a bubble bath (in Lightroom)

urbanaries

Inspired the other day by Woody's bath shots. And of course, by photogmomma's love affair with Lightroom. (you two should GET a room!) It's been a LOONG time since I shot just for ME, so this was fun.

All with off camera 580 ex, hung from the robe hook:D. All post-processing in Lightroom, totally experimental~! C&C appreciated.

1.


2.


3.


4. (btw, does this say irregular? )


5.And the Cody Weber version (minus fake blood)



Ok, I'll stop there...thanks for looking at my little experiment! (edited a couple out for length...sorry!)

lynne

System

neat-

particularly like #3-

certainly looked like he was enjoying himself-

LilleG

I really like #3. And I'd like to see the last one (lost count) with a bit less of that color cast, if possible? Adorable little boy, btw.

Elaine

Love #3! I'm gonna have to check out Lightroom! I like what I've been seeing.
And I like your interpretation of "irregular." Very clever!

Elaine

urbanaries

Elaine wrote:

And I like your interpretation of "irregular." Very clever!

Elaine

haha, thanks Elaine, I added the "permanent marker" in photoshop...Shhh! don't tell!

ETA: for those of you who don't get it....overstocks / irregular clothing goods are marked through on the label with a marker, so they can't be resold at retail....it's fairly subtle, I know!

photogmomma

I LOVE #3!!! Awesome! And I love the "Cody Webber" version. Too cool... (Pun intended.)

I'm not understanding the "irregular" one, but maybe that's just me staying up too late.

I really like your conversions. I'm thinking the blacks may be a tad too dark - you can see in the first one where his eye lashes lose all detail and I suspect there is plenty there. You might also brighten them *slightly* and just darken the midtones *slightly*. I'm talking VERY small changes because these are SO close. But then again... I may be off!

Awesome photos! Oh, and SUCH amazing eyes on your cutie!

W00DY

These are great... I love number #3 & #4, probably #4 a little more, I also don't quite get the irregular comment , sorry.

I might have to get my camera out again tonight and try again...

This could turn into a bath off

W00DY

Awais Yaqub

Great series loved them very nice conversion

urbanaries

W00DY wrote:

I might have to get my camera out again tonight and try again...

This could turn into a bath off

W00DY

I'm all for it!!! great idea! definitely plenty of opportunity for re-shoots! lol

glad you enjoyed them, thanks for the inspiration.

I looked thru my archives and hadn't taken bath shots since August, and although I have roughly the same equipment as today, the difference is sobering. Funny, I joined dgrin in September...wink



Dgrin rocks!!!

urbanaries

photogmomma wrote:

I LOVE #3!!! Awesome! And I love the "Cody Webber" version. Too cool... (Pun intended.)

I'm not understanding the "irregular" one, but maybe that's just me staying up too late.

I really like your conversions. I'm thinking the blacks may be a tad too dark - you can see in the first one where his eye lashes lose all detail and I suspect there is plenty there. You might also brighten them *slightly* and just darken the midtones *slightly*. I'm talking VERY small changes because these are SO close. But then again... I may be off!

Awesome photos! Oh, and SUCH amazing eyes on your cutie!

thanks Andi...I agree about the blacks, actually #2 conversion should be closer. #1 especially I dialed in more contrast, although obviously didn't monitor closely at how it affected the blacks, and I did lose some detail.

Glad you like the conversions overall....I knew I wanted to blow out the white, but retain a creamy skintone like SitterS does so well. Shooting in ISO 100 helped immensely, and I finetuned skin using the orange and red HSL grayscale slides.

SitterS

Great shots! I played with Lightroom during the beta and wish that I could get it but need a flash more. This stay at home job just doesn't seem to pay that much and the holiday and sick days stink but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks for the compliment about the creamy skin tones. Will send you what I do if you would like. Just let me know. Very simple!

Shane

Swartzy

I like em alot!
Very nice...and great expressions. I can't get my kids to take a bath and let me take photos anymore......well, they are 34, 31, & 26

I like the conversions as well...really bright white to boot!

Phyxius

Great shots!! Number three is super cute! Looks like you both had fun. Wonderful conversions too.

gluwater

#3 is just adorable. You three are really feeding off each other and I think it's helping everyone here learn some new stuff.

karie

want shane's method

SitterS wrote:

Great shots! I played with Lightroom during the beta and wish that I could get it but need a flash more. This stay at home job just doesn't seem to pay that much and the holiday and sick days stink but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks for the compliment about the creamy skin tones. Will send you what I do if you would like. Just let me know. Very simple!

Shane

i would really love to see what you do, Shane. how you get the creamy skin tones, etc. Thanks!

urbanaries

karie wrote:

i would really love to see what you do, Shane. how you get the creamy skin tones, etc. Thanks!

thanks karie! Shane uses a totally different method, using Photoshop CS, I think its in the Technique forum.

in this case it was all about the lighting, to get an even fall over his face. In the first three BW images, I used an off camera 580ex (thanks to a trusty scrunchie and a robe hook on the door ) about 6 feet above him, directed at him in a 45 or so degree angle, camera right.

Then I took it into lightroom, applied a medium tone curve, and bumped up the highlights only until I came dangerously close to blowing the background out, and adjusted shadows and lights individually until they were right in the face.

they say you "graduate" to different methods of adjusting contrast...starting with the oversimplified brightness/contrast, and then using levels, and now that I'm scratching the surface in the tone curve itself, there's certainly no going back!

joshhuntnm

cool pics. Are they sharpened? would a softer setting fit the subject better?

urbanaries

joshhuntnm wrote:

cool pics. Are they sharpened? would a softer setting fit the subject better?

Thanks Josh,

No sharpening at all, not even USM. They were shot at ISO 100 so they are pretty crisp to begin with. They are very contrasty though, maybe what you're seeing?

Mike02

Cool, except for the last one, which is too blue, otherwise great shots. clap