I did very little post on this one, mostly cropping
olc
Showing posts with label Ashley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ashley. Show all posts
Friday, March 25, 2016
Sunday, March 20, 2016
A quick review of my last shoot
16-2-19 Shoot with Ashley and Jason's cars.
This shoot was way too long. I think the next time we get together, I'll have to limit to just one, or two hours max with Ashley. She is enthusiastic, but working so long will take any one down, including me. I was watching a YouTube video that says when everyone's energy is at it's highest is when to call it done. The logic goes like this; you don't want to shoot some one when they are exhausted.
This lesson is learned.
Jason, her boyfriend was awesome. Whatever I needed he did. I love working with big 'ol country boys! When I asked him to do something he did it. If he did not understand my cryptic requests he asked for clarification and listened and did it right.
His Chevelle was beautifully finished. White with two Black running stripes running up the hood...and that rumble of power shook the ground under my feet. I only hope I was able to capture the feeling in my shots.
Ashley is a dream to work with. She is always ready for anything and has a great attitude. When I got to her house, she showed me her clothes and outfits. Such a varied selection, perhaps we will have to better define our next objective.
I think the first lesson in this shoot is that not only am I motivated when I am on location but our assistants are too. I asked Jason to assist with holding the reflector and he jumped to it. When we changed location, he grabbed the equipment and did it. I totally respected his reticence about touching any of my gear without first learning how.
I took a couple of shots of the interior of the Chevelle with Ashley in there. They came out fairly well, but the flash I was using bounced both through the window and over the top. I was lucky in that we encountered no bad effects with this, but I'll need to remember it for future shoots.
When I tried to use the CFL, it did not work very well to remove reflections from the wind shield. We had to work around that issue. I think the problem was something about not having the light source, the sun, at a 90 degree angle from the subject. Need to work on that too.
We went to the basement and shot there for a minute. This worked well. We got some good stuff. It was a close space, but very interesting! We could have spent more time there, but my vision of this part of the shoot was vague and undefined.
However, Jason looked through a window and saw one of his project cars. I'll post some images. Picture this: A cloudy spider webbed window with a car on the outside shrouded by a tarp. The window working as a frame. I may have gotten it right.
At one point, Ashley wanted to change her outfit. This was fine with me because I wanted to frame some shots without any distractions. After a minute, I went outside to clear my head from the dusty basement air.
The clouds outside were thinning a little and created a beautiful golden hue. Jason and Ashley have a bamboo grove with a little alcove cut out. Perfect for intimate, close in portraits. The light filled this area with magic.
A quick change of plans and we found a portrait just waiting to be made. In my limited time as a photographer, this one really shows the beauty of my subject. The light, her smile, the shadows and bokeh just came together. See, even a hack can fall into an outstanding image, if he takes enough pictures!
We went back into the basement and fooled around a little more, though everyone was getting tired and hungry.
Pizza and a little beer came along. We talked and reviewed the pics. It was obvious our moment was over, but one of the props we used was an old .22 that had family history and a whole lot of character. I put together a quick background with my light stand and a red back drop. I used the pop up and a speedlite to light it. The shadows were being difficult and I could not figure out how to make them go away.
I decided to try something weird and throw the light across the subject and have it bounce off the wall. I hoped this would do something to get rid of the shadows.
Nope. That did not work. It created something very special instead.
We had created an incredible and dramatic shadow effect. Picture a red background with a gun having an old red wooden butt. The barrel of the gun was old and scared. The light created a dramatic dark shadow accentuating its highlights. The backdrop was wrinkled enough to create and augment the shadows of that old .22.
I made this shot trying to get rid of ALL shadows, yet we created a shot with them. Creating more drama than I could have imagined. It seems to bring to life the history and life of that old gun.
I think the most important take-away from Saturday is we got some great shots that were totally planned out and they came out really well. Yet, one must be ready for the unexpected and just do it.
Luck may be a factor, but being an opportunist helps too. As I get more experienced, I hope I'll be able to see these opportunities and learn how to exploit them. I have a long road to go, but as I learn to drive my gear I hope I'll see opportunities which will show up like road signs showing me new places to go.
