Neowin Digital Gallery

[Sethos]

The photo is good, the border with the drop shadow... well... that's ugly IMO.

Yeah but I was commenting on what's in the picture, the rest doesn't matter to me :p

Also nice to see some other pictures than just portraits all the time :)

[Bubbabyte]

Just generated a second HDR image:

Patrick Snijers @ Boucles de Spa legend, a rally in Belgium

This one is created with a single RAW image file

IMO both HDR shots look very washed out, no depth at all. You might want to play around with the contrast or something. The second one also has some small halo effects. My advice would be to tone down on the HDR just a bit and bump up the contrast to add a little bit of darkness/depth to the pics.

[Draconian Guppy]

The photo is good, the border with the drop shadow... well... that's ugly IMO.

I built a small white light box thingie last night, it was made of thick paper so it's now destroyed (due to the water). I did get a couple of nice shots out of it though.

refreshing! What sort of light were you using?

IMO both HDR shots look very washed out, no depth at all. You might want to play around with the contrast or something. The second one also has some small halo effects. My advice would be to tone down on the HDR just a bit and bump up the contrast to add a little bit of darkness/depth to the pics.

+1 Flat R us, You really can't tell the difference from the car and the background, perhaps dodge/burn for either and some contrast like bubba suggests., If you ask me not the type of thing to use HDR for, BUT to each their own :)

And the drop shadow... just drop it :s or remove the border at least... my 2cents anyway...

@ Jordan I've always wanted to know how that model mayhem works, would you care to explain ? Did you pay her or did she pay you? Or simply just shoot for a benefit for you and for her?

[SirEvan]

Hey guys...

It's been about a year and a half since I've done a shoot and posted anything in here. I've been really busy focusing on my main career, securing my position, and focusing on other aspects of my life, which left little time to shoot. Having said that, I will be shooting more starting with the most recent shoot I did, about 2 weeks ago. I've been out of town on a business trip, and just recently got around to editing the images. The 2 below are not finished yet, but they are samples for you to look at. I should be posting more in here starting this year, although we'll see as time permits :)

Enjoy, and as always, please feel free to comment/critique. It's been over a year since I've picked up a camera and shot a model, so I'm a tad bit rusty.

Equipment specs:

Nikon D300 12.1MP shooting in RAW + JPG basic (JPG's for proofs only)

Nikon 24-70 2.8 AFS

Lighting:

Profoto D4 Pack

Acute2 Head w/ Small softbox (24x24)

Acute2 Head w/ Medium Softbox (24x36)

Post production so far:

Bed shot:

De-saturation + enhanced color vividness

Gaussian blur mask applied to skin

Curves Mask applied to eye brows to darken

Hue/Saturation Mask applied to lips

Removed Polkadot on the wall

skin blemish removal (stretch marks on butt and skin dots)

(sharpening only done for this preview, not finalized with post yet)

Headshot:

Hue/Saturation mask applied to lips to enrich color

Color control point added to models right breast to brighten bra cup slightly

Curves Mask applied to fill in/darken eyebrows.

(sharpening mask applied only for preview, not finalized with post yet)

Technique:

the bed shot was done using the small softbox to camera left, about 2 ft from the model, and the medium to camera right, about 4-5 ft from the model. Power pack was at about 20% power, can't remember W/S used. No other lights were on in the room. The headshot was done with just the small softbox about three feet to model/camera Right, dialed in at about 24%, and a white umbrella to model/camera left being used to bounce some light back into models side.

Location: The Cypress Hotel, Cupertino, California

Lingerie: Purchased from SiSi/Vicki Lingerie

Makeup: Zohra Ehsan for Dior At Macy's, Valley Fair mall - San Jose, CA

[Argote]

@SirEvan: those are really nice previews, I'm impressed by all the information you shared, I'm going to start doing that since I feel it's good for the thread.?

The shots look fine although one with the model looking at the camera would be nice, also, I think you desaturated slightly too much in the first one. The lighting itself is fine in both shots IMO.

