Flying Apple Slices!

Hey guys!

Been a while and I have had such a major mental block, it wasn't even funny!

 

In October 2012, I took my camera and started to play again... this time, getting tricky!

All the searching for cool ideas led me to try some wayward thinking.

 

In this case, flying apple slices and chunks errupting from the apple.

 

right, if you never knew how to... you do now.

 

I got me some really big, juicy, crisp apples and instead of just eating them, I first played with them. Yes, I played with my food.

Look below... looks cool, doesn't it?

 

 

How?

Easy!

 

First thing to do is... slice your apple, or any other fruit you desire...

Second thing, prop the peices into place with either toothpics, kebab sticks or, in this case, match sticks.

 

Position your uh, model... point your camera at it and shoot!

Okay...

Once you have your photo, it's time to take it into your editor... mine is Photoshop CS5. But, any editor with clone and heal features will do the trick.

Simple!

See the original photo?

 

 

Cool hey?

With a lot of cloning, recloning, close-up cloning and same amount of healing, you can get a good result. All it takes is time and a little patience. Be a perfectionist if you must!

 

Remember, to make it believeable, you need to really treat it well. Take care to notice edges, marks etc that may catch the alert eye.

 

Okay, I did do some of my usual layering afterwards and some minor cropping just to make it seem a little more appealing, especially since I underexposed a little and shot a little wide.

 

Below is another one I did, then ate. If you look close, you can see the attention to detail, it seems really as if the apple bits are floating.

 

Now, don't forget, you do not need major editing skills or any fancy schmancy equipment. This can be achieved similarly, with a cell phone, or basic pocket camera too!

 

If your camera has the ability to do long exposures, you can also have fun that way.

Here, I set up my Sony A200 with my tripod. I switched to manual mode, set the shutter to 30 seconds and set the Aperture to F8 with the ISO at 100.

I have a great little light on my cell phone, so I danced around in the street. Okay, not exactly the street, the end of a road. It took a few attempts to get the manual focus right, but nailed it nicely with this one! My mistake, wearing shorts. So, my multiple legs are noticeable in this one... I was also blessed with a car passing by in the background too!

 

 

Anyway, thanks for popping by.

 

Go play outside!

 

See you soon!

 

If you've played like this, would be nice to hear about it, share a link in the comment box.

 

Take care

Collin.

Special Effects

Hey everybody!

 

So, I've been asked numerous times on how I get this effect. Well, I was inspired by a technique called the "Dragon Effect" as the linked video will show you. This, is my own variation of this "effect". It's still a bit of work, just like most of the youtube clips will explain to you.

 

Me, I think I've followed most of the steps, but, still doing it my way... I guess I have this thing about following rules... I use them as a guide.

Two more examples at the end of my story.

 

Your initial image should at least look good to start with. This example taken in the middle of the day is a good platform to work with, but not exactly the best.

 

Time to start putting this onion together, one layer at a time.

 

This guy was neglected by his decade long employers and left behind in a small town that is also neglected.

Please note that I do all of this in the fantastic Photoshop CS5 and hope you will understand my tutorial here as I don't go into details. I don't show clips of settings, screen dumps or any of those that you see in other tutorials. I just tell you what I did and how I did it. I will however try to give you as much detail as I can remember.

(I'm glad I saved the .psd file so that I could dismantle it and give a brief on how-in-the-hell I did this.)

 

Right, first thing I did was to shift the shadow/highlights drastically.

(Image -> Asjustments -> Shadow/Highlights)

By shifting these sliders, you can tweak the levels until you find yorself with quite a nice balance between lifted shadows and darkened highlights.

 

 

Then a quick copy of the layer (Ctrl -J Win/Cmnd J Mac), which gets some Gaussian Blur thrown at it (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur). This is to wipe out any freaky looking ghosting and edge halo's that are caused by the shadow/highlight procedure. There are other ways, but this is what I did. Oh yes, don't forget to now ERASE the subject so that only the background is blurred (this can be achieved in various ways, such as using quick select too, magnetic lasso, or just erasing). I used a combo of quick select and eraser.

 

 

 Ok, cool... So you've noticed a MAJOR saturation explosion, don't worry, we'll get to that. Before that (and this is why I'm not phased by the saturation) I add yet another layer. This layer gets desaturated (Ctrl+shift+U), then more shadow/highlights, then contrasted and finally, the layer filter is set to "Soft Light". Don't really notice it below? Probably because I shifted the fill and opacity just a tad...

 

Again, duplicated that same desaturated layer and gave it a hint of gaussian blur (less than half of the first blur used for the background) and the the fill and opacity brought back up to 100%.

