A Simple Composite Image

"Girl, Drink, and Steam"

Had a couple of crazy weeks dealing with…don’t get me started, but if you’re familiar with Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” where something trivial mushroomed into…o.k. I’ll stop!  This week, I’ll keep it short and sweet…well at least short.  Anyhow, this post combines things from a couple of previous posts.  I took an image of a girl from my Oct. 3rd blog entitled “Lighting Variations for Glamour and Portrait” and an image I just shot yesterday using the lighting techniques from my  Oct. 24th blog entitled “Still Life…Incredibly Soft Light”, and made a composite image.  In Photoshop, I underexposed the image of the girl to add a surreal-like drama to the shot.  I then shot the cup and straw using the soft lighting technique.  I made sure to light the subject in such a way so the highlights coincide with the highlights on the girls face.  Last, but not least, I used Photoshop to add a wisp of steam coming from the cup…just a hint, too much looks fake.

"Cup and Straw Behind the Scenes"

Till next time…thanks for letting me share.

Building a Photograph vs Taking a Picture

"Kate, The Empty Pool and Beer"

After spending the last few weeks blogging about studio still life images and how I light them, I decided to blog about building a composite image from images I already have in my files.  You’ll recognize some of the component parts of the final image since they appeared in previous blogs.  Before I get into what I did to get to the final images, I want to mention that I was a guest last August on www.buildabetterphotograph.com.  This is a fantastic site for discussing all things photographic with co-hosts Michael Stern and Lee Love.  The guests on the show are truly amazing, and I feel very honored to have been one of the guests on the show.  Like the title of the show implies, they discuss how to “build” a photograph rather than just take a picture.  I don’t want anyone to think that I’m putting down “taking” pictures…most of my website is just that, but with some post processing done to produce the final image.  O.K. let’s get on with the two images that I have here.  The first one of Kate at the empty pool with a beer, started off with a shot of the empty pool at the local rec center after the summer season was over.  I was wandering around with my camera, and noticed the empty pool with the ladder off to the side.  Something about the composition struck me, and I knew that I’d do something with that image someday.  I added the sky to get rid of the boring background, and then did some editing in Photoshop using my PhotoTools and LucisArt plug-ins.  I actually liked the shot at that point, but decided that I would hunt around my files to see if I could come up with another element.  I remembered the shot of Kate in a previous blog I did where I placed her in a nature setting sitting on a rock.  I went back to my files and chose another shot of Kate that I shot on seamless in my studio, but this one was from the back.  I stripped her out of the original background and placed her “in the pool”.  After looking at the shot, I thought the location could very well be a rooftop.  Next I asked myself, “what the heck is she doing there, what kind of story do I want to tell”?  Is she just chilling…naked on the roof of her apartment building?  Is she reading, contemplating her existence, looking at the stars?  I wanted to put something else in the shot, but couldn’t come up with anything…until I remembered my last blog with the beer in the fridge.  I stripped out the beer and added a slight glow.  Now I have three shots I like, the empty pool with the new sky, the pool with Kate, and the pool(or rooftop) with Kate drinking a beer.  That’s the fun of “building” a photograph!  It’s all up to you.

"Empty Pool Right Out of the Camera"

"Empty Pool with Sky Background Added"

"Empty Pool, New Sky and Kate"

"Add a Little Beer"

My next composite image is pretty simple.  I took one of my images from my “Shooting Booze” blog and stripped out the booze and my hand, and placed it on a couple of different textured backgrounds.

"Original"

"Textured Background One"

"Textured Background Two"

Hope you all enjoyed this, and don’t forget to check out the Build A Better Photograph site.

 

 

 

More Still Life Lighting

"Don't Cry Over Spilled Booze"

"Let's Eat!"

Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season.  Here’s a shorter than usual blog due to the holidays…I’m still waiting to get my presents, but I think the beer and sandwich may be it this year.  Since I was feeling pretty lazy this past week, and didn’t take down the set from my last booze shots, I thought  I’d take advantage of the situation.  I shot something like the “Spilled Booze” shot over twenty years ago, but I can’t find the image so I figured I’d shoot it again.  I just laid the glass on it’s side, positioned the ice cubes, and then added the liquid.  On a shot like this, I would normally use a “turkey baster” to place the liquid where I wanted it, but I couldn’t find it, so I used a straw to suck some of the liquid out of the container and “spit it out” on the set.  Maybe that was too much information, but sometimes you just have to make do.  Do yourselves a favor and buy a “turkey baster”…you’ll thank me for that little tidbit of information.  O.K. onto the lighting.  As you can see from the behind the scenes image, the light mainly comes from underneath.  I have a gridded reflector with a piece of diffusion material just draped over it.  The surface is three layers.  The glass is resting on a rippled piece of plexi.  Second one down is my  ”smoked plexi” that I showed you in previous blogs, and the bottom one is a plain milky white piece of plexi…same as any light table.  I have my overhead silk right over the set and my diffused softbox above that. That top light is turned down so low, that after editing my images, I came to the conclusion that a piece of white foamcore or artist board would probably be just as good.  Anyhow, that how I lit it.

The second shot in the fridge was lit with a Nikon SB800 programmed to SU-4, so it would fire when the main light fired.  The main light was a diffused ring-light made by Paul Buff.  A ring light doesn’t have any shadows since your lens comes right through the hole in the center.  For the “behind the scenes” shot, I cheated the ring-light over so you could see what it looks like.  Anyhow, with the Nikon strobe on the bottom, and the ring-light lighting the set straight on, and the set being a “white box”, there was a lot of light there.  I even put a white card behind the featured beer bottle to bounce some light back through the beer, and also to block out any of the fridge wall from showing through…gives a nice clean look.  Last but not least, I want to draw your attention to the illustrative look of these two shots…especially the fridge/beer image.  Barbara at LucisArt had a Christmas special on her software.  This was my first favorite software program that I used years ago.  Unfortunately, she stopped producing it for us Mac users and when I got my new intel iMac, I couldn’t transfer my old version over.  Well, long story short, she’s making it for Mac users once again, and these were my first two images produced with LucisArt 3…I guess this was my Christmas present after all!  Take a look now at the “behind the scenes” shots.

"Spilled Booze "behind the scenes"

"Fridge & Beer behind the scenes"

See you next year…Happy New Year!

Shooting Booze…”I’ll Drink To That”

Soft Overhead and Diffused Backlight with Gel

I’ve always enjoyed shooting booze shots…all the earthy, warm colors and backlit glassware, make for beautiful images.  I shot all of these with the diffused overhead light I used in my “Old Books” images that I blogged awhile back.  This time, I also added a diffused light in the back to highlight the glassware, liquid, and ice cubes.  I’ve described the overhead light in previous blogs, but let me explain what I did with the backlight.  I have a head with a reflector/grid behind a white translucent plexi wall.  I also clipped my “smoked” plexi to the front of the white plexi.  The backlight has a piece of diffusion material over it, and in the first shot, I even added a gold gel to the grid/diffusion material.  The overhead light gives a nice highlight to the tops of the ice cubes and the decanters.  With the shot of the hand holding the glass, I set my camera on the 10 second delay, pressed the shutter and walked over to the set and lightly held the glass…remembering to not block the light coming in from the back.  The last thing as far as the lighting is concerned, is how I added a small mirror behind the glass and aluminum foil behind the decanters.  These add a real pop and sparkle to the liquid.  Lastly, I added a piece of pvc tubing that I spray painted black to the front edge of the set to give the images that “bar” look.  I have a couple of booze shots on my website which I shot around 20-25 years ago.  I bought my acrylic ice cubes from Tom Trengrove who owned Starbuck Studio back then.  Tom continues to make the finest “fake” ice cubes, snow, splashes and even fruit, that you can find anywhere…check out his site at http://trengrovestudios.com.  Tom has a second company named “Greatfakes” which has some of his products at a more economical price…you can take your time setting everything up, and nothing melts!

