image of a Nissan 350Z on Flickr (photo credit Jeremy Cliff), and decided it would make a much more appealing backdrop for my model, since he also happens to drive a 350Z.  I dropped him into the scene as a new layer, used the free transform tool (while holding the Shift key, which constrains the proportions) to adjust him down to a smaller size relative to the car, and proceeded to make all sorts of adjustments to the lighting.  That's the real key to making believable composites-- you absolutely *have* to pay very close attention to the lighting or it will scream "PHOTOSHOPPED!".

Anyway, when all was said and done there were a number of adjustment layers......mostly Curves and Levels with different masks applied, and also a couple of Dodge & Burn layers.  Sorry that I didn't take detailed notes of all the steps I took, or I would gladly share them with you.  I'm more than willing to answer any questions you may have about the process, though.  So here's the before & after image (roll over it with your mouse):


The second image was taken in my studio that same day, and basically he was laying on his belly with a Lastolite TriGrip Reflector under his elbows and a beauty dish above his head.  It was inspired by an image I had seen on legendary high school senior photographer Kirk Voclain's website a couple of months earlier.  As far as post processing:

  1. I cleaned up his skin a bit using the High Pass filter (here's an excellent tutorial on this technique)
  2. I added some additional contrast using another High Pass filter (again, here's a great site explaining 3 great uses for this filter)
  3. I enhanced the color of his eyes by creating a new layer, lassoing his irises with the elliptical marquee tool, filling the selection with a bright blue, changing the blend mode to Color, and reducing opacity to taste
  4. For the most dramatic change, I blended in a texture of a scratched surface, and masked out his eyes and most of his face with a reduced-opacity, soft brush.
  5. Lastly, I created a merged layer at the top of my stack (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) (or Cmd+Opt+Shift+E for Mac users), added a Gaussian Blur, then applied mask using the Gradient Tool in linear gradient mode so that only the top and bottom edges of the photo would be a little blurry.  Kind of gives the photo a little more interest, and helps to draw the viewer's eye to those of my model.
Check out the before and after below.  I think the image has much more drama and "punch" now, don't you?  Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment.  I absolutely LOVE hearing your feedback and all the many different fascinating perspectives you share with me.  It's what truly makes this all worthwhile.  Enjoy!










5 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Learning a New High-Contrast Lighting Technique | NEW TAMPA SENIOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

So I've got this band promo shoot coming up in a couple of weeks for a local act called Southside Serenade, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible for the lighting setup I plan to use. Honestly, most of my studio stuff is fairly straightforward lighting-wise, and I've pretty much got it to the point where I don't even think about it anymore. But out on location you've got a number of factors to consider, such as the amount of ambient light, the quality/color of that light, weather, wind, space limitations, etc. Basically, I didn't want to have to deal with all of that on top of figuring out a new lighting setup for the first time, so I called a good friend over to sort of "model" for me. Besides, he needed a new Facebook profile pic anyway. ;-)

This lighting technique involves 3 strobes, two on either side of the subject and slightly behind them, and then one light up front as key. Generally the sidelights, also called "kickers" or "rim lights", should be about a stop and a half hotter than your key light (having a light meter is very handy in these types of situations-- I use a Sekonic L-358). It's a very dramatic, contrasty kind of lighting that is very popular these days, and I think it's a good technique to have in your back pocket alongside your usual setups. Now, bear in mind that I wasn't exactly shooting for portfolio-worthy images here-- I was merely experimenting with a new lighting technique....so don't start playa hatin'.  ;-)

Anyway, so I shot this with three Alien Bees B1600 strobes. The two in back were fitted with their standard 7" reflectors along with a set of barn doors to help control the spread of light. I could have just as easily used gridspots instead of barn doors (which I'll try next time), or gone with the 7" reflectors by themselves, but this time around I just happened to have the barn doors attached. The key light was fitted with a 16" beauty dish and a diffusion sock.

Here's a setup shot showing all 3 strobes firing (again, this isn't portfolio-worthy stuff.....I'm sure you'll be quick to notice that this shoot took place right in my back yard.  Hey- I said no hatin'!!):


Now bear in mind that this was just before 5PM Eastern, so the direct sun was still blazing.  In order to overpower the sun and produce the effect you see (which looks more like 7:30PM), I had to put my 2 rear strobes on pretty much full power.  That's the beauty of shooting with high-powered strobes-- you have maximum control over the light in any given situation.  Now, if I had Elinchrom Rangers instead of Alien Bees, I could make daytime look like midnight....pretty dang cool.  Maybe one day I'll be cool (and rich) enough to be able to drop several grand on a strobe setup.  But until then, it's okay to dream, right?

So anyway, that's pretty much all you gotta do....set up your lights, adjust the ratio so that your kicker lights are about a stop and a half hotter than your key, use your light meter to determine the appropriate shooting aperture, put your camera on Manual, and go to town.  Below is the effect you'll get (notice the "rim" light on the edge, which really helps separate him from the background, and the hard light on his cheeks that really gives kind of a sculpted/chiseled appearance).  If you have any questions, or would like some pointers on where to find great lighting information on the Net, please leave a comment or drop me an email.

PS - no, this wasn't edited in the slightest, and yes I need to clean my sensor.  ;-)









4 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

About Me

My photo
Tampa, FL, United States
I'm a commercial photographer in Tampa, FL specializing in band & musician promos, CD covers, press kits, posters, and the like. Please feel free to check out my website/blog using the link below, and give me a shout if I can be of service to you!

http://TampaBandPhotos.com

Search My Blog

Followers