Bright Light

Can u Read my Portrait?

A Glance of the Future

How i did this:   Experimenting make it possible... am not a professional photographer!


1. open image
2. copy background
3. make another copy
a. go to image - adjustment - black and white
b. then go to filter - other - high pass ( adjust to something that pop ups the details
c. then change the layer mode to overlay
4. go to channel tab load selection RGB ( hold cmd + click rgb )
a. make adjustment layer curve and move up midtones to 148
b. copy adjustment layer curve and invert selection from d mask by pressing ctrl I ---> adjust       midtones down to 138
5. make adjustment layer LEVEL ---> adjust accordingly.
6. make new layer ---> stamp visible or ctrl+shift+alt E
7. make a new copy of stamped layer and adjust shadows/highlights
( image - adjustments - shadow/highlights -- of your own choice )
8. again make another copy of adjusted shdows and HLights.
and go to filter - blur and gaussian blur...
a. adjust the blur amount of your own choice - just enaf to blur the background...
b. apply mask - go to layer - layer mask - hide all
b1. now use your brush using white color and paint it to the mask to reveal the blur background..
9. make adjustment layer --- hue and saturation and desaturate by 50%..
10. to exagerate details...
again make new layer.. stamp visible ( ctrl+shift+alt E )
and repeat #3 a-c.

Eyes...
1. use dodge and burn technique... to pop up details dodge tool: Range: shadow Exposure: about 30% and dodge dark areas of the eyes to reveal some details.


option: to have more dramatic look.. again make adjustment layer -- hue and saturation --- desaturate by 60%.

11. make new layer --- use gradient tool -- using circular gradient -- make your foreground white and background black -- drag your cursor from d center to outside the frame to have a circular gradient...
a. again apply layer mask --- go to layer - layer mask - and this time reveal all...
a1. now use your brush using black color and paint it to the mask to hide the gradient and reveal the subject..
a2. change layer mode to soft light to soften the vignette effect.
12. lastly if still you're not satisfy from the details... make another layer - stamped visible - convert to black and white -- go to filter - another - high pass --- then again change the layer mode to overlay..


13. stamp your watermark and we're good to go.. ((= enjoy!

Lost in the Woods

The Pretty One

Tortured

ok let's start... it simply comes from a boring day, so i pick up my gear and keep on playing with it then i thought of setting my strobes and try to experiment. well, as usual there's no other model so please bear with my tiry self portraits.. (= 

this shot was a solo strobe, using my sb600 placing it on my right side @ around 1/2 fp, i used my tamron 17-50mm@40mm, f32, ISO 100 with 1/180ss... you maybe wondering why i set my aperture to its max.. its because i'm trying to make use of my flash wave to have a wireless connection to my flash and it isn't capable of fast shutter speed ( 1/200ss max ).. nway, i just wanted to kill the ambient light to make the background black to emphasized the light source.. i usually control it by the shutter speed but this time i'm limited so i used the aperture to darken the background, so CLICK and that's it..

PP: as always, levels and contrast + sharpness.. 

       ( the bruises ) 1. make a new layer

                             2. then apply a circular gradient, bnw

                             3. go to filter, render - apply difference clouds

                             4. and finally change the layer blending to Overlay

voila.. you got your instant make up bruises!  if ever bruises is much for you, you can hide or delete some of it using eraser or layer mask!  have fun, try it urself! ((=

Life is all about Surprises

i've been alone for couple of days, my employer goes out of town... am so bored and tired watching movies from the net... i remember one time i saw a concept similar to this and i thought of making my own version..  the set up is simple...  My D90 with 18-200mm @24mm, 1/6ss, ISO 250, f8... my room was moderately lit so i set my IS0 a bit higher as i always prefer the lowest to avoid some noise and sacrifice the SS, nway, am using a tripod, obviously! ( am alone! ) don't even have enough space so i usually shoot at a wide angle focal lenght.. i used f8 to avoid blur of the background... every1 might think that the Laptop is on but it's not... i put a white paper on the laptop screen, my flash SB600 pointing into it @ 1/16 fp to make the screen glow and provide a softer light... i frame, i focus, i posed and i click! what's on my head??? it's up to you.. hehehe

