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

Showing posts with label Tampa. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Before & After, Episode 17

Here’s another great example of the sheer power of Photoshop, and a case where a little bit of forward thinking on my part really paid dividends once the shooting was complete. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, then you already know that when I’m commissioned to produce promo images for a band, I almost always shoot each band member separately in the studio. It allows me to work within the confines of my relatively small studio space, and affords me much greater latitude in post-production. But here’s a case where I took things a step further….

LIGHTING

When I was originally planning this shot, I decided that it might look really nice if there were a gorgeous sunset behind the band, and I knew I could accomplish this later in Photoshop with a reasonable amount of effort. However, I also knew that folks with sunsets at their backs tend to have an orange “rim light” that appears along the edges of their clothing and hair, and this, on the other hand, is *extremely* difficult to simulate in Photoshop. So I knew that I’d have to find some way to produce an orange rim light around each person in order for the final composite to be believable. As you’ll see from the “before” shots, I accomplished this by placing a strobe behind each person….but the key is that I placed a full CTO gel onto each strobe to color the light orange. If you look closely, you can see that this does in fact give the resulting light the appearance of a sunset.

POST-PRODUCTION

Using Photoshop CS5’s new Refine Edge tool (which, by the way, is an absolute godsend for digital compositors— I hardly ever have to rely on channel masks anymore), I extracted each band member from their respective original shot, and placed them all into a new blank document. I then dropped in a new sky with a nice glowing sunset, and proceeded to really increase the light intensity in the sun area by applying a Levels adjustment with a radial gradient mask. I also increased the lightness levels along the sides of the two band members’ faces who are standing right in front of the sun. Next I added an artificial lens flare to really drive home the effect. I also had to add a couple of shadows, since band members standing that close to one another would undoubtedly cast a shadow on the adjacent person. I dropped the exposure of the bottom quarter of the image to draw the viewer's eyes upward where they need to be. There were LOTS of local contrast adjustments along with the usual dodging and burning, and finally I introduced a slight orange color cast to the entire image with a warming photo filter.

Here are the before shots. Notice the light stand on the floor behind each band member (with the full CTO gel, as previously discussed).

And here is the final composite, complete with all of the adjustments mentioned above:

Your comments—good, bad, or indifferent—are always deeply appreciated. And of course don’t forget to Like/Share!

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!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Before & After, Episode 14 | WESLEY CHAPEL MATERNITY PHOTOGRAPHER

In continuing with this recent maternity kick I'm on, I'd like to show you yet another example of an image that was heavily manipulated to achieve the final effect. While I'm a huge advocate of getting things right in-camera, sometimes knowing a thing or two about Photoshop can come in really handy.

One of the first things I noticed about this image when I pulled it into Lightroom was that the hand and flower weren't in the ideal position vertically on her belly. When I was originally taking the shot, I told my subject to just let her her arm hang fairly loosely, which put her hand (and the flower) in a much lower position. I thought it would look better in the final shot, but it turns out that I was wrong.

To move the hand & flower higher up on my subject's belly and into a more visually appealing location, here's the procedure that I used:

Duplicate the background layer
Drop the opacity of this new layer down to around 20%
Use the Move tool in conjunction with Free Transform to reposition the hand/flower in the new location
Mask out everything but the hand/flower
Go back to the background layer and clone out the original hand/flower

Aside from that, I performed some light "digital plastic surgery" to alter the shape of her belly, and of course I reduced (but not removed) some of the skin blemishes that I found to be rather distracting. The background is nothing more than a lavender-to-white radial gradient, with the subject, hand, and flower masked out. Please let me know if further detail would be helpful.

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.

Maternity Pregnancy Photography

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

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Pic-A-Week, Episode 3 | NEW TAMPA MATERNITY PHOTOGRAPHER

Maternity photography can be a rather difficult thing to do well, because the focus generally needs to be on the baby bump, and there are really only so many ways that you can shoot it without being clichè. Of course you can choose to change the scenery by leaving the studio behind and heading outdoors, but it will probably make things rather difficult if your client wants more of an intimate portrait.

So fortunately for me, as I now begin my maternity portfolio in earnest, the "client" happens to be my beautiful wife. We are expecting our precious Ainsley Claire in August, so the time is perfect for me to jump into this new genre feet first. I have been looking at lots of other photographers' work over the past couple of months trying to get a little bit of inspiration, and this particular image was inspired by a shot from the great Sandy Puc'.

To achieve the lighting effect, I placed a beauty dish with a 10° gridspot behind and slightly to the right of my wife, who was laying on the floor. I had my camera mounted on a tripod, and the tripod had to have the center pole inverted in order for me to get the camera low enough to the ground to get the angle I wanted. I then focused on her belly, put the 10-second timer on, and ran over to quickly drop into position behind her. Fortunately it only took a few shots to get it right, as I was getting out of breath from all the running around!

