Put Me in Coach!

I've been wanting to create an image like this for some time now. I had a cancellation and decided to make lemonade out of lemons. Finally got my lens back after being away for repair for almost a month and half! I've been shooting everything with either my 85mm or my 17-40. I was screwed if I needed anything in between but made it work and zoomed with my feet. This was lit with a couple of gridded strip boxes on either side turned almost all the way up (ab800's). I had an Einstein 640 through a gridded beauty dish for the key and I filled the shadows with a 64" softbox behind me . http://flic.kr/p/jCU589

Boys Will be Boys

Having a little fun with compositing and my awesome son. I'm finding that it makes much more sense to place the subject closer to the background in order to sell the textured background composites because when used as an overlay layer the shadows help to sell the image! Lit with a large Octabox camera right feathered in front and a silver reflector camera left for fill. Still working on the chalk writing. Anyone know of any great tutorials on this? Should I be using the paint feature with my Tablet to get better results? http://flic.kr/p/jAZ9Lm

ATV in the backyard

http://flic.kr/p/jj1LCE

Arboretum Motocross Adventure

Taking my composites up a notch with Erin Erb and her Kawasaki. I'm sure she can't wait to take it to the dirt for real sometime soon. There are over 25 layers in photoshop to make this image work and as with any project I learned some things I might do differently next time. Remember, if you can get it right in camera without photoshop, DO IT!!!! This holds true for portraits just as much as composites. Over all, I'm pretty happy about the finished product here. Strobist info: Lit with beauty dish boomed overhead and camera right to light most of Erin. Stripboxes were placed camera left and medium height to give the rear of the bike detail. Another strip bank was placed camera right about even with the front fork of the bike. There is one more light behind the camera through a large octa for the very important fill. It was large enough so as not to call attention to itself, but without it I would have had a very dark engine compartment and amongst other lost details. http://flic.kr/p/jf9wT5

Intertwined

I had an awesome experience with Thomas and Justin of duo XY Trapeze. These gentlemen are amazing at what they do and capturing even just a glimpse of their skill with my camera was so enjoyable! Here's their website if you are interested in checking out more, including some video of them in action. www.duoxytrapeze.com/ These photos were taken at Sanca, School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts. An awesome open space for artists to practice their craft and teach other young children and adults alike amazing new skills! www.sancaseattle.org/ Check here for how this images was created, including a video of the before and after... www.nakeanworkshops.com/blog/the-big-stage/ ‎ http://flic.kr/p/jbxRdE

DuoXY Flying high

One of the first images of our shoot. I tried the same cartoon noise filter in photoshop to see if it would work in this application amongst other fun tricks. I used the new Render Lighting effects to create the stage light effects from both corners of the frame. I think it adds a nice dimension to the image. Check these guys out here www.duoxytrapeze.com/ Check here for more about this shoot and a video showing the before and after edit of intertwined www.nakeanworkshops.com/blog/the-big-stage/ ‎ http://flic.kr/p/jbxQTw

Goldilocks and her Kawasaki

-One of my favorite images of Erin in front of her 250cc Kawasaki we managed to get into the the studio Wednesday. Oh yeah we busted out the fan baby! The lighting was a little more tricky than I was used to. I pulled the grids off the softbox eventually but think they were still on at this point. They were placed between Erin and the bike in order to perform double duty. I needed them to light both Erin as rim lights but also add definition to the bike. I could have lit the bike with the main light as well as Erin but that would have been much more flat. I think the striplights help bring her away from the bike and keep them as separate entities. Not an easy feat with the space we were working with. We had a light gridded and attached to a rafter above to light the background and last but most important a gridded beauty dish boomed above to light Erin. http://flic.kr/p/j74je4

Silent Storm

Getting setup for my last shoot, I thought I'd take a few test shots. shush, don't tell anyone. I wanted to play with some brushes as it's been a while since I dug them up in their dusty folders on my computer. A bit of Render Clouds, Lightning brushes and smoke brushes along with a composite background. Lit with Beauty dish boomed overhead and striplights on either side for the rim. Background light placed behind me and pointed at the background for som separation. Best part of using backgrounds in overlay blending mode is that they keep the overall lighting you had in the original image. If you had a background light on gray paper it will still appear to have the same background light in your composite! http://flic.kr/p/j4EUp7

Ready to Ride

Had a great time with Erin in the studio today with her bike and motocross gear! Here's one of the images I could wait to get to and start editing. Thanks again Erin! Lit with stripboxes on either side with grids removed for rim. Einstein 640 on lowest power for just a touch of fill inside the helmet. b800 behind her on gray background for background light. http://flic.kr/p/j3L6CU

Ready to Shoot

Another Photo of fellow photographer Miles and a new favorite textured background from Creative Cloud. Just found a few more thanks to Brian Abby, and courtesy of Shadowhouse Creations. I'll be using those in the future for sure! Lit with a gridded beauty dish above with large softbox below. Strip boxes on either side of the subject and just behind. Shot in the West Seattle Studio. http://flic.kr/p/iYLVqm

