LPS 12: Backstage

indiegirl · September 16, 2007

Go ahead and post your behind-the-scenes, how'd-ya-do-that's here!

Jesse

Strikeslip · September 16, 2007

Click, small crop at right, levels, curves, resize.

Felicia · September 16, 2007

This was my first experience with a "light writing" shot.

First, I wrote the word on a thin piece of paper, turned the paper over and traced it backwards. After practicing a few times, writing the word backwards, I felt I was ready to try to put it into bits.

I set up my camera on a tripod in a dark spot of my backyard. Then I had my husband stand at a certain spot in the yard, which I marked, and had him shine a light on himself. Once I had the focus on him set, I turned off my autofocus. I also set the camera on self-timer.

Then began about 20 shots trying to figure out how long I needed to write the word and how long I could linger at certain parts of the word without getting burn in. I also wanted a color to the light so I wrapped the flashlight with a red blouse and continued to practice.

Once I got the shot, I just did a little cleanup and pumped up the saturation a little bit. And that's how I captured love.

I know I've said it before, but I really do love this contest. I may never officially win anything, but I sure have pushed myself and have done things I never thought I would do.

imax · September 16, 2007

Not really much to tell

Get 1 Wife, give several shots of Vodka, Several Pills that cause drowsiness, mix, shake, let stand for one hour, watch fall, have your way.

All kidding aside, my wife indulged me with an idea. I had several but once again time restraints limited me. I really wanted to get the one with the Nun and the Hooker or the hooker in a confessional but like I said no time. Also the snak in the tree with Eve appealed to me but.............

Anyway I put her on the bed after her writng me a note about what she does for me, had her lay down and just relax. The rosary was her fathers so we had to find a way to incorporate that into it. The VOdka and Pills were on hand and the Seedy Hotel idea was just something we both remembered from several roadtrips we had taken in the past. The red comes from a roscoe gel covering the SB 28DX at 1/2 power and also one of these handheld pointed at my wife from below.

Some people suggested toning it down but it took away from what we were going for in the image. A slight adjustment in Photoshop was used to enhance the image but that's all.

Joe

HoofClix · September 16, 2007

Felicia, I think it's neat how this contest get's folks to try things to see how they work out. You get to know what your camera will and will not do for you... Then you hone your technique and make it part of your art. I commend and have a lot of respect for you for doing as much as you could do "in-camera." That's where it's at!

Tentacion · September 16, 2007

Here were some of my other "potential" entries....before I went with my entry of "Yeah, It's All About Me" cuz of the attitude she gave me in that one...Sin of "Vanity"

Your Private Dancer

It Was A "Good" Nite...

If You Got the "Dime", then I have the "Time"....

Felicia · September 16, 2007

HoofClix wrote:

Felicia, I think it's neat how this contest get's folks to try things to see how they work out. You get to know what your camera will and will not do for you... Then you hone your technique and make it part of your art. I commend and have a lot of respect for you for doing as much as you could do "in-camera." That's where it's at!

Thanks for the encouragement, Mark!

I decided to enter in the LPS contests knowing I was waaaaaaay out of my league, skills-wise, but also knowing that I'd be pushed to learn a lot. It's been a very good learning experience. So when ya'll take the time to critique the photos, I do read them and pick up a lot.

leaforte · September 16, 2007

I noticed a line of Harley's outside a small pub in the mountains, just beyond the dirt road I typically take to run my dogs at the river (Nooksack). I popped inside to see what was up, and found a tattooist in the corner of the bar, 'Do Not Cross' police tape wrapped around him, a table, and two chairs. He was a talented tattooist from Utah, and was passing through, and arranged to do some tats at the local bar. I wish I could have gotten some shots of him with my 50mm 1.8, but my dogs were hot and needed to get to the river. But I began to think about the loyalty of the Biker to his Harley, and even more so, Harley Davidson to their client. Wow, what a great Virtue...loyalty! A Knights Armor, for sure. I even considered 'A Knights Armor' as a title....but opted for Steadfast instead. So I grabbed a few shots, while I assured my pups we would soon be swimming. The shot I used was taken with my 70-300mm zoomed in full throttle at the prettiest part of the bike...the motor. I posted the picture with a slight crop, and thats it. I rehearsed it for a couple hours as a B/W, which was very cool, but seeing as most of the entries of Sin seemed to have a red cast or feel, I chose to leave the blue cast, for Virtue, especially since the cast was a blue sky reflection on chrome, and no manipulation. So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it! I do wish I could have captured a loyalist with his/her bike, but they were all inside, so a V-Twin Sequential Port Induction Road King was the next best thing. I love the lines. No surprise folks love these bikes.

