First off, let me say a big “thank you” to the great group of friends who responded to the call to be photographed. It’s extremely cool that you didn’t hesitate to help me out with this photo project. In addition to being awesome, there was another defining characteristic to the people that responded – they’re all distinctively artistic individuals. There were no accountants or lawyers in the group, but dancers, designers, and fellow photographers were well-represented.

As the shoots progressed it was interesting to think about how I’d come to know these particular friends. Some were current co-workers, while others I hadn’t seen in years. A few I knew mainly from group situations, so to spend one-on-one time with each of them was really cool. We talked about art history, Madagascar, water under the bridge, and life’s trials and rewards.

One friend admittedly hated to be photographed (and wouldn’t you know, her photos were beautiful) but she volunteered in order to show me a 2010 photo-a-day book of her family. She credited me with helping to inspire the project, which I took as an immense compliment.

The burning question

If I were asked five years ago, “how many friends do you have,” I’m not sure of my response. Though I’ve known scores of great people over a lifetime, the answer would probably have been something like, “hmmm…maybe…thirty?”

But now, on Facebook, I count over ten times that many people as friends. Why the disparity? I hoped this project would provide some insight…and it did.

To be honest, I had fears that Facebook was devaluing the word “friend.” But I found out that, for me, quite the opposite was true. Though it was easy to click a button and call someone a friend, those clicks haven’t been made without thought.

Unless you’re just trolling to build your friend count (which I guess some people do), you don’t become friends with someone on Facebook just by accident. There’s some tie, somewhere, that binds you together. It may be small or it may be large – a time in your life, a common interest (I know a lot of photographers), or a mutual friend – but there’s something there that can be built upon. And that’s exactly what my friends and I did over the two days of this photo shoot:

We remembered the ties that bind us.
We built upon our relationships.
And Facebook and photography made it all possible.

Which, really, was the coolest possible outcome. Now if only there were time to photograph all of my other friends, too…

- Jim T.

If you’ve been a follower of this blog you know I’m now on staff with a former client, working at the convergence of internet, photography, and video. I still find time to do my own personal photography, though, and a recent shoot involving some Facebook friends was a fun and educational experience, one worth sharing on the blog, I thought.

There were two main reasons I wanted to photograph Facebook friends.

1. Photo aspect – I felt like photographing portraits and needed a few subjects. Being connected to literally hundreds of people on Facebook provided a great resource, one worth tapping into.
2. Social aspect – the word “friends.” Do we define friends differently in this day and age of rampant social media? What is a friend?

Putting out the call

First, a web page describing the shoot was created and posted on my personal blog. Over the next two weeks I linked to this page a couple of times through Facebook updates. Some interested responses came in immediately and some didn’t filter in until a day or so before the shoot. And, of course, there were the “can you do this another time/special request” questions, but the premise was really simple: I had the studio for one weekend only and the photos would be of Facebook friends, only.

I decided to cap the number of sittings at ten and scheduled them fairly evenly over the two-day period. It turned out to be a good number, large enough to satisfy the intentions of the shoot but small enough that we could take our time.

Photo/technical aspect

Wouldn’t you know, the week prior to the shoot turned out to be exceedingly busy, with not much time to think about the set up. On Saturday morning I headed to Daylight Photo with only a loose plan in mind.

My initial intention was to bounce a bunch of light into a side wall and not worry about the lighting too much – just take what it gives me and work mainly on the interaction with the subject. When I entered the studio (after a few month absence) I was reminded that the only solid side wall was covered with cabinets and other obstructions. That’s not good for bouncing light. Time for Plan B.

Out came the strobes and a couple of soft boxes, a 24” x 36” medium for the main light and an 18” x 24” small for the hair light, set directly opposite one another. Maybe I’d play with the lighting a bit more than originally intended, I decided.

The plan for working with the subjects was simple – give them a starting point and then let them be themselves. There were three basic set ups during the shoot: a stool to sit on, standing, and sitting at a table, and a wide roll of gray seamless paper served as the backdrop.

Each shoot was scheduled for half an hour but probably ended up taking 45-60 minutes. Once a subject arrived we’d talk for quite a while, then move through the basic set ups rather quickly, spending 5-10 minutes on each. Our conversations continued all the way out into the parking lot after each shoot was finished.

