by successfulbob | graphic design, graphic design, Lumix GX8, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography creativity
Red berries interlaced with green and red leaves topped with a coat of snow grabbed my attention and put me in the holiday mode. Had a wee bit of snow yesterday which is a relatively rare occurrence here in Sedona. I had my Lumix GX8 with me and grabbed an image that put me in the season spirit. Add a little Photoshop Bevel & Emboss, a canvas texture and some text with a Bevel and Emboss with a soft Drop Shadow to, as they used to say in the Playtex bra commercials, ‘lift and separate’ it from the background…
Happy Holidays to you and yours for the rest of this year and deep into the next!
I feel so fortunate that I am able to make a living creating imagery and being able to share thoughts & ideas with you. If you get the chance take a little time each day and think about all the wonderful things that are happening in your life. Cheers!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, graphic design, Lumix GH4, musician photography, people photography, photography creativity, photography education
Been a little bit since I’ve photographed a new artist for the ‘Wall of Fame’ at sound Bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona.
Had the great pleasure of capturing fabulous guitarist Ottmar Liebert who sold out the house and ended up performing again tonight (Monday) because he was such a popular artist.
Here’s the art piece I assembled using my Photo-Synthesis technique using Adobe Photoshop and multiple images blended together.
Performing live at Sound Bites Ottmar Wall of Fame Photo Art image
Initial image was captured with the Lumix GH4 and the 42.5mm f1.2 Nocticron lens. 1/60 sec 3200 ISO I love the density range that the GH4 can hold even under the LED stage lights. Three additional images were pulled from my files and using Blend Modes, Layers, Fx and Adjustment Layers came up with the final art.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | commercial photography, fine art musician portrait, graphic design, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography, photography lighting resources
Honored…
That’s what I am when I am asked to help fellow artists, in this case musicians, to photograph and create images and packaging to help them sell their CD.
Eric Miller and Ralf Illenberger are releasing a new music project on March 22nd at Relics Restaurant in Sedona and asked me to come by and make a photo showing them in their creation space. Of course, I asked what vision was in their mind and I headed for the shoot with all sorts of ideas on how I was going to light the scene. And then found them in this ‘closet-like’ space and had to start from scratch on what I was going to do. First we had to revisit the vision. Recreate working the feeling of working late into the night… Possible moods to depict? Serious, fun, thoughtful, etc…
Small room. Large window. First task – make the sun go away by blocking the light from the window. 2nd task – find a way to light the scene. Used the wall to bounce a large strobe because there was no room for light modifiers. Note that the walls are painted reflective gold and deal with the color change that would occur. Add a small LED light from camera left to fill shadows and add detail. Find point of view. Choose a viewpoint outside the door looking in to give the viewer a sense of peeking in at these guys at work. Almost voyeuristic.
Process image for the mood I was looking. Change mind as experimentation led to processing a warmer gold tone image taking advantage of the golden walls. Sharp. But layers of soft at the same time. A little painterly kind of fantasy look.
To the design. Choose one working photo for the cover and add several additional photos to help tell the different moods of the story. Choose fonts. Design.
Show initial layout. Get feedback and more information. Refine layout. Retouch.
Repeat.
Move graphics and refine to create CD information. Send for final review of layout, spelling clearance and last minute tweaks.
Convert files for the printer. (repeat a couple times as we found a couple small errors and additions)
And here it is.
Heart Tree CD Jacket for Ralf and Eric
The capture was with the Lumix GH4 and the 12-35mm f2.8 Vario Lens. I ended up using just the 250 watt modeling light on the Paul C Buff White Lightning X-3200 light plus a little kicker fill from the Fiilex Brick LED light This is a pretty handy light to have in your quiver. Color balance and brightness is adjustable and the light is quite soft. Give you a nice WYSIWYG and doubles as a video light.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | bird photography, fine art photography, graphic design, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education
WOW! What great people in the Photographic Society of Chattanooga!
