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.