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LIGHT Photographic Workshops blog discusses everything photography related. Adobe updates, computer suggestions, accessories that can save your life and more!
Quick video tip up on the Digital Photo Experience today.
DPE - Quick Tip
California Photo Festival Invite from Hal Schmitt on Vimeo.
A quick video invite to the California Photo Festival and shooting tutorial.
Fiat Lux!
A few readers commented on my recent video discussing simple fill flash. The video did not contain no flash / flash images from the market. So, here they are. The camera settings are exactly the same for each shot but one has flash the other does not. The flash was a Canon 580 EX II pointed 90 degrees off the optical axis (straight up) with a Hanson Fong Skin Glow Bounce Card attached.
No flash
Flash
Although the flash is not pointed at the subject and the ceiling was well over 20' and gave little to no bounce the fill card did a great job directing light.
The shots are straight out of the camera and will, of course, never be much but a demo.
Fiat Lux!
Finished the last studio session for my first real photo project/assignment. The project is a silhouette and high contrast black and white series. I'll show the lighting setup soon. The images here are a couple we have looked at so far.
Only 2000 more images to sort.
The project will be on display a couple different places and locally here at Light on 13 August. We are having a virtual show of my work (from this series and many others) from 6 to 9 PM. Should be a good time with food, wine, and great people.
Fiat Lux!
A quick discussion of Situational Awareness or SA as it applies to the photographer.
Situational Awareness - DPE
Fiat Lux!
Space Invaders Anyone?
I was cleaning up my shots from Japan today and started to work an HDR project with a quick bracketed series of grab shots. I noticed the old "space invaders" character on the side of the building and decided to shoot it on the way to dinner. The three shots are below.
0 E.V.
-2 E.V.
+2 E.V.
Not the most inspiring shots as singles so I decided to try a couple different HDR methods. I first went from Lightroom to Photoshop CS5's HDR Pro. I tried to build a realistic image although I did bump up the Detail slider. The result is shown below.
Photoshop HDR Pro
Definitely better but I wanted to check and see what Photomatix Pro could do so I sent the images over and processed twice, once for realism and the other for grungy. The results are shown below.
Photomatix Pro Details Enhancer (realistic)
Photomatix Pro Details Enhancer (grungy)
Between the three I decided I liked the Photomatix Pro versions but neither really grabbed me. As I sometimes do I took the two TIFFs and sent them back to Photoshop as layers. After blending a few copies and desaturating the sky I ended up with this one.
Composite HDR after some basic Photoshop
To kick this one up just a bit more I went to Topaz Adjust and played around for a bit. The current version of the image is shown below. Not sure if it is finished or if I'll ever show it again but it was a good exercise.
Topaz Adjust
Well back to the studio. Just received four new backgrounds today and must hang them for immediate use tonight. I'm working a studio project over the next week and have seven shoots scheduled. The first will be tonight and should be a great time. The final result should be an iPad app ready in just a few short weeks.
Hope to see you soon here at Light or during the festival,
Fiat Lux!
Composite HDR pano of a "vintage" shop in Harajaku, Tokyo
On the far right, I put myself in the image. The camera on the tripod is taking the shots
using live view, AEB, and self timer.
Take a quick listen to the wrap up of my recent photo trip to Japan at DP Experience.
Podcast with Hal, Rick Sammon, and Juan Pons
Loving the weather back here in California as we ramp up for David Mecey next week.
Fiat Lux!
This past week I was able to bring in a local clothing company called Mika Yoga Wear. With help from our assistant, Becky, we were able to create a stand, shoot and deliver work-flow that was efficient and, well, it looked good! Using our new plexi-glass sheet for a small amount of reflection it gave a different feel than just standing on a white background. With 2 sets of the ProFoto D1 packs, a beauty dish, an octa box and two umbrellas to blow out the background.
With a quick edit through Lightroom 3, I was able to sync enough of the images to make cropping and retouching a breeze.
I have to say that yoga girls are a lot of fun to photograph. They show the beautiful form of the female figure. I was able to shoot tethered so that the designer and yoga instructor, Laura, could look over the images while we shot. Laura, in fact, seemed to have a lot of experience and was able to bend in some awesome poses as well.
The clothes worked well and they have an interesting design to be comfortable, bend and look good.
I was able to meet Laura and have this great opportunity through our California Photo Festival Website designer, Sebastian of SLO Digital Designs. For those of you who haven't been to the newly designed website, please visit! He did a great job on it!
