Thursday, December 4, 2014

Edit Digital to Look Like Film

Here's a quick video tutorial where I edited an image I took to look as close to Film as I could get. The thing about film & trying to emulate it is that it's hard. Lol. That's all. Watching this will give you an idea of my process & why I moved a few of the settings but ultimately you'll use some of this as a guide but depending on what camera you shot on, whether you shot in Raw or Jpeg, what lens you used & what colors are in the image etc etc etc, it will be different.

In this case I took the image as the sun was going down, we were running late getting to the location, my lights weren't firing because the triggers...well, they love to do that to me when I'm in a hurry & also everything else that could go wrong did. No big deal. I had talked my friend into coming all the way to Guadalajara to shoot in the first place, spent money on the dress & a ticket to get there & like 10 other things lol.

In a perfect world, I had planned on using my light with some warm gels to mock the sun setting behind her & then bounce that same light coming from behind her, off a white reflector in front of her to brighten her face. But anyways, the end result was ok & everything is a learning experience!


Friday, August 29, 2014

Chic Critique Magazine Cover

We had so much fun shooting this for Chic Critiques (click the name to check out their site) contest & almost killed a couple bikers in the process with our scattered gear but no one did crash & anyways beauty is pain right? Taking inspiration from Ralph Laurens classic & romantic style & blending it with Chic Magazine's more feminine & softer vibe along with the fact that it's a Fall issue & their theme was couture, we set off.  I knew I wanted darker lips to tie in the deep reds you see during Fall & a black dress to lend a nod to a more couture darker vibe & that it had to balance being a little more fierce with still being soft. Nalina Belefonte & I have some big Fashion projects coming up so it was also the perfect opportunity to go out & get used to one another. There were so many good ones from this shoot making it impossible to narrow it down to one for a submission but somehow I managed. For now I included one more shot below just for show & Ill post the rest later next week as I find time to finish the editing. So check back if you want to see more from this shoot.

In other news Im going to start shooting a lot more Fashion, have some awesome projects coming up I can't wait to share! This last year was a lot of commercial Photography & Weddings & not enough Fashion which got me thinking that it was un-acceptable. Ill allow myself to shoot other things but only if I leave room for what makes my heart sing. Glossy magazine covers & vogue editorials were my inspiration all those years ago for buying my first camera, my little Rebel. RIP little guy. Not sure what happened to that camera but it prompted me to get a 7D & later a Mark III & now Im working to learn Film, so needless to say lots of new adventures started from there.  

Also on a side note I've been working on creating some fun tutorials with my girlfriends which will be know as The Pinterest Housewives...we will put our little aprons on, drink some wine & burn food in the kitchen as well as test makeup tutorials & whatever else catches our fancy. Prompted by the constant irritation I feel after being duped by beautiful imagery of food on Pinterest that hardly ever tastes as good as it looks or by me wanting to try to get a little more creative with makeup by watching tutorials which never looks as good on my face as it does on the hot girl doing the tutorial. 

Anyways, I don't spend enough time with friends these days & so a little wine & some good times, why not? And might as well bring you guys along on the adventures. If you want to see the videos check out the channel here. We will begin posting end of Sept. 

Here's the image I shot for the cover with some text on there....had to make sure it would line up right & Im thinking that looks pretty rockstar what about you:
And a little teaser of what the rest of the shoot looks like. Gorgeous gorgeous. I want her stunning looks & captivating eyes, she is too much. Seriously though god, you went a little extra on her :  )




Monday, August 11, 2014

Oregon Maternity Shoot at the Beach

Rosa is one of those girls that you just envy.

Thinking back to once upon a time when I was pregnant....it seems so long ago but the lovely memory of my angry bloated self is still so very visible. Think Godzilla, but if Godzilla craved chocolate milkshakes not humans.

Pregnancy glow is something I thought must have been a big lie to get us to continue to procreate until I seen Rosa. We were sitting chatting for a good 45 min when she mentioned being glad to almost have the baby & I had a "Whhahhh?" moment & then laughed as I looked down. I told her she was a bad liar she was clearly only 5 or 6 months pregnant.

"No" she really was going to have a baby in less then a month she said.

Well it was clear to me that the pregnancy glow must be true & it would have to be documented to give other future moms hope that they too could look so good if they are lucky. Rosa's husband needs to be mentioned too while we are at it.

