by successfulbob | Lumix G9, photography creativity, photography gear
Spring has Sprung
Spring is an excellent time of year to go out and about in our neighborhood in Sedona. Color is starting to splash itself in the form of flowers in many areas. Watching for the cactus to start popping their colorful blooms out of their calloused, thorny, green shells.
In the meantime, some spring blooms have hit the street.
Purple Robe flowers that were crawling out from under a fence. In the post-processing I dipped into Skylum’s Luminar 2018 Jupiter version. I made a copy of the layer then opened Luminar. This allows for adjustments to be made ‘after the fact’ using a mask.
And, of course, I’ve got to play a little. Moving the camera in different directions with a bit of a slow shutter speed can lead to some exciting captures.
Of course, then you can take that to an extreme with time exposure and faster movement. This could be utilized as a background or for an album design element
Using Photoshop, we can get a bit more depth and dimension by replication the layer, rotating it and changing the Blend Mode of the top layer.
Which give lots of options as many Blend Modes give other versions that feel different
And as Russell Brown says, “But, wait there’s more!
Here the Layer is rotated, and a drop shadow is added.
I think you get the idea. We can take a simple shoot with a few flowers and with the help of a little imagination while making the photographs and adding some spice in post-production there are many variations on a theme.
All images were captured with the Lumix G9 flagship stills camera and the 100-400mm Leica Vario-Elmar f4.0-6.3 lens a combo that is becoming very familiar to me. The more I use the G9, the more I like it!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | graphic design, photography, photography creativity, photography education, photography retouching, photoshop tutorial
Texas School
The Best Little Photography School in the World
I spent last week in Addison Texas attending Texas School. This was my first time at this week-long orgy of photography education. It is intense. You spend a week with a single instructor getting a deep dive into their techniques in creativity. It was a blast.
The class I choose to attend was with Richard Sturdivant. (Check out Richard’s work and his tool shop) Sturdevant brings an artist and graphic design background to create composite images that transcend photography. To say I learned a lot would be an understatement. Richard’s use of tools in Photoshop is an eye-opening experience. New tools. New techniques. New ways of looking at the world to enhance reality into fantasy with a hyper-realistic look.
Here is an example of one of the projects which the class worked on.
My finished piece from the class project.
A photo session was shown using MoLights which can change the way you photograph subjects that have movement. A post will follow specifically about that. In the photo session, the model was asked to perform, and these lights fired as fast as the camera could fire. With my Lumix G9 that means twelve frames per second. NO misses!
Photos were made of a couple of models in a period dress, and stock files were shared. Each student worked with the images with a base of instruction but each finished piece produced was different. It’s kinda like when you give ten photographers the same subject, and you’ll end up with ten different interpretations.
Below see some of the working pieces from the project. There were tons more, but you get the idea.
Look at the final image and see how many elements were added from the image directly above.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | commercial photography, LumixGH5, people photography, photography, photography gear, photography lighting resources
Go Pet Friendly – Part Two
Here’s a follow-up to the post from the other day about shooting an author’s photo and some support images for a book project. Amy Burkert and her husband Rod are on the road searching and researching pet friendly travel venues and a book is being written about traveling with pets as an addition to the Go Pet Friendly website
One of the images was the whole crew and the thirty-seven foot Winnebago with which they travel the country. Lighting conditions were a bit on the contrastly side with high sun and shade under the awning.
Go Pet Friendly home on the road and the family that lives there.
I used two Paul C Buff White Lightning X-3200 lights to control the contrast of the scene. The main light was fitted with a thirty-six-inch Octabox and the other was used for fill with a thirty by sixty inch foldable softbox camera right. A couple of braketed exposuers were made to get a lighter exposure on the tree that was in shadow to bring back some detail that would have blocked up otherwise.
The lights were powered with Paul C Buff Vagabond Mini battery packs. Portable power comes in very handy on location as it keeps from dealing with cords. It makes it easier to position lights exactly where you would like them to be.
Amy also wanted to show off her ‘children’ Ty and Buster.
Amy and her dog Ty pose for a portrait
Amy, Ty and Buster pose in front of the RV
Images captured with the Lumix GH5 and the Leica 12-60mm G LEICA DG VARIO-ELMARIT PROFESSIONAL f2.8-4.0 lens
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | commercial photography, lighting, LumixGH5, photography lighting resources
Go Pet Friendly – Book Session
I don’t often share my commercial work on Successful-Photographer. I probably should.
So I will.
I received a call from a pleasant voice asking about a photography session for a book cover. Images needed would include an RV, two people, and two dogs. The owner of the friendly voice is named Amy Burkert. She and her husband Rod have been on the road for about six years traveling the country in an RV, looking for pet-friendly places and sharing their findings via their blog https://blog.gopetfriendly.com
The main photo Amy for which Amy was looking was her back cover author’s image. Especially for the book, she has written, the image should make her appear open, friendly, and inviting while telling a bit of her story. I always ask plenty of questions before coming up with a plan for the capture.
What is the layout of the book? Do you need a horizontal or vertical photo/ Have you considered your wardrobe? What background would you like to have, studio or environmental? What story do you wish to convey?
Amy at the wheel of the thirty-seven foot Winnebago
After all the questions were answered, we ended up with Amy behind the wheel as she does most of the driving while they are on the road. There wasn’t a lot of room for supplemental lighting which made me reach into my bag for LED lighting bricks from Fiilex. With three of the bricks, I was able to add some fill light and get some background separation. These battery operated lights are color and brightness tunable and can be tucked into tiny spaces.
I choose a high angle from which to shoot to enhance Amy’s friendly and open feel. When the subject is looking up in an image it makes the viewer feel they are looking down on the person. It didn’t hurt that the camera likes Amy and she was entirely comfortable in front of the camera.
I supplied a horizontal and a square version of Amy’s portrait. Additional support images were made of the RV with Rod and the rest of the crew including the two dogs Ty and buster which I’ll share in a future post.
Images were made with the Lumix GH5 and the Leica 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 Lens
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art photography, graphic design, inspiration, Lumix G9, photography, photography creativity, photography gear
It’s Good To Have A Muse
Having a fellow artist who encourages you to explore new areas and ideas within your specialty is a fabulous tool to supplement your creativity.
Meet Pash.
She is my muse.
Pash Galbavy – Learn more check out her website
Pash is a life model, dancer, mask maker and performance artist. Her tagline is ‘Masks, Movement, Modeling and More.’ She often is performing new concepts and pushing boundaries that inspire and inform new work for me. Just yesterday Pash asked if I would cover a life posing event for her with her artist group. This day would find Pash and her group at the gallery of John and Ruth Waddell in Cornville, AZ. The Waddells have created a magical space with bronze sculptures dancing and cavorting around the property. A truly magical area that Pash enhanced with her interaction while the artists sketched and drew their interpretations of the scene.
Pash in a pose integrated with John Waddell’s bronze
Pash asking me to photograph and document her event had me make this image
Which led to me isolating some areas in moving toward a new piece of art
Working sketch experimenting with beginning textures
A picture I am currently calling ‘Merge’ (working title)
Images such as this are put together utilizing multiple photos of textures blended using Adobe Photoshop Layers, Color Modes, Blend Modes, and Masks. I sometimes will experiment with ten to twenty different versions before settling on a final image. This one is getting pretty close.
Images in this post were captured with the Lumix G9 and the Leica 12-60mm f2.8-4 lens.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