As far as technical details go, most of the fiddling was done with a large (4′ x 8′) foamcore panel on the shadow side of each subject. This is all pretty standard stuff for studio photographers: black foamcore was used to subtract light, making dark, dramatic shadows, and white foamcare filled in light and softened shadows. I played with both on each subject and am glad that I did. Soft light can be beautiful but when does it become too soft (and all definition is lost)? And at what point does hard light go from strikingly beautiful to simply harsh? I have a good sense for what works best but this allowed me to push those edges on a number of subjects, in a no-pressure situation. And if we’re not continually pushing the boundaries of what we know (or what we think we know), then we’re not learning, are we?

The camera was a Nikon D90, with either the 18-70 Nikkor zoom or the Nikkor 85mm f1.8. The 18-70 was once a standard Nikon kit lens but it remains one of my personal favorites. I find it very versatile for general photography but there’s noticeable distortion at each end of the range, so it’s not ideal for architectural subjects.

Most shots were done with the lens stopped down to f14-16, a very small aperture. Yes, shooting wide open can be beautiful but I prefer that look with natural light. When shooting in the studio with strobe power I prefer the safe route, stopping far down so depth of field isn’t a concern. I know the lenses are sharp at that aperture and there’s little risk of something important falling out of focus, so no matter how fast we’re shooting or changing things up, focus is a non-issue.

All post-production was done in Lightroom 3, which handles 95% of my image making workload (a free trial download is available from Adobe). A minimum of retouching is done  to retain a natural look.

That’s it for the technical stuff. As far as studio shoots go, it was a fairly typical two-light set up with minimal post-production.

Next up: in next Tuesday’s post we’ll look at the social aspects of the shoot and my search to define “friend” in the age of social media.

- Jim T.

Since we all enjoy learning about photography it seems a natural to share what I’m learning from starting the photo a day 2009 blog (Talkington Photo Video). What is there to learn? Well, a new blogging program, new processing software and a new camera and lenses. If there’s not something there to learn then I’m definitely not paying attention!

This is pretty much the way I learn. We all have different methods for what works best for us as individuals and clearly defined goals are effective for me. “Photo a day” is perfect for that. There are a number of things on my “I’d like to do that someday” list…and that’s just when they’ll get done: someday. But, hey, announce to the world you’re going to start a project on January 1 and now there’s a greater sense of obligation, a purpose beyond my own learning.

Online photo sharing is still relatively young but it’s dramatically changed the way photographers interact. We’ve become accustomed to showing our photographs and we all enjoy receiving kudos for a nice image. The approval of others can lift us to new heights and the sharing of ideas is an incredible boon. For instance, yz (a photo blogging inspiration) suggested I print one of my abstracts really large. Hmmm, I hardly ever print large but that’s a really cool idea and it has me thinking in completely new ways. That’s one of the really enjoyable things about such a photo project (and it’s nice we’re still talking about printing in this online age…I was starting to forget about printing!).

But, when you’re trying to post 365 new photos in a row, they’re not all going to be winners. There are going to be photos that are part of a process that aren’t finished works of art, they’re just steps along the way to improving as a photographer. While it’s nice to produce work enjoyed and understood by others, sometimes you have to do like that old proverb, just put it out there and “dance like there’s no one watching”. Those are some of the most important images of all.

Trying to achieve a photo goal like this is also not just about the photographs. I realize that 365 photos aren’t just 365 photos. Hopefully, they’re also a wide range of experiences and recollections. Photography has given me many gifts in the form of personal experience.

For instance, I’ve never watched The Surgery Channel and often turn my head at blood and gore in movies. But I’ve had no problem photographing in an operating room, framing incisions and complicated procedures through the lens of a camera. The camera has done that for me.

Extreme heights are something else I’m not particularly fond of, yet I’ve leaned out the side of a plane with the door removed with no problems, all because a camera was in my hands. Go figure.

Who knows? We’re only 3 days into the new year as of this writing but I’m certain that 362 photos from now I’ll have enjoyed some new experiences as a result of photo a day. I don’t plan on hanging out of any planes in the coming year but even seeing my own neighborhood in a new way would be reward enough. Maybe it will be a year of new visions, maybe a year of refinements.

Next week in part 2 I’ll share some of the technical things I’m learning from the initial experience regarding the Olympus E520 and lenses, Pixel Post and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom!.

It all starts with an idea and grows from there. I had a new beauty dish to test out and my friend Kelly (a talented photographer and stylist) and I were looking for a project to work on together. To me, a beauty dish conjures up images from the 40’s, a time before softboxes and strobes. A vintage portrait seemed like a perfect application and an opportunity to try and connect with the work of portrait artists like George Hurrell.

