First time shooting in the rain..

So last night we had to get one of our night shots using speedlites for our deliverable. It wasn't easy to pull off. Our orignal shot was at Jack's Boathouse with Paul in the boat while its tied to the dock.

Since it was raining yesterday, we couldn't do that shot for numerous reasons. So we decided to use the boathouse as our next shot. We setup the lights and did some final touches. A young woman named Larken stopped by to see how the shoot was going because she was interested in attending CDIA. So we used her as a model instead of Paul. She was a great sport and put up with us..lol.

The rain came down hard but we managed to cover up the camera and speedlites. the final shot came out good.

The highlight of the night was watching a group of kids that were trying to get into some fraternity/soroity. They were made to clean the kayaks in the river and then they had to parade around in diapers..lol. I wish I would of gotten a picture of that.

Not so easy...

So last night the class went to Jack's Boathouse in Georgetown to get a few shots. First we did a shot against the sunset and we got the shot we needed. The next shot was the harder to get. We put Paul on the boat and tried to shoot him. Problems were the boat and the deck were both moving cause of the water and it got real dark outside. This caused us to show the shutter speed down. That caused issues because nothing was in focus and there was alot of movement in the pictures.

We wrapped up around 9:15pm and decided we'd be back on Wednesday to get the shot but this time, we plan on using the available light before it gets too dark out. This way we won't have to slow down the shutter speed so much. At least we know how to set things up so it shouldn't take long.

Lots of fun!

Another night with Speedlites. Amie and I setup 3 speedlites and the look I was going for worked out pretty good. What she was looking for took some work because we gelled the speedlite in the back and it kept coming up white. Finally figured out that the light was spilling out from the umbrella we had on another speedlite. Once that was fixed, the image came out better.

I wish I owned more than one speedlite. :(

Speedlites

We started our new module on Saturday. We are now being taught how to use Speedlites/Speedlights in place of our studio setup.

So far things are pretty interesting. I finally learned how to control a 2nd unit and how NOT TO TRUST CANON on fully automatic. We played around a bit in the studio last night and I was impressed with the outcome. The shot we took was exactly the same thing I could of done with studio lights. Just less equipment to deal with! If only I could win the lottery so I can buy everything I want..lol.

Finally done..

Got finished with the three images for tonights last class. I should have my images resized and handed in tonight. I also did an extra image of the model we had on April 4th. I didn't have to but I decided to do it. If they like it, cool. If not, then thats cool too.

I definately learned alot this module. Thanks goes to Chris Alvanas for that!!

WHY?!?!

Why did an instructor tell us to give the Wacom Tablets a try?! WHY?!?! Now I'm hooked on it!! lol. I think thats the best thing to have when doing post processing. I think it makes the process alot easier and faster, IMO. Now its time to save up and buy one. Along with a new camera and a new lens and a new computer and so on! Why can't I just win the lottery? Do the lottery gods hate me? lol.

Working with Models 2 will end on Wednesday. I'm practically done with my images. I think some digital makeup will work but we'll be learning that tonight. It's amazing what I've done so far. I'm no expert but it sure does work!!

Here is the picture that I recently worked on. Its a before and after.
Before:


After:


Too much? Too little? At first I thought it was too much but then I toned it done a bit and got the result posted above.

This makes you think..

I mentioned earlier about how I watched a video in class regarding retouching and what is too much or too little. Whats going overboard and what is not. After seeing this I won't see another image the same way I used to before I learned about all of this.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/opinion/op-ed/1194833176718/index.html#1194838469575

Photoshop Photoshop Photoshop...

Can't get enough of Photoshop! lol. So we ended Working with Models 1 and now its on to Working with Models 2. We're taking our images from the previous module and doing hardcore photoshopping to them.

On Monday, we watched a video that pretty much showed us how crazy things can get with Photoshop. I saw websites as well that showed the before and after. I'm just amazed. There's also something going on in France where they want to ban ads that are heavily photoshopped or at least put some type of scale on the ad to show how much Photoshop was done. I can understand their reasoning for it as well.

On Wednesday, we started retouching. We learned how to soften skin. I also used a wacom tablet for the 2nd time and this time I actually liked it. I had a hard time softening the skin because it looked so fake. But Chris helped me out and showed me what he would of done and it all made sense. So I borrowed the tablet from school and went home to practice. I did another model's picture and it looked so much better. I even asked my wife (who always gives me her honest opinion) if it looked fake. And to my surprise she said no. There have been times where I do something to an image and she tells me right away what she sees wrong. I'm no expert but I did get a good grasp on skin softening.

On Saturday the class is working as a group to shoot a model. We have to all agree with how the makeup should look and the type of setting we are to use. Hopefully, everything goes well.