 

 

Now, it's starting to look good and, as you'll notice, the saturation is slowly reducing...

Next steps are "the painter's steps" where I painstakingly sit with different size brushes of black and white and multiple layers (don't get intimidated, this is optional and can be done in different easy ways). Background get first priority... Remember your selection? It should still be available (Select -> reselect), if not, select again the same way you did for the blurred bachground. Cool?

 

Right, inverse this selection so that you now have the background selected and not your subject. Paint with brush, or use the paint bucket... either, or...

Oh, then set the layer to soft light. Background's looking cool, but still a bit of work.

 

Duplicate that layer, use a (reasonable sized) feathered eraser to trim around your subject so that you get a bit of a glow and nice rich, dark bacground, just like below.

This layer will get quite a heavy gaussian blur to blend it in nicely.

 

 

Okay, now the face, this is what can take the most time.

Another layer to the onion, set to soft light (again, sigh...) and this time, very small, feathered brushes will be used. Why? Because, stop asking questions.

This is to work on the details in the face, to accentuate the creases and "character lines" in his face, to make them stand out more.

There is another way, a photocopy layer, whites removed, blurred, but it isn't as effective as being selective and means a ton more erasing... I tried that route... it can be effective, but is just so time consuming.

 

Okay, the next two steps are basically, the same... okay, they are...

New layer, painted bucket black, erase the centre with large, very large feathered eraser with opacity set to around um, 20%. Then it's case if erasing from the centre outwards. Yeah, to create a vignette.

 

 

Duplicate that layer, erase a little more to have a lesser vignette. Play with these until desired effect.

Please note: They ARE optional, but work for me.

 

 

Okay... now it's time to deal with that saturation (which you could probably see, has been changing with each layer added) by using the new adjustment layer tool... selecting saturation and adjusting the master slider. You can, however also opt for selective colour saturation by clicking on the drop down box that says, Master... I just toned down the entire colour spectrum altogether.

 

 

Finally, I added my signature and then saved it.

(okay, I might have tweaked the  brightness once more after)

 

 

That's it, as easy as that.

Do enjoy, let me know if there anything you'd like to know.

csphoto76@gmail.com

 

Okay, two more examples.

 

This one, I managed to get it better, practice...

 

 

the first one I did, this was done using the photocopy layer story I mentioned earlier.

 

 

My First Big Wedding - What an Experience!

So, in mid 2010, I was asked if I wouldn’t mind shooting a wedding in 2011, at the time the answer was a definite yes. I did not expect that in the time leading up to the wedding things would change so much. Needless to say, time drew closer and I no longer had a camera (mine was traded to a new owner, without consent from me, yes, I was a victim of crime). The stress of the commitment was unbearable. I mean a wedding photographer with no camera is unheard of. I had planned to own my very first DLSR, but that failed to materialize due to some unforeseen circumstances.

Well, time got closer still… then, my prayers were answered, by a generous and giving man, Mr. Brian Cheyne, in the dying times of planning, weeks before the travels to the wedding, he came to my aid. I could not believe what was happening here! A man whom I have never met in person, to me still quite the stranger, was offering to loan me his equipment. First thoughts were “what’s the catch”, there’s always a catch… strangely, there was none. None, this was new territory for me. I mean, there’s always a catch, always a sneaky little something, somewhere. Well, true to his word, there was no catch.

So, we arrived in Pretoria after the 16 hour drive from Cape Town, little sleep and unpacking to still be done. I got some rest in, 2 hours or so, then off to meet the man who saved my bacon. Upon arrival, there, on the table, was a backpack, stuffed with all the goodies I would need. 2 camera bodies (Canon 10D and 50D), and lenses, oh man, lenses. Everything I would need (and then some) for the wedding. You sir, are a true hero!

Ah, but wait! I have to learn how to use all this equipment, the wedding was less than 24 hours away! I’ve never used an attached flash, nor detachable lenses, come on, this is new territory to me! Anyways, after some fidgeting and button pushing, I started to get the hang of all this new fun stuff. I can understand why he loves photography so much. So, late to bed, with an early rise, to continue adapting to the cameras and lenses before the rush to the groom’s place. To shoot him, the bride had somebody with her. Then from the groom, to the venue, to shoot the bride a bit as well at the venue, then shoot the venue and finally… the wedding!!! I went into overdrive! I shot all angles, I shot anything that caught my eye, but never lost focus on the wedding and it’s most important guests… the Bride and Groom!