Some photographers like to manage every detail of a shoot like this but I really rely on and enjoy the collaboration with others. Plus, I realize where my strengths and weaknesses are. Kelly had a friend she felt would be perfect for the look and she also took responsibility for lining up the clothing. We knew from the outset that hair styling would be key to pulling off the look, so Kelly offered to find a hair stylist interested in contributing. I would put my energy into studying the technical look and lighting from the era.

After years in the business I do have relationships with other creative people that are sometimes interested in working together on projects like this. You don’t have such relationships, you say? Well, if you know anyone with an interesting look or a hobby that’s worth photographing, why not ask them if they’re interested in working together? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The important thing about testing for me is that, well, it’s testing. A chance to try some new things out and experiment. That’s always been my primary goal, the value of the experimentation. Yes, the hope is to make at least one good photograph but, more importantly, I view it as an opportunity to test equipment and / or ideas in a non-pressure situation. Kind of like the dress rehearsal for a play.

Doing the research

An online search and a trip to the library turned up plenty of vintage Hollywood portraits for study. A closer, objective look at the photographs revealed a few surprises. This is a pretty common part of the process for me. You see, I had an image in my head of what a vintage portrait looked like and it was pretty accurate, overall. But the camera angles, in particular, were lower than I would have thought. Eye contact with the camera wasn’t as common as I’d envisioned. Research pays off.

Study reinforced that depth of field was generally shallow in the vintage images because large format cameras were used. High contrast was the order of the day because of the photo materials available and to “blow out” details in the skin. And, of course, airbrushing was utilized extensively to eliminate blemishes. I printed up a few images as technical reminders and would have them on hand as references at the shoot.

Time for the shoot

With everyone gathered, the collaboration comes to life. Carmen, our talent, was perfect for the role and the hair styling was spot on.

Kelly rounded up a few different choices for clothing so we could make final decisions together. Having options is important in case something might photograph better than another choice. Patterns may not work as well as imagined, certain fabrics may produce a difficult moire pattern or a particular cut of fabric might not behave well in the chosen pose. It’s good to have choices.

So, what did we find once the photography began?

I think of a shoot like this in two parts: first, let’s get the basic technical details worked out and then it’s time to move on to the aesthetic part (clothing, hair and posing). Yes, each part will be continually refined, but I like to feel comfortable with the technical aspects first. Then, when it’s time to really get rolling, fuller attention can be give to the model.

I struggled with the look for a bit, to be honest. We watched the images pop up on the screen in full color while shooting tethered to the computer. The color threw everyone off a bit since our final image would be black and white. Ninety-nine percent of the time we shoot directly to Phase One Capture One software in the studio and it works perfectly. In this case, even though the Canon 5D camera was set to shoot RAW in black and white, the previews still popped up in color. Apparently, Capture One doesn’t recognize this particular setting automatically in the previews. This was news to me and a good thing to find out in a test situation.

Even though I could say, “we’ll just convert them to black and white in post-production” (or convert the occasional image while shooting), it was still preferable for everyone to view a more accurate image as we shot. In order to get the previews to show up in black and white we switched to Canon’s own supplied software, DPP (Digital Photo Professional) and Canon Capture. It was free and available and we keep it loaded on the computer as a backup, just in case. Seeing the images immediately in black and white brought a higher degree of comfort to everyone.

I chose to shoot using a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Lens, a personal favorite (both the focal length and the lens itself). This is a really sharp lens, though, and we found ourselves focusing on the hard, crisp look to the photos. This was distinctly different from the vintage images. I dialed down the power on the strobes until the depth of field was more shallow (working around f4 to f5.6). This lessened the area of sharp focus but there was still a sharp “bite” to the images. Again, this could all be solved in post-production and everyone was reminded that the vintage portraits had undergone extensive airbrush retouching. But I wanted everyone to have a more accurate vision of the final product so I did what any film shooter would have done: time to reach for the soft focus filter. This would soften edges nicely while keeping the image sharp enough.

For this I used a homemade filter of black stocking stretched over the front of the lens. We also have a white stocking for softening. The black gives more contrast than the white and, with it in place, we began to see more accurate results.