At the festival you will be able to have the chance to use the studio as well. You can learn the Digital Fine Art Figure with Hal Schmitt. Hopefully we will have a full week workshop in this as well coming this fall or winter!
Hope to see you all here soon!
-Victoria
Check out this quick HDR discussion I had with Rick Sammon at a Buddhist Temple outside Tokyo.
Day two of the Photo Fest Japan is complete. Starting early tomorrow with my Studio Lighting Made Simple and then Lightroom Unlimited. I'll finish up the festival with "Six Lessons from a Fighter Pilot Guaranteed to Make You a Better Photographer" tomorrow night.
In one of our makeshift "studios" inside Akihabara's Dai Building.
ProFoto lights with Creative Light modifiers (thanks to ProFoto Japan!)
Shot is Lightroom only using my Faux HDR and Illustrative presets (topic of another post)
Fiat Lux!
Hello from the Akihabara District in Tokyo. Teaching at the first annual Photo Fest Japan with Rick Sammon and Juan Pons. We just finished Day 1 of the three day event. It was a full day with emphasis on photography fundamentals and flash. It is always great fun and very satisfying when we can accelerate learning and fire up the creative process.
The shot above is from a temple visit a couple days ago. The happy faces on the small prayer dolls are in stark contrast to their purpose.
These images are what I call composite high dynamic range (HDR) shots. Source files are processed twice and then combined in Photoshop CS5.
Will have more shots up soon from the trip. Looking forward to getting home and completing a couple of iPad apps and DVDs.
Fiat Lux!
Musk Oxen
Finishing my last day up here on the North Slope. Wanted to show a couple quick pics from earlier today.
How to make an odd face even odder.
Off to Japan later this week for the Japan Photo Festival with Rick Sammon. Should be a good time.
Fiat Lux!
Dawes Glacier / Endicott arm calving.
Hot off the press here are the basics of the tours we will offer in south east Alaska's Inside Passage next year.
Additional details will be on the website very soon. All trips are on 80' yachts with four star dining and each cabin is equipped with a head/shower!
April 18-25 -- Eagles, Whales, and Glaciers
- 8 Days/7 Nights departing from Sitka and ending in Petersburg. We will target the Hoonah Sound herring spawn. Fish aren't the subject but instead the thousands of eagles feeding. Hal will lead the tour. Six participants maximum. $5,600.
April 27-May 4 -- Eagles, Whales, and Glaciers
- 8 Days/7 Nights departing and ending in Petersburg. We will target the Seymour Canal herring spawn (with the eagles, whales, bears, etc.) Hal will lead the tour with Canon Explorer of Light Rick Sammon.Six participants maximum $5,750.
July 5-12 -- Summer Whales and Glaciers
- 8 Days/7 Nights departing and ending in Petersburg. Whales, whales, and more whales. We will photograph the hundreds of humpbacks, incredible glaciers, eagles, and other wildlife and scenery. We will take two yachts staying near each other during the day and anchoring next to each other in the evening. Hal and a special guest instructor will be onboard to lead the tour. Six participants maximum on each boat, $6250.
July 14-21 -- Summer Whales and Glaciers
- 8 Days/7 Nights departing and ending in Petersburg. Whales, whales, and more whales. We will photograph the hundreds of humpbacks, incredible glaciers, eagles, and other wildlife and scenery. We will take two yachts staying near each other during the day and anchoring next to each other in the evening. Hal and Canon Explorer of Light Rick Sammon will be onboard to lead the tour. Six participants maximum on each boat, $6250.
Give us a call if you would like more info. More on the web soon.
Answering the age old question of whether a bear goes in the woods!
Fiat Lux!
A quick photo look at an epic Arctic Tern love story; a tale of love and loss (and a very frustrated little bird.)
Fiat Lux!
We had a great time with the humbacks in Alaska's inside passage back in May. I've finally had some time this week to look through the 20k images I shot.
The whales recently returned to Alaska after wintering around Hawaii (no guarantee but most work the AK to HI route.)
We were fortunate to see big males, females, and calves from relatively newborn to one year.
Fiat Lux!
All shots with Canon 1D Mk III, EF 800 mm f/5.6L, Induro CT313, and Really Right Stuff support gear.
We'll have next year's Alaska yacht trips up on the blog and schedule today or tomorrow.
In class this week with Tim Grey and Photoshop CS5.
If you missed it, Lightroom 3 ships today.
Fiat Lux!
