Lifestyle illustrations created for PR and promotion of new Florian bag range.
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Month: February 2013
Angelique by Tobias Lang
Collection shooting be Germany photography Tobias Lang.
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Stunning Photo Manipulation By Julia Popova
Julia Popova is a digital artist from Russia. She lives in Novosibirsk city.
She devoted a long period of time to studying programs of digital image processing. Every day she creates new photo-art uniting fantasy and technical experience. This is a perfect way to allure audience into a bright world of art and happiness, to share dreams and ideas. Julia makes an emphasis on kindness and positive principle. For her digital photo-art is a hobby which grows into work. Work that becomes as pleasant as hobby.
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Food Carving Photos by Ilian Iliev
Today we want to show you big collection of stunning examples of food carving. All photo in this collection were created by food photographer from Manchester, United Kingdom Ilian Iliev. Take a look and you will certainly enjoy both incredible food carving and great still life photos. Have fun!
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Beautiful Starry Night Photography – 20 Photos
Fashion Portraits by Pieter Henket
Pieter Henket’s images, an encounter between his eyes and the eyes of his characters, form a (celebrity-worshipping) narrative, comprehensible and deadon hip. via PhotoHab – Social Photography Blogs.
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What’s in and what’s out in Office 2013?
Office 2013 is the 15th version of Microsoft’s popular desktop software. This version sees it spreading its wings to encompass tablets, phones and other smart devices. What else has changed for the 2013 edition and what does this mean for you?
Originally published by Best STL
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Photographer Taylor Marie McCormick
Taylor Mary McCormick -talented amateur photographer 18-year-old photographer and retoucher from Kentucky.
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Genlux Winter Fashion + New Video!
I was asked to shoot an editorial for the Los Angeles Fashion Magazine, Genlux. Genlux Magazine uses me on a regular basis to shoot for them and they are one of my favorite clients because of their extreme trust in my vision. In other words, they give me a lot of freedom to shoot what I want to shoot, which makes them a dream client! I’m going to take you step by step through the process of this shoot, giving you my technical info and the background details on how I planned and set up this shoot. You can click the link above to watch the video first, or you can Read on!
The Video
In the very beginning I was given two guidelines: the theme for the Winter Fashion issue, which they decided on calling it the Art Issue. And I was given 8 pages. First things first. Since there was a theme, I had to come up with a concept that went along with that theme. I decided on exploring the idea of The Muse, the artists model as inspiration and catalyst. After settling on the idea of The Muse, I then had to find the perfect girl! One perfect girl/muse! Also given the stipulation of needing 8 pages to fill, I had to keep in mind that we would possibly go with 8 different changes of clothing. So those were my initial guidelines and then I got to work.
The first thing I did was find the girl. I contacted Elite Models, LA Models, Photogenics Models, and Ford Models. I scoured the internet and was sent some cards by some of the agents. Stephen Kamifuji and I looked through websites together on the phone, choosing around 10 that we liked and then settling it down to the ONE. The choice of models often times will depend on who’s available, who’s in town and then who is willing. Some girls that work a lot may not be interested in doing editorial. That’s not the typical case, but you will find it happening from time to time and it can be frustrating. You think you’ve found the perfect girl and then you find out she’s just not interested in doing the job; either it doesn’t pay what she’s interested in getting or she just doesn’t need one more tear sheet in her book.
We finally settled on a girl from Ford Models named Angela Michelle. I think the thing that stood out the most for me in choosing Angela were the beauty campaigns in her book. Her face is undeniably gorgeous! And she has a classic beauty look. She has the ability to go the “Hollywood ’40′s Glamour” look. Which is how I wanted to shoot it. I must interject here that I had the preconceived idea that I might turn the shoot Black and White in post and do selective focus on the pictures. I wasn’t 100% sure I would go that route, but that idea was in the beginning stages of prepping for this shoot.
