Happy Halloween

Today is the last day of the month and that means it is Halloween. The spookiest scariest day of the year. The Portrait Gallery and its staff hope you have a fun, happy and safe day. Enjoy!

Trying out a new background today. I went to home depot and picked up this material used for vents. It is light weight plastic and has a cool texture. I used two speedlights with colored gels to light it. I like the way the light reflects off the texture and with a little experimenting this will be a good high school senior background.

In keeping with our Halloween themes this week and inspired by the Adams Family. I re created " Thing ". I shot this in studio using two speedlights. It shows what a little technique and some imagination can do for your photography.

Lighting Lesson 06

Here is a cool effect and it was so simple to do. I placed a Nikon Speedlight SB 600 under an orange plastic bowl and triggered the flash from camera position with Nikon SU800 commander. I under exposed the room lights to make the over all image darker. I achieved an eerie type Halloween look. Click on image to enlarge.

Halloween Prank

Halloween is getting closer. I was feeling creative today and a little devilish. My oldest daughter Lisa likes to prank people, and I guess so do I. She is scared to death of this doll because it looks exactly like her Mother. She says it is too creepy. I used the doll as my main subject and lit it eerily then added fog in the background. Now I had kind of a creepy looking picture but it needed more. Then I remembered I took a picture of a cool doorway this past summer. After cutting out the doors in CS3 I had a very scary looking entrance way. I added the doll picture to the doorway. Then darken the area arount the outside to give the effect of night I sent this pcture to Lisa's apartment with the caption " Don't forget to trick or treat at my house this year". If this doesn't give Lisa nightmares I don't know what will. Whooooooooooo!

Easily color the background with gels

This still life was taken today. I used Creative Lighting System to sculpt the light to give the vase some dimension. I used a black sheet for the background and lit it with one SB 600 with an orange gel shot through a grid to get the subtle harmonizing effect. With colored gels I can effectively change the black background to almost any color I need.

Colors of Autumn

We got another opportunity to get out and shoot some fall foliage this weekend. Our trip took us to Letchworth State Park. The trees were just past peak season but still had plenty of color to enjoy. The park was saturated with photographers capturing the last bits of autumn before the season changes. Here are a few from our trip. Click to enlarge.

This interesting image was designed in photoshop using layers and transform tools. I haven't found a use for this , but I am sure it will have a function in some creative project down the road.

I had a chance to try out multiple lighting at Friday nights reception. I used the Nikon CLS ( creative lighting system) . I had two Nikon SB 600 speedlights bouncing towards the ceiling along the wall on the right and a Nikon SB 800 as master on camera. The 600's were set at ttl and one stop over. The master 800 was ttl and used for fill. The red lights from the left side are from the DJ's booth with disco lights. I think the image has a nice natural look to it.

Congratulations John and Karen

We had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of John Steckstor and Karen Kozacki. What a wonderful couple and they have great families too. The ceremony was at Redeemer Lutheran Church in North Tonawanda and the reception was at the Canal Side Restaurant in Lockport.

Everyone had a blast at their reception. A great time for all. Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

When I need to unwind I like to go into CS3 and create new things. This image was completely made up using tools in CS3. The really great thing about CS3 is your only limited to your imagination. The sky is the limit. This technique is quite advanced but I will giving photoshop tutorials in this blog. Stay tuned for future lessons and assignments. Click on image to enlarge.

Lighting Lesson 05

This beautiful outdoor portrait was done easily with two nikon speedlights. As the diagram above shows I sat my subject down with the sun shinning at her from behind and to camera right. I added one SB 600 in a soft box as a main light to camera left. I then used my SB 800 on camera as a fill and master. Both flashes are set to ttl mode. The camera is set to manual and I under expose the background by -2 stops. I have to use +2 on the main light to compensate for the soft box and +.07 on the fill because I used Gary Fong's Lightshere pointed directly at the subject. The result is a perfectly exposed background with a subject that pops out of the picture with great wrap around modeling light.

Lighting Lesson 04

Simple lighting techniques and attention to details will give you great results. Today my self assignment was to take a simple household article, light it and make it interesting. In this case tasty, I hope. I started with a tea cup and saucer and placed them on glass suspended on a small table top with books. I like this technique because it affords you opportunity to light your subject from below if you want. In this particular case I used a SB 600 in a soft box at ttl +1 for my main light. I used one SB 800 on camera bounced behind me set on ttl +1 as a fill light. I then added one SB 600 with CTO gel and a gobbo set at ttl -1 to light my background. The gobbo is used to restrict light spill on my subject. I used the hottest tea possible to my tea cup but I still didn't have the steaming hot tea effect I wanted. I took the image and then added the steam in photoshop with layers. I handheld my Nikon D3 and used iso 640. Camera settings were f-16 at 1/80th sec. using 24-70mmAF-S mm Nikkor lens set to 70mm. Click on image to enlarge and you will see the faint hint of steaming hot tea for a most realistic look.

Autumn Foliage

Saturday Wendy and I took a ride to Kindzua Dam in Pennsylvania. The leaves still haven't turned color and probably need another 2 weeks to peak. The trip was still worth the effort. It was perfect weather and the scenic vistas were wonderful. The image above was of the Allegheny Reservoir and a good example. Click on image to enlarge.

A different look...

