Last time I taught for Living Social, I had a great time. Was given the opportunity to teach over 600 folks over the course of 4 weekends. I think my students walked away feeling like much more confident and improved photographers. For those of you that don’t know I have also done a variety of webinars, and workshops for conferences like Photoshop World, where I had the opportunity to speak in front of hundreds of inspired shooters. I love to shoot, but when I don’t do that, I love to teach. It’s great to have a chance to reach out and share with the photo community.
Bring your dreams into focus with today’s frame-worthy deal: Shoot over $99 and receive a three-hour outdoor DSLR photography course and walking tour with famed photographer/filmmaker Douglas Sonders at LivingSocial’s new 918 F Street location. Named one ofWashington Life magazine’s most-influential people under 40 and one of the city’s Top 25 Creatives, Sonders will take students on a tour through some of the District’s most beautiful spots, explaining the basics of shooting outdoors — from lighting to composition — to help intermediate photographers learn tricks to take their craft to the next level. Classes are offered on select Saturdays and Sundays starting on May 26 and students should bring their own DSLR camera. (In case of rain, Sonders will take students through a range of shooting techniques indoors, so there’s no need to be wary of water damage to your camera.) If you want to master this art form, step one is snapping up this deal. – Living Social Site
Above is an image from another personal shoot I did just for my portfolio. It is merely a single shot image. No drop-ins or composite here! My subject is a Parkour athlete that essentially did a backflip off the wall. Not an easy feat in dress shoes!!
The lighting was simple as you well see in the diagram below. I had a single large softbox for a fill light and a second White Lighting x3200 flash with 7″ silver reflector that I used as an edge light on the subject and also to create the shadow on the brick wall. By using a more directional un-diffused light (meaning no softbox) you can create a harder-edged shadow, which I really wanted. I also used 2 Paul C Buff Vagabond mini battery packs to power the strobes on location.
Shutter speed maxed out at 1/200. Anything faster and you would definitely notice dark bands from exceeding the camera’s flash sync speed too much. This shoot would have really succeeded if it was shot with a medium format digital, which has a much higher flash sync speed based on its shutter design. For now, though, it seemed to work out, but I want to do this again with the medium format.
The image was converted from color to black and white using Nik Software’s Photoshop plug-ins Viveza and Silver Efex Pro. I used the burn tool in photoshop CS6 to darken the shadow and give it a more moody appearance.
Thank you to the folks over at Adobe, makers of the famous photography software, Photoshop! They showcased me as one of their “Customer Successes”. You can click the image below to see the posting on their page. It is always surreal to me when anyone feels the need to write about my work, let alone the makers of the biggest photography editing program in the world! I just view myself as a monkey holding a camera. This is a fantastic piece and a great opportunity. Thanks for everyone’s support! I’m sure this happened in large part to my involvement with KelbyTraining.com and starting to teach at Photoshop World this year. Big thanks to Scott Kelby and everyone over at Kelby Media!
It feels good to get back to my old shooting style. It’s like coming back home. I realized after hearing Erik Almas speak last week, that I have not been shooting the type of photos that I have been known to do earlier in my career…photos with lots of poppy contrast, motion, and energy (few examples below).
I decided that I needed to “go back” and build on the type of work that I used to love to shoot. I pulled out my trusty ol’ Canon 16-35mm 2.8L and loads of powerpacks and softboxes (gear I used to use a lot more) and set up a shoot with a parkour group out of the DC area, Primal Fitness.
Behind the scenes iPhone photo by Jackie Garcia. I was using my trusty Canon 16-35mm 2.8L
The shoot at the top of the post is a combination of 3 images. I show my steps below. All I used for this shoot was two White Lightning x3200 strobes (one with a 7″ silver reflector in the back and the other with an x-large softbox as a main light), 2 vagabond mini battery packs, a tripod, a Canon 5D Mk2, 16-35 2.8L, and a tripod. Overall, not a very complicated or expensive (gear-wise) shoot to create. It was just a manner of planning the shot out, coaching the subjects, and getting the lighting nice and dynamic. I normally keep my main x-large diffused softbox turned up high and placed very close to my subjects to create a dynamic light on them. I used the other light as an edge light, which I later removed in post-production, as you will see below.
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Below is a series of screen caps of my compositing process. As you can see it is pretty straightforward. It was just a simple matter of keeping a constant focus, f-stop setting, and maintaining overall consistent exposure.
The establishing shot with the first subject and background.
