Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Spike gets Spiked
Juzno: Nice Haircut.
Spike Dee: I have a
photo op with Helmut Newton. He said he
can use an assistant. Wanna come?
Juzno: Nah, I'm doing
the Dalai Lama. I heard he wanted to
show off his new perm.
-----------------------------
Shot with Original Lensbaby. Hope your day is going great.
Featured Comments:
Glenn: I recently saw
a Helmut Newton exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century
City. It was a bit awkward seeing some
of his photos with my daughter, but in was interesting for her
nonetheless. I like how the spikes appear
out of the bluish blur in the photo... some more Photoshopping magic?
Juzno: Cheers,
Glenn... I know what you mean about
Helmut Newton. I simply used that
reference because he was the first that came to mind when it came to glamour
photography. Interestingly I read that
he never used artificial light in his photo op.
Just available light and that was it.
For the longest time I tried that approach and learned a lot about
lighting. But I felt there are situation
when artificial light can improve the shot.
The spiky plant is the one near the district library. I shot it last Friday after talking with
you. Actually my last shot for the day -
which tends to be the best because I already warmed up. No photo manipulation. Just changed the white balance for cooler
temperature and played with the saturation in post processing. Some dodge and
burn on the corners to create vignette.
The blurry effect is in-camera using the Lensbaby. Real simple approach. Too simple that it surprises some people who
think I spent hours in post-processing when it only took a few minutes.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Lily Gaga
Juzno: Your arrival is kind of late. It's already Fall Season.
Lily: I'm dressing up
as Miley Cyrus for Halloween.
Hope your day is getting better.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
In over Jerry's head
Juzno: How does it
feel to play Mr. Mistoffelees every week in Cats?
Jerry: Actually I'm
quitting that gig. I have a job offer to
be the Vice-President of Marketing for a Fortune Top 20 company.
Juzno: Neat. What are the perks?
Jerry: I speak truth
to the powerless.
Hope your day is going well.
Techie Notes: Both
eyes are green in his real life. I added
a graduated color defined filter to warm the right side of his head - just to
make it a bit interesting. The blur is
created by making a duplicate layer in Photoshop. From it, I just clicked on the default motion
blur preset in PS. Erased the middle part so the original layer underneath
shows up un-blurred.
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Rosa on Raising Children
Juzno: A penny for your thought?
Rosa: It is the time you have wasted for your rose that
makes your rose so important.
Juzno: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry?
Rosa: No, my tax
preparer.
Hope your day is going well.
Featured Comments:
Glenn: I suppose tax
preparers have lots to say about wasted time.
Anne: Very nice. I love roses.
Perfect lighting. How do you make
the background dark?
May I keep this one for a card later if I need to make one
for emergency?
Juzno: Thanks. You can use this for your card, Anne.
There are a number of ways to make the background dark. I used to just shoot as-is, and burn and
dodge in post processing. But usually
the result is artificial. The best way
is to do it on-camera.
The trick is to be able to find the right background so the
red on the rose would pop out. I just
keep looking on the view finder until the lighting on the background looks
good. I shot this on manual exposure: f4
at 1/200. On auto, my camera wants to
shoot at f4, 1/80 but I decided to underexpose it so I can get the background
dark. In Photoshop, I selected the red
channel and pushed the red back up in the Curves Overlay. This way only the reds are affected. It’s really easier to show it than it sounds.
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Golden Years
Not much of a story here except that they were once little
orphans who were left to fend for themselves because their parents were
uprooted and taken to fight against the evil Lord Tutu. Fortuitously, the parents left them with a
hefty tax-free inheritance through a Federal Program called Uniform Gift to
Minors. As we can see, they are now
enjoying their golden years.
Have a great weekend.
Techie Notes: Pretty
much on a plateau with Street Photography right now. Even looking at other people's SP work does
not seem to inspire me much. So yea, you
could say I'm taking a break from SP.
This is really an old photo I dug from the grave (my
archives). Rose saw this and suggested I
shoot with the Lensbaby (the lens I used for this sot) again. The halo and blurry effect is on-camera. Was not done in post-processing.
Probably shot around 2010 when I used the LB
exclusively. When I saw the file name it
suggested to me that I used the original LB.
Since then, the lens manufacturer has come up with different versions.
I just reprocessed this using better tools and fresher
vision. I've been doing that nowadays -
revisiting my old work and see how I can improve them: either re-shooting or
re-processing.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
I'm going for a new look
Juzno: New hairdo?
Rosalee: I asked for
a trim but my hair dresser thought I would look good with this style.
Juzno: Goes well with
the season. Reminds me of Audrey Hepburn
meets Sinead O'Connor.
Rosalee: Agree. Now I need to try a new wardrobe to go with
it. I'm thinking earthy rust color.
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