5 posts :: Page 1 of 1
Arley the Mad Scientist... great pic
Ok, here we go.......
There was some talk about doing some forum competitions/challenges in the future so I thought I would show you a little trick to help that along. I strongly encourage you to try this or something similar. It will allow you to put another trick in your bag.
This is about light. One of the most important elements in photography.
So, how the heck did I do this!. Well, just sit back and I'm going to show ya. It's not hard and with a little imagination, you can do some neat stuff with this info.
I'm a strong believer in using flash. I have a studio at home and most of the time its just sits in storage. For 95% of the stuff I do, I use flash (Speedlights) . It's much more versatile and, with today's high speed cameras, you can get quite a lot of use out of them if you know how to do it. The higher the ISO you are able to use, the stronger your flash is going to be. It's stuff like this that is going to separate you from the others.
I initially used a dummy head to get the light right. These things can come in pretty handy, and sometimes, with a little too much wine, they will start to talk to you. Someday, I'm going to get her a body and start dressing her.
Anyway, my final picture was taken on my kitchen table with 2 flashes remotely fired with the wireless remote triggers, the same one I used in the water drop tutorial but with two of them.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.lpaphotography.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=67">http://www.lpaphotography.org/phpBB3/vi ... p?f=4&t=67</a><!-- m -->
I also used a wireless camera trigger very similar to the flash remotes.
It makes things a lot easier when you don't have to keep getting up and down. If I was thinking, I would have hooked my laptop to the camera so I could see what was happening after each shot. As it was, I would take a few and get up and see what I had. It works, but since I had the laptop there, I think that would have been much quicker to get this all done.
You could certainly either have someone trigger the camera 4 U or just set the timer and get into position, but eventually you'll want to get one of these triggers. They come in handy and they are not very expensive. (between $30 and $40 dollars)
(So, take your pick with the link below)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://shop.ebay.com/items/__wireless-trigger-canon_W0QQ_kwZwirelessQQ_kwZtriggerQQ_kwZcanonQQ_ckwZcamera?_trksid=p3286.m104.l1198">http://shop.ebay.com/items/__wireless-t ... m104.l1198</a><!-- m -->
The first flash was placed to the side (camera left) to illuminate the logo on the laptop. I felt I needed that to help in the composition and add a little depth to the shot (Way 2 dark in the lower half of the picture). I just needed a little soft spot light to get the job done.
I used a snoot on the flash to the left that I had purchased several months ago but you can make your own with tape or aluminum foil.
The other flash was inside the laptop between me and the screen, pointing at the screen.
The problem there is that my screen is black/dark gray when turned off, so to fix that I just got some white typing paper and laid it in front of the screen. That would allow enough light to bounce off the paper and illuminate my face and throw the soft shadow on the background. The light coming from below head level, off the screen and up, gives it that spooky effect.
Both flashes were set at full power, which is not very much considering they are just the little cheapies I got at the thrift store (same one's I used on the previous water drop tutor). You could certainly use a larger flash if that's all you have, just turn it way down.
Ambient was set to black so it would have no effect on the lighting. ISO was 100 and f-stop around 5.6. The rest was just capturing enough facial variation so I had enough variety to pick from. There is always one that stands out above the rest.
This image was actually converted to black and white and re-colorized.
All the shots taken were shot in color/raw so I did the B&W conversion in the raw converter, but you can do it in Photoshop too, its just another way of doing the same thing.
Originally, on some shots, I had used gels on the laptop screen flash during the picture taking process but, not realizing that I was going to be going B&W till I analyzed them later, I ended up enhancing and tweaking the color in Photoshop with a hue/saturation adjustment layer (using the colorize layer option).
Another way to use the gels is not use them at all. Just use colored paper on the laptop.
In the old days, gels or paper were the only way to get this color effect, but now I find it easier just to go ahead and do it in Photoshop instead of using gels. If you are just doing one picture, do it in Photoshop, if you are doing a bunch of pictures, you should know how to use gels. it can save you a lot of repetitive computer time.
I also used adjustment mask/curves layer, and darkened the picture, then masked out and returned the picture back to normal leaving and de-emphasizing the lighter areas.
Two filters used
Lucis Art (Retail) and "Photoshop filter gallery, Glass". Both were created with masks and painted in as required.
I can't really go into any great detail on how I achieved this look because its all about massaging the picture till you get what you want, but these are the PS tools I used. If I tried to do this again, it would look different every time.
This process is a combination of two skills, Photography and Photoshop. One complements the other. If you don't know both, you put yourself at great disadvantage when competing against someone who does.
Anyway, that's how its done. I encourage you to try this or something similar. The more you shoot, the better you'll get.
All these are straight out of the camera less RAW/black and white conversion. The red one was massaged in Photoshop.
.
There was some talk about doing some forum competitions/challenges in the future so I thought I would show you a little trick to help that along. I strongly encourage you to try this or something similar. It will allow you to put another trick in your bag.
This is about light. One of the most important elements in photography.
So, how the heck did I do this!. Well, just sit back and I'm going to show ya. It's not hard and with a little imagination, you can do some neat stuff with this info.
I'm a strong believer in using flash. I have a studio at home and most of the time its just sits in storage. For 95% of the stuff I do, I use flash (Speedlights) . It's much more versatile and, with today's high speed cameras, you can get quite a lot of use out of them if you know how to do it. The higher the ISO you are able to use, the stronger your flash is going to be. It's stuff like this that is going to separate you from the others.
I initially used a dummy head to get the light right. These things can come in pretty handy, and sometimes, with a little too much wine, they will start to talk to you. Someday, I'm going to get her a body and start dressing her.
Anyway, my final picture was taken on my kitchen table with 2 flashes remotely fired with the wireless remote triggers, the same one I used in the water drop tutorial but with two of them.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.lpaphotography.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=67">http://www.lpaphotography.org/phpBB3/vi ... p?f=4&t=67</a><!-- m -->
I also used a wireless camera trigger very similar to the flash remotes.
It makes things a lot easier when you don't have to keep getting up and down. If I was thinking, I would have hooked my laptop to the camera so I could see what was happening after each shot. As it was, I would take a few and get up and see what I had. It works, but since I had the laptop there, I think that would have been much quicker to get this all done.
You could certainly either have someone trigger the camera 4 U or just set the timer and get into position, but eventually you'll want to get one of these triggers. They come in handy and they are not very expensive. (between $30 and $40 dollars)
(So, take your pick with the link below)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://shop.ebay.com/items/__wireless-trigger-canon_W0QQ_kwZwirelessQQ_kwZtriggerQQ_kwZcanonQQ_ckwZcamera?_trksid=p3286.m104.l1198">http://shop.ebay.com/items/__wireless-t ... m104.l1198</a><!-- m -->
The first flash was placed to the side (camera left) to illuminate the logo on the laptop. I felt I needed that to help in the composition and add a little depth to the shot (Way 2 dark in the lower half of the picture). I just needed a little soft spot light to get the job done.
I used a snoot on the flash to the left that I had purchased several months ago but you can make your own with tape or aluminum foil.
The other flash was inside the laptop between me and the screen, pointing at the screen.
The problem there is that my screen is black/dark gray when turned off, so to fix that I just got some white typing paper and laid it in front of the screen. That would allow enough light to bounce off the paper and illuminate my face and throw the soft shadow on the background. The light coming from below head level, off the screen and up, gives it that spooky effect.
Both flashes were set at full power, which is not very much considering they are just the little cheapies I got at the thrift store (same one's I used on the previous water drop tutor). You could certainly use a larger flash if that's all you have, just turn it way down.
Ambient was set to black so it would have no effect on the lighting. ISO was 100 and f-stop around 5.6. The rest was just capturing enough facial variation so I had enough variety to pick from. There is always one that stands out above the rest.
This image was actually converted to black and white and re-colorized.
All the shots taken were shot in color/raw so I did the B&W conversion in the raw converter, but you can do it in Photoshop too, its just another way of doing the same thing.
Originally, on some shots, I had used gels on the laptop screen flash during the picture taking process but, not realizing that I was going to be going B&W till I analyzed them later, I ended up enhancing and tweaking the color in Photoshop with a hue/saturation adjustment layer (using the colorize layer option).
Another way to use the gels is not use them at all. Just use colored paper on the laptop.
In the old days, gels or paper were the only way to get this color effect, but now I find it easier just to go ahead and do it in Photoshop instead of using gels. If you are just doing one picture, do it in Photoshop, if you are doing a bunch of pictures, you should know how to use gels. it can save you a lot of repetitive computer time.
I also used adjustment mask/curves layer, and darkened the picture, then masked out and returned the picture back to normal leaving and de-emphasizing the lighter areas.
Two filters used
Lucis Art (Retail) and "Photoshop filter gallery, Glass". Both were created with masks and painted in as required.
I can't really go into any great detail on how I achieved this look because its all about massaging the picture till you get what you want, but these are the PS tools I used. If I tried to do this again, it would look different every time.
This process is a combination of two skills, Photography and Photoshop. One complements the other. If you don't know both, you put yourself at great disadvantage when competing against someone who does.
Anyway, that's how its done. I encourage you to try this or something similar. The more you shoot, the better you'll get.
All these are straight out of the camera less RAW/black and white conversion. The red one was massaged in Photoshop.
.
Here's one I did several months back, 
This one is all natural lighting coming in from the window. It took about 100 shots to get what I wanted. I was trying for a dark, somber mood, something like a painting out of the 1600s. At the time I was also thinking about my mother who works with old people so I was experimenting with facial expressions you might see on people in old-folks homes. I had just spent a week in the woods without shaving and added another week to that just for this self-portrait experiment.
Technically I was sitting facing my camera with the window light coming in from my right. I tried several variations of position, curtain settings, room lighting, hats, clothes, hair up/down, and etc. I could do this quickly because I had my camera connected to the computer trunning Canon's "Camera Window," which came with the camera. This allowed me to make camera adjustments easily and see the results immediately. Throughout I was triggering the camera with my remote switch. The one here is the one I liked best. This is almost exactly as shot, with almost no photoshopping.
I found, during this, that even a slight change to my eyes made a great difference in how the photo looked. Looking slightly to one side, up, or down gave a different impression than looking straight into the camera.
I framed an 8x10 copy and sent it to my mother without warning her ahead of time. A few days later she called me and, excitedly, asked me if I was OK. I had to laugh but she really was concerned that I was ready for the old-folks home. I was just trying to be artistic, not realistic.
This one is all natural lighting coming in from the window. It took about 100 shots to get what I wanted. I was trying for a dark, somber mood, something like a painting out of the 1600s. At the time I was also thinking about my mother who works with old people so I was experimenting with facial expressions you might see on people in old-folks homes. I had just spent a week in the woods without shaving and added another week to that just for this self-portrait experiment.
Technically I was sitting facing my camera with the window light coming in from my right. I tried several variations of position, curtain settings, room lighting, hats, clothes, hair up/down, and etc. I could do this quickly because I had my camera connected to the computer trunning Canon's "Camera Window," which came with the camera. This allowed me to make camera adjustments easily and see the results immediately. Throughout I was triggering the camera with my remote switch. The one here is the one I liked best. This is almost exactly as shot, with almost no photoshopping.
I found, during this, that even a slight change to my eyes made a great difference in how the photo looked. Looking slightly to one side, up, or down gave a different impression than looking straight into the camera.
I framed an 8x10 copy and sent it to my mother without warning her ahead of time. A few days later she called me and, excitedly, asked me if I was OK. I had to laugh but she really was concerned that I was ready for the old-folks home. I was just trying to be artistic, not realistic.
Wow Glenn, I didnt recognize you at first...very nice...I still havent even started on mine..better hop to it...
5 posts :: Page 1 of 1
and....
Ya, thats me.
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