I took an image with the background light removed so I could later drop in the top of the stairs without the light. I used that light to create controlled edge light on my subjects.
I took multiple exposures with both subjects. I decided to shoot them both separately so that I may better direct their poses and expressions as they jumped. Hard to coordinate 2 perfect jumps at once. Obviously the tripod was crucial and very helpful in these shots. I just used simple layer masking to blend him in.
3 images put together before color treatment.
For final color effect, I used Nik Software’s Viveza 2 Photoshop Plugin as well as Color Efex 4: Bleach Bypass + Cross Processing filters
Rest in peace Carroll Shelby. You were a rebel… a hero. A chicken farmer turned racecar record-breaker. The reason my first car was a 1966 Mustang. The reason I wanted to work in and around cars. I am proud I had a chance to meet you a few years back. You even started the Carroll Shelby Children’s Foundation to help children that needed organ transplants. You were the one portrait I always wanted to take, but never had the opportunity. I am truly saddened at the loss of this legend.
APA DC hosted commercial photographer Erik Almas to speak about his lighting, shooting, and retouching styles this week. I was very thankful to have the time to attend for a variety of reasons. No matter where you may or may not be in your career, it is crucial to take the time to learn from photographers that are truly inspired. Even if they shoot content that is different than yours, it is incredibly infectious to catch on to their creativity. We get so stuck in our own creative worlds some times, myself included, its great to get some fresh perspectives.
Myself, Erik, and my good buddy Randy Santos (left to right) before the presentation
Erik did not disappoint. Make sure to check out this beautiful work. His personal work was truly my favorite and he told many stories about it was his personal work that has launched his career to where it is today. I’ve discussed this concept many times before in my classes, but all of us need a firm reminder sometimes. Listening to him speak, I realized I hadn’t shot a really fun personal shoot in a long time and it was long overdue. I will be brutally honest, which I normally am I believe, it was the shot you see below that I shot for a personal project 5 years ago (“The Casino”), that has defined a lot of the commercial projects I have been hired to shoot up until now. It defined the style in a lot of my personal and commercial work for a long time, but in the recent past, I have found myself diverging from this content/shooting/lighting style in attempts to constantly re-invent myself because I am forever restless. It’s my nature.
What am I trying to say? I’m not saying I believe my new work is “junk” so much as I think my personal work is departing further from what content and lighting I enjoy most. I am glad I push myself creatively, I just have to remember not to depart from who I am during the experimentation process. I hope that makes sense.
Remember your shooting style. Do not try and be someone else. Take inspiration from other shooters if you’d like, but develop something that is very you. Don’t try and please everyone, just please your creative self with passionate work and the projects will follow. It has worked for me in the past. It’s time I return back to my creative roots, add a little bit of creative refresher from techniques I have learned over the past few years, and develop the kind of content I was meant to make. I hope you do the same, no matter where you are in your career.
Thanks APA DC and Erik for the great presentation!
Not particularly sure what movie or TV show this is from, but you have to know that it is something special. Apparently in the future, folks just wait around patiently to be shot by lasers. I want to install a laser on my car, just because it would look cool.
A small preview of one of my new built from scratch bomber-inspired ipad3 housings. It was built to be used strictly for photo/video-taking for a new special and very exciting ad campaign I have coming up with Nik Software. It first saw light at my birthday party the other night (see below). That’s all I will say about it right now. You have to see it up close. Incredible. Amazing detail down to the bomber door, the hand grips, and the hand-painted bomber/photographer lady. It’s also plastic, so it is pretty light and feels great in my hands in portrait and landscape modes. Built by the AMAZING and AWESOME Tom Bostic.
PS. For those of you wondering what “8112″ is… that stands for my video production company 8112 Studios.
It's first appearance in public. I have a new sentimental connection with my iPad now. I feel like I need to name her.
I’ve had requests to do a quick tutorial on how to retouch faces in Photoshop. This will show you some easy quick tips on how to make a fresh look more refreshed and healthy, without looking alien or over-photoshopped, which is a big hazard these days. I play with the new Photoshop CS6 to show you how I would clean up my own rough-skinned face. As I said in the video, I used my own dumb face because I would hate to subject anyone else to such scrutiny in public like that. Haha. Hope this helps you kids a bit!
Remember my philosophy: it is best to make your portrait subject look like they’ve had a refreshed week in a spa then plastic surgery on an alien space ship. Of course, exceptions can be made for conceptual images.