Tentacion · September 16, 2007

Felicia wrote:

This was my first experience with a "light writing" shot.
And that's how I captured love.

Felicia, if love was this easy to capture, I would be in love all the time..

YOU DID A GREAT JOB...KUDOS!!

saurora · September 16, 2007

Leaforte wrote:

But I began to think about the loyalty of the Biker to his Harley, and even more so, Harley Davidson to their client. Wow, what a great Virtue...loyalty! A Knights Armor, for sure.

I thought maybe this was your bike!

I enjoy reading the stories that lead up to capturing these shots as well as the techniques used. I had actually been working with a group of 4 images that I had shot, trying to possibly combine them. I posted my current entry in a thread in the People forum last week and received some very positive feedback. I began to think of what a great imagination my nephew has for one so young and it 'clicked' in my head that imagination was a virtue. So I went with it. Here's the thread that tells the story behind the shot plus processing:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=71058

leaforte · September 16, 2007

saurora wrote:

I thought maybe this was your bike! I enjoy reading the stories that lead up to capturing these shots as well as the techniques used. I had actually been working with a group of 4 images that I had shot, trying to possibly combine them. I posted my current entry in a thread in the People forum last week and received some very positive feedback. I began to think of what a great imagination my nephew has for one so young and it 'clicked' in my head that imagination was a virtue. So I went with it. Here's the thread that tells the story behind the shot plus processing:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=71058

And you were right to post that shot...unbelievable. Oh, to be a child again. I remember dangling a string off of a stick into a mud puddle in the drive (no bait. no hook), and waiting for a bite from a HUGE fish...and believing it could happen. A child who mimics is learning, IMHO.

Tessa HD · September 16, 2007

excellent light writing!!!

Felicia · September 16, 2007

Tessa HD wrote:

excellent light writing!!!

Thank you!

nikos · September 17, 2007

Wow Felicia, that's excellent lightmanship you displayed.

Nikos

HoofClix · September 17, 2007

Since I slept so late this morning, I'm up with the West Coast Crowd to see the entry thread close... Mine backstage story went basically like this:

1. Decide not to take myself too seriously.
2. Take myself somewhat less than "too" seriously.
3. Listen to my wife say "Mark, you're not taking yourself less seriously enough."

So with that, and at lunch on Saturday, I went off to the local BBQ joint and ordered up the "pulled pork plate." I asked what exactly that comes with, as I usually only get the sandwich, no sides. She said, fries and slaw (for the health). I said then that I'd like to also get an order of onion rings to go with all' that. She said that I could get half fries/half rings, but I said, a bit too seriously, that I'd like those extra rings anyway. She said OK, a bit disgustedly, nodded her head, turned around and yelled "Pulled Pork Plate TG Extra Rings."

I got it back to my my store, and there in my office, in which I also have basically a mini studio (for our web-photography), a table, about 20 yards of black velvet, etc. I arranged it like you see it in this photo:
http://hoofclix.smugmug.com/gallery/3091212#195958309-L-LB

Of course, that has a lot of blackpoint adjusting to get rid of the ubiquitous shine on black velvet.. I proceeded to sit down on the floor to eat my lunch. The store's Jack Russell, Pearl, was my freind throughout. Every now and then I got up to take a photo of the process. I also fed a few to Pearl, and just pulled some of the mess off to another plate, as I'm not really gluttonous... OK, not TOO gluttonous... I put the leftovers on the counter for the staff to feed on, and all afternoon I was reminded by them, "Mark, you left your lunch on the counter!" I hope they threw it all away, but I left early to get on with....