The road is long and exciting to travel.
olc
Below are some shots with Ashley and Jason's Chevelle.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
An old .22 with a 9 bullet barrel
I took this one but it seemed a little flat
So, I turned it around and played a little with the lighting, but it still was not right.
Finally, I did something really different and crossed the flash directly over the gun trying to bounce off the wall opposite. Well, I did not get the effect I wanted, but I think this one is OK.
Ashley and all of her beauty
We may do this one again, only with a bigger knife.
She also makes my camera look good!
A little coquettish, what a smile!
What is she thinking about here?
olc
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Chick with a gun and a pick'em-up
OK, so she is not a chick. I have had the fun and privilege to work with her a few times. She takes a good picture and helps to make me look like I know what I'm doing.
The weather was a little iffy when we started, the sky was threatening rain, but we had planned on the shoot for a while, so we went ahead. The truck is her boyfriends, which he had restored and boy did it sound good.
As for how it looks? You tell me.
olc
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
A spring ride, part 2
A couple of weeks ago my freind Ashley and I went for a little ride. I have posted a couple of picks of her from the ride, now here are a few more.
I enhanced the clouds a little, and then brought out some details in the forground. This is from a road looking over a mountain farm. We are looking at Canton N.C. I want to go back, maybe this Saturday, to see about getting some spring flowers and leaves....a little spring color, if you will.
This is another image I took. Actually, I walked about 100 feet and turned about 90 degrees and captured this image. I worked on this image for a New York minute trying to pull these details. I like the clouds, But when I worked on the detail of the mountains, I think they worked out well.
A little further down the road, we encountered this barn. I had to enhance the clouds a little, but for the most part, this image is straight out of the camera.
She was out for her morning stroll.
I pulled some detail from the barn interior. But this ladies' natural beauty is all of her own.
The whole reason for the ride and shoot was to take pictures of barns. Believe it or not, there were some chairs by the door on the right. I love photoshop!
olc
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
A spring ride with Ashley. Part 1
The riding season has begun!
Ashley reached out the other day and said let's ride! We talked about a bunch of stuff including up coming shoots. I guess she has found a guy she likes and he has a Chevelle which he has refurbished. I need to figure out where is best to highlight the car and Ashley. Hmm, This could be a lot of fun! I wonder if I can get him to pay for the lens rental???!!! I am going to do a little boning up on car fotog and the angles used before this one. Though the guy may not be big time, I really don’t know, he may know someone who is indeed an avenue to photographic riches. HMMM...
O yeah, the ride and shoot we already had, is the subject for today! The truth, is I have not gotten a chance to look at the images and I only took about forty, but I think some came out well. I did work on one with Ashley in it. Unfortunately, part of the sky was washed out in muddy white clouds with no definition, so I had to crop it severely. It looks OK on screen, but I fear it may not print well.
During the post processing though, I used the new Photo app from Apple. It is great for removing objects that distract from the subject! However, the importing and exporting of images is a little problematic and I need to ponder if I want to be restricted by Apple's need for control.
The sun was a bit of a problem during the whole shoot. Clouds kept obscuring the flow of light and the later in the day, say mid-afternoon, the clouds began to leak. There was one series of shots of a red barn with the mountains in the background that may have come out nicely, But I know that I will have to do some work on them to make ‘em right.
More when I have worked some more pics and have an idea where it is all going.
This is the first image I worked from the shoot. As I am still learning EVERYTHING about photography and post shoot processing I am pretty happy about this result. But because I am ever inquisitive, I went on line, or someplace to see what I could do to improve the whole picture. You see, I cropped the crap out of the original. The clouds are over exposed and make the whole thing hard to look at, so I took them out. Now I know how to modify the image to “pull” info out from the image. SOOO…
Well, I know that the beautiful Ashley is still a little out of focus, But you can still see her beauty. Not only that, but we can see beyond her where I have enhanced and defined the clouds and landscape a little.
More later!
olc
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