Romancing With Film (…I never intended to put film in the cameras.) Film fun part 1

Kendall shot with a Canon 650D film body and a EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM IS II lens. Fuji ISO 200 color film. Cropped and minor color edit in Lightroom.

Remember the film days? We have been digital for many years now. I stopped shooting film back in 1999, hard to believe it has been that long. So August I had purchased a few old Pentax cameras off eBay to be used as props in a photo shoot and I never intended to put film in the cameras. However when the second camera arrived it had a roll of unused film inside and that got me wondering. I started to think about the film days and how much of a struggle it was for me. Of course as time passed I was leaning more and more about all aspects of photography and then along came digital. So things became a little easier and a lot more creative. Because as time passed I found Photoshop and I found a creative medium that was for me.

So I though “hey it will be fun to run a few rolls through these old cameras.” I picked up some black and white film and went out and enjoyed me little romance with a Pentax Spotmatic and an ME. Then it bit me a little and for $26 I bought a Canon 650D film camera. Nothing special about the 650D other than the nostalgia that they (whoever they are) claim the very first photo uploaded to the internet was shot with a Canon 650D. Best part about the 650D is all my current Canon EF lenses fit and focus on this body.

So back last September while shooting with the amazing Kendall Strampel we had a little fun and in the middle of a planned shoot we took a little side trip and played for a few minutes with the film cameras. I handed a Pentax to Kendall to use as a prop and I put my awesome 70-200mm f/2.8L on the 650D and fired off a few frames of Fuji ISO 200 color film. I later finished the roll while shooting Melina Martin in the studio back in March.

Now today we do have the option to scan the negatives into out computer and then edit in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Ok so I thought it would end there, but it didn’t. (To be continued)

Split tone edit in Lightroom.

Split tone edit in Lightroom.

Canon 650D, Fuji film no editing.

A lite cross process edit using Photoshop.

Canon 650D, Fuji film with basic color edit in Photoshop.

 

Be Spontaneous (“Plans are invitation to disappointment.” )

Chloe (Model) at Eastern States Penitentiary

I love this image so much because was very spontaneous. The prison cell had been rused up with a chair, a desk, a newspaper and a paper weight. We are not even allowed to be there photographing her as a model (against policy), but hey sometimes life is too short to follow all the rules. I asked her to go into the cell and “do something interesting” in 10 seconds and she did. It worked for me, the image of her in the cell with the decay in the background, the beauty, the tattoo… it was a lot of fun and “in the moment.” One of my favorite images of 2014 and I wish this girl never drifted away from me. She was the most spontaneous model I ever met.

Google Makes Nik a Free Download (…for those who don’t know the original Nik plugins were the “cat’s meow”)

B&W conversion using Silver Efex Pro 2

Final edit includes adjustments performed using Color Efex Pro 4, Tonal Contrast, Pro Contrast and more.

As many photographers may have heard Google has just made the Nik Collection a “free” download. Many photographers already know about the Nik plugins, however I personally have met many photographers who never heard of Nik plugins, even after Google acquired the Nik collection from Nik. I guess I was naïve to have thought everybody knew what they were. I have been using Nik for many years now. I had purchased Color Efex Pro 3 and Silver Efex Pro 2 from Nik and then after Google acquired them one day out of the clear blue I received an email from Google giving me a link to download the whole collection and this in turn moved me up to Color Efex Pro 4. Google stated because I was a current Nik Customer they were dishing out the love and it really was a beautiful day for sure.

Now real quick for those who don’t know the original Nik plugins were the “cat’s meow” especially Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro.

I fell in love with Silver Efex Pro 2 (SEP2) for making black & white conversions. Although I have several methods for making B&W images SEP2 is by far the best and most creative. I love my color images, but at the same time I can get lost in playing with SEP2. Most important to me when working with images that have a face, is being able to see the zone mapping so I can apply my personal recipe for zone mapping human skin. I’m not going to go into all the details about the zone system, but for those who know about Ansel Adam’s zone system… well you know what I’m talking about.

Most important (in my opinion) is that if you want to create amazing black & whites you need to first create a great color image and then move into SEP2. So for those of you who have Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, you need to get these plugins and get started learning how to use them. For me… if you asked me to choose one tool or plugin for Photoshop and nothing else. Hands down the Nik collection would be my choice, mainly Color Efex Pro.