Postprocessing:
1. Correct white point (always the same spot on the styro plate) and black point for each photo, resize to 4x6, save to separate folder.. THEN
2. Create a 45"x30" background, and pull the images 1-16 in and position.
3. After that, I saved a JPG of the composite, and put it yet again on another 47"x32" black background. I cropped that image, and then zoomed in to hunt for specs to clean up,
4. Particularly to look at the seams between the images. I took a light spot at one seam and reset it as black, and the seams all "seemed" to disappear.

Then I thought, "why not put my name on it..."

I'll probably give a large print to the BBQ joint, same as I did the grocery store that sold my those steaks from my Surf-n-Turf entry!

Added content... Oh yeah, I drank the drink on the way back, but the Diet Pepsi was in the fridge. It is particularly important, 'cause everbody down here knows that as long as you have a diet soda with your BBQ plate, you won't really gain any weight...

HoofClix · September 17, 2007

Felicia wrote:

I wrote the word on a thin piece of paper, turned the paper over and traced it backwards. After practicing a few times, writing the word backwards, I felt I was ready to try to put it into bits.

Felicia, next time you do this, just write it the regular way, then flip the image horizontally in PS... But at least now you've learned to spell "Love" backwards....!

Justiceiro · September 17, 2007

This entry followed my typical progression:

Week 1

Day 1- Look at theme. Start thinking about it.

Day 2- Come up with totally grandiose and unworkable idea. In this case, I wanted to dress up about 20 of my friends as suicide bombers and soldiers, and then stand them out on a giant sized public chessboards while a "team" of rich westerners and a team of rich arabs watched the "game" and shared martinis. A bikini clad woman hold up a big sign that says "Knight to Queen 14" or something. Shot to be called "the arrogance of power" or something.

Day 3- Realize the huge problems with this shot.

A- I don't have 20 friends.
B- Dressing up a bunch of people like suicide bombers in Liberty state park (directly across the river from the WTC) is not the most tactful of ideas, especially this time of year.
C- Where are we going to get the string quartet?

Day 4- leave on a 10 day business trip.

day 5-11: Irritate everyone associated with Dgrin by loudly proclaiming my opinion on every concievable subject.

Day 12- get back from trip, realize that I have 48 hours to put up or shut up. Call the standard crew (the folks who will say "yes" when I ask if they don't mind dressing up like a junkie and pretending to shoot up on the PATH.) If you don't have a standard crew, you should acquire one. They really are the joy of my life.

The "standard crew" asembled for a previous unsuccesful bid at eternal LPS glory

So my friend Wednesday, who actualliy isn't a junkie, got all tarted up for me.

here is wednesday in mid transformation to Heroin addict extraordinare. It helped that we had actually been out drinking until the wee hours of the previous morning (about 4 AM) for our friend Dave's going away party. (Dave is moving to San Francisco with his boyfriend. He can no longer tolerate our jokes about cliches).

If you want to look like a junkie, you can do it the hard way (hit the smack real hard for about 18 months) or the easier and far more reversible way. Don't sleep. Use eyeshadow. Cheap gel for the hair. Neosporin for that greasy skin look. Usually Wednesday is quite hot, but she grubs up real well.

So we go to the PATH station.

How to make even a beautiful woman look awful? Use the "Fill light" tab on your RAW converter.

Strangely, no one seemed suprised to see this on the PATH. It has that sort of vibe. When we went down to Exchange Place on the water, by the Goldman Sachs building, I thought several of the financier-joggers would have heart attacks. Unfortunately, all those shots sucked.

So we headed over to the brownstoney portion of town, and Wednesday "passed out" on a bench in Van Vorst Park, while Ms. Justi kept a kept a watch out for children. (mommy, is that woman sick?)

Ripping off Calvin Klein

This one was just too damn creepy

This is really sorta the one I wanted to enter, but Dgrin tends to be a bit more conservative than I am. By the way, I didn't deface the bench, that was already there. Tentative title "your soul is dogshit."

