needOptic

I need to change the site...

2011-01-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

Been too lazy to update the page, need to change it to just a flickr feed... anyway.

Some recent work

2010-07-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

I've been in a photographic lull for the last month, but I think I'm finally feeling enthusiastic about photography again. Either way, we're flying out to Vegas soon and doing a West coast road trip so I'm excited to have my photo-mojo back.

2 Strobe lighting setup... or closet "softbox" with a bedsheet

2010-04-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

As an owner of cheap LumoPro 120's and some umbrellas I always admire and drool over work of people who have access to large, powerful, sun-battling monsterstrobes that costs thousands of dollars. This weekend I decided to stick a speedlight into a closet and cover the doorway with a blanket for a 5-minute ghetto softbox. That's right, stick it to the man.

Soft Directional Light

The problem with all of these small strobes is that their power output caresses donkey balls, so I had to setup my 580EX to blast @ full power since it was stuck deep inside the closet. I could have raised my ISO or opened up the aperture, but I wanted a deeper DOF and no natural light showing up (since the shots were taken close to north facing windows).

The left rim I had in an 8" snoot so I could only drop it on the left edge of myself and the oranges. Took a couple of tries to get the right ratio, I didn't want it to be overpowering the main softbox. Feathered it a little bit so it wouldn't spill on the wall behind me and I was ready to go

After I got myself posed up and the shot was done I kept throwing oranges into the air as if I were in a home production skittles commercial. Several minutes and three severely squished oranges later I was ready to go into post production.

Here's the original image before I started tweaking it.

A little curves to bump up the contrast.

Adjusting curves on a selection of the sweater to make the light a little more dramatic.

The fun part! I get to dodge, burn, multiply, overlay different types of layers on top to increase the contrast and separation on the face and hands... glow of yellow, etc.

A couple of final tweaks. Took down the left side a bit as it was distracting, got the oranges into the shot, and I'm ready to go!

Spring Cleaning / BMW 330CI ZHP

2010-04-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

My wife had to run some errands in Evanston, IL - so I decided to clean the interior of the car and take pictures. I also have recently swapped my winter wheels for the stock M's with a new set of summer tires. It's is good to be back!

The Caribbean Adventures Edition

2010-03-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'll let the images do the work.

Three speedlight lighting setup for edgy portraits

2010-01-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

I really like Joel Grimes lighting technique of placing two kickers at 45 degree angles behind the subject to get a very cinematic feel. I’ve been following his work on flickr and he is truly a master of lighting people in a modern and edgy way. In these slow winter months, when venturing outside guarantees phlegm taking residence in ones bronchus, I have to rely on my living to craft images in.

The finished image

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ChicCanvas.com Canvas Printing Review

2010-01-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

The proverb says that The shoemaker's son always goes barefoot and it is much the case with myself and photography prints. I have been researching canvas prints for a while and finally commited for a couple at ChicCanvas.com.

They are currently running a "buy one at full price and get the second one at 50% off" deal, which is very competitevily priced. I ordered two 24"x36" prints to hang in the bedroom and went with the run of the mill configuration for the print - 1.5" thick and gallery wrapped (the image wraps around the corners).

Read full review...

Jacob!

2010-01-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

It's fun to take pictures of kids, especially cute babies... I'm the first to admit I think newborns are scary little alien things that we only keep because there's so much social pressure surrounding it. But then they get cute and everyone kinda sighs and decides that, much like a kitten, they're nice to have around. I'm kidding, I all babies are cute, blah blah blah, don't hunt me down with a pitchfork.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The more I hang out with Jacob the more I think this whole baby thing is cooler than I thought. For this shoot I used my trusty Canon 50mm F/1.4 and the Canon 70-200mm F/4L IS. For the several shots without the white canvas I set up a large silver reflector on the other side to bounce some light back into the shot from the window. In the white canvas shots I had two LP120 strobes set at around 1/8 power, one shoot through umbrella and one silver bounce. Overexposed by a good stop or so to get the really nice smooth skin.

Some changes with the year 2010

2010-01-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

I've decided to restructure the site and the photographic content a bit. I made majority of my flickr content visible only to my friends and family. If you're not in one of those groups yet, you might still qualify for the one that does not require bodily fluids and legal paperwork.

If you are a friend or family member and want to get access, just add me as a contact on flickr and send me a note.