Humble, honest & good natured guys are hard to find but they too exist ladies. Dont give up on the hunt, stay strong. Felipe is a total sweetheart & they are the cutest couple. Im pretty sure their baby is going to come out ready for the runway with the way both of these guys look. Congrats to two beautiful people. 

oregon maternity photography, beach couples shoot
oregon maternity photography, beach couples shoot
oregon maternity photography, beach couples shoot
oregon maternity photography, beach couples shoot
oregon maternity photography, beach couples shoot
oregon maternity photography, beach couples shoot
oregon maternity photography, beach couples shoot


Saturday, July 12, 2014

VSCO vs Replichrome Film Presets


Edited with VSCO Fuji 400h

I remember a year ago creating a post in the Photo.net forum asking if anyone had any insights into blending film & digital imagery. I got laughed at not surprisingly. A lot of by-the-bookers telling me if I wanted film so bad I should pick up a film camera. And there's truth to that. But if you had just bought a $3500 camera....throwing it to the wind to go buy a film camera didn't seem viable. You can read my post here about shooting & editing to get as close to film with your digital as possible (read mine here). Or watch a video of me editing an image with this same advice here.

Im sure I arrived on this 'Film' quest about the same time 1000 other photographers did which is after I got done drooling over Jose & Elizabeth books. It was like being re-born as a photographer. I know as I write this now how un-original this post really is only a year later....it seems everyones weighing in on it now. But for good reason. And just as many posts as there are, there are opinions, so I suppose no harm in another perspective.

Film is great for a lot of things but as I primarily shoot Weddings I have sat endless hours at my computer afterwards afraid to let go of the editing but tired of doing it at the same time. It was a black hole & an endless cycle. Thats when I realized that film could save me so much time & although its more expensive, my time is valuable too. I figure the time shooting film saves you pays you back triple-fold at minimum. And then theres the new possibilities it unleashes because you no longer have to balance harsh sunlight with a strobe or hide under a tree during Weddings. Now you can go boldly go where no digital has dared before...into the brightest sun & onward. 

First off I want to say that VSCO really is the pioneer in this quest. A lot of other presets have sinced sprouted up including the main headliners Replichrome & Mastin, I created my own as well to suit my taste (found here). But VSCO really got the ball rolling & they did a thorough job while they were at it. Overcomplicated, perhaps, but if you really were a film lover looking for true results they wanted to deliver & did so by acknowledging that depending on what you shoot the presets would vary so they included a set customized to Nikon, Canon & the last set they call Standard for all other shooters. Replichrome took it a step further to compete with them by offering different presets according to the scanner type the film would have been scanned into.
Edited with VSCO Fuji 400h

So without further ado Ill summarize what I took away from this comparison. First & foremost I believe VSCO to be the most correct of the sets. But the problem is when we are looking at all these comparisons online is you first have to ask yourself if your looking for results like other film photographers or true film colors. Typically people are after Jose & other popular film shooters looks & thats not necessarily what youll get even if you go shoot film. They have color profiles set up at the lab & overexpose to get what they get. So being after that you'll have to look at presets differently & expect to tweak them because as of right now no one makes a Jose Villa Fuji 400h preset they make a out of your camera, Fuji 400h preset. Next is the fact that there's tons of variables when people make these comparisons. First & formost being what did they shoot on & how did they shoot the  images because you & me could both click the same preset on a picture we took on the same day with different cameras & settings & the preset will look two different ways. Lastly is that there is over 10 Fuji 4ooh presets in replichrome, 2 in Mastin & 3 with VSCO, so which one are people clicking each time?

With all that said on this comparison I did adjust the blacks for the sunny backlit images but I adjusted the same for each to make it fair. I made sure the images were correctly white balanced before I clicked the presets as well since applying these to blue cast or overly yellow images would not give the correct results. Last, Ill admit that for the different images I sometimes liked Mastin, then VSCO was better, then my own etc etc. So good luck! You might be best off just investing in a few. Ill shamelessly tell you mines only $10 so start there. *Wink. But if you like film VSCO & Mastin are worth having for different reasons.

Notes about each:

VSCO: Has presets sets called Nikon, Canon & for all other shooters there's a pack called Standard. It also has a set called Tooklit for tweaking the presets like getting creamy highlights or lifting shadows.

PROS:  Has one of the closest results for that beautiful film color & the B&W presets rock.
CONS: Vsco for my taste, usually needs lots of tweaking after applying the presets. I usually bring down the is too grain, adjust the green cast in the shadows & mess with the contrast to get it right.

REPLICHROME: Has presets packs for Fuji, Kodak, Black & whites & a Tweak kit.