As you know, nothing flows smoothly, no matter how much planning you have done, there’s always a few surprises. Well, I had my fair share, but to me, these were all learning curves… an all new experience. Needless to say, I tip my hat to the pros who do this nearly every weekend. my legs just aren’t fit enough for all the crouching, squatting, running, bobbing and weaving and many other things I can’t think of right now to get that one shot that could make the wedding album complete.

Well, did the wedding, saw my good friends again, had a ball and then packed the bags and returned home. Now, so far in my mind (and the minds of many) everything was sorted and the editing could begin. I got stuck into editing to realize, but there’s images missing! Oh the horror!!! Worst thing you can do for the wedding is lose some vital images. I mean, I’m playing with the couple and their family’s memories here! Panic stations! A few calls and check here and there, I’d misplaced a memory card, it was still in Pretoria. It took some time to get those images here, I mean these are of the rings, the families and the whole group together! These, were some of the most important images. Well, all’s done and as you can read by this post, 2 months late, but complete nonetheless. Hopefully, if I do a wedding again, it won’t take this long for the couple to get their winning photos.

So, without any further ado, I introduce to you, the bride and groom… Mr. and Mrs. Engelbrecht… and a few images from the wedding.

-In no particular order-

Creating Fantasy

So I've been a little quiet on the editing side of this blog. Wording the how-to's has been my mental block. But good news, some interesting reading without imaghes on the steps to follow...

---o0o---

So, I was driving the Longtom Pass, Mpumalanga from Sabie to Lydenburg. It was along these lovely winding turns and bends that I watched as the sun set. Fortunate for me, winding these roads and having many a place to appreciate, I spotted this gem. A once off, a must-stop, rolled passed, quickly reversed and bounded out the car. Surveyed the area to see what sort of composition I could get out of this and well... after snapping here and there, crouching, stretching, tilting and eventually kneeling did I get the "luck shot" (only took me around a dozen attempts). Sun was perfectly positioned, The khaki weeds and this fire stricken tree all sitting uh, I mean, standing just right, allowing a channel through leaving the peak of the mountain and the sun well, near perfect.

Um, before I continue, the clouds you see, they're not clouds. There was in fact a huge fire just north of this location and it was churning smoke in masses. Oh man, this created such a perfect scene. Gave it drama, mood and a great breaker between the remains of the day and the beginning of night... Shot at 1/250 sec exposure, aperture F8 and ISO 100 while exposure bias remained 0. Yeah, off camera looks good... but I like rich, bold colours, it's my thing so you know what's going to happen next, right? Right.

So, in Photoshop(R) I just played around with the contrast/brightness and the usual shadow/highlights, like always. Am I getting predictable? Hope not... So with a few added layers, I adjusted the sky, Toned the hot-spot known as the sun and adjusts the curves just a pinch.

---o0o---

Yeah, so now it's nice, but if you've read some of my other posts, you'll know, nice isn't enough. I WANT MORE!! MWAHAHAHAAAaaaa... erm... okay, Dr. Evil laugh doesn't work for me either.

Anyways, back to task. Here goes...

1: Lighten the foreground... New (soft) layer, painted with white where needed. Remember to trim the excess if need be to add to the feel. You'll get the hang of it of you practice enough.

2: Darken the sky... What for? Because I said so, this is my pic and that's what I've done :). Okay, seriously, it was done to add to the mood of the image (these whit and black layers also double as dodge and burn). So, another soft light layer, painted black over the areas I wanted darker. Remember again, trim off the excess, there will be overflow (I did this to keep the outer area darker than the center closer to the sun to help draw the eye into the image). Don't use 100% eraser, keep it to around 30%, this way you can still get a nice blend and effect.

3: Start adding objects... For this one, I added a crow from a failed attempt at getting a BIF (Bird In Flight), positioned just right can make or break an image. Furtuantely for me, this one had blue sky all around so cutting it out was easy. Painted it black to get the silhouette. I duplicated the layer, blured that layer and set it to soft light. This creats a sense of OOF (Out Of Focus) and adds to the sense of motion. Now add another soft light layer and get your white paint ready, set to around 30-40% opacity. I did this to accentuate certain parts of the bird just slightly, creating depth and perspective.

