A bit of lighting fun

Well, I haven't posted any of my own images for awhile and I think I'm over due. No, its not the Lake O'Hara shots thought that is definitely on my agenda for the next few days.

I haven't shot anything just for fun for awhile and I think I've submitted to DP Challenge just once or twice in the last month not to mention I haven't played with my lights for awhile. Alright...I actually got a little stir crazy and/or narcissistic and set up my lights to photograph myself. The challenge topic over at DPC was "Portrait with Chair" so I sat down and cranked out a few frames.

Lighting:
Sigma 530 Super Flash gelled with a full cut CTO and bounced off an umbrella camera left. SB600 with a Stofen diffuser behind me and to camera right. I flagged it with a Honl snoot just half wrapped on to keep the light off the background.

I used the Nikon wireless TTL to trigger. The Sigma was set to -1.3 EV and the SB600 was set to -3 EV

Processing might seem like a lot but it wasn't really. I have a "300" preset in Lightroom 2 to create the basic dark moody look and then I dodged and burned to bring back the details.

Study in Self-portaiture

This is one of about 40 shots I did of myself this morning. The lighting setup was simple. Flash though an umbrella set about 45 degrees to the right of my face. (Or that was the goal anyways). There was also a bit of ambient light from the basement window.
Processing was also simple.
In Capture One Pro:

• Auto correct exposure
• Auto white balance
• Default sharpening (100)
• Export to TIFF
  

In PSP XI

• Channel mixer adjustment layer to convert to B&W (60,30,10)
• ResizeUSM (1.00, 100, 10)
• Export to JPG
  
  I like the composition. Its hard to actually compose when you are trying to get seated in 10 seconds after hitting the shutter release.
  
  I really like the catchlights in the eyes. One of the articles I've read recommended the 45 degree angle for the lights to help create the catchlights and I am glad I tried it out. Too bad I hadn't shaved yet. Oh well. A portrait is supposed to capture the essence of the person. I typically don't shave often enough so this is an honest portrayal anyways.

The Good Old Hockey Game

For DP Challenge, the advanced editing challenge for this week is "Games". Instantly this sort of image came to mind. Yes that is me geared up. I was thinking more of that feeling of loss after a game 7 (like Calgary recently underwent) but as I shot it lost that sense of melancholy.

Editing on this was nuts (at least more editing than I typically do)

1. Duplicated layer (X 2)


2. On layer marked "Clarify" Channel mixer (100% red)


3. Clarify (20) Cloned out artifacts created by this


4. Other layer mixed as "hard light" (100% opacity)Set opacity for clarify to 43Flattened


5. Cropped


6. USM


7. Export to JPG

I guess it turned out pretty well all things considered. I wish my gloves were the Oilers colors so that they would match. I also wish I turned the blade of my stick so that it was more visible. I also wish I could control where the shadow from the visor fell. In some shots it looked like a really nasty scar.

Here is another take from the shoot. In this one I didn't remove the artifacts from the clarify: