Composite Images To Feed Your Photographic Soul

Hello, and welcome to another post.  Recently, like I've discussed before, I've really started to move away from just taking pictures of pretty girls.  I mean taking pictures of beautiful women are great, but it starts to become very boring after awhile. It starts to feel as if my photographic soul is being sucked out of me one beautiful model at a time.  After the initial Strobist years it just all started to feel like the same thing. Let's also not forget about the constant ups and downs when trying to obtain a model from model mayhem.  You can literally spend a work week trying to get in touch with a model, then setup a shoot.  After that, you will more then likely have to contend with trying to get wardrobe, makeup etc. The list goes on and on.  I still enjoy it, but creatively my soul is somewhere else.

In searching to see what got me excited again, I started looking at works by Brooke Shaden, Joel Grimes and other conceptual & composite image photographers.  But the true moment of clarity came when I stumbled upon Phlearn.  Phlearn and the teachings of Aaron Nace were like a breath of fresh air.  He's teaching style and all in one format was great.  His tutorials and images quickly inspired.  I knew that if I took sometime to learn some of what he was teaching, I would have a new outlet to express my photography.  Did I mention just a few years back when I was learning skin retouching I promised myself that was hard enough and I would stop there.  However, thankfully Aaron brings a level headed well balanced teaching approach that makes Photoshop seem rather approachable and even easy at some junctures.  After watching Aaron do his Photoshop thing, it also lead me to seek out other photo manipulators.  This search also led me to the work of the very talented Calvin Hollywood and Glyn Dewis.  These guys are like the special forces when it comes to creating surreal photo composite images.


Recently I have been faced with some down days in my life.  I'm not the type of person to call a meeting and have a crying, hand holding and hugging session.  But like all people we need to find a way to express ourselves. I found solace in starting a project52.  With my project 52 I will take one photo a week for one year.  At the same time that I started this project 52 I also picked up Glyn Dewis new book The Photoshop Work Book.   This book is filled with some of Glyn's awesome images. All of the included images are broken down in detail from start to finish.  Glyn also has several companion videos on his youtube channel.  Armed with these newly acquired Photoshop tools, and the pain I was carrying around, it was time to put pen to paper.


I've studied and played around with many of the Phlearn tutorials, maybe even worked a few of them all the way out from start to finish, but never whole hardheartedly worked on bringing one of my own visions to life.

With so much pain of loss and despair going around in my head I wanted to convey this in my image.  I came across a photographer Michael Herb Michael Herb Photography  on Flickr. He had an image in my eyes that captured everything I was feeling at that time.  Michael Herb is a super talented photographer who has more talent in his Wacom stylus than I have in my entire body.  He seems to be a really cool guy.  I wrote him and explained how his image encouraged and inspired me, and he showed nothing but love in his response.

To start my first full composite image I would need to take an image that captured the emotions Rumbling around in my head.  So with no Model Mayhem, I settled on the only model who could really capture what I was feeling, myself.

This is the raw image that I would use to create my photo which is very similar to Michael's without being the same exact image.  My girlfriend to my camera left, is the best model in the world.  She's always on time knows exactly where to stand and doesn't go crazy if I don't have images ready for her in 2 days time.

Next I would need to remove my self from the background.  If you have access to any of Scott Kelbly's books he has a great short and simple video which really made me think differently about the pen tool.  Aaron Nace gives several explanations of the pen tool and how to use it, but seeing the short  Scott Kelby video really made me think about using it.  The tool is scary and foreign at first, but once you get the hang out it, you will probably want to use it for most  cutouts.

With the look and feel I had to also find a matching suitable background.  That also was made possible via Michael Herb.  Please checkout his companion website layerJunkie  for all of your composite image needs.  He has a good selection of sky images, fire, backgrounds and textures.  This dark ominous sky fit my current situation to the letter, and after seeing his image knew that I needed the same or similar background.

Next was to add myself  to this sky scene.  Which from this first picture that the lighting on me totally does not match this dark and dreary backdrop. I'm still very new at this but playing around with some hue/saturation & levels adjustments did the trick

 Even with the hue and saturation levels adjusted.  This picture still needed something else.  Unfortunately Michael Herb didn't have rain brushes on his site, but I was able to find some on Deviant art. However, most of these brushes still just did not give me what I wanted, so I was forced to search and learn how to create my own rain brush.   I believe that while creating these types of images learning one thing leads to another and so on.  This actually adds to the excitement of creating these images. It also keeps you in a constant state of learning and discovery.   With a few more nips and tucks the image was complete.  My first full composite was complete.  I cannot take credit and say that the conception was mine, but the feeling and emotion behind the shoot was.  As most photographers we tend to imitate, assimilate and hopefully we can move on to the innovation stage.  I myself have a project in mind which is a wicked mixture of both.