4: Continue addining objects... Don't overkill on things added... if you have a good image, you don't want to destroy it altogether, just make it interesting. The planet/moon/anything else you might think it is was diffilultly easy. No, seriously, to get the angle, placement and lighting right, can be a challenge. What I did here, was to add a new layer, get a big white solid brush and smack it down, like a stamp, boom. Now I have a white dot on my image (removeable layer of course) which needed lots of tweaking. Step one, a soft brush eraser, around the same size as the paint spot. Cool, getting there... now I have a nice white crest sort of thing that fades, pretty much like the moon would... so, with this eraser (now reduced drastically in size and opacity) I dabbed the remains here and there (with different size brushes) until I'd creted some nice uh, let's call them craters... but, it's STILL WHITE!! That's just not going to do! Easy fix, eyedropper tool, picked an orange from my sunset and back to paint. I added a new layer again, soft light of course (don't worry about the white spot, getting back to that) and spread a soft brush of orange over the white, remeber to erase the excess, it looks funny if you don't. Awesome, looks good. Back to the previous layer again for final adjustments. This time, I played with the master opacity and master fill opacity to get the blend done. So that's it. Done.

Oh, wait!

5: Lens Flair... Good point, I nearly forgot. Okay, I duplicated the backround layer, added the lens flair (try make sure you get the position right or it will look out of sorts and make no sense). Once I had that done, it seemed odd, ah yes, eraser again, to trim it off the foreground some, the reason for that was so I could reduce the opacity and still keep the foreground. This also helped to make the flairs seem more distant than they should... adds mistery amd intrigue.

So, I'm done, the results are below. I hope I got you interested, if not, sorry... ask me and I'll go into my archives and try fill in the blanks.

---o0o---

Share this on Twitter, or Facebook, tell your friends and get the word out on cool tricks.

HDR – An alternative process

So, HDR is the way forward for post editing images these days. It’s a great way of converting your normal image into something more… a work of art if you’d like to call it that.

What is HDR? High Dynamic Range – more can be read ->HERE<-

There are various ways of doing HDR conversion. The primary (and said to be proper) way is to take multiple images of the same scene [set at different exposures] then using software like Photomatix or Photoshop to basically merge these layers together creating a final single image that has the fullest colour range, without all the bright bits of a normal photo.

Well, I do it differently.

I use one image that I blend and alter in various layers.

Okay, so the original, like this one below, is actually “not bad” to start with. Good light, nice colour and detail but it’s just another photograph… yawn… I started out just adjusting the colour for richness and a little more vibrancy. As usual, I got carried away and started to add more and more layers.

First port of call was to address the bright sky and darker foreground selectively, basically try to recover some of the detail in the clouds and lighten the trees and brick work. I did this in two additional layers. The first is just a light painting of black over the clouds, I set the brush opacity to around 20% and painted all the sky. It’s fine to spill over a little, that’s what the eraser is for. The second layer was to get a little light back over the foreground, darken some spots and lighten others. This is again done with black and white paint. I set this layer to soft light and painted areas like the paving and parts of the wall with black. I painted over the trees and the foreground shadows with white to lighten these up a notch or two… and then set the layer opacity to 40% (though this changes depending on image and how much I want it to reveal or blend).

Woops! Now I have it looking somewhat flat! My bad… okay not really. This is deliberate, you’ll see why in a bit. I now duplicated the original image and adjusted the exposure up a tad to brighten things up again and give back some colour [opacity remains at 100%]. I set this layer to soft light as well for obvious reasons. Now it’s starting to look more like a nice image with pretty colour and detail, right? I then duplicated the original again, set it to soft light too with opacity of 12% and it made the slightest of difference but will come into play later as it merely tones the image by that 12% colour wise.

Now, one of usual tricks is of course, the black & white layer (desaturation and brightness/contrast adjustments merged into layer). Soft light setting again and this time 35% opacity (yes, opacity will vary depending on how much shadow you wanting back). The problem with this layer is now the clouds become even brighter than before. No problem to my trusty eraser… be careful not to over erase though. Look! It’s really standing out now! How cool am I?

But, the sky, seriously, look at that sky!! Still too bright and clashing with the rest of the picture. New layer again and yes, you guessed it, set to soft light again (with opacity at 100). I used a heavy brush of black paint and got to painting all the light spots like the sky and all the pillars. You have to admit, it was needed, right? Okay, none of this is really needed, but I love doing it, so I will do it.

Looking good? Almost… I’m still not happy with those bright clouds. So, another [soft light] layer is added and more heavy paint work is done. This time, just to the clouds because the pillars look good to me. This has now gotten the colours and detail of the clouds to match the rest of the image quite nicely I think.

But, all this work comes at a price of course… in this case, it was light, the image is now a lot darker than when I started out on this project. So I played just a little more adjusting levels and then of course playing with the selective colour feature… as always… what can I say, I like to enhance the colours to give you this pretty little picture.

So, ladies and gentlemen, another tidbit to add to your learning curve. Remember, shoot wisely, plan carefully and always, always have fun doing it.

Oh, you can also drop me a mail on cdscott76@gmail.com if you’re keen on any prints or other queries you might have.