After we settled on Angela, I then went about the tedious task of finding the perfect stylist. A fashion photographer needs a lot of “best friends” on their shoots but if we’re going to call someone your best best friend (BFF) that would be the stylist! Hands down, this is going to be the person who can turn a shoot into either a mediocre fashion lay out or a fabulous high fashion couture lay out! You need your stylist to have the ability to thoroughly understand your concept. If I say couture evening gowns and she shows up with mid-length cocktail dresses from local labels, she obviously didn’t listen or just didn’t get your concept. It is SO important to spend time before hand with your stylist, sending her pictures if you have to, going over it on the phone a few times so that she really gets EXACTLY what you want. I settled on a new girl that I hadn’t worked with before because A: I liked her book. B: I liked her agent and I knew her agent would stay with us through out the prepping stages of the shoot. and C: in our first phone conversation, she got it! Robyn Goldberg from Artists by Timothy Priano was my stylist for this shoot and she did an amazing job! I can’t wait to work with her again!
After choosing the stylist, Robyn Goldberg, I then chose the hair and make up artist. Again, I chose them because of their portfolios. Make up was a cinch, I didn’t need to prep her with any information before the shoot because we weren’t doing anything terribly out of the ordinary as far as make up was concerned. I went with Lusine from Artists by Timothy Priano. As far as the hair was concerned, though, I did need to speak with the stylists’ agent regarding the hair styles for this issue. I wanted her to be able to replicate the Hollywood Glamour style hair styles, somewhat period looks, and her book, while it was strong, didn’t really have anything in it to depict that look. Her agent got back to me that Stephanie Pohl was sure she could pull it off, and I just went with my gut on it because, again, I knew that her agent wouldn’t mislead me on this one.
I was lucky to have an artist’s studio at my fingertips. My best friend, my own personal (BFF) is an amazing artist who happens to have a nice painting studio in her very own backyard (yeah, I’m a lucky girl) and she was kind enough to let us invade her space for the day to shoot the 8 page editorial.
So location was set. Hair, make up and stylist were lined up. The model was booked. What’s left to figure out?
My lighting! The part you all are waiting patiently to read now. If you have been reading my blog in the past, I would hope you have gotten that I am a “less is more” kind of lighting geek. And I didn’t vary from my theory on this shoot. I went to the studio, even though I’ve been their a million times, but I never went to “LOOK” at it in the context of shooting in it. I studied the available light coming in from the huge double doors to the South, the skylight coming in from above and the way the light fell and spread over the walls and floor without ANY additional lighting. From there I could figure out what lighting I would need to enhance the already beautiful available “Studio” light. After all, this shoot is for the art issue and the story is about The Muse, hanging out in a painting studio, ready to pose. I wanted the available light to convey the natural setting of the studio. But I did need extra lights to be able to pick up the details in the clothing and to give the model and the clothing that Hollywood glamour lighting. I settled on Profoto gear, because it’s the best! I went with a medium sized Profoto soft box and Profotos’ beauty dish. While the beauty dish will light only the upper frame of the model, I knew I was going to use longer shutter speeds to allow the day light to “fill” the rest of her body. I chose the soft box because I wanted a soft wrap around lighting effect that would blend well with the gorgeous available light already in the studio. Why use a space that has incredible available light and then just take in a bunch of artificial lighting gear and over-light the whole damn set?? It would knock out the the “feeling”, the real-ness and ultimately the beauty of the actual shoot. Does that make sense?
I used my Nikon D2Xs to shoot the story, interchanging my 24mm with my 85mm where needed. You will notice under the pictures I put the details on which lens I used and a what f-stop and shutter speed. I used my trusty pocket wizards, because they just never fail me!
We had an 8:30 call time. Everyone was on time but the model and the client! But that was okay, it gave us all time to set up our gear, test out lighting and get to talk a little with my crew. Since it was the first time we all had worked togehter, it was nice to have a moment to get to know them a little better and it also gave us a chance to talk about the shoot.
The video tutorial really shows you how I didn’t have much space to shoot in but still, we made the most of it and the end result is pretty nice! I varied between using my soft box and the beauty dish, and pretty much dragged my shutter so I could get some of that delicious available light into the camera and on to the image!
All in all, I think it was a successful day! And we’re getting ready to do it again in a few short days!
Shooting with Tripods
When I use a Tripod
When I am shooting 35mm I don’t normally use a tripod unless I’m using a real slow shutter speed. I say normally because sometimes I do use one.
But why don’t I normally shoot with one?
1. Because I like to move around when I shoot. I’m all over the place when I shoot. I look for the shot while I’m shooting. And a tripod clips my wings, so to speak.
2. I’m on the ground, up on a ladder, down on one knee and then up again.
3. In my opinion, fashion is free flowing and needs to have movement and spirit. A tripod feels like it forces the shot to stay static and I start to feel “stuck” when I’m using one.
4. When are the instances that I’ll pull one out and use one?
5. For one, when I’m shooting at a slow shutter speed in order to “drag” ambient light into the frame, I might use a tripod to absolutely insure total sharpness on the model.
6. Or when I’m shooting beauty and the need to move around isn’t that important, but sharp eyelashes are!
7. If I have the need to work with straight lines, as in shooting in a building and or a floor plan that the model has to be in the same spot every time because of type issues, I crank out the tripod and put my camera on it.
8. I also will use one when I’m shooting a line sheet, or catalogue, where the model stands in the same spot on every shot, but there are over 40 changes.
But when or if those issues aren’t present or necessary, I like to work without one. I think you can tell by watching the two videos I’ve done so far, I’m all over the place when I shoot. But remember in the last Genlux Video, where the model was standing in the doorway, I used a tripod because I wanted the doors to be shot straight. Does that make sense?
Then again, if I am shooting with medium format cameras, I have to pretty much use a tripod. And that’s mainly because they’re so heavy, I can’t hold them steady for too long. And unless I’m going for a blurred or soft effect, I want sharp images! Nothing ruins a shot for me like an uncontrolled out of focused image. But Mamiya’s and Pentax’s get heavy shooting with them after awhile. I must admit, though, that one of my favorite all time cameras has been the Pentax 6 x 7 because of that juicy huge image size but the camera is like a big 35mm camera so I can hold it up to my eye. I love that about it. Have to admit, though, even the Pentax gets heavy after an hour or so of shooting. So sometimes I would throw even the Pentx on that tripod! And that’s simply just to save my arms and shoulders!
What are some good brands of Tripods?
Gitzo GT-1541T A REALLY good tripod. I’ve used Gitzo for years. The carbon fiber material they use for the legs make this a strong, reliable tripod but it’s still pretty lightweight. And even though this is the priciest one I am recommending here, once you buy this tripod, you’ll never need to buy another one. Remember too, you need to get a tripod with a ballhead. It comes with a quick release making it easy to attach your camera to the tripod or take it off quickly so you can grab a shot off the tripod. This tripod runs just under $750.00USD. If that’s a bit out of your budget, here’s another great tripod:
Slik Professional 4 Another really good tripod and a few dollars less. This tripod has a ballhead that has tilt/pan cabalities and it holds up to 22 lbs, giving it a bit more flexibility than the Gitzo. The Gitzo is just a tad better quality, but you can’t lose with this one either. For reliability and strength, both are at the top of the list. Put it this way, you won’t ever replace these tripods unless they’re lost or stolen!
My advice is to go with the better brands. In most cases, I advise that. There are some instances where you don’t have to shell out the extra dough on a product and can save by getting the less expensive brand. But when it comes to gear like cameras, lenses, tripods, you know, the equipment that makes your images, I find it’s best to go with the reliable, time tested brands. And they tend to run higher in price. With a tripod, one thing to remember is try to go with carbon fiber legs as oppose to aluminum. Aluminum can bend easier and they’re just not as long lasting as carbon fiber. A good tripod will last you a lifetime. Seriously, the good ones hardly ever break unless you’re particularly cruel to your equipment and throw them around. (I wouldn’t advise that, but sometimes it’s better to throw a tripod than an assistant, and yes, I’ve done it, and my Gitzo did not break!) But again, I don’t advocate throwing anything photographic. Even a C-stand. (although I’ve thrown those as well….haha…..I’ve been shooting a long time, remember. I wasn’t so patient when I was young!)
Do you guys have any other suggestions for my readers (other than not throwing your equipment!)? I’d love your input here. Thanks!