@Draconian Guppy: thanks, I used for sheets of 24 lb white paper (98% whiteness), the first one was on the bottom and I put a transparent plastic over it. The other ones were used to go behind and to the sides of the water glass, I put it together with stick glue and some basic cuts. I left the top and front uncovered (so I could drop the fruit and take the picture respectively) used a relatively long focal length to "flatten" the image and lit it with a flash (I currently have a borrowed Nikon SB600) by using test mode, the flash was at 1/4 power, 24 mm and a couple of inches separated form the back of the "white box" (that's why it looks back-lit).?

What I did is turn off all of the lights and put the camera in bulb mode (I have a wired remote for that) and the in the dark drop the fruit and press the flash's test button as the fruit hit the water; this obviously required coordination and there were quite a few times when I lit the flash too early or too late (or hit the rim of the glass).

Since this was one of the later attempts and the sides of my box had already gotten a bit wet, I did some post to make all of the background look very white (exposure +4.00 brush). If you're oging to do this I'd recommend finding some material which is white, translucent and doesn't absorb water.

[SirEvan]

@SirEvan: those are really nice previews, I'm impressed by all the information you shared, I'm going to start doing that since I feel it's good for the thread.

The shots look fine although one with the model looking at the camera would be nice, also, I think you desaturated slightly too much in the first one. The lighting itself is fine in both shots IMO.

I kinda wanted the desaturated look, i might bump it up a little bit, but here is the original. I'll do an edit to this without the desaturation later to give a different perspective. I do have shots of the model looking at the camera, just these were the first two I started processing

I've also got some shots from an art/model show I did last month but never got around to uploading.

Re: the info... many times I've seen a shot I've really liked, and wondered how it was done. Sometimes you can deduce from looking at the shot what lighting was used, but if a photographer shares his setup, it makes it much easier to see and learn. From now on, whenever I shoot I'll do my best to document my lighting, although it's hard because sometimes I'm the only person besides the model, so don't always have time to take down notes. anything I can do to give to the community I'll try though :)

[Jordan Green]

@ Jordan I've always wanted to know how that model mayhem works, would you care to explain ? Did you pay her or did she pay you? Or simply just shoot for a benefit for you and for her?

So basically some models will want paying because they feel they are good enough and have been in enough paid jobs to be paid each time but most on Model Mayhem is models trying to start out and just wanting photos for their portfolio. I wanted some more fashion styled photos for my portfolio so i got in touch with this model and arranged a date, so basically i get the photos out of it and she gets photos out of it, and so did the MUA for his job in the process.

[SirEvan]

So basically some models will want paying because they feel they are good enough and have been in enough paid jobs to be paid each time but most on Model Mayhem is models trying to start out and just wanting photos for their portfolio. I wanted some more fashion styled photos for my portfolio so i got in touch with this model and arranged a date, so basically i get the photos out of it and she gets photos out of it, and so did the MUA for his job in the process.

ModelMayhem is pretty much a perverts wet dream. I hate that site. Yes, there are some legit models and photographers on there, but there is so much crap on that site, be it perverts claiming to be photographers so they can take nude photos of girls, or girls posting their web cam photos, and then claiming they are "experienced" and asking for paid work only. I'm sorry but there's quite a bit of trash on that site. Makes it really hard to find the models worth hiring/booking. I've seen alot of crappy portfolios as well on there.... girls who have bed sheets hanging in the background and a wall socket showing come to mind.....

[11222111]

So, I'm in the process of finalising my idea for my "Scene/Unseen" photo comp submission - anyone up to comment on this second test.

I went more with at work at a scene rater than just pointing the torch at the wall, still using the works garage as I am limited to locales.

Anyway, multiple exposures I play the dead body and the examiner, I have another version with two examiners (a 2nd one illuminating stains on the rear wall) but have yet to throw together a working copy.

It's just quickly edited, I'm going to do a better clean edit after I decide which way to go with a possible re-shoot if time allows.