PROS: Has a lot more usable presets with one click. Beginner friendly.
CONS: Tends to run a little pink on the overall tones from the presets & I usually have to adjust the red channel down out of the highlights to reduce this.  Doesn't look as close to true film as VSCO.

MASTIN LABS: A Canon & Nikon pack of presets that has Fuji 400h neutral & blue with some highlight, shadow & grain tweaks.

PROS: Really simple & good results with the presets
CONS: Doesn't have a Portra preset


CONCLUSION:
I like VSCO best overall. Of course I like the customized preset I made for my workflow as well but its just a little Fuji 400h one & I still like to play with all the other presets VSCO offers in the set including Portra 400 & TRI-X 400 for B&W conversions.  Its a bit spendy but worth checking out if your into the film look.


Now for some pictures using the different presets. Can you tell which is which?


*Mine, Mastin, VSCO, Replichrome










Friday, July 11, 2014

Natural Light Newborn Photography

Heres the images from my recent shoot with my little niece Naomi. She is the cutest & I can't wait to watch her grow up into an amazing woman. Love capturing these fleeting moments so our family can cherish them forever. Hugs & kisses to my little muffin.


Thursday, May 8, 2014

Free High-res Cloud & City Wallpaper of Tri-Cities

I've been driving to Pendleton a lot lately to visit my friend & fellow creative Dawn & I always see the prettiest sunsets of the Tri-cities on the way back home. Mostly I just enjoy the view for myself because my camera isn't nearby & because I don't want my tombstone to read, "got creamed by a semi truck on the side of the highway trying to capture a sunset", but today I was feeling lucky & my camera was sitting on my passenger seat so I really had no excuse. I tried snapping a few out my window without stopping & I looked pretty crazy so when that didn't work I gave up & pulled over to get this. I was shooting with a 50mm so this is a cropped in picture to get closer to the good stuff & not have the road in the foreground. 

& I'm not even gonna lie I totally added in the fog because sometimes its fun to play with pictures but those stars are totally real...its this crazy miracle that happens only once every million years....lol...ok maybe I put those there too. I hardly ever edit landscape or fantasy type pictures though anymore, so felt like having some fun with this one & since its not for national geographic what the hell. You can download it for free but you have to shamelessly promote my business name first.


Friday, April 11, 2014

5 Ways to Emulate Film with Digital Photography



Once upon a time...about 1 year ago I was in search of how to get my digital images to look more like film. Film was popping up everywhere & it looked amazing. I loved the versatility & magical quality of it.

I was tempted to go buy a film camera but I'd just invested $3400 on a Canon Mark III & I knew buying another $3500+ camera might entice my husband to murder me.

When trying to make digital emulate film I think an important disclosure is that nothing is going to be exact so don't expect that but you can get it really close...close enough people will wonder. Here's a few things we will discuss to get you headed in the right direction:

1. Using film emulating presets
2. Camera calibration & tone curve Settings
3. Changing your settings in camera
4. Shooting with gear that gives you more film like results
5. Hacking your camera with Dual ISO


Using Film Emulating Presets


A great thing beyond the dynamic range (how much range the camera can show from the darkest to lightest points in the image) of film is the color.

When you have a few hundred images from a wedding to turn around, not having to edit every single image for basic color is huge. There are two major film types you see everyone shooting & trying to emulate, which is Portra 400 & Fuji 400H.

With these films the skin tones are more a more distinct orange tone & greens are typically more blue based (rather than the yellow in digital).

So the first way you can achieve these color differences in digital photography is using Presets.

There's plenty of different versions of film presets out there now but popular ones are Replichrome & VSCO. They're great and have lots of options but can be a bit spendy.

You can also try making your own by watching online tutorials, there's tons available. You can watch the one I made here.

Or check out my version of film presets here, available for $7-10 in my shop.

When using presets its important to note that you wont get the best results unless you start with a correct exposure & white balance. I also recommend applying the presets on RAW files & not Jpegs. Also, there isn't a single preset, mine, VSCO or Replichrome thats going to be click and go everytime. You will need to do minor adjustments to white balance and tones but they will definitly get you started.


Tone Curve & Camera Calibration Settings

HIGHLIGHTS:

I suggest making these changes in camera raw but you can also do this in Lightroom.

With the edits, one of the main things about film is the push towards brightness and blacks without sacrificing detail.

You can do this by brightening the exposure & then bringing the highlights slider to the left to control loss of detail in the brighter areas. You have two areas that control your highlights. One in the basic adjustments panel and another in the tone curve panel. Play with both to see which you prefer. Typically the first is the better one to start with.