The shot was later processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro, and then some additional dodging and burning was performed in Photoshop to [de]emphasize certain areas and really put on the finishing touches. I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed putting it together! If so, hook me up with a "Like" and a comment. Thanks ya'll! =)

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!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Pic-A-Week, Episode 2 | NEW TAMPA BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

This is a personal family shot that I captured over Memorial Day weekend. I thought it was pretty cute when I first converted it to black & white, but based on the overwhelmingly positive response I've gotten on my Facebook fan page, I am now considering adding it to my professional portfolio as well.

I have to give props to my mother-in-law for assisting with the posing, because getting two energetic toddlers to pause for a sweet moment like this certainly takes more than just one person. Plus, you have to worry about one or both of them falling off the dock, so there are some additional safety concerns as well.

I'm always my own worst critic, so when I look at this shot I still wish my nephew's head was turned a little bit more toward my daughter. I also wonder if perhaps a slightly shallower depth-of-field might have produced a more pleasing result. But in the end I think it still works pretty well, and I'm sure I'll be making a print or two from it.

So what are your thoughts? Do you think I'm being overly critical with my assessment of this shot's weaknesses? Are there other areas where you can see room for improvement? Would more of a sepia tone work better? Please sound off below.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

An Exercise In Digital Compositing | WESLEY CHAPEL BAND PROMO PHOTOGRAPHER

What do you do if you've been asked to put together a promo shot for a band consisting of 4 members, and your studio space isn't quite big enough to pull it off? Freak out and tell them you just can't do it? Of course not......Photoshop to the rescue!

Not only does this method save you the hassle of trying to squeeze 4 people into a space that was really designed for a single model, but it also affords you quite a bit of flexibility in terms of shot selection. In other words, you can mix and match the best individual shots to your heart's content in order to come up with the best overall composite. So you basically don't have to worry about capturing good facial expressions on all 4 faces in a single frame.

Here are the 4 original SOOC shots:

Using Photoshop CS5's new masking tools, extracting a subject from a solid-color background has never been easier. You just draw a rough selection around the subject with the Lasso tool, add a mask, and then use the Refine Edge dialog to decontaminate the excess color (in this case, white). Then just take the individual shots that you want to composite together and drop them onto a large white canvas in Photoshop.

One last thing I had to do in this case was use the Free Transform tool to adjust each band member's size relative to the others. In order to figure out who was taller than who in real life, I had to go back to a previous shot that I had done of this same band. Of course I could have saved myself quite a bit of time by simply using a tripod and shooting each person from the exact same position and angle, but I'll just have to take that as a "note to self" for next time. Anyway, here's the final composite:

Ever use this technique yourself? Plan to use it in the future? Please tell me about it in a comment below, and click "like" along the way! :-)

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.

Friday, April 16, 2010

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:

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. ;-)

Monday, March 29, 2010

Photoshop CS5 & Content-Aware Fill | NEW TAMPA PHOTOSHOP RETOUCHER

In case you haven't heard, Photoshop CS5 (codename "White Rabbit") is right around the corner, and one of the hottest new features rumored to be included in this release is something called Content-Aware Fill (a.k.a. PatchMatch). I saw a demo of it during the keynote presentation at Photoshop World East in Orlando last week, and the crowd went wild. It's a truly remarkable innovation that will surely save photographers and designers boatloads of time. Check out the video HERE or by clicking the image below:

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Before & After, Episode 10 | NEW TAMPA BABY CHILD PHOTOGRAPHER

Here's a shot I grabbed of my daughter earlier today. Since you guys made it clear through your responses to my recent survey that you want more photography and post-processing tips, I decided to change things up this time around and include much more granular detail about how the shot was captured and my post-processing workflow for it. So here goes....

First of all, to get the shot, I was lying on my stomach near a patch of purple wildflowers we found down at a local park. I had my 70-200 2.8L lens mounted on my Canon 1Ds Mark II, and I was shooting wide open at 2.8, zoomed all the way in at 200mm. I asked my wife to call my daughter to walk through the flowers, and amazingly everything worked out just as I had envisioned it. I have to admit that it was a real treat to have my wife there assisting me, because when it comes to pics of my daughter I usually find myself in the unenviable position of trying to *create* the moments as well as *capture* them. Today I had the luxury of focusing on the technical stuff, and as a result the frames I got were MUCH better than usual.