Apparently, someone we have taken to calling "the Mad Crapper of Van Vorst" has been running around all over the park scribbling "Dog Poo" (or words to that effect all over our brand new park benches. That's how it is in Jersey City. We can't have nice things.

Felicia · September 17, 2007

HoofClix wrote:

Felicia, next time you do this, just write it the regular way, then flip the image horizontally in PS... But at least now you've learned to spell "Love" backwards....!

rofl

"Last Photographer Standing #13 (Light or Shadow)" -- And why, oh why, oh why do I seem to be one challenge ahead for the last two challenges??? My pole dancer in #11 could have been used for #12! My light writing for #12 could have been used for #13!

Tentacion · September 17, 2007

Felicia wrote:

roflroflroflrofl

"Last Photographer Standing #13 (Light or Shadow)" -- And why, oh why, oh why do I seem to be one challenge ahead for the last two challenges??? My pole dancer in #11 could have been used for #12! My light writing for #12 could have been used for #13!

ROTFLMAO....very uncanny eh?

Hey has anyone seen Stirfry....I was actually looking forward to seeing a submission by her in LPS12

nikos · September 18, 2007

Making of "Invidia"
Here's how I made my entry:

After doing some research about sin & virtue, I stumbled across the grim pergatory of sewing the sinner's eyes shut with wire. I had a visual and thought of it to be a great challenge if I can convincingly turn it into an image.

After some thinking, I needed a starting point image. I gave my wife the camera, made some stupid expressions & poses and she clicked the shutter a couple of times while she laughed at me

Anyways, I got myself a starter image:

Okay, it's a start -- I wasn't too happy with the expression but it's workable.

Next, I need to sew my eyes shut. Since my insurance policy doesn't cover stupidity, I had to resort to blending another image. So after some thinking, I got the idea to use a piece of leather, make a slit in it and then actually sew the opening with a needle and wire thread.

This leads me to the next image:

** I would just like to say that I did the sewing myself **

Okay, back the the project...

With the first image, I changed the tonality to make it a bit more uniform and then darkened areas of non-interest.

Next, I extracted the parts of the sewing job and placed it over the eyes. I also used a layer mask to tweak it a bit more.

Yep, that'll do.

Now for the blending:
I started by adding a gradient map adjustment layer and then did a 3 tone gradient. This helps blend all the colors together.

Next, I added another layer, chose the healing brush, ticked the "sample all layers" box and blended the texture of the skin onto the prosthetic piece to get this result:

That looks good -- now let's add the shadows to the eyelids, thread & needle. Also tweak the colors a bit.

1. I simply used the burn tool to darken the eyelids a bit.
2. I then made a selection of the thread & needle mask, added a new layer and filled the selection with black.
3. It was too sharp so I used the gaussian blur filter to soften the effect.
4. As a final touch, I used the warp tool to bend the shadow to the contours of the face.

Wow, that made a difference!

Now let's add more depth to the image:
1. I added a non-destructive dodge/burn layer to darken and lighten various parts of the image

2. Added a texture layer, set the blendinge mode to soft light and lowered the opacity. This gives me funky vein-like lines on the face. I also used a layer maske to delete its effects on parts of the image.

3. Merged all layers together used the High Pass filter and set the blending mode to Soft Light. This sharpend my overall image

4. Tweaked the colors a bit more.

Finally, what's a gross picture without any blood? I was thinking of getting a bit gory but I felt it to be innappropriate for this contest.

All I did was make a new layer, set its blending mode to Color and then use various size soft brushes at different opacities to 'pat' the red color at key areas of the eyes.

And here's the final result (minus the signature):

Well, that's it!

Regards,
Nikos

saurora · September 18, 2007

That's what I call a recipe for a great photo!!! The shadow on the thread just cinched it for me.......such a small detail but effective! Amazing work! And....you made the top 10...congrats!!!

Felicia · September 18, 2007

nikos wrote:

Here's how I made my entry:

And here's the final result (minus the signature):

Well, that's it!

Regards,
Nikos

Oh! This photo really disgusted me! That's when I knew it was a great piece. Awesome job, Nikos!

LPS 12: Backstage

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