A Calumet Travelite 1875ws Three-Head Portrait Kit was used for lighting with a beauty dish (Calumet 15″ (38cm) Soft-Lite Reflector (79 degree)) on the main light and 40 degree grid spot on the background and a snoot on the hair light (when used). I played with lighting, sometimes blowing out details I would normally try to retain, all in the pursuit of greater historic accuracy. How far can you push it? Testing is the time to find out. As you can see, I’m trying to do what’s possible to create the look in-camera instead of in post-production. This is completely up to the particular photographer and their personal preference. Some photographers may prefer to simplify the shooting process and do more in “post”.

Don’t fall into the technical trap

There is a trap to trying to do everything in the camera, though, especially when going for a very specific look. At some point I have to realize that I’m not using a large format camera, hot lights or orthochromatic film. This is 2008, after all, and there aren’t any awards being give for historic accuracy. Getting too mired in the technical aspects of the shoot will leave little energy for concentrating on the look of the clothing, hair and posing, the next step.

We all pitched in with thoughts on posing and how hair and clothing looked best. It’s great to hear feedback from everyone involved because these test shoots can also serve as an audition. Will we want to work together on future projects, either tests or paying assignments? How do we work as a team?

Good stuff

I was happy with this test in all respects: the teamwork, the final images and the experience and knowledge gained along the way. What you see here has had very little retouching, just a run through Lightroom 2 for basic correction (increased contrast and vignetting) and a quick retouch in Photoshop Elements on my blogging laptop.

A busy shooting schedule doesn’t always allow for shooting tests but we work them in at least a couple times a year because it’s a great way to sharpen the saw. It’s all about having fun and learning, a process made even more rewarding through the collaboration with others.

Shown here is an example of when we rely heavily on retouching and I thought you might be interested in the back story. This was a last minute assignment that had to be completed under less than ideal conditions. Though I wouldn’t want to run a business this way all the time, sometimes it keeps things interesting when a good client calls up in a panic and we’re forced to “shoot first and ask questions later”.

Last minute assignments are something we’ve learned to prepare for in the fall. A number of our clients use outdoor photography and this particular image is for the company that manufactures the decking material. Many companies are putting together their yearly marketing materials in November in order to have them ready for the new year. Inevitably, there will be a new product added at the last minute or a need for an image that was initially overlooked.

In this case the decking material was a last minute addition to the product line and the need for a photograph ended up late to the desk of the company art director. We’ve photographed many grand decks for the company but, given limited time, this was a nice but more modest construction done at the home of an employee.

When construction was complete we had a choice of two possible days for photography, then 48 hours to complete any retouching in order to make the print deadline. We wanted both days available as possibilities so plans were to photograph on the first day with the second set as the “rain delay day”.

Well, it rained the first day so plans were pushed to the second day. The day of the shoot was cloudy and gray but rain wouldn’t be falling. We packed everything up, including enough strobes to create our own sunlight on the deck if needed.

Taking a look at the “before” picture tells a lot of the story. You can see the corn field in the distance and a line of fairly sad autumn trees.

What it doesn’t reveal is that temps were below freezing and an icy wind was blowing across the western Ohio fields. Remnants of construction littered the yard at camera right and the rains had left everything a muddy mess. We cleaned the deck repeatedly during the shoot to remove our own boot tracks.

We set up the 4000 watt Norman strobes to create fake sunlight but it just wasn’t jiving with the overcast backgrounds. Instead we went with the soft available lighting. After photographing a number of angles, this was the one chosen by the client for the brochure.

I should point out a couple of things we had in mind when shooting, knowing there would be retouching done to the background. It really helps to previsualize where you’re going to take the image so you can think about the best way to get to the final product. While it’s fun to “play around in Photoshop”, it’s better to have something of a plan going in when the clock is ticking.

1. We didn’t use a tilt-shift lens so there’s visible distortion from the wide end of the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM Zoom Lens. It’s fine to plan to correct distortion later but keep this in mind: shoot loose enough (leave area around the subject) to allow for the correction. If you crop too tight in the camera, squeezing the image to correct distortion may require cropping in to the subject too much.

2. The camera was high enough so grass was visually filling in between most of the deck rails. If half grass / half dirt was visible between them it would have required additional retouching of all of those small areas.

Back at the studio we arranged to photograph at a local golf course for the background image. Thankfully, the day was much nicer. Given the time allotted, this was a quick way to get a suitable background. Yes, fuller trees could have been cloned in but the client was happy and we didn’t want to risk the whole thing becoming a “Frankenshot”. Almost forgot…we checked the EXIF data on the original image to match the lens and focal length when photographing for the background.

