My personal tips, tricks and methods in both photo manipulation and photography, accompanied by full tutorials and step by step guides. Includes advice on shooting in public, handling clients and making the most of the internet as a photographer. Many full page prints of my most popular images, according to flickr.com. Let me know what you think!!!
and edited the colours and tones into what you see at the top of the page!
Thanks for all your comments regarding what kind of blurb book i should make, im getting started on a tutorial book tonight. I’ll include how-tos on things like this, too.
This was a big production shoot, which required quite a bit to come together, thanks everyone involved. The shoot was organized by my friends John Ryan, Chris, and Me.
We had a pro stunt bike rider, a several bikes, some tricked out cars, models, plenty of glass, and a lot of burning rubber.
The plan was for 3 shoots, and I think we got what we came for. we shot at about 4PM, which was a little early for my taste, as it gets dark after 8 in NC during the summers. I couldn’t shoot faster than 1/320 b/c we were syncing with monolights, at least I can shoot at ISO 50. even with the new FlexTT5 PW, 1/500 is asking too much, here is where ND filter help out.
Things went really smoothly, Chris and John took care of all the behind the scenes footage, and during breaks, we got some great head shots of the talent.
All of the final shots are comps. It gets a little dangerous around all the burning rubber. Especially with 20k in photo equipment lying around.
In all it was a great shoot, and I think everyone involved had a lot of fun. We will be doing another shoot together soon.
as you can see a lot of post processing went into this shot - i tried standing on a mini cliff near my house but it wasn’t quite what i was looking for. so instead i found a stock image of a cliff (links on my flickr) which had strong, noon-light from above which matched my pic. I cut myself out using the negative fuzzy select tool and just pasted myself on, leaving some of the original stone around my feet on to blend in so i looked like i was actually stood there. i adjusted the “me” selection colours to fit the pic of the cliff, a bit more reddy yellow. i flipped the pic because it looked more dramatic for whatever reason,and then selected just me and the cliff, again using the fuzzy select tool.i took a pic of a long exposure sky i took, pasted the cliff and me onto it and then added a weirdass texture i found (i’ll have a look for the link). i destaurated it, adjusted the value curve and hey presto!
thanks for all your comments and ideas from my last post. a couple of you mentioned the bills/food budget being way low - me and aaron are going halves on it which i forgot to put, so all together its about $400 each (abit more realistic). i’m very happy to have an old banger for a car, i love that kind of stuff. i looked into public transport (which i use all the time in the Uk) but from what i’ve seen in NC it’s nothing like the UK. I have no idea how far i am from a bus stop and whether they would, for instance, drive past aaron’s parents’ house which i have never seen them do. with my shooting schedule and whatnot, having to time my day aorund getting buses would be a big stress. i’d definetly be open to it, and its something i’ll look into.
visa wise, some of you asked what the situation there is. i am going on a tourist visa - giving me 90days to be there and i return every 3months for a two week break in the UK. i cannot get a work visa as i would not be sponsored by a company. Therefore it would be illegal for me to work in the USA, which makes things extra hard. I totally guessed at tution,but it looks as though that will be too expensive. I basically have £1000 a month to live off, which makes stuff arkward. Our apt is 2 bedroom(one bedroom will be an office,one will be a bedroom) which explains the rent.
I have until July 15th to work my socks off - i am going to join model mayhem (thanks for the tip!) and try and get a couple of weddings too. I’ll be shooting some hotels hopefully and things like that, just nice regular stuff. Would anyone be interested in a blurb book if i made one? I can fill it up with unseen pics i havent posted to flickr along with lots of my 365s and outtakes and all that jazz.Or would a tutorial book be a good idea?let me know what you guys think would work… the real world is so bad!! who came up with this!?!?
My exams finish on June 15th and then I have to go into major saving/working mode for America. I didn’t realize how expensive it would be, and apart from the occasional shoot I don’t have a job so I really need to find a way to get some money together.
Here are the things I have to save for:
Rent - $950 p/month (paid for by me, as aaron is furnishing the apt)
Computer - $600 max
Car - $2000
Car Insurance - $150/month (is this about right all you american 18yr olds? how much do you pay?)
bills - $200/month
food - $200/month
classes at a community college - $200 p/semester (ish)
and eventually
5D- $3000
eugh so much to save for. and none of these i can really get out of! so im pretty worried because im very broke. so if anyone out there wants to hire me for a shoot PLEASE DO! if anyone has any ideas or ways for me to make some money, let me know! i think i am going to call up some local hotels and try and get some work there photographing the rooms, bands i can keep doing when they come up and anything else like that… eep! help me!!!
Obviously I didn’t let the little girl smoke, she posed with an unlit cigarette and I then photoshopped a lit cigarette from my own stock onto the end, and used my own smoke stock from this image I took in Paris:
I did this by screen layering the smoke onto the picture, enlarging it and adjusting the curves as i saw fit. I also added some “smoke” using a very low opacity fluffy brush tool in white to enhance the effect. I burned under her eyes a little to produce “bags” and added a dirty film texture of my own stock for an aged effect. Using mid-opacity dodging I brightened her eyes and used a small amount of “unsharp mask” to help them stand out. too much of this can look horribly obvious, though:
as you can see, the eyes on the right look very processed and overdone.
so much to save for. and none of these i can really get out of! so im pretty worried because im very broke. so if anyone out there wants to hire me for a shoot PLEASE DO! if anyone has any ideas or ways for me to make some money, let me know! i think i am going to call up some local hotels and try and get some work there photographing the rooms, bands i can keep doing when they come up and anything else like that… eep! help me!!!