Here's the SOOC (straight out of camera) image, which you can click for a larger view:

Next up was a bit of tweaking in Lightroom, which included adjusting the White Balance, adding a small amount of Fill Light, increasing the Blacks by 6, Clarity by 21, and Vibrance by 38. I also made some minor tweaks to the Tone Curve. Lastly, I used the Adjustment Brush to increase the exposure on her face just a tad. At this point I was ready to pull the file over into Photoshop. Here's what the image looked like with the Lightroom adjustments (click it for a larger view):

In Photoshop, below are the primary techniques I used to get the final product. There may have been a few very minor tweaks beyond what is listed here, but these are the steps I tend to include in most of my outdoor portraiture. By the way, I'm sure you've noticed that a good majority of pro photographers tend to shy away from revealing the "secret sauce" that makes their photos really pop. However, I really want to help you get to the next level with your post processing, so that's why I'm laying this out for everyone to see. As my photographer/idol Zack Arias recently told me at Photoshop World, "we all stand on each others' shoulders". So true, so true.

Oh yeah....if you're a Mac user, please substitute "Ctrl" for "Command" and "Alt" for "Option" (but you knew that already, right?) Anyway, here we go:

To add a bit of contrast, create a Black & White adjustment layer, change the Blend Mode to Soft Light, adjust the color sliders to taste, and reduce layer opacity to around 20%.
To add even more contrast, perform a "Stamp Visible" (which creates a flattened copy of all of your layers at the top of the stack) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E. Apply a Gaussian Blur at 5 px, change the blend mode to Soft Light, and and reduce layer opacity to around 30%. Then mask out your subject (with a reduced opacity brush, if desired).
To lighten the subject a little, and make him/her "pop" a little more off the background, perform a "Stamp Visible" by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E, desaturate this layer (Ctrl+Shift+U), change the Blend Mode to Screen, and reduce layer opacity to about 25-30%. Then mask out the background (or alternatively you can start with a black mask and reveal the subject with white).
Add a bit of midtone contrast-- perform a "Stamp Visible" by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E, then apply an Unsharp Mask with Amount at 60%, Radius at 20 pixels, and Threshold at 0. Reduce layer opacity to around 30-35%.
Get your colors nice and saturated by performing a "LAB Mode Color Pop". This basically involves flipping over into LAB Mode, creating a Curves adjustment layer, pulling the ends of the line in, and then flipping back into RGB mode. You end up with a super-saturated layer that you can adjust the opacity of, and/or mask out certain parts. You will almost always have to mask out your subject's skin, because it'll be a nasty orangish/reddish mess. There are actually many different methods for popping colors in LAB Mode....click here for 5 of them.
Lastly, finish off with some High Pass sharpening-- perform a "Stamp Visible" by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E, then change the layer's blend mode to Soft Light. Go to Filter->Other->High Pass and set the radius to about 5 or 6 pixels. Then reduce the opacity of this layer to taste.

And that's pretty much all I did to this photo. As you'll see, I also decided to clone out the tree in the background, which I found to be very distracting, but the technique I used for that will have to wait for a different blog post. ;-)

So here's the final before & after image (roll your mouse cursor over the top to see the changes). Please let me know if you have any questions, and if you enjoyed this post, please comment below or on Facebook. Thanks!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

What's New in Lightroom 3 Public Beta 2 | NEW TAMPA PHOTO RETOUCH

I must say that I'm super-excited about many of the changes being introduced in the latest version of Adobe Lightroom, the *premier* image editing/digital asset management program in use today. The most significant additions include: the ability to tag, preview and organize your video files right alongside your images, much better noise reduction capabilities (also, it's worth noting that Luminance noise reduction is finally working), better vignetting and watermarking options, and last but not least, built-in tethering capabilities. If you shoot tethered like me, this last one is a game-changer. Here's a fantastic video overview of the new features, created by Adobe Creative Suite guru Terry White.

With all the new improvements and additions being announced, I have to admit that I'm still stuck using Lightroom 2.6 because there is no direct upgrade path from this version to the new one. Adobe doesn't want to be held liable for corrupting people's primary Lightroom databases with beta software (understandably), and I haven't been willing (yet) to completely jump in with both feet and make the switch. However, I think I may install 3.0 B2 on my studio computer (which is the one I shoot tethered to), and then just import those images into the database on my main computer after each shoot. How about you? Have you played with 3.0 at all? I'd love to hear your thoughts/impressions.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Before & After, Episode 9 | WELSEY CHAPEL FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY

I'd like to try something new this time around, in hopes that the differences between the before and after images will be more readily apparent. In the past, I've always shown the before & afters side by side, but it was often difficult to pick up on all of the subtle nuances and minor differences between the two. As a photographer who regularly spends hours upon hours in Photoshop, these minor differences in color and tone quite simply jump off the page at me, but I also realize that to the average pair of eyes such things are not quite as obvious. So this new method of displaying the images should make things much clearer for everyone.

The image I chose for this episode turned out to be one of my favorites of 2009, once it was completely transformed in Photoshop from a muddy, dark, and underexposed mess into a truly vibrant and heartwarming shot. It's really amazing the things you can do to rescue a bad photograph sometimes, and I think this is probably the best example in my entire portfolio.