Here are the main points we kept in mind when combining the images:

1. Color balance has so much to do with the feeling of an image. First we looked at the photograph with neutral color balance but ultimately decided to warm it up a few points (while making sure the wood color was a good match). Generally speaking, a little extra warmth makes most photos more inviting.

2. Contrast and color saturation of the foreground were boosted. Since the background was shot on a sunnier day, the original image looked too “flat” when paired with the background. The extra contrast and saturation helped liven up the original (rather dreary) shot.

3. As mentioned, perspective was corrected.

4. The side of the house at left was removed.

After all was said and done, the client loved the shot. As a matter of fact, it got more play than some of the more elaborate installations photographed under far better conditions.

While I don’t care to approach every job with the “Ready – Fire – Aim” method, sometimes it’s necessary. Our clients understand that we’ll do everything possible to create a quality photograph, regardless of the circumstances, and that‘s important to keeping them coming back.

When I first began in photography the square format was intriguing. My Nikon FE used 35mm film (a 3:2 ratio) but many of the admired professionals were shooting with Hasselblads and Rolleiflexes, capturing square images (1:1 ratio) on 120 film. Eventually I worked up to a Yashicamat 124G, a twin lens Japanese cousin of the Rolleiflex. The big negatives would yield beautifully smooth tonal gradations and greater detail than my little 35mm negs. Plus I really liked shooting with the square format, looking at the world in a different way.

Over the years I’ve used different camera systems that have captured at 1:1, 3:2, 4:3, 4:5 and 6:7 aspect ratios. Many of these cameras have been used for commercial work and the native aspect ratio hasn’t mattered much since cropping for a layout is almost always inevitable. For personal work, though, I generally prefer to shoot tight, without cropping. For that reason I like to see through the viewfinder just what will appear in the final image. That’s been one of the deciding factors in how I would choose a camera system. Many prophotolife readers have commented that they feel the same way, preferring to not crop their images.

Well, I’ve wanted to gear up for shooting more personal work and the thought of the square format has been calling. I can think of a few ways to accomplish capturing a square image digitally. Purchasing a nice new medium format back to carry around for personal work is one thought. That solution is too expensive and cumbersome for my needs, though. Canon makes a focusing screen for the 5D with the square format marked on it. That’s a cool option. And Nikon’s point and shoot P6000 apparently has a 1:1 ratio choice built in (good on ya, Nikon!). The point and shoot option sounds appealing.

I could also use something like my current little Panasonic DMC-TZ3 and, since it doesn‘t have a viewfinder, tape off the sides of the LCD screen to form a square for framing. No, it doesn’t have a 1:1 choice built-in but it does offer 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 (widescreen movie format) as user selectable settings. That means the square crop would have to be created in post-production, something I’d admittedly prefer not to do, if possible, preferring to capture in the final format. I decided to grab the TZ3 and shoot some square images just to see what it would be like.

Family members had just finished fixing up an older house to sell and I stopped by to shoot photos just for fun, for both them and myself. The plan was to spend about an hour shooting square images with the point and shoot. The plan lasted about five minutes before it went off the rails.

I found something out: when the subject and camera offer so many options it was hard for me not to use them. Before long I was seeing things as not only 1:1 but also as 3:2, 4:3 and 16:9. The original plan was abandoned and, instead, I decided to exercise all of the camera’s options, in addition to the square.

Trying something new always involves this “discovery process”. It’s great to go into a situation with a good plan. It’s also valuable to realize when it’s time to be flexible. I just wasn’t ready to commit to one format, instead deciding to shoot freely, instinctively, and then making decisions after viewing the photos. But I did want to come out of the day with a clearer picture of an aspect ratio to pursue in future work.

It can easily be argued that most any image can be cropped a number of ways. And that leads us right into the fact that this is all subjective. It has to do with the individual taking the photographs and, certainly, different subjects can lend themselves to different formats. So what did I feel after seeing the photos?