Another source that increased my wanting for using SEP2 was famed photographer Vincent Versace’s book “From Oz to Kansas” but you must first read “Welcome to Oz” because it is all about making cinematic edits that can stop at being beautiful color images or… move to the next book “From Oz to Kansas” and that is taking those awesome color edits and moving to black& white. The books truly are worth reading, however so many people I meet who want to call themselves a “photographer” want instant gratification and reading a book is just too much trouble, or so it seems. Sometimes I will mention that I learned “this or that” technique from a book I read and I get looked at like I have two heads.  I want to be the best photographer I can be and when I look at anybody who has ever succeeded at anything I many times see people who know their craft inside and out and many will tell you that part of knowing your craft is studying the people who have traveled the road before you. When you think about it it’s a “no brainer,” but seems many have no brains. Every photographer out there in this big ole world wants better images and the Nik collection will get you closer to that holy grail, but do yourself a favor and read a book or take a class that is written or taught by a true master of the trade/art. Fuck those stupid Facebook advertisements and find somebody who is a master. I live in NYC/Philly area and when I know Joe McNally or Cliff Mautner or Lindsay Adler are in town speaking or teaching… well you bet your last dollar I’m gonna be there. And those are just a few of the masters photography has to offer.

So down load the Nik collection from Google and let your creativity move of to the next level. I did!

Photo of The Day (breaking records all the time)

Nixlot Dameus Weightlifter/Bodybuilder

I’ve been so busy I haven’t had much time to post to my blog. So here is a B&W of Nixlot Dameus record-breaking powerlifter and body builder.

Throw Back for Thursday (“Cigar Break” with Reese Maddox)

Cigar Break Reese Maddox (model)

A little throwback for Thursday. I have been so busy that today I needed to just sit back and look at some images from a few years ago. I come across “Cigar Break” and I remember how much fun the shoot was. It was also hot and humid that day but a lot of fun none the less. The contrast of the beautiful model with that old wooden Indian just makes this photo for me. I love it.

Photo of The Day (Movie poster composite…)

Movie Poster Style Composite(ala Corey Barker) with model Kendall Strampel

I have had this image for a while now. It is a composite made from a Corey Barker “Down & Dirty” tutorial that appeared in Photoshop User Magazine several months back. Not sure that it looks like a movie poster but it is a nice image nonetheless.. In Corey’s version he uses an image of a model that appears to be shot with a wide angle lens and there is some distortion to her face and body, but in a good way. In my version I just pulled a shot of Kendall that was straight on with no distortion.

They Have All Become Cartoons (Yes ladies you can take offense to what I am saying and that is ok)

Un-filtered and unedited image of Bree Arkham. Asked to submit a test shot, she did so while driving to work. Now this is a good selfie.

Sadly enough they have all become akin to a cartoon character. If you’re a male you may have noticed over the past year or so and even more so of recent months that many female faces on social media have become very cartoon like. It doesn’t matter young or old, but the need to make themselves look… prettier? I guess? Either way it has led them to look like something out of an animated cartoon.

Yes ladies you can take offense to what I am saying and that is ok, but seriously you really need to stand back and take a look at what you’re doing. I equate it to the botchery that people like Joan Rivers and Michael Jackson bestowed upon themselves. The only difference here is that it is not permanent and it is only being done to images. However we all still have to look at them. From my following many people both male and female on social media I have found the biggest culprits are the ladies who are not bad-looking at all. But still they take it to an extreme and blur their face almost beyond recognition.

Blurring the skin is nothing new with images. Photoshop blurring has been done for many years now. In fact when I starting learning how to retouch and edit human skin in Photoshop the first technique was to use a blur layer on skin. But I soon found it was way too easy to overdo it and it looked very fake. Today’s retouching uses a technique called “frequency separation” and it too (in my opinion) looks very fake when overused as it often is.

The problem with the blur techniques that all the girls are using today is that the filter is applied “globally” to the image. This means it is applied to the whole images like a smear. When a retoucher uses the technique in Photoshop we do not apply it to eyes, nostril openings, lips, teeth, jewelry, hair ect… It is only used on the skin. Many of the images I see every day are actually laughable. It is like when a 14-year-old girl first uses makeup and she goes totally overboard until somebody (hopefully) steps in and shows her otherwise. But until then the female population will continue to look like smeared clowns. Seriously Miss, when did you ever see a real live person with skin that looked like “porcelain”? It does not exist, period, end of story. So you’re making yourself look “unreal” many times the breast implants become the topic. Girls get boob implants and I get it, they want to gain self-confidence or maybe they are in the entertainment industry and that is par for the course. But creating a false image and publicizing it is downright strange if you ask me? (I know you didn’t ask me lol)  When the girl with fake boobs walks in the room she looks the same as she did in a photo. But blurring a photo to make yourself not visible is weird. …I just don’t get it.

GUYS BEWARE: If you are hooking up with babes online and you have never met her in person. Is she luring you in with a selfie that has been blurred? The first meeting could be a doozy when you first see each other and she really “looks worse than a rough strip of Texas highway in the hot summer sun.”