Here is a great technique I learned from the strobist at http://strobist.blogspot.com/. I set my cameras white balance to incandescent. Camera set to iso 100 at 1/250th sec. at 6.3 which is exactly -2 stops less then the sunlight coming in from the right of my subject. I then added an orange gel to a SB 600 set at ttl +.03 as my main light and another SB 600 rim lighting the left side of my subject. This added blue cast to my image but left my subjects skin normal. Cool look don't you think?

Fall Harvest

Beautiful skies are over Niagara County today. Autumn is here and the fall colors are approaching quickly. I plan on getting out to shoot some fall foliage this weekend.

Portraits Outdoors

This is my older brother, Robert. He is my best friend. He supports me in everything I do. Gives me drive and purpose to my life and is just generally there for me when ever I need him. The image above is an example of what I mean. I had an idea in mind of something I wanted to try out and I didn't have the proper equipment. My SB 800 is on the fritz and I knew brother owned one too. I text messaged him and asked he bring over his flash unit. He was at our studio within an hours time with flash in hand. I set the settings on his flash to give me approx. -2.5 stops fill light and used a SB 600 at ttl +.3 in a soft box for a main light. I said now I need a model and outside we walked into the back yard and I took this image. Now that is a brother. The 2 flashes balanced with daylight gives his face nice modeling and a 3D quality to the image.

I guess I'll have to break down and buy a new SB 800 this picture is good.

Spooky Promo

Summer has ended and fall is here. Our special this month is about Halloween. Ghoul Portraits.
Come in costume, bring your pumpkin or jack o lantern as long as it implies Halloween. Dress as scary as you want and your session is free. Yes...I said FREE. That is a $25 savings. Prints may be purchased from that session at our regular prices. Just mention the promo code when you book your appointment and receive your $25 free ghoul session. Promo Code is : "Gone Batty"

Lighting Lesson 03

The above image was achieved with Nikon speedlights using the CLS ( creative lighting system ). As you can see we have a commercial studio look which took about 1/2 hr from start to finish. Our goblet was placed in front of a blank wall. We used two books ends up about 2 feet apart and placed a piece of clear glass across the books on top of a small table. This lets use slide a gridded speedlight underneath our subject to add specular highlights from below. Our main light is diffused in a soft box from camera left. Our background is lit from camera right and is snooted to control light fall off. An additional light from camera right is pointed directly at the subject with no diffusion. The diagram above gives you the complete overview. Click on images to enlarge. All lights were controled with SB commander unit from camera position.

Notification

Notice of announcement that our wedding packages have been rearranged and our top of the line package now includes parent albums and a standard size 11 x 9 story book. We will carry the larger 13 x 11 story book but it will be and additional charge option. There is no change in package pricing at this time but an increase may be coming for 2009. We suggest anyone booking weddings for the upcoming year should consider booking soon to lock in the 2008 prices.

Night photography

Here are some night photography shots I took the other evening from the rear parking lot of NFHS. The first is a composite of two images merged together in photo shop to bring back the detail in the window areas which other wise would have blown out. The second image didn't have the high contrast problems as the first so I used the car roof as a tripod and did a long exposure the achieve the great clarity. It had just stopped raining and the foreground reflections were an added bonus.

Lighting Lesson 02

Studio quality lighting is easily achieved with the Nikon CLS ( creative lighting system ). The diagram shows you the technical specs. of the image. A black bed sheet was draped behind the subject for a quick background. Click on images to enlarge.

Cave tour

Saturday Wendy and I went to the Lockport Cave, Lockport, NY. The cave is a hydro conduit built in the 1800's to power 3 industries of that era. The men who dug this cave worked 12 hours a day were paid 17 cents a day and given a shot of whiskey every 2 hours until the job was completed. They averaged digging out 2 feet a day. Our guide takes us on this tour which is part walk and part boat ride and explains the history and geological aspects of the cave. It is a very interesting tour and worth the trip. Here are some images I took inside the cave. Click to enlarge.

Simply Amazing

The Nikon D3 has outstanding resolution and cropping abilities. I was about 30 yds away when this shot was taken. I used Nikon 70-200mm AF-S VR 2.8 lens at 200mm. The original was then cropped 100% and post processed in NX2. Click on image to enlarge. The detail and facial expressions are extraordinary.

Work Shop Series... Creating Amazing Circles

Here is an interesting and easy technique I learned using Photoshop. I have no idea what practical purpose these have but they are fun to make and have interesting designs and shapes and no two are identical. I suppose one could use these for backgrounds. I use simple exercises like this to sharpen my Photoshop skills and sometimes come up with great ideas for future works. Start your project by opening Photoshop. Any of the newer versions should do. On the tool bar go to file and open your image to the desktop. Any image will do. Experiment with different types of pictures to see how many different types of designs you can achieve. Today I have chosen a flower image with vivid color and texture.

You now need to make a selection that is squared. Choose the crop tool and set your width and height to the same number. Five and five works fine here .

Now select the area you want and crop.

Now apply filter polar coordinates.

Be sure to check the polar to rectangle button.

Now you should have an interesting image, but it is not finished yet.

Now rotate the image 180 degrees and filter polar coordinates again only this time toggle the rectangular to polar button.

Now you have a way cool image.

You can use this image like this or elaborate on this with some of your own Photoshop techniques. You will be amazed at what your imagination can come up with. Here are a few examples of some images I have made.