	1:1 – imagine this, it didn’t have the intended effect at all. While it worked well it wasn’t something I felt as strongly about after pursuing it. You just never know till you try.
	3:2 – this is the standard DSLR format and I’ve been shooting it off and on for 20+ years. It’s just time to do something a little different.
	16:9 – this is a cool ratio, the widescreen movie format. It’s what we’re shooting all of our studio video work at so part of my week is spent working in 16:9 already. It feels a little extreme for this personal photography, though.
	4:3 – I wouldn’t have guessed it but this format appealed to me as soon as the images were reviewed. I did say this is all subjective, right? Such a conservative ratio and what I would consider the least distinctive of all.

Giving it a minute of thought, maybe it’s because 4:3 is close to 5:4, a ratio associated with large format view cameras. Maybe this subject lends itself well to a kind of methodical “view camera” approach and that’s why it appeals. Thinking further, that’s kind of how I like to shoot.

So, after all the playing around, 4:3 has gained my favor as a result of this experiment. The Panasonic is now set to 4:3 to stay for awhile. Interestingly enough, that’s what makes maximum use of the sensor area on the camera with no cropping, unlike 3:2 or 16:9. That’s a bonus. The only time I’ve really shot 4:3 before was when using a 120 roll film back on my 4” x 5” camera that shot 6 cm x 8 cm images. I shot hundreds of rolls of transparency film through that back.

That was a long time ago but I’ve always looked back at that time fondly. It just goes to show you that what goes around comes around.

Food photography: how to think like a food photographer part 1 – part 2 – part 3
People photography: one actor, one weekend, seventeen characters
Motorsports photography: my story, magazine / editorial photography

Sometimes I do feel like the old saying: “a Jack of all trades and master of none”. To be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. A natural curiousity about different subjects has allowed me to make a living as a professional but still enjoy photography like an amateur. In the end, photography itself has always been my interest, not a particular subject.

There’s definitely been one thing missing from my photographic checklist and that’s the conscious pursuit of nature photography. My perception of a real nature photographer has always involved big glass, macro lenses, ring lights and weeks spent in the wild. Stories from wildlife experts like Moose Peterson can give a glimpse into that lifestyle but, never having made a concerted effort to photograph in the wild, I’ve wondered what my vision as a nature photographer might be like. Just this weekend, after revisiting some personal photos, I caught a glimpse.

On Saturday and Sunday I loaded thousands of my personal images into Adobe Lightroom 2 to give the program a really good test drive. The first task was to edit family photos shot for a friend and I was extremely impressed and pleased with the speed and quality. So much so that I decided to load in my personal images and do a bit of sorting. Yep, I’m moving beyond the trial and finally(!) plunking down my $299 US for the full version of the software (if you’re interested in the 30 day trial, you can Use it today. Download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 directly. Available only at Adobe.com.).

I began tagging various outdoor photos, many of which never particularly stood out on their own. A number of them were shot in my studio parking lot while walking in or out of the front door (talk about close to home). The images were simple, most shot just as textures and backgrounds. But an obvious style did emerge…and that made me feel good. It’s a start.

Though I may never engage in a fully serious pursuit of nature photography, it’s nice to see that the interest has already emerged in ways that I hadn’t recognized before. I’ve seen this with other professionals, also: the food photographer who shoots landscapes that are never seen by others, for example.

It also makes me realize that, while specializing can play an important role in a photographic career, I’m pleased that it hasn’t limited how, when, or why I pick up a camera. Even if the subject has been shot a million times, even if the light isn’t perfect, even if the idea isn’t completely original. Continuing to shoot anything and everything, whether it’s for fun or profit, is the reason I became a photographer in the first place and the reason I’m still in it today, still trying to learn and grow.

- Jim T.

Subscribers view basic photo montage technique video here. Try the full screen option on the video control bar.

Here’s something a little different for prophotolife, an eight minute video on basic photo montage technique. As you may know, I like to do most of my work during exposure and usually don’t spend a whole lot of time in post-production. Just a little knowledge can go a long way, though, when experimenting and having fun putting together simple compositions like the one in this video. Luckily, my business partner, Bob, is a Photoshop wizard and enjoys spending his days creating the really complex photo composites for our studio.

I’ll mention that our studio owns a copy of every version of Photoshop from PS 4 through to our current CS3 Production Premium Suite for our Mac computers (that’s a lot of money spent with Adobe over the years). But for this video I used the entry-level Adobe Photoshop Elements for Windows because that’s what’s loaded on my blogging laptop and I always think it’s interesting to see what can be done with simple equipment. There was a hack done to the software (as mentioned) since PS Elements doesn’t normally include layer masks, an important feature for photo editing.

