A thread with photos and things.

GTRacer · 3 Jun 2014 at 01:38

Before is on the left:

It was basically one colour balance adjustment layer on the top, I pushed the mid tones at around -28 towards magenta and pushed it to -9 for the highlights, then I filled the mask with black to hide everything and then painted the areas back in with a soft white brush (very rough since I'm using a trackpad at the moment). Finally I dropped the opacity to about 28% so that she didn't look like she suffered from sunburn!

Here's the other one that I did before but I felt I went a bit too far on the magenta push which I felt messed with the balance of the tones too much:

BananaDunka · 3 Jun 2014 at 02:50

Cheers GTRacer your info has been helpful and appreciated! With those changes in mind I came to a similar result but edged toward a more neutral feel to keep the original colour without the greenish tint on her face. Think it works much better now!

And a new duo:

BananaDunka · 6 Jun 2014 at 12:35

Here's a few potatocam teasers from yesterday's shoot for a small fashion academy startup aimed at the Asian bridal market in London. They hired 3 models 2 of who are well known and already pose for bridal magazines round here and 1 who is new and wants to see how things go.

I think it went well. They only want a handful of photos to promote the academy's make-up to show brides to be etc and I shot in the style of salon/fashion headshots. Single 59" parabolic umbrella + remote speedlite (YN-560 Mk1) and a solo speedlite (YN-560 Mk1) bounced to light the backdrop. I used the 85mm 1.4 between 2.8-4 depending on level of DOF I wanted with a few at 1.4 using ambient light to get some moody shots for my own gallery.

The results were surprising. I didn't expect them to look magazine out of the camera and minimal editing is needed (blemishes, stray hairs etc). Edits to follow later!

I had my camera tethered to the tablet running DSLR Controller app which allowed the owner and make-up artists to preview images as they were being shot without distracting my shooting which they (and myself) found really handy. Allowed me to check in greater detail lighting and other stuff. Could screenshot and email over test samples from it directly too which was nice.

Several hours shooting, pizzas, laughs and 3 pretty models to work with and get paid for it. What's not to like

BananaDunka · 7 Jun 2014 at 04:45

And here they are

Rather different to my usual portraiture but keeping things different keeps me focused and not get bored so I guess it evens out.

#selfie!

So out of several hundred shots they're only going to be picking 2 to process per model for each "Look" and outfit - This is all new to me so knowing the terminology they use will likely take time. I enjoyed the shoot, the technical side of things worked out nicely and batteries lasted the entire day which I was happy with considering how much use the tablet got as well as the 5D3 being on at all times while tethered (sleep mode is disabled by DSLR Controller).

BananaDunka · 23 Jun 2014 at 03:54

A few from yesterday's filming.

^ RED Scarlet :eek:

Oh yeah there were some dogs about too, very friendly and photogenic

snow patrol · 23 Jun 2014 at 06:36

great shots indeed!

bridesmaid in post 21 looks just like drew barrymore

BananaDunka · 23 Jun 2014 at 08:05

She will be pretty chuffed to hear that I think!

Cheer

jonneymendoza · 27 Jun 2014 at 21:44

Good shots as always mrk.

Let me know next time you pop round London.

Columbo · 28 Jun 2014 at 09:01

The guy passed out in the chair with a glass of wine is pure photographic genious!

SDK^ · 28 Jun 2014 at 11:43

It would helpful if you could provide so info on the lenses and lighting setups you use.

BananaDunka · 28 Jun 2014 at 16:22

Hmm I have 3 lenses, 2 primes and an uwa zoom, Sigma 35mm 1.4, Sigma 85mm 1.4 and the 17-40L. I've settled on this combination as it's the range I shoot at almost exclusively so haven't seen the need for anything else for a long time.

Having said that, a 70-200 2.8 may be on the cards over the next 12 months especially if I'm shooting stills during filming at locations as big as the above more often!

Lighting wise, for the last batch of photos no additional lighting was used. I relied on a diffused reflector to kick some fill light from the sun on to the faces and shadow areas of the people and the rest was exposing for the mids and controlling highlight contrast i post. The exclusion here is close-up shots like the dogs and the male actor, Alex, in the first pic, they were shot without any props.

For the model/fashion shots I used 2x YN-560s with the diffusers up bouncing off 59" parabolic umbrellas.

The 5D3 renders skin tones really well even after bringing out the exposure in post so I kept that in mind and shot to underexpose but not by much, just so I had control over the exposure in Lightroom later. Better to be under and bring it up than be over and lose highlight detail in this kind of setting I find.

jonneymendoza · 28 Jun 2014 at 18:06

mrk i tend to overexpose because you can pull it back without losing detail on the shadows unlike when you underexpose a shot, you tend to lose the shadow details and create more Noise as well in the image

SDK^ · 28 Jun 2014 at 18:12

The 'rule' was always, expose for the highlights.

BananaDunka · 29 Jun 2014 at 00:28

Underexpose for the scene, use some experience to know by how much because the light meter in the viewfinder won't always tell the whole story, knowing the situation and the results from past experience in similar scenes will though

A new edit of one of the earlier sessions not yet uploaded:

BananaDunka · 1 Jul 2014 at 04:25

Catch!

BananaDunka · 3 Jul 2014 at 04:34

jonneymendoza · 3 Jul 2014 at 10:06

nice. keep at it mrk.

i am too scared to do wedding photography.

BananaDunka · 7 Jul 2014 at 04:27

What's to be scared about?

mr tommo · 7 Jul 2014 at 10:20

mrk said:
A few from yesterday's filming.

Love that!

BananaDunka · 7 Jul 2014 at 11:55

Can't wait to shoot with those guys again.