You also have a whites slider in your basic panel that you'll want to slide to the right typically to add a bit of pop to your whites.

TIP:
Make sure not to over-brighten your image & take into account if your monitor has the brightness turned up or down (calibrating it is the best way around this issue) because that can really alter the way everyone else see's your image.

SHADOWS:

Now take the shadows slider found in the basics panel & lift your shadows by moving the slider to the right. Next lower the contrast with the contrast slider by sliding it to the left slightly.

Next take the blacks slider or the darks in the tone curve panel and moving them to add contrast back in.

Another great adjustment is the clarity slider found under your basic panel. Taking that down to somewhere aournd -10 helps to emulate the softness found in film.

GETTING FILM LIKE COLOR:

To do this you can edit either the tone curve red, green & blue channels from the tone curve panel or you can use camera calibration. For tone curve you will click on the little icon in the bottom right of that panel area, see the image for example:



Next click channel & change from RGB to the different channels & adjust them to match the color tones of film. 

Now maybe this is overwhelming & most likely what will happen is you'll find something you like but it wont be anything like film. This is not an easy step & you have to be able to see colors in the highlights & lowlights & know that combinations of colors will = whatever result. 

So if this is too difficult don't worry, save whatever cool thing you came up with as a new crazy preset & enjoy it & let's move on to the next method. 




The other method but is using camera calibration which is the last section in your tool panel.

Here you can move the slider left & right to adjust the overall colors in your picture. Red looks good moved to the right.

Greens typically looks good moved to the right as well to add more blues in the greens like in film.

You can adjust the saturation down or up for both as needed as well.

You will find that moving one slider will make you need to adjust the others to compensate & find balance again. Play around with them & find something you like. You can also go up to your hue, balance, saturation panel and adjust colors further.

I could go into detail about how much or little to move these but the best thing you can do is compare it to a film image you took the same day or find one online that has a similar light & color palette to yours & work your colors to match.





Now that you did all that, you need to frost the cake as I say. You got a good thing going, but it needs the final polish. To really hone in on the film look adjust three final things.

ADDING GRAIN:

The first is the grain amount, which you'll find in the effects panel. Film has grain so having no grain means your picy no looky like film. Play around with it & make sure your zoomed in to about 50-75% so you get a good grasp of the amount your adding.



Get it Right in Camera


Highlight Priority Mode:

Start by setting your (Canon) camera to Highlight Priority Mode which is a setting in your camera menu (If you have an entry level or older Dslr you might not have this). This setting helps retain detail in the highlights of your image which consequently allows you to shoot a little brighter exposures without blowing things out. This setting also adds noise to the shadows but film has grain so I think this just adds to it.

Exposure:

The next obvious setting is your exposure. Don't obliterate all detail by overexposing all of your images but do bump it up.You can set your blown highlight warning (located in your camera menu) to flash or use the histogram on your camera to make sure you don't over do it.

Shoot Raw:

Another setting to use is to shoot in RAW. This is important because you'll be editing the images in post to get the film look & doing this in RAW, as stated above, let's you adjust the settings almost as good as if you did it in camera.

Styles:

Lastly, play around with the style setting. You can either set it to 'Faithful' which puts the contrast, saturation, sharpness & color tone to 0, or do what I prefer which is to to bring down the saturation & contrast one notch...find what works for you based on what look your trying to achieve.



Shoot Right


Choose the Right Lens:

Start with a good lens. Some lenses as you may have noticed, give you different amounts of contrast, colors, compression etc. Put every lens you own on your camera & take the same picture. Now compare the images on your computer. What lens gives you a better film look? For me the answer is both longer & prime lens's. Longer lens's compress the background & make the subject really stand out giving the image more dimension like film. A 100mm or 85mm would fit that description. I use an 85mm & shoot at wider apertures of 2.8 & below often for this reason.

*Also worth noting, is that most of the film images you see are shot at 85mm, so using the same focal length helps mimic the feel.

Find Good Light:

Next, shoot in good light. Open shade, window light, any softer light is great. Film has great light so if your taking a ton of pictures in terrible light your only making it harder for yourself because its one more thing you have to fix & it's the hardest thing. Harsher light is harder to make look like film because you'll have the shadows & blown highlight thing to fix that we talked about above. It can be done but it's just easier not to go there in my opinion. In situations like a wedding where you have no choice but to shoot in crappy light because of candids or where things are setup, then that just is what it is.