Here’s the link to the Free Layer Mask Tool for Photoshop Elements, in case you’re interested. And if you’re interested in trying out any of the Adobe products, from Elements to CS4 to Lightroom 2, they’re all available as free trial downloads at the International Adobe Store. It’s nice to try before you buy.

Below is a closer look at the result the model photo and layer mask produce when paired together. You can see that on the mask “white reveals and black conceals”. Extrapolate a bit and you’ll see that various shades of gray reveal proportionate amounts of the underlying image.

And here are all of the elements that were paired together for the final image: the wall, the model and the “burned edges”, created with the black paintbrush.

Amazon.com has a variety of learning materials available for more information on Photoshop Elements and the creative possibilities.

President Lyndon B. Johnson

Votes for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election are being tallied as I write this. The past year feels like it’s been one long, non-stop political conversation and many of us are relieved to see it finally coming to a close. Though prophotolife isn’t a forum for politics, it seemed a natural to tie photography into the big event somehow. Rather than looking at what’s happening today or contemplating the future, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at Presidents and photography.

In a few months there will be a new nameplate on the Oval Office at the White House and shortly thereafter a new Presidential portrait will be created. Since many of us have an interest in portraiture I took a look online at some images preserving the likeness of those who have served at this country’s highest post.

A quick search turned up two interesting sources for Presidential portraits:

1. The Library of Congress Special Presentation: Time Line of Presidents and First Ladies

2. This smaller collection at the U.S. Military Department of Defense

The portraits all have different qualities and inspired a few different thoughts.

President William J. Clinton

First, the photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson (above) from the Department of Defense site. This is a beautiful environmental portrait with a strong main light and a nice edge light from slightly behind on the same side. This is a well known image among photographers of my vintage. Hmmm, I wonder if we should be concerned that the Department of Defense officially lists the photographer as “unknown”. For the record, the photographer was celebrated portrait artist Arnold Newman (and there’s his signature in the lower right of the photo).

The attached portrait of President Bill Clinton (right) is from an admittedly poor quality copy negative, so hopefully we can look beyond that. The most interesting thing to me is how this image defines “pre-digital photography” from not so long ago. Yes, airbrushing was available in the days of film but this portrait managed to slip through with a bunch of fly-away hairs. The reason I mention it is because it’s really easy for even amateur photographers to retouch such things now. Fifteen years ago they were often overlooked.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Dwight D. Eisenhower is looking relaxed and dignified in this simple two-light portrait. There’s a fairly hard main light at left (beauty dish?), no fill light, and a small spot light on the background. This is a perfect example of Rembrandt lighting that creates a triangle of light on the subject’s cheek (discussed in video episode 13, beautiful portraits with just one light). The lack of a fill light creates more contrast and drama. A sharp suit helps “Ike” look downright dapper.

There are many more portraits on the sites mentioned above and some are covered by copyright exclusions preventing them from running here. They range from nice images to not-so-impressive photography, to be honest.

The one constant is that they’re all of former Presidents of the United States, men among the leaders of the free world. That’s a lot of power to wield, isn’t it? Trying to capture that in a photography could understandably be a daunting task.

Today’s post is about an easily overlooked subject, the leaves at our feet, and one of my often overlooked tools, the flatbed scanner.

Every fall I seem to take a few photographs of trees as the leaves change color. Most often I judge the merit of a particular fall display by how colorful a stand of trees off in the distance appears. This year the leaves aren’t particularly interesting from afar so instead I took a closer look, picking up some leaves while walking.

My main purpose for this is that I’ve been looking for color inspiration lately, new color palettes to work with, and there really is no better source of inspiration than nature. After collecting the leaves they were simply recorded on my flatbed scanner so an eyedropper tool could be used to pluck out individual colors. Further examination of the scans showed beautifully subtle gradations and complex but balanced networks of veins throughout the leaves…really, more than I’d bargained for.

The scanner doesn’t get used often and sits idle for 99.9% of the year, but in this case it’s granted me a new perspective on a subject. It’s reminded me of a couple of things:

1. Scanning is a really quick, easy, high quality way to collect colors and textures. I’m interested in seeing what other things might look like scanned, whether as art objects on their own or for use in a photo collage. I’ve utilized textures in my fine art photography before and using scanned textures like this may lead to new inspirations.

2. We probably all realize this next point but sometimes I can use a reminder. Just because something doesn’t look beautiful at first sight doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a second, closer look.