"The Hand"

"Behind the Scenes Front View"

"Behind the Scenes Side View"

"Overhead View"

As always, hope you enjoyed this!

More On Studio Lighting

"Wooden Utensils 1"

I tried something different this time for my first shot “Wooden Utensils 1″, something pretty common for my second shot “Wooden Utensils 2″, and added an old image “Cactus” using a technique that I learned back in the 80′s from Michael O’Neill…actually the “Cactus” shot and “Wooden Utensils 1″ have something in common, but also a big difference…”Cactus” was done totally in camera(I did clean up dust etc. in PS, but all the effects were done in camera).  Lastly, I was going to include two different “behind the scenes” images, but my Photoshop crashed during the editing of the second one(God I hope it’s not serious!!).  O.K. here we go.  ”Wooden Utensils 1″ was pretty complicated.  I started out doing an HDR of the wooden utensils in the glass vase with just the modeling light from the front light, as shown in the behind the scenes image.  I have a black curtain that I rolled down behind the set.  Behind the black curtain is a soft backlight coming through that big silk I’ve shown you in previous posts.  When using only this backlight, you get a silhouette  of the wooden utensils.  I had a behind the scenes of this, but…PS crashed during the edit.  Anyhow, just picture the behind the scenes I do have here with the black curtain rolled up.  So I have an HDR of the wooden utensils, and I took one of the silhouette shots and merged them in Photoshop.  I then added some texture to the background using both my Topaz and OnOne PhotoTools plugins.  This took quite some time.  Now let’s move on to “Wooden Utensils 2″.  This was a straight shot using both the front light and backlight, and taking the best overall exposure into Photoshop.  The wood didn’t have the same “warmth” as the HDR image, but I was able to brush in some color using my same plugins in Photoshop.  ”Wooden Utensils 1″ took twice as long to complete as “Wooden Utensils 2″ for me.  You can decide for yourself whether you think the extra work was worth it.  O.K., now the “Cactus”.  This was shot on 4×5 transparency.  Here’s the technique.  I have a soft front light for the cactus.  I have a soft backlight for the background.  I have a black curtain behind the cactus.  The front light has a green gel to heighten the color of the cactus.  The backlight has a golden gel over the light.  I use only the backlight and shoot a silhouette of the cactus with a golden glow.  I then drop the curtain down and shoot the cactus against black.  Here’s the important part…this is a double exposure done in camera.  Anywhere there’s black, the gold comes through.  Because it’s a double exposure, there’s no bleeding of the gold onto the green cactus.  Anyhow, sorry for the lack of behind the scenes shots this time, but hoped you enjoyed this anyhow.

"Wooden Utensils 2"

"Cactus"

"Behind The Scenes"

I’m going to try and get outside for my next post…stay tuned!

My Outdoor Still Life “Studio”

"Plasticware 1"

My last few posts have been about shooting still life images in a studio.  We had a pretty nice day here recently and I decided to try my luck at shooting some still lifes outdoors.  Two things made it somewhat difficult.  First, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and secondly, the plasticware was really old and all scratched up.  If it had been a bright cloudy day, that would have been like shooting with a giant softbox, but the sun this time acted more like a strobe with a reflector.  There is a company named “California Sunbounce” that sells these giant diffusers(usually used in people shots) that you hold over your subject to soften the light, but I don’t have any of these…besides, I wanted to see what I’d get with the bright sunlight.  Of course, a soft diffused light would help out a lot with my second problem which was the terrible condition of the plasticware…something that isn’t really as noticeable until you’re looking at this stuff on your computer.  All of the shots were done on the same surface that you can see on the “behind the scenes” images, but in “Plasticware 2″, I added a textured surface in post-production like I did with my “Donuts and Coffee” images in my most recent blog.  Lastly, I want to point out that I shot the “Eggs” and the “Glassware and Marbles” using HDR.  Everything seemed to work out, and I am happy with the images, but the one thing I learned from this exercise is, when shooting a still life…STAY IN THE STUDIO!

