I wanted to practice more on the one light theory, so I brought out the gear and thought I’d share this shot with you guys/gals and show you that “YOU” along with many others can achieve this look with just one light, a Diffuser and a couple white bounce boards!
I first started on what to shoot, and naturally I called out one name and she was available in the next room of course… “DANIELA”!!!! (more after the jump…)
So we’ve started a new year, a beginning to a new decade to be exact. We all have a goal to make things easier for ourselves, continue to bring home the bacon… but we’re limited. Limited to time that keeps flying by when we have big plans to become successful. Limited to time that we cherish every second of with our loved ones. Limited to time that we keep trying to divide in so many ways to keep comfortable with the way we live, and it always comes down to money, mullah, dinero, yes the almighty yen.
Why do we torture ourselves ourselves like so you ask? Really?
Since it’s a beginning of a new year do yourself a favor and stop everything! Breathe! Catch up to your mental state of mind and give yourself a break, even if its for just an hour or two and write down your latest projects. Take the time and fix them up, make them look pretty and show them off to us, the public. Get the feedback your expecting, and if you get negative feedback all you can do is improve yourself, practice, get better and note everything down with pen and paper. Share with the world what you have done and see how inspiring you can be… share it with us! Take a breathe! Money isn’t everything… you need to be focused, be happy and the rest will flow naturally!
There are many ways to soften skin in Adobe Photoshop. Recently I found a process that I have enjoyed, and one that is quite simple as it only involves a few steps. Given that those steps are typically the same each time, I packaged the steps up into a quick Photoshop Action and am offering here for free download.
For you Nikon shooters out there that have not yet had the opportunity to experiment with the Creative Lighting System (CLS), you are missing out. While at first it takes some adjustments, it is really quite fun. And while not the solution for every shoot, it certainly has it’s place within the photographer’s toolbox. (more…)
When I first got into photography, my Mom gave me a book by John Hedgecoe and it was all about refining your vision. What John would say is after you bring the camera to your eye and take the shot that first inspired you STOP – THINK. Is there another shot there. I used to have a sticker on the back of my camera that was a stop sign with the word THINK in big white letters. Many of us will come across a scene and we’ll take the postcard shot from the scenic overlook, in the middle of the day, bright sunlight the same shot as everyone takes. It looks nice. But we should do more. Think about another angle. Challenge ourselves to come back at different parts of the day. Use a different lens. Put something/someone of interest in the foreground. In the shot below is an example of the STOP-THINK approach. Coming home from the mother-in-laws the sun finally decided to peek out after a thunderstorm and lit up downtown beautifully. I got off the freeway and drove up West River Road in Minneapolis to find a nice riverview. The top photo is from the top of the road right by the walkway and a nice park bench. It’s nice, it’s a postcard view but the light was perfect. After I made this photograph, I looked around and saw the rocks at the bottom of the hill. So I ran down the hill and took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants legs and got into the water to get this composition. Which one do you like? Granted, the bottom one I planned for the HDR treatment, bracketing three exposures +/- 1.5 but the composition speaks for itself. Now I could come back to this scene at sunrise and it will be a completely different shot. Had the light stayed out longer, I would have moved towards the bridge for a different composition but I think that’s for next time. So I challenge you, after you take that first photograph, STOP-THINK and find a new way to shoot that same scene. I’d love to see what you come up with.