When I'm out shooting with a client, my goal is of course to capture the absolute best images possible, and in the best light. Sometimes, however, the light changes unexpectedly (e.g. the sun goes behind, or pops out from behind a cloud), and it can fool the camera into severely under or overexposing the image. Shortly after this image was taken, and largely in response to the frustration I experienced while trying to edit it, I began shooting exclusively with my camera in Manual mode. This technique certainly isn't for the faint-hearted, but it really helps prevent such situations from occurring.

Although this fairly remarkable transformation just goes to show how much leeway can be enjoyed by a bad photographer who happens to be handy with Photoshop [pointing the finger squarely at myself], it should be noted that this particular example is truly the exception rather than the rule.

Anyhoo, to see the before & after, simply move your mouse pointer over the picture and then back off again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Enjoy!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Ligman Family - 11/22/09 | WESLEY CHAPEL BABY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

The Ligmans brought their adorable son, Jack, over for a family shoot a couple of months ago. We grabbed a few studio shots and then headed outside to let Jack burn off some of that endless energy! I had an absolute blast rolling around in the grass with him and making a total fool of myself! But it was all worth it, as Jack gave us some of his best smiles of the day, and we ended up getting some great shots of him with Mom and Dad. Enjoy!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Before & After, Episode 8 | NEW TAMPA SENIOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

For this episode, I'd like to offer another behind-the-scenes glimpse into a recent photo shoot I did with a friend of mine. He came to me with a pretty interesting idea, which was actually based on a photo he had seen of one of his favorite guitarists.

After several failed attempts to capture him in a pose that really appeared as if he were falling forward, we came to a fork in the road. I realized that I basically had two options-- (1) either put a mattress or something soft in front of him so that he could REALLY fall forward without killing himself (or ripping his spiffy suit), or (2) dig into my bag of Photoshop tricks and try to achieve the desired effect in post-production. Naturally, I chose the latter, because I'm ~~a masochist~~ always up for a good Photoshop challenge. ;-)

Try this-- while looking at the before image in the upper left, imagine in your mind's eye if I had simply tilted his body forward in that exact pose. Since his front arm starts out parallel with the ground, it' s not hard to imagine that it would be sloping downward after the tilt, which clearly would NOT have made him look like he was reaching for the guitar floating straight in front of him. So I had to figure out a way to tilt his body while at the same time shifting his limbs back to where they needed to be.

If you draw an imaginary line connecting the two buttons on his blazer, then do the same thing in the final image, you can get a sense of how much I ended up tilting him forward-- probably a good 30-40 degrees. In order to reposition his limbs to the proper angle after tilting his torso, I mainly used a combination of the Free Transform tool, a few careful selections, and some good ol' cutting and pasting (with a few feathered layer masks). The most significant modification I made was probably the exaggeration of his back leg, whereas I kicked it up extra high for added drama. The end result is a much more off-balance appearance, adding to the sense of motion and tension in the image.

Cutting out the guitar out was a cinch using the Pen tool. Then I just used the Free Transform tool to reposition it and increase the size ever-so-slightly. Lastly, fake shadows were added to give the image a sense of groundedness, since you don't want your subjects floating in an endless sea of white. :-)

All in all, I think we managed to pull off what we were really going for with this image. If you've got any questions/comments/feedback, please feel free to leave them below. By the way, I *love* hearing everyone's different perspectives on these....it really makes it a lot of fun!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Woodall Family - 11/14/09 | NEW TAMPA WESLEY CHAPEL PHOTOGRAPHER

I am beginning to do quite a bit more family photography lately, and not only that, but I'm also doing it with natural light (as opposed to artifical light, [i.e. flashes/strobes, such as those used in studio photography]). This is a major departure for me, because I'm used to being able to control every aspect of the light. However, when you're outdoors, Mother Nature prevails.

As a result of this new direction in my photography, I've had to completely overhaul my Photoshop workflow, because I think it's really important to successfully capture the rich, vibrant colors often encountered in nature. I'm learning new techniques for making colors really "pop", and I've discovered some great ways to brighten skin and increase tonal contrast.

Anyways, enough technical jargon.....here are some of my favorite shots from a recent shoot I did with the Woodall family. Enjoy, and please leave me a comment if you like this look.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

John Miseroy - 10/31/09 | NEW TAMPA FASHION GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

My long-time friend John stopped by for a quick shoot the other day. He's a musician in my church's worship band (among others), and wanted to see I could help him construct a particular image he's had in his head for some time now (the "floating guitar" shot below). Once we felt like we nailed that one, we decided to grab a few extra "modeling" shots to spiff up his Facebook profile a little. I really like how a few of these came out-- leave me a comment below if you do too.