Archive for March, 2012
The Before and After series focuses on the two or three key creative choices, in terms of composition and processing, that go into creating an image. Specific technical details about the shot have been left out — you won’t hear me talking about tone curve adjustments and whatnot unless it was a key component of the end result.
An older shot from a 2010 KDH Dance Company rehearsal.
Exposure
- Shutter: 1/500
- Aperture: f/2.0
- ISO: 1600
- Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
Composition and Processing
- With both knees bent curled in this way, all lines lead to the dancer’s head. Really, everything looks wound up around the center, and all those limbs conveniently lead outward to the corners too. The image probably would have been better without the mirrored reflection, which is a little distracting and pulls to the right. I centered the subject anyway and operated on the assumption the viewer would separate the reflection in their head and in a sense not consider it part of the shot. But it would have been better without it.
- I left the very faint bar in the mirror showing at the top to balance out the overall darker bottom of the image. While the subject is well grounded here and white space above would have been acceptable, it felt too empty at the top and heavy at the bottom without it.
Original:
March 31 2012 | Photography | No Comments »
The Before and After series focuses on the two or three key creative choices, in terms of composition and processing, that go into creating an image. Specific technical details about the shot have been left out — you won’t hear me talking about tone curve adjustments and whatnot unless it was a key component of the end result.
Stephanie poses in an accidentally over-exposed photo.
Exposure
- Shutter: 1/250
- Aperture: f/2.0
- ISO: 640
- Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
Composition and Processing
- I’m usually pretty good at just guessing the exposure settings I need for a shot, but every now and then I go ridiculously wide of the mark. I kind of liked the pose in this photo though, so I thought it would be worth seeing how far I could take it in post.
- Once I’d brought the exposure down as far as I could in Lightroom, I had to acknowledge there was information missing from parts of the arms and face that simply wasn’t there. The key then was to make sure the stuff that was in range was actually pushed up further relative to the blown out spots so they’d look less blown out by comparison.
- I sometimes like this sort of crop with lots of negative space, but it has a secondary purpose here. As above, having a lot of the image blown out to white de-emphasizes the blown out skin areas, making them tolerable.
Original:
March 30 2012 | Photography | No Comments »
The Before and After series focuses on the two or three key creative choices, in terms of composition and processing, that go into creating an image. Specific technical details about the shot have been left out — you won’t hear me talking about tone curve adjustments and whatnot unless it was a key component of the end result.
A patch of green three leaf clovers in Big Basin State Park, along the Skyline to the Sea trail.
Exposure
- Shutter: 1/60
- Aperture: f/2.8
- ISO: 800
- Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
Composition and Processing
- This felt like a shot that should be pretty flawless as far as the subject goes. Patching the chewed up leaves on the right, not to mention the larger gaps on both the top and right, was more work than necessary for this image. So I simply cropped in tighter and removed some of the twigs and dirt on the rest of the leaves.
- There’s no specific focus to this image, the eye simply wanders. It’s all pattern and color. Given that, I really punched up the green. Shots like these are always the ones I look back on years later and cringe at the processing, but for now I’m ok with it.
Original:
March 28 2012 | Photography | No Comments »