"Plasticware 2"

"Eggs"

"Glassware and Marbles"

"Glassware"

"Behind The Scenes Showing My Outdoor "Studio"

"Behind The Scenes 2"

As usual…hope you enjoyed this!

Soft Lighting With A Little Extra

"Donut & Coffee"

My last blog was about using multiple diffusion to create a super soft light when shooting a still life.  I shot these two “Donut & Coffee” shots using the exact same lighting, but with an extra light from underneath the set.  With the behind the scenes shot, you can see the softbox being diffused by my large silk…exactly like my “Old Books & Glasses” images from my last blog.  This time I set the subject on a piece of smoked translucent plexi-glass.  The coffee was in a clear glass cup, so I thought it would be nice to have a source of light coming up through the coffee, giving it a really nice glow.  If I had used a solid surface, the donut would look pretty much the same…at least the top of the donut would, but the coffee would have a more solid surface with a nice soft reflection on the surface, but no bright glow.  Both lighting treatments are nice, it’s just a personal decision made by the photographer or client.  With the bottom light so close to the subject, you’ll get a really blown out effect unless you cut the light way down or soften it quite a bit.  I taped a piece of tissue paper underneath the smoked glass, and it was still too hot.  I then laid another piece of tissue paper on top of the bottom light…oh yeah, I had a grid in the bottom light reflector so the light would be more directional.  The opening shot is sitting on the plexi surface, but I added a slight tint to the surface so it wouldn’t be pure white.  The second shot where you’re looking straight down from overhead, is shot on the same surface, but I added a couple of different textures in Photoshop, and then brushed them out over the coffee and donut.  This gives the effect of having the subject on a solid surface, but I still get the glow from the light underneath through the coffee.

"Coffee & Donut From Overhead"

"Behind The Scenes"

Hope you enjoyed this one.

Still Life…Incredibly Soft Light

"Old Books & Glasses"

I mentioned in previous blogs how I started out as a still life shooter, but eventually closed down my studio and concentrated on available light/location work.  Well, I’ve come full circle and decided to go back to shooting still life images.  I’m not abandoning my location work, but I’ll now do both location and studio still life.  I’ll have a new “Still Life” gallery on my website within the next few days.  Ever since my original still life days, I was always drawn to the soft, “Dutch Masters” northlight look.  Artists back in Rembrandt’s day, used to paint their masterpieces using northern window light.  When I first studied photography, I was taught by Andy Russetti, and assisted Ed Nano once I left school.  These two gentlemen were two of the best photographers I’ve ever met.  Two of the most famous photographers using this lighting back in the 70′s were Phil Marco, and Michael O’Neill.  O’Neill now shoots portraiture, and I don’t believe you’ll find one still life  image on his website…interesting, since he was one of the all-time greatest still life shooters, but I guess we all move on…or in my case move on and then back again!  Just as O’Neill was moving away from still life, I had a chance to study with him for two weeks in the Maine Photographic Workshops.  He taught us an incredible way of getting the softest light, using what he called a “tissue rig”.  He would have a roll of tissue paper over his set.  He would then place one or more lights on booms over the tissue aimed down at the set.  He could put a grid on one light to direct the light at a particular element of the set, while putting another piece of tissue over the reflector of another light to soften it.  So while the main roll of tissue served to soften the whole set, he could adjust the softness of individual areas of the set.  I set up my old books and glasses(I used them previously in a beer shot), and used a silk instead of tissue overhead.  I used one light overhead which was bounced back into an Apollo softbox for a very soft effect.  Then, that light passed through my silk to soften it even more.  You can see a reflector in front to bounce a little fill onto the sides of the pages, and some white paper along the side of the book to bounce some light there.  The final touch was a small mirror to pop the gold lettering on the side of the book.  I included a few variations of the image to show how easy it is to change things around, once you have the general set-up done.  A little post work in Photoshop, and I was done!  Hope you enjoy my still life work.

