Russ Robinson & Tampa Band Photos - Commercial Music Photography Blog: High School

Showing posts with label High School. Show all posts

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Pic-A-Week, Episode 5

As many of you know, I've been super-busy over the past few weeks with a newborn at home. However, I've managed to get some editing done in the wee hours of the morning on several occasions, so here's the fruits of my labor. Enjoy!
Newborn baby pose on arms

Newborn baby in fetal position black and white

Newborn baby with teddy bear black and white

fashion glamour model pose black and white

fashion glamour beauty model texture background

male model musician producer dj album cover

male model musician producer dj cd liner notes

Questions? Comments? Sound off below, and don’t forget to Like/Share!

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Pic-A-Week, Episode 4

I’ve been extremely busy lately preparing for the arrival of the newest addition to my family. She will be here any day now, so it's been quite hectic around my house, to say the least!

Of course I’ve managed to squeeze a few photo shoots in since my last update, and because I’ve been extremely delinquent in updating my blog, I’d like to use this post to sort of play “catch up”.

You'll notice several maternity shots below, which collectively represent a fairly groundbreaking step for me, since I've never actually done maternity photography before. And as you'll see in the very last shot, I took full advantage of the fact that I had not one but TWO mommies-to-be at my studio on the same day! How often does THAT happen?

Anyway, enjoy, and please share your comments/reactions below. I absolutely *love* hearing your feedback!

Young girl running wild and free (from a recent family shoot)

Father and son share a tender moment (from a recent family shoot)

Portrait of a cute young boy (from a recent family shoot)

Gorgeous female model (from a recent fashion & glamour shoot)

Maternity portrait of my wife

Maternity portrait of my wife and I

Maternity portrait of a recent client

Maternity portrait of a young mother-to-be and her son

Dramatic maternity portrait of a recent client, similar to the one I did of my wife

Maternity portrait of a recent client and her husband

Dual maternity portrait - my wife (left) and a recent client (right)

Monday, July 5, 2010

Band Promo Shoot With Adalee | WESLEY CHAPEL SENIOR PICTURES

As I mentioned in a previous post on shooting band promos, my studio isn’t quite large enough to accommodate several people at once. So when a local Christian rock band called Adalee (which consists of 5 members- all of whom go to my church) approached me about shooting their promo, I immediately began thinking along the lines of digital compositing. If you’re not a regular reader of my blog and aren’t quite familiar with that term, it basically means taking individual shots of each member and then later combining them together in Photoshop.

This is my favorite method of producing band/group shots, because it allows me the freedom to select the best individual poses for each member. When they're all blended together into a seamless composite, it appears as if the stars just aligned perfectly and everyone gave you the ideal expression and pose simultaneously, and in the same frame. I gotta tell ya, it sure beats shooting for hours and hoping for this sort of thing to happen organically (believe me-- I've been there!).

Anyway, here are the 5 original unedited shots:

In order to make the composite look believable and not scream “PHOTOSHOPPED”, I had to completely replace the background, because as you can see from the above photos, there are some major differences in the lightness levels from one shot to the next. So I basically created a nice, smooth gray background from scratch in Photoshop using the radial gradient tool. To put the finishing touches on the image, I darkened the bottom half to draw the viewer’s eye more toward their faces, where the focus really oughtta be. Here’s the final result:

For further examples of my work, including high school senior pictures, baby & family portraits, and fashion & glamour, please visit my website at http://RussRobinsonPhotography.com

Questions? Comments? Please leave me a comment below, and click “Like” along the way!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Before & After, Episode 13 | NEW TAMPA SENIOR PICTURES

This shot comes from the same senior portrait session that I referenced in a previous post. It's a typical example of the kind of fashion/glamour retouching that I normally do for my modeling clients, which includes:

Skin smoothing (while still retaining texture)
Removal of major blemishes
Reduction of dark circles under eyes
Eye & teeth whitening
Removal of stray hairs
Lip color enhancement
Iris enhancement
Tonal contrast boost (using luminosity, dodging & burning, and a few other techniques)
Eyebrow cleanup/enhancement
Minor facial reshaping

Obviously, this young lady was quite beautiful to begin with, and by most folks' standards she didn't really need to be "enhanced". However, to be a successful commercial photographer these days it's an absolute MUST to achieve a mastery of the latest high-end beauty retouching techniques. So I give all of my fashion, glamour, and senior portrait clients the 5-star treatment to really accentuate their best features and make them look like they just stepped off the cover of Cosmo. It's relatively difficult to find photographers who have expertise in this area, so I continue to study, practice, and improve my craft constantly.

To see the before & after, just move your mouse pointer over the image for a few seconds until it changes. Then you can switch them back and forth as much as you like.

New Tampa Senior Pictures & Portraits

As always, I am more than happy to share my post techniques with anyone who is interested, and I'd be delighted if you'd click "Like" and share your thoughts in a comment below. Thanks!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Pic-A-Week, Episode 1 | NEW TAMPA SENIOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Hello, loyal readers! Obviously I've been WAY delinquent in keeping up with my blog over the past month, so here's what I'm gonna do.....basically, I want to implement a few new ideas that will help me to establish a more regular posting schedule so that you guys can better stay in the loop with what I'm working on. One of these ideas is a "Pic-A-Week" concept that I gleaned from Richard Arsenault's blog. Rich has got some fantastic nature shots, so if you're into that sort of thing, then I recommend you take a peek at his work.

Anyway, for Episode 1 I'm gonna kick things off with an image that I shot a couple of weekends ago. Believe it or not, this was actually my very first high school senior session. Although I've had the pleasure of working with a good number of fashion/glamour clients thus far in my photographic journey, none of them have been seniors (or even high school-aged, for that matter). I consider senior portraits to be a natural extension of fashion & glamour, so it only makes sense that I would expand into this market eventually.

This image was shot on a white seamless paper backdrop, and all the other colors and embellishments that you see were added in post. If you'd like a more detailed description of how I accomplished this, please just let me know below, and I'd be happy to share my techniques with you. Otherwise, please leave me a comment below with your thoughts, and help me spread the word by clicking "Like" as well. Thanks ya'll!

For more examples of my fashion, glamour, and beauty work, please visit my portfolio website at http://RussRobinsonPhotography.com.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Plant vs. Sickles JV Football - 10/23/09 | WESLEY CHAPEL FOOTBALL SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER

I didn't have nearly as much time to edit/enhance these as I did for the last game I shot, but I realize that there are lots of players/fans out there who would still be interested in seeing them. So I've zipped them up into a single ZIP archive, which can be downloaded HERE (warning- the file weighs in at around 85MB, so it may take a while to download, depending on your connection speed).

Monday, October 5, 2009

Plant vs. Alonso JV Football - 10/1/09 | NEW TAMPA FOOTBALL SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER

Last Thursday I decided to step outside the studio and try something completely different-- shoot a high school football game. Being a huge USF fan, I follow their recruiting very closely, so I figured it'd be really exciting to see some of these up-and-comers in their natural element. Turned out to be a total blast walking around the field, hearing the interactions between players and coaches, and being so close to the action I could almost feel the vicious hits. I'll definitely be doing more of this in the near future.

For all the Plant and/or Alonso fans reading this, you can view the images by clicking on the thumbnails below, or you can download them all in a single ZIP archive by clicking HERE.