Anyway - Scene/Unseen (Test Image 2)

Edit: actually looking at it here it does need examiner 2 and I should use the image with the torch on too I think (so that the tip of the torch is illuminated - I'll try and up a test image of that one soon for comments

[Jordan Green]

ModelMayhem is pretty much a perverts wet dream. I hate that site. Yes, there are some legit models and photographers on there, but there is so much crap on that site, be it perverts claiming to be photographers so they can take nude photos of girls, or girls posting their web cam photos, and then claiming they are "experienced" and asking for paid work only. I'm sorry but there's quite a bit of trash on that site. Makes it really hard to find the models worth hiring/booking. I've seen alot of crappy portfolios as well on there.... girls who have bed sheets hanging in the background and a wall socket showing come to mind.....

oh i completely and utterly agree with that! there are a lot of tosh models and "photographers" on there but some are there to actually try and gain from it!

[crazzy88ss]

Just stay local. If you live in a big city it makes it harder to filter out the trash due to the increased population, though.

[11222111]

Looks like I'm going to have re-shoot this thing (or maybe just do something else for it - maybe just a straight shot of the "scene" illuminated with crimelite without humans in it? Who knows?)

Anyway test 3 - the idea is there just cant seem to get my lighting and blending correct...

Have posted both to flickr if you want to see slightly bigger..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maclac_show/4408883483/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maclac_show/4408883849/

[Jordan Green]

@badldragon - I like the photo like that, the illuminous paints look good, but i feel the people in it are just too dark.

[remus_lupin]

been likin' everyone's posts lately :)

here's just a few pics... I basically have to resort to taking pics of my pets since I have nothing else to take pics of atm haha

and... not my pets...

\

[crazzy88ss]

[Argote]

Similar to the previously posted image, now using an Apple slice:

I used four sheets of 24 lb white paper (98% whiteness), the first one was on the bottom and I put a transparent plastic over it. The other ones were used to go behind and to the sides of the water glass, I put it together with stick glue and some basic cuts & folds. I left the top and front uncovered (so I could drop the fruit and take the picture respectively) used a relatively long focal length to "flatten" the image and lit it with a flash (I currently have a borrowed Nikon SB600) by using test mode, the flash was at 1/4 power, set at 24 mm and separated a couple of inches from the back of the "white box" pointing to the front of the box (that's why it looks back-lit).?

What I did is turn off all of the lights and put the camera in bulb mode (I have a wired remote for controlling the shutter while in bulb) and the in the dark drop the fruit and press the flash's test button as the fruit hit the water; this obviously required coordination and there were quite a few times when I lit the flash too early or too late (or hit the rim of the glass with the fruit).

Since this was one of the later attempts and the sides of my box had already gotten a bit wet, I did some post to make all of the background look very white (exposure +4.00 brush). If you're going to do this I'd recommend finding some material which is white, translucent and doesn't absorb water.

p.s. Yes,the description is based on the one I had already made above, fixed a couple of things.

[SirEvan]

@SirEvan: those are really nice previews, I'm impressed by all the information you shared, I'm going to start doing that since I feel it's good for the thread.?

The shots look fine although one with the model looking at the camera would be nice, also, I think you desaturated slightly too much in the first one. The lighting itself is fine in both shots IMO.

do you like this one better?

[former1]

^ I like that one better, BUT her face looks a bit like .. I don't know how else to describe it other than, plastic?

[SirEvan]

^ I like that one better, BUT her face looks a bit like .. I don't know how else to describe it other than, plastic?

Thats the quick filter...didn't change it from the previous shot, just moved the mask. I'll work on cleaning it up later, guassian level is set too high on that layer... that and my wacom drivers are acting up and not doing pressure right in photoshop

[former1]

Ah fair enough other than looks more natural than the others I like it (Y) :)

Went to the beach last night to try and catch the sunset (it's east facing :() so think I'll try and go tomorrow morning and get the sunrise!

My photos:

My friends photos:

[11222111]

^^ second one would be improved if there were more of the building silhouette revealed - check you empty sky/interesting foreground proportions. Like the colours in it.

[former1]

Yeah I agree, can't remember why I didn't shoot lower but remember trying it and something was in the foreground that wasn't very nice just cant remember what ><

[o0moonman0o]

[Jordan Green]

[richardsim7]