"The Set-Up"

"Old Books & Glasses 2"

"Old Books & Glasses 3"

I have a couple of other studio images lined up, so look for them in future blogs.

More HDR

"My House"

I blogged in the past about HDR.  In my blog entitled “Junk” I used HDR images of the junk in our barn…I’m going to use a couple of those images again in this blog…please forgive me for the “double post”.  The reason for this blog is to show how HDR can be used while not being “abused”.  There are a whole bunch of posts on the various photography forums I follow on HDR.  Most people posting either love HDR or hate it.  I really think that most people who hate it, hate over processed “tone-mapped” images.  These are the images that look rather “cartoonish”, but even these can be “toned-down” by spending a little extra time in post processing.  If you’re going for that “cartoonish” look, great, but I think most of the time that look comes from someone who lets the computer take over instead of re-asserting yourself as the artist/creator!  O.K. I’ll get off the soapbox.  HDR is a very valuable tool.  It enables a photographer to capture a wide range of detail without any additional lighting…all you need is a tripod.  Actually in my “Knight in the Museum” shot, I couldn’t even use a tripod.  I had to jam myself against a wall and brace my camera so it wouldn’t move.  Needless to say, the security staff kept their collective eyes on me.  HDR is a means of bracketing your shots from over-exposed to under-exposed to get a full range of detail.  You then merge all of your brackets into one image to get a wide range of detail or a High Dynamic Range(HDR).  You wind up with a rather bland image, so you have to go back and do some post processing.  This is where I see,in my opinion, another major mistake…no real shadows, and no real highlights.  Look around on most days, and you’ll see dark shadows and bright highlights.  Your eyes and brain can compensate, but your camera can’t, so this is where HDR comes in.  Another problem when using HDR is movement.  Most HDR shots don’t have any people in them, since people tend to move while the camera is shooting all of the bracketed frames.  I included a shot of my son as an example of shooting a person with HDR.  You just have to have them hold still for a second…not hard for a portrait, but pretty hard on a candid image.  I’ve seen some people do this with some candids, and my hat goes off to them…they are really good!  Lastly, I’ve included an image of an old doll’s head.  This is a “pseudo HDR”.  I took a single exposure, and in Lightroom I made two additional copies…one a stop too bright, and the other a stop too dark.  I then merged these two copies with the original in Photomatix…which is the HDR program that I use.  I wound up with a rather bland HDR which I then opened in Photoshop and added a bit of shadows for contouring.  The nature images are all plain HDR.  Hope you enjoy.

"Knight in the Museum"

"My Barn Junk"

"More of my Barn Junk"

"South Chagrin Reservation"

"Bedford Reservation"

"My Pine Tree"

"The Doll's Head"

"My Son Happily Modeling For Dad"

Look for my upcoming series of HDR portraits.  Thanks.

Lighting Variations for Glamour and Portrait

Broad Soft Side Lighting

I was recently part of a discussion on Linkedin about lighting in the studio with strobes.  One of the participants in the discussion was a student studying commercial photography in an art school.  He made the statement that there should never be shadows on a face when doing a portrait.  I certainly hope that his instructors are not teaching him that.  You need shadows to help shape and contour the persons face.  There are times that you can use something like a ring-light where the shadows are very minimal.  I’ve included a selection of images that I’ve shot in fairly recent times showing variations on lighting…a ring-light, a broad diffused umbrella placed directly behind me, a very broad large silk diffused light from the side, and a beauty dish with a grid, both diffused and non-diffused.  If anyone has any questions, feel free to post them here, or email me.  Thanks.

Broad Soft Side light

Large Diffused Umbrella

Large Diffused Umbrella

Beauty Dish with Grid

Beauty Dish with Grid

Beauty Dish with Grid...Diffused

Ring-Light

I hope that student checks this out and sees that shadows on a face are not that bad!