Use Fill Light:

Make sure to use a reflector or fill light if you can too. This will give you another layer of good light, filling in shadows & bringing attention to whatever it is your shooting, adding another layer of dimension. The white part of your reflector will give you a softer fill like film but you can also use bounced natural light from a large source or use your flash turned all the way down & heavily diffused.

Stylizing:

Lastly some colors just photograph nicer & will give you the softer look you see in film. You'll notice a lot of pale colors like pinks & blues, metallic's, creams & blacks because they photograph so nicely.


Hack it Up

The D800 from Nikon, is rated as having better dynamic range so if you have one of those you're already ahead of me & other's with a Mark III. If you don't have a Nikon D800 but you want a comparable dynamic range then you can hack your camera.

Magic Lantern came up with Dual ISO which allows you to tap into a better dynamic range by sampling half of the sensor at ISO 100 & half the sensor at a higher ISO giving you closer to 14 stops. I'll be honest though, I'm not sure how I feel about it. There's extra steps you have to take to process the images & I think you sacrifice quality in doing this & then there's the fact that you're tinkering with such an expensive camera which kinda scares me.

Maybe Ill dare to try it in the future, but you can see for yourself in the meantime by watching this video I found which shows what you'd normally get with a Raw SOOC image versus the Dual ISO image & then research the pros & cons more for yourself & decide:





Thursday, April 3, 2014

Branding Your Business: Questions to ask






So I’ve had my branding revamp on my to-do list for a couple weeks now with no progress on my end. Today I decided I better just sit down & get to it since I feel like I’ve been avoiding it like dirty laundry.

It’s not that I’m not excited about having it re-done, I’m just scared.

I've realized over the years a sad truth. Im extremely indecisive. Gah. Working on it though.

On my branding this has been the most obvious as I've struggled to feel commited to any one look or feel. I want to make sure that whatever I decide on will be something that's timeless, that I can feel good about for a long time. I know the first step to this overhaul requires me to actually contemplate & define things I like so they can be curated and defined as a look to move forward with.

Easy enough right?

Customize with your branding,
BUY IT HERE
I lean back in my desk chair, kick my feet up on the desk & twirl the tiny globe sitting on my desk. Maybe I can just write a style on each country, throw a dart & that will be it. No more worries. Let fate decide. I feel pleased with this solution as it abates me from coming to a decision.

But being indecisive as I am, I start wandering to the allure of a plan B. Those are always good. One is good, two is better. I look at my bookmark bar & see the Pinterest icon. Shining out at me like a little lighthouse saving me from stormy waters.

I click.

In comes the feed. Prepared to type, "Branding inspiration" into the Pinterest search bar but immediatley caught up in the wave of suggested pins loading beneath, I begin the scroll.

Its not a good thing. If you've been on there, you know my pain. It sucks you in like a neverending rabbit hole. Down you go. And when you look up you realize there was an apocalypse. Everyones gone and you dont even rememebr why you sat down 20 years ago and began the search.
I take a deep breath & move my right hand with my laft hand forcing it back up to the search bar, You can do it I coach myself.  In it goes. “Photography Branding” I type, pleased I’ve made it so far. The results are in.

After several minutes of scrolling through every type of branding you can imagine & pinning several things with abadon, I sit back. Alas, I found a few things that speak to me. I’m getting somewhere.

I click to go to the board of my accumulated branding pins thus far. I pinned two outfits…one classy & timeless & the other a bit slutty. What does this mean?

And I pinned a cupcake.

I wonder if my friend helping me with the re-branding will be able to interpret what all this means? My board is trying to say that I like completely opposite things mixed with tasty & fattening….maybe I should start over.  
Where am I going wrong? Everyone else's inspiration board looks like ad J Crew ad campaign layout. Mine looks confused.

I think back about the articles I've read on branding & fall back to the questions I need to answer to enable a more clear direction for my brand.

Who are my cients? 

What are they drawn to? 

How do I relate who I am & what I do best, to all of that?

How is it conveyed through fonts, media & design?

And what is my current story? 

Should I keep elements from my current branding and work them into whatever direction I want to move into or should I scrap it and start from scratch?


My Website
before rebranding


I decide to start with the golden question, "what demographic do I want to attract?" 

I know I prefer clients who have at least a mid-high range budget when it comes to Photography. Haggling over price is not the market I want to be in. Im a bit eccentric so clients who can appreciate my personality & not be turned off by it, would also be ideal. So no stuffy people. 

