by successfulbob | architectural photography, black & white, graphic design, Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, photography education
Wizard Academy in Austin Texas is a place of creative learning, whimsy and full of visual delight! I was there last week and enjoyed working and learning in this target rich environment!
Detail from a metal sculpture near Engelbrecht House on the Wizard Academy campus.
Spiral staircase from the Library down to the presentation room in the Tower at Wizard Academy
Detail from a Don Quixote carving in the lower art gallery in the Tower.
The Wizard Academy has an extensive collection of art devoted to the Don. Paintings, lithographs, metal and wood sculptures in all shapes sizes and mediums of which you might think. Think adventures, tilting at windmills and all that entails. It is definitely not a place for those who are traditional thinkers! It makes you stretch…
Images captured with the Lumix FZ 1000
by successfulbob | black & white, Lumix FZ 1000, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education
I spent most of last week a Wizard Academy, a creative business learning environment, in Austin, Texas in Creativity Mode.
You ask, “What the heck is Creativity Mode Bob??”
Creativity Mode is any time when I can throw off the shackles of having to create a specific image for a specific reason. It allows lots of time for experimentation, play, trying new techniques with plenty of chances for failure of a concept with no negative consequences. And usually leads to pushing the boundaries of photography. In this case it was the ‘Photographers Roundtable’ led by Roy Williams and Daniel Whittington. 17 photographers gathered to be pushed to create interesting imagery. Challenges were issued to look harder for shadows, challenge composition rules with frameline magnatism, use color as a statement, push the use of portals and framing to new levels and more.
All of this taking place in a target rich environment with wonderful architecture, artwork everywhere designed to delight and surprise the visual senses. Good times.
Here’s one of the images created with the Lumix FZ 1000 with a tweaked creative filter program mode.
In Spence House the high ceiling and spiral staircase create wonderful lines.
This photograph was made using the Illustrative Art setting on the FZ 1000 (setting is available on most Lumix cameras). The nice part about the art settings is that you can tweak them in camera. In this case I changed the white balance to black and white. The monochrome allows the shapes, forms and glow to come to the forefront of the photo. 1/40 sec ISO 1600 f2.8
I’ll be sharing more images and ideas from spending mulitple days talking about pushing envelopes and experimenting with other photographers…
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Talk about an all around camera the FZ 1000 is 25 to 400mm f2.8-4 all in one. Under 2.5 lbs. Captures 4K video and syncs to 1/4000 of a second with flash. The link here to Amazon has the camera (as of today prices go up and down a bit) for only $728
by successfulbob | Lumix Lounge, photography education, photography seminar
One of the reasons I enjoy teaching and sharing so much is to see the results of others when trying the techniques.
Here is an article from the 3CT (Camera Club Council of Tennessee) It documents Sandy Miller’s use of Textures, Layers, blend Modes and Masks from a class I gave last month in Chattanooga.
Art Market Street Bridge images ©Sandy Miller
Looks like Sandy has a great grasp of the concept and is sharing it well herself. All images including textures were photographed as part of our class project in about a half hour. Then we went to the classroom to put the images to work.
The class was hosted by the Photographic Society of Chattanooga with the very capable assistance of Bill Mueller and sponsored by the Lumix professional line of Panasonic Cameras.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – If you are looking for a speaker for your group let me know. Presentation Program descriptions here
by successfulbob | black & white, commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photography, photography education
Pre-visualization.
And, the anatomy of post production of an image to meet the pre-visualization. That’s what we’re talking about today. I saw the final image in my head before I even made the photo. (if I could only get there in time) Here’s the story…
Esteban is an extremely gifted artist with the guitar and I have been fortunate to photograph him on numerous occasions. This last time (see post here) I made images of him for marketing and promotion I was gifted with seeing a lighting situation during a live performance that I knew would be wonderful in color. And, then especially in black and white. If only I could get to the right position, with the right lens, before the dynamics of the situation changed.
Moved quickly across the room while changing lenses. Dropped to the floor and fired off about 8 frames before he came out of the position and the lighting changed.
Here’s the color version followed by an Animated Gif showing the steps of post production…
Esteban playing guitar after post production. See the animated .gif below for most of the steps used.
Straight out of camera. Remove background distraction. Add a Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow with NIK filters. Bring back some detail in strumming fingers from another capture. Burn some highlights. Tone down clothing to shift focus. Tone down background. Tone down guitar.
Toning was done with a variety of techniques including Curves Adjustment Layers and Soft Light burn layers. You see how we can drive the focus to where we would like the viewer to look first. The eye goes to the area of highest contrast. Then the viewer is invited to look around in the image by the use of diagonal lines in the composition.
Tomorrow this will be taken to another level when the image is converted to black and white followed by more adjustments.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Original image was captured with the Lumix GH4 with the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario Lens under stage lighting conditions during a live performance.
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photography, photography gear
Esteban has a new percussion master as part of the Dinner Show at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona so I was asked to capture some new marketing images. They are playing on Saturdays and Mondays through May.
Here are a couple stage views.
Dinner show at Sound Bites with Esteban and company… (daughter Teresa Joy is on violin)
During a lively portion of the show!!
While I was photographing the show I saw the light! Esteban was in deep and intimate with his guitar and I saw this beautiful light
reflecting from the soundboard onto his face. I rushed to run to the angle and hope the communion would continue while I captured the photograph. In another post I’ll talk about the whys and hows of the post production that went into the final black and white
I photographed the show with the Lumix GH4 and used the f2.8 Lumix Vario lenses 12-35mm and 35-100mm. This combination allows for the wide angle to telephoto needed. The GH4 has a great dynamic range allowing me to capture the depths of shadow and the bright LED lighting.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