Taught an all-day class today, thanks to Panasonic Lumix being a sponsor, and prepping for tomorrow with an all day advanced Photo-Synthesis class and after coming back to my room after a wonderful dinner I received my favorite kind of email from one of the attendees…
Hi Bob,
I really enjoyed today’s seminar and am looking forward to the workshop tomorrow. I couldn’t wait to put some of the new knowledge I gained today into practice. Below you will see my before and after images. I am not happy with the birds, but as you taught today I saved my work in PS format so when I am fresh I can go back and tweak it. I put my mouse away, used my Wacom and keyboard shortcuts, I need a cheat sheet! I used 4 texture layers three with masks, an burn layer ( I learned about that today ;-) ) added a vignette and dropped in a few birds. I also increased the detail from my original image using topaz adjust.
Oh I forgot to set a timer and now need to move and stretch. Thanks again for such a great seminar!
Until tomorrow,
Rosemary
Here’s the original image © Rosemary Jardine used to start playing with ideas she learned in yesterday’s
Photo-Synthesis class at the Photographic Society of Chattanooga.
Art image using textures, blend modes and masks by © Rosemary Jardine.
Way to put the ideas to work Rosemary! Can’t wait to see where you take your images we talked about in class and what we’re going to learn about tomorrow in the advanced class! I figure you had a good basis to start… Hopefully some of my thoughts spurred you on to this, and more, creativity….
Your in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art photography, fine art portrait, graphic design, people photography, photography, photography education
Self assignments.
Love ’em!
Tlaquepaque our local Sedona Mexican Shopping Village and gathering center, put on a very colorful event in honor of the Day of the Dead AKA Dia de Muertos.
Here’s the first line of explanation from Wikipedia… “Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday observed throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.”
It’s a very colorful event. People dress in costume, actors perform, musicians play, sky dancers fly and artisans display. In short a photographer’s paradise. I met a lovely lady who was costumed as a Catrina which is one of the most popular figures from the celebration. She entranced me so I gave myself the assignment of making her the centerpiece of art based on some of the images I made during my visit.
Pash Galbavy, dressed as a Catrina, as the focus of one of my Dia de Muertos art images…
When I asked Pash if she would mind my making her image she said, “No problem!” then began to move like a model… With good reason! She is an artist in her own right. (learn more about Pash at unmaskit.com and artofpash.com)
Using multiple images from the day and some of my texture files I worked with Adobe Photoshop creating layer after layer utilizing blend modes and masks to combine images in many ways to get to the result you see above.
Look for more ‘self-assignments’ from this ‘busman’s holiday’ at Tlaquepaque in future posts here at Successful Photographer.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – What are you working on to stretch your photography skills??
by successfulbob | commercial photography, fine art musician portrait, graphic design, musician photography, people photography, photography
Received a wonderful email today! Thought I’d share with you.
Hi Bob:
Just a quick note to let you know that Smokin’ Blues won Best Acoustic Blues Album 2014 at the BBMAs (Blues Blast magazine Awards) last week. I went to the ceremonies in Illinois and it was amazing. I played and got to meet a bunch of heavy people…
The mag is going to run a feature story on me and Smokin’ Blues – You can see it on line and I think it comes out this Thursday. If not, the following Thursday. Your art work is getting some major coverage – their website gets over 2,000,000 hits a month with subscriptions in the USA and over 90 countries.
Thank you so much for all of your support Bob. Best to Holly and also the crew…
mark
Mark T. Small – voted Best Acoustic Blues Album 2014 – Blues Blast Magazine (critics choice & peoples choice)
Solo Delta & Chicago Style Blues
www.marktsmall.com
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles Swindoll
Here’s the reason Mark sent the email. I named the album, designed his CD cover and marketing materials for Smokin’ Blues. So excited for Mark. He works so hard at his craft and it’s great to see him rewarded!
Smokin’ Blues CD album cover for Mark T Small buy the album here I think you’ll like it!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