I struggle with jokes so people that are comfortable smiling and being in front of a camera is also ideal for me. 

High-school Senior photography for example, not ideal. They’re teens, going through a lot of changes, they’re finding themselves, they’ve taken plenty of selfies but when it comes to shooting, there’s definitely a warm up period where your trying to find common ground & put them at ease. But what do I do? I don’t know any age appropriate jokes & I go blank. This causes a sweaty panic which I try to hide by snapping too many photos so I don't have to make eye contact.

So the point of all that? Does there have to be one?

If there does, then its to be picky. Know what you are good at and shoot that. Don't try to do everything and end up mediocre or putting yourself in situations where you can't shine. Im a good photographer but certain shoots put me on edge and make it a struggle to give my best work.

I want people who have fun through the process & who are discerning but not overly critical. Who are fun loving & allow me to be myself because they’re outgoing and confident enough in themselves. 
So what appeals to this sort of client? And what appeals to me?  And how can I create an experience for them so the entire process is memorable and enjoyable?
Client Session Guide
after understanding my ideal client and
how to create an experience for them

Well, I know I like straightforward yet bold design mixed with touches of feminine & grandeur. But don’t ask me what that looks like as it comes together, but that’s why god made Dawn. And yes, I realize how terrible that sounds. I know she isn’t here for the sole purpose of working on my branding but let’s be honest, I’ll be as greedy with her time as she allows me to be. She totally rocks & if I can have her creative mind indulging my re-branding fancy then Ill take it!  

So what else? Well, I like information to be said in a way that’s entertaining & not monotonous. I think that’s pretty much everyone across the board these days though. We like to be entertained & have come to expect it. But there’s a fine balance between entertaining your client &, “your not funny”, “your trying to hard”.  I feel like my ideal client would appreciate all these same things because its straightforward but with touches that make it unique just like them. Hmmmm. My head fills with inspiration.

I visualize the perfect color palette & I paint…the beauty of it all starts coming together, forming a masterpiece. Goosebumps on my arms. It’s going to be amazing.  I glance back over at the globe & think about the design styles I had assigned each country. Europe is going to work perfect I decide as I grab a second dart & throw it towards LA. 
Check out my Pinterest Branding Board here to see as it comes together

Visit Dawn Aldermans Blog for branding & design sites

Business Cards
with my new branding
 and target demographic 

in mind

Thursday, March 6, 2014

"You Want Me More" A Sexy Shoot





I just recently opened up my own studio downtown and wanted to practice lighting and get a feel for the space. I also haven't shot any fashion type photos in a while & decided to do something in that style which is actually my favorite thing to shoot! 

Ashley is one of the first people I shot with when I started really getting into Photography so it was fun to come back and play around together again. We also worked together for a photography studio. 
I find my best work, or the shoots I end liking the most anyways, are ones I shoot with people Im really comfortable with. It's probably a thing for other people too? 

But no pressure, just taking my time with the lighting and having fun with the process.


But anyways, here's some sexy photos.





Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Free Faded Film Action

In celebration of nothing but today I decided to make this action available for free. I have downloaded so many free resources from other blogs & sites & its time to give back. I really don't use Photoshop as often as I used to but the thing I do love about it is it's so great for getting really detailed edits. These days most of my stuff is bulk editing so Im in Lightroom but for Fashion edits or pictures that you want to give that extra something you can't beat Photoshop. This action is really easy to use & looks good on almost any picture have fun playing with it. I know I always forget but if you remember to, post a link in the comments to your edit with the action....its always fun to see how people use different tools. Click the button below to tweet or share to facebook & download


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

All Hands on Deck Fashion Shoot


So here's a shoot I did with my friend Nick who models out of Seattle.

He had someone from a Fashion magazine tell him they were going to be doing a Black Issue of all B&W images & if he wanted to come up with something they'd look at publishing it.  It was a little last minute to meet the deadline but we ended up shooting with a sort of water & boat theme.

We shot a couple different ways so we'd have different feels to pull from; the other ones we shot were more artsy & moody. But I really like how these turned out, I wish they'd been published in color because a lot was lost converting them, but the point of the issue was that everything would be in B&W.

Next time Id like to do more then one outfit in all the pictures, but it was fun just shooting & being creative. Special thanks to everyone that came & helped with lighting & nearly getting blown away holding my 6ft reflector when the storm set in. I wish we had video of the torrential flood & my umbrella blown inside out with all of us trying to squeeze under for cover.






Blogging tips