John Cameron. 09/30/09. Idea/Concept Blog

So I finally got into the studio and tried out my idea. I got three of my friends from the rugby team, and tried to do a technique where I could try to merge certain parts of the image together. I maintained my usual idea of taking emotion into studio, where it shows Nick calling a play and getting ready to pass the ball. But I also tried to keep the three guys to stand in the same stance. I tried giving three of the images a quick merge, but I realized that it needs to be a time consuming job. If it is to succeed that is.

Required, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" by John Cameron

I am going to try and merge the 3 images together with photoshop on Friday, and see if it works out. But today I'm going to talk about a process that I have been looking into in editing photographs. Two artists, Dave Hill, and Tim Tadder have been doing this process. The process is by using HDR (High Dynamic Range) and by also dodging and burning in on the shadows and highlights. A soft or hard light overlay is also added for a nice contrast.

By Tim Tadder

This is image is by Tim Tadder, and as you can see it looks painterly like. I enjoy it a lot and it's what I intend to use with my photographs for this portfolio. The shadows and highlights are enhanced to give it 3-D look. With the images I took, I used two soft boxes to the side, slightly behind the subject. I then had a beauty dish in front of the subject, and also another grid (with a chimney on the end) to highlight the face.

My soft boxes had styrophome sheets infront of them to create thin strips, and they were set at f/11. I had the beauty dish at f/8, and the grid at f/4.5. Towards the end of the shoot, I added a blue see through sheet (1/2 strength) to cover the soft boxes, so that it would create a more 3-D look. I was getting a very warm contrast in the front of the bodies, so I created a cool tone to be shown on the arms for that 3-D feel.

Harri, Digital Photograph, 2009. 20"x30" by John Cameron

This image is of Harri, it was before the blue tint. The one of Nick at the top, has the blue tint.