Lighting Effects!

Thanks Mike! Your suggestion to add a lighting effect to the lamp from to this photo in the Psychiatric Sundays Photo Series was a great one (and made this photo much more fun)! It was completely missing something before and now I love it!!!

I used KNOLL LIGHT FACTORY software for the lighting effect.

(click to view each of these in extra large size so you can see the lighting effect)








And lastly...my favorite of the 3 shots.

Hmmm, does this have a Dave Hill lighting look to you?

In the Spotlight

I hope you're not getting tired of this series. I'm almost done!

A couple funny ones that I worked on tonight...

We found this random light lying around the psychiatric hosptail grounds and Jen decided to put Brittany "in the spotlight" :)



The wind picked up and the girls got into it LOL!



Do you know what grabbed me with this one? The shadow of the creepy tree to the right! The tonemapping really brought out the colors of the brick.

Just Stunning! Which Appeals To You Most?

More of Psychiatric Sundays Series

I'm into such a variety of photography and I'm lucky that once in a while I get some friends are willing to do a fun photo shoot like this.

*Jen, sorry it's taking me so long but sometimes when I have a large series like this and I have other "photo ops" in between I like to do a little bit of one shoot and then switch to another for variety. I'm almost done at this point! I know how badly you want me to get to the BLUE DOOR shots! :) I hope you love what you've been seeing so far!

Back to the photos....

I'm trying NOT to do so many different edits of the same photo. I've talked about this in prior posts....it's a hard thing for me to do.

Sometimes I find it hard to decide the one edit in my mind and just do it so I end up trying multiple edits. But there's only so much time in my day after working full time, coming home and taking care of "things," that I get to sit down, check my favorite blogs, the forum, and my e-mail before I get to start edit...so I need to learn how to decide in my head what will work and go from there. I'm sure eventually I will get better at it (or at least that's what I keep telling myself!)

I've been getting better at it but when I got to this shot I spent a lot of time on the color edit getting it just right and then I decided I loved the shot so much that it really deserved a variety of edits to find the best one.

Based on what you've seen of the Psychiatric Sundays series over the past few weeks - what edit of this photo really "moves" you? Think about the setting, the tone of the shoot, and the expression here and let me know what you think.

(PLEASE CLICK ON EACH ONE TO VIEW IN A LARGE SIZE)

Original - tweaked

Techinicolor Dream World & Joey L's Edgy Emboss

Lomo Cross Processing

Joey L's Night Action and Joey L's Night Action

Bitchin B&W Action with Joey L's Edgy Emboss Action

Lomo Cross Processed Action with Bitchin B&W Action

A couple other shots that I had time to work on tonight.

I love how the lights & shadows are in this one AND the vignette & blur action really worked well with this!

If you're interested in hearing some great music check out Jen's Myspace Music Page.

The Girls of The "Sundays" Series

In between everything else I work on the "Psychiatric Sundays Series."

These are my favorite edit's of tonights post-processed shots. I'm moving along with all of the photos/editing.

There are some great shots coming soon in the series that I can't wait to edit from another part of the psychiatic compound of buildings. Just wait and see!

Joey L's Night Action



With Texture...my latest addiction





Lomo Cross Processing Action





Lomo Editorial Action

All I Had Time For Tonight

This is all I had time to edit tonight from the "Psychiatric Sunday" series...it's 3:40 am and I need to get to sleep.

My mom is coming over tomorrow and she promised to let me do some portraits of her. I'm looking forward to that.

Here a few of Jen & Brittany:

Oh Snap! and Warm It Up Chris actions applied to this one:

In Dark B&W by Itty Bitty Actions

How could you NOT love this one? This place was perfect for this shoot!

Lights on Action applied and then Dark B&W by Itty Bitty Actions applied:



With Texture over the one above:

From On High - Taking Photographs Looking Down on Your Subject

I'm always trying to think of new ways to make portraits look interesting. Last night I focused on NOT doing the same ol' straight-on (self) portrait. I got creative with vantage points.

I put the tripod up as high a it would allow (legs fully extended, and middle pole adjusted as high as it would go. Then I positioned the camera at the edge of my black muslin do it yourself backdrop (portion that is well extended out on the floor) and pointed the camera downward.

Next, I crouched under the lens and took a series of shots where I was looking straight up at the lens from below. I purposely wore a black shirt so I would blend in with my surroundings.

I'm so pleased with the results. It was so fun to try new things! I told my friend JULIE to try this with her youngest daughter because I think the perspective is so so so fun "looking down" seeing the head in clear focus and the rest of the body in the depth of field.













I also did this photo when I stood right up against the lights to my left with the camera on tripod right in front of me. I love the half light, half dark look:













Unfortunately this blog is turning out to be a tribute to myself while I try to find willing family & friends to pose for me for practice. The good news is I'm slowly getting people interested in being my models so soon you'll see other faces!

Flemington New Jersey and Some Awesome Clouds

I took these photographs back on October 21st, 2007. I never had a chance to edit them until yesterday and today.

I'm actually glad that I didn't get to. I'm happy that I am backed up. The reason I'm actually happy about my back-up of 2007 photos to process is because since the time I took them I've learned a lot more about post processing then I knew last year - so waiting to edit them has let me try so many more things to increase the impact of the photo.

It makes me think that if I had more time in the world that I would go back and re-edit so many things I took last year to see if I could enhance them even more. But since I have a full time job that doesn't leave me much time for re-editing older work let alone finish processing new work along with work from 2007 that I never even go to yet!

Let's get back to the photos...so I took these photos the same day I took my first paying portrait shoot. When I left the shoot I decided to take the LONG WAY HOME and explore a town I hadn't spent much time until this day. I'm so glad I decided to do so...look at the results!

Let me start with 2 that are my favorite edits of the series. I'm so proud of these two photos and the look I achieved in Photoshop:











There ther was "the tree" - another favorite subject of mine. I applied the "Technicolor Dream World" action that Julie has been using and then I applied a B&W filter over that. The "Technicolor Dream World" action is what gave it the softer dreamier look.

Historic Griggstown, NJ - Windows and Doors to the Past

Griggstown, New Jersey is an unincorporated area and a historic district within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey first settled around 1733.

It is a small, picturesque village that lies on the Delaware and Raritan Canal. This canal criss-crosses the state of New Jersey and in the 1800’s was a major means of transporting goods between Philadelphia and New York.

Canal Barges bearing goods have now been replaced by canoes and kayaks. One can still find remnants of “canal life” along the towpath and roads that traverse the village. This window belongs to a building that probably housed mill workers at one time. When it was modernized, asbestos was used in its restoration. Now this building is gutted and closed to the public.

I applied a few different Totally Rad Actions to these photos below and tweaked the layers to apply my own spin to them:











While I was reasearching Griggstown I found this interesting article about the local legend of the Griggstown Cow that I thought was interesting...especially since the place he wandered was where I was taking the photos.