Lively Blanchards

One of my favorite families! Going back through some images I just had to give this one some attention. They were on time, ready to go and dressed for success on one of the last semi warm and sunny days of the year. I feel as though I really get a sense of each one of them in this particular image. Ok, for composition I just loved the way the sun was hitting the trees behind them and the grass as well. When i used to shoot I would always put the sun behind my subjects so as not to have to battle it for exposure. This works great still but there are some shortcomings. The main issue for me is the lack of background detail. If the light were directly behind the trees they would have lost all of their definition color and brightness. Granted, these types of portraits are about your subjects and not the background. It's still nice to have some depth, however. I photographed this portrait with the 70-200mm lens at 130mm, which also presents a few problems. You are so far away from your subjects and when photographing children, you almost always need to be right in their face to get their attention. Especially outdoors! My next issue is the length of the lens dictates my slowest handheld shutter speed(or so I thought). The new 70-200mm 2.8 IS L v2 is ridiculously sharp and the IS (image stabilization) is insane! This was shot at 1/40 at 130mm which is no easy feat! What's great is even at f9 there is enough depth of field to isolate the subjects with the helping hand of the sun adding just a touch of it's own glorious seperation! All in all a pretty sweet family portrait! Again I went after that cool painterly effect in post which I think turned out rather well. Thoughts, questions, concerns? Almost forgot....Lit with an Einstein Camera Left with Reflector camera right for fill. Hair light by none other than the sun! http://flic.kr/p/iWHrQk

Beautful Brown Eyes

Can't get enough of this boy! I know it's Cliche, but, man, how time flies! This shot was taken 6 months ago and he's three already! Something tells me he's not going to ever be camera shy! I think I remember posing him but at 2 and half, you're never really posing children :) This is an old Yuen Lui favorite with the key light above and reflector on the table for fill. The usual rim light on either side, but this time they were lit with little flashes through pop up cowboy studio softboxes instead of big strobes. Little lights on a little guy to create a big effect. The usual dodge and burn techniques to bring out the highlights and shadows plus another attempt at the softening cartoon effect that seems to be popular these days. Can't wait to give it a try for a scene composite! http://flic.kr/p/iUMHsA

Your Attention Please

I'm still so jazzed about the new Adobe Exchange and the ability to find great backgrounds for my composites. With a few brushes and gradient tools you can make any background uniquely your own. When your subject is lit correctly it takes just seconds to cut them out from the background using the quick selection tool and refine mask tool. With the right tools you can always go back and make adjustments and refinements to make the image work. If you can't go back and rework a layer without starting over you're doing it wrong! Take time to think about your work flow. Have you given yourself room to experiment with the luxury of going back just before you try something different? Just because an effect you love is global and affects the entire images doesn't mean you have to use it on the entire image. Use layer masks and only apply it where you need it or want it. This image was lit with a gridded beauty dish boomed above. Two rim lights through gridded stripboxes for rim. http://flic.kr/p/iSU511

Green Giggles

Having some fun with some editing techniques for that cartoon like affect. I started with Joel Grimes and his blur effect but never could quite get the look I wanted. I think it helps that most of his images are quite a bit darker. This technique of noise reduction and high pass filter to bring back a little detail is exactly what I'm looking for. I love trying on others Photoshop techniques to see if they fit my workflow. I like some bits and pieces and make them my own for my unique look in images. It's always evolving and changing. Adding a bit of salt here and bit of pepper there. This shot is all natural light. http://flic.kr/p/iRp8wR

Punchout

Experimenting with some backgrounds found in Adobe Exchange. I had no idea what Adobe Exchange was until I watched a tutorial by Glyn Dewis on Youtube. Apparently it's exactly like an app store for Photoshop CC users. This particular app is called Adobe Paper Texture Pro. It comes with some awesome textures that are perfect for composite backgrounds. The best part is they are all free! There are some paid apps but plenty of free ones too. This is an old image of a Tracy showing off her gloves. Can't wait to have some more fun with these backgrounds! Lit with a beauty dish above and reflect below and barely camera left. Two rim light with gridded softboxes to help separate her and create the composite. www.nakean.com http://flic.kr/p/iQSQar

New Best Friend

-"You're my favorite Deputy!" Man, my son can't get enough of his new pal Woody! Only problem is I'm stuck operating Woody at all times. I have lost my identity as father and have now become the Sheriff in town, well West Seattle anyway....ok really just my home. Flash can be a ton of fun even when it's on the camera. Here The flash is pointed directly at the ceiling. You can see that most of the light is coming from above and actually hits my sons face more than Woody's. Had I added a warming gel, the light would have blended in even more! Happy New Year and happy shooting everyone! What's your child's favorite toy this year? http://flic.kr/p/iPn28q

Starburst

Quite possibly my next composite background! We'll just have to wait and see if it makes sense for the subject. This shot would have been impossible were it not for HDR (High Dynamic Range). Over the years I have learned to tone down post process of these images in favor of more realistic landscapes. This was created with three seperate imagas several stops apart. Here's a link to my process of HDR using Lightroom and Photomatix. www.nakeanworkshops.com/blog/new-love-for-hdr/ http://flic.kr/p/iNXsLB