PP: levels, contrast, sharpness, healing brush to remove blemishes and plug in to soften skin... ( i replaced the framed photo at my back with my wife's photo.. isn't it great.. hehehe )

On the Other Side

one night am off from tel aviv, traveling back to my work place the night was so quite and few people on the street. i was on the bus and few passengers with me i took my gear on and start looking for a nice spot... then suddenly the bus stop and beside me puffs a reflection of a commercial advertisement coming from the waiting shed... i immediately switch on my camera, i must take the shot before the bus leave the station...my Nikon D90, with 18-200mm@60mm was set in ISO1250, f5.6 and 1/130ss... i had no time to correct the settings so i switch on the bracket @ 3 frames with 2.0 ev, this increases the chance of taking the right exposure, the put my camera on high continuous shooting mode... pulled the trigger and boooommmm... i got it!  

PP: using photomatix.. tonemapped the 3 frames

Remeniscing Yesterdays

Well, it's been almost 2 years and as usual as always... every morning i take my Old One for a walk. And with me together with my employer is my Nikon D90. It's almost noon, around 11am, and we decided to take a short rest coz she's almost exhausted for a 7 minutes walk, well she's not getting any younger, bdw she's a lovely 85 years old French Lady. While sitting along the sidewalk beside her, it's time for me to go over my gear, making use of the natural light i spotted a quite good reflections from her sunglasses and got my attention.. I set my camera to aperture mode with it is a nikkor 18-200 glass @ 200mm, set at f8, ss 1/125s, ISO 250 and voila! a very nice portrait and interesting reflection... ( for me atleast.. ;p )

PP: levels, contrast and a bit of sharpening

Sakura Craze

i'm a member of a photography group in facebook called "f-stop" which regularly having a weekly friendly competition in a specific theme of the week.. well, i've been posting my entry for time to time, and u know what i'd never win.. hehehe! nway, the judging goes to whoever get the most votes from the members win... last week they held the "taste" theme competition and thought of strawberry splash which i see very frequently in the net... but where the hell i can get a strawberry in this season...hehehe so i started to dig my employers fridge to look for some tasty subject. then i found these cherries freshly bought by my employer's daughter... ( hope they'll never read this.)  nway, i can't see this cherry much applicable to what i wanted to shoot, not like the strawberry which has the texture and details with it, cherry is  simply plane and boring... so i come up with the idea of a high key, product photo approach... so i started to hang all my cherries harvested from the fridge with white piece of sawing thread in two rows to provide some dept of field, with my room's wall painted white as a background... i shoot it with my Nika ( D90), 18-200@200mm, f5.6, 1/2ss, ISO100 attached in my tripod.. using 2 strobes, 1 sb600 @ 1/32 fp 45 degrees left from the subject towards the background to burst out the white color removing all shadows and 1 sb900 45 degrees right front, slightly above the subject to give some highlights... and there you go, my first photo intended for the theme!  ( the result... i didn't make it to the top neither... hahahaha )

PP: adjust color intensity, levels and sharpness, edit some part which the thread is visible, tilted 3 of the cherries to impose movement.. 

Innocence

Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.

Natural Light for a Natural Beauty

It's a bad and moody day turns right! this portrait was taken couple of months ago during my vacation.. well, she's my wife and it's been a part of our lives having "fights" - we're use to it.. hehehe  So, while waiting for someone who'll gonna do the first move to end up the battle, i decided to make use of my camera ( lets call her "Nika" ). Nika did the job for me...hehehe ((=  every time i point Nika towards her, she simply refuse to look at me and pose ( which she love to.. ) hahaha... so i rather keep on shooting... it's noon and the Sunlight is too harsh but being inside the house with the light bouncing on the floor make it soft and much desirable... as she refuse to take a look, it gives a dramatic natural look together with the ambient light was perfect... i took a shot and the result was awesome.. a remembrance of a "A Bad Day turns Right!" simply a dramatic portrait!  ( 50mm, f 3.5, 1/60ss, ISO 1600 ) 

By the way,  Couple of hours later we had peace! hehehe...

PP: Levels, sharpness, Contrast, Plug-in ( soften the skin )