I have posted many times in the past on the topic of retouching and editing skin and blemishes. I have a rule I go by and it takes two different paths. First I decide “is it a real photo I am looking for in the end result”, or am I going for an illustration. If it is a “real” image that I want to be my end point, the rule is as follows; I will remove what should have never been there. Examples are zits, pimples, and other skin flaws. If you weren’t born with it and it wasn’t always there then why have it in the photo. Skin can be softened as can crow’s feet and lines. But once you start removing lines you have crossed over to “fake” and that is not good (in my opinion). Moles and birthmarks are optional and I’ll ask the client or model if he/she is bothered by them and if so I remove them. After all moles & birthmarks can be covered by makeup, so therefore I say they qualify to be removed. Lines can be softened by makeup and I can do the same in PS. The big rule for skin is; Skin has texture, even with makeup applied skin still has a texture or the makeup has some sort of texture. If you slightly blur you will soften the texture. If you use the new professional techniques of “frequency separation” you are simply putting in “fake” texture. If done correctly Frequency Separation looks amazing, done wrong it looks just as fake as blurring.

If the end image is going to be an illustration I will take a different route. There are no limits because it is art, so “yes” I may make her skin like porcelain and that is ok because the image is not expected to be real.

I do understand that everybody wants to look their best… I get that. But how are you looking your best if your face is blurred or smeared?

Let’s look at some example.

Too much blur on skin.

In these two examples of frequency separation you have to use you own opinion. Some people like and some don’t.

 

Good or Bad The Numbers Game (I like to number things.)

Moving Forward for 2016 (But having a big set of guns never hurts to keep the world around you in line.)

Nixlot Dameus
1/125 sec at f/7.1 ISO 50 50mm

Keeping true to my goal for creating images with impact for 2016 I worked with an incredible young man yesterday. Nixlot Dameus a seventeen year old athlete from Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  Nixlot immigrated to the USA from Haiti in 2007 and he has an amazing story to tell, more about that later.

I found Nixlot when he left a comment on one of my Instagram posts several months back and I started to follow him. I found him very interesting and I could see from his postings that he was strongly dedicated to his bodybuilding and weight training. His physique is obvious proof that this young man is motivated and that is what I want for a photo shoot. I want “motivated” people and I want them for a few reasons. One reason is motivated people are usually on time and come prepared, they are interesting and always on the move and most of all they have a great attitude towards life in general. I feel making an impactful image takes more than just a good camera & lens. All the editing in the world cannot add the impact that somebody like Nixlot brings to a project. I want to promote my photographic & editing capabilities and what better way than to get interesting and motivated subjects in front of my camera. So Nixlot did not disappoint at all and we had a very creative shoot. I would like to thank my friend Brendan for offering up his studio for the project and for his amazing input and ideas, a great help indeed.

If you’re reading this post, (obviously you are lol) just take a moment to remember the name “Nixlot Dameus” because I have a very good feeling you are going to see and hear about Nixlot’s accomplishments in the not so far off future. Nixlot has an amazing story about young little boy who felt the cold evil wrath of street bullies when he first arrived in Philly. In a way it is not a new story as I think we have all heard about people who overcome being bullied through whatever means or route they chose to escape it. But in my opinion there is only one true way to disarm a bully and that is a face to face stare down. Nixlot flipped the tables on the bullies and I think it is fair to say that no street bully in his right mind would dare cross this young man. In-fact while talking with Nixlot he said he now trains some of the guys who used to bully him. There really is a lot to be said for the power of love in this world, love yourself, love your family & god, and love all others too. But having a big set of guns never hurts to keep the world around you in line.

Nixlot is already an accomplished record-setting power lifting and bodybuilding athlete at his young age of 17 years old. Read more about his story here http://articles.philly.com/2015-11-01/sports/67904486_1_bodybuilding-haiti-marie-innocent

Day 2 (there is always something learned from these kinds of experiences if you take the time to bring something away with you. )

Mina Santiago sticking to a commitment.

Day 2 of the New Year brought yet another cold weather shoot; in fact it was colder than day one. 16-year-old model Mina wanted some time in front of the camera in a wooded setting. The location would be the beautiful and rustic Tohickon Valley Park located up in the hills above the Delaware River in the Point Pleasant area of Pennsylvania.

The weather a crisp 28° F, with a light wind, mostly sunny and just an all-round normal winter day for this area. You know… one of those days when you look out the window and it looks so nice until you step out the door and turn around and go back inside.

The shoot was short about 45 minutes at best. Mina did not handle the cold as well as the previous day’s model. But I have to say she did follow through with her plan and got a few new images that she needed.

I feel there is always something learned from these kinds of experiences if you take the time to bring something away with you. I found that the camera and lens were not working in the same manner as it would in warmer weather. I had some focusing issues that I had never had before in cold weather. Most times that I can remember if I was out in the cold I would be shooting a landscape and had plenty of time to get focus. But on this day the shoots needed to be captured quickly before it was time to wrap the model in a blanket. Then there was the inevitable redness that would soon appear on the edges of the nose and spread to her face and bare skin. Goose bumps… and then it’s time to say “stop” and we did.

So for next week’s shoots I’ll into the studio and get creative.