During this project I've learned that personal work will often be the work that moves people.  I've been on Flickr for well over 6 years.  In that time I believe the most views I have ever got on the life of a picture may have been a thousand.  Those pictures are all mostly pictures of lovely young ladies in typical beauty situations.  This self image born of emotion an creative emptiness made Flickr explorer with well over 5000 views in one day.  So, when your favorite photographer tells you that you should always try to fit time in or work on personal  projects you really should. You never know what or where working on what really drives you and gets your fire burning will take you. Please keep shooting, learning and growing

Link to Full Size Image on Flickr: Weathering The Storm 

Looking At The Paul C. Buff Foldable 35" (Medium) Octabox

Hello, and welcome yet again to another Paul C. Buff or Alienbee ,as some of you might call it, review.  I will try to keep this brief, or at least not as wordy and off topic as I usually tend to blog.

I had been looking at and researching octaboxes for quite sometime.  I had narrowed it down to the pcb octabox or the Apollo orb.  I have one friend who uses his Octabox religiously Mad'art Photography .  After working with him and his octabox I knew I had to have one.  I also have another friend who had the original Apollo orb (I believe they make all of the umbrella ribs out of fiberglass now) which gives a nice light but seems kind of flimsy on the build quality.  However, the Apollo orb seems great when it comes to versatility.  The orb gives you the option of using either an alienbee /Studio light or a Speedlight.  I chose form over function. 

I picked the 35" Paul Buff Alien Bees  Octabox because a lot of my shooting tends to take place while out on location.  Sometimes I have help, other times I'm alone.  Looking back I should have just picked up the 47", as it couldn't be that much bigger or unwieldy to handle alone.  For now I will just use what I have and make do. 

When the box arrived I was expected something much heavier, but to my surprise the box was packed with the accompanying grid which still didn't add to the weight. 

 

The octa comes out the box inside of a black holding bag for the Octabox.  The bag is kinda of flimsy but in no way a deal breaker.  I would however suggest maybe spending a few bucks to buy some material and take it to your local tailor or cleaners and have them sow you a bag.  I would have one made a little bigger than the octa to make it a bit easier when putting it back inside of the bag.  

The octa also comes with an outer diffusion panel and an option internal diffusion panel to further soften the light.  As for the option diffusion panel love it, but hate the snaps.  I'm not really sure, but the snaps are relatively small and I have to struggle to unsnap them.  Which leads me to believe that I will sooner or later brake or snap one off. 

  I love Paul Buff's umbrella and thumb screw design.  All you need to do is push down on the thumb screw towards the center of the Octabox , slowly and carefully allowing the box to naturally expand.  When you reach the center and here the snap, twist the thumb screw to lock in place and your done.  When I originally bought a giant alienbee/pcb softbox and octabox I hated it.  I hated the box so much that soon after I purchased it I tried to sell it.   I still can't give the octabox away ( I recently just tossed in the trash).  Build quality of the older Octabox was great, but playing around with those tension rods proved to be dangerous for me.  A few months ago I tried to set up the old octabox and nearly took my eye and ceiling light out.  That was about it for me. For the photography veterans who had to deal with that on a regular basis, god bless you pioneers and brave souls. Thankfully we now have the Paul Buff umbrella style design and many other similar designs where not as much play is needed with dealing with the tension poles.



Quality of light

I hope to do a few shoots personal and paid hopefully over the next few weeks to detail my use of the pcb octabox.  Ive taken a few shots with my favorite model so far but nothing to fancy.  I really must say that I love the quality of light.  I had initially done test, and as a disclaimer none of my test are brick wall scientific.  Because I don't know how to and I think for me would take most of the fun out of it.  I did do some measuring which I had intended to show  and explain in full detail, but someone accidentally deleted a few of the pics :-)

As a breakdown I will explain what I did do :
using the rule of thumb I picked up from Zack Arias that the light should be no further away from your subject then twice the diagonal of the face of the modifier.  Desmond what the hell are you talking about?  Ok what I did was simply tape a tape measure and measured a diagonal across the face of the octabox.  Lets say it measured 3ft.  I then double it and I should be able to have the soft box about 6 feet away from my subject and still maintain that "Octabox quality of light" before it starts to look more and more like a point source of light. 



This rule should also come in handy to help you decide which size soft box, octabox, umbrella or any lighting modifier that you will need.  Shoot in your living room studio often? is your living room a small box like mines? then a small 35"octa is great.  Do you on average shoot 1-2 people at a time in a small space? then a small octa is great.  Do you tend to shoot 3-7 people at once? Then its time to start stepping up the size of your light modifier.  You physically will have to have the light moved back 5-7 feet to get 4-6 people into a shot and have the light ratio remain constant across the frame. 

But here are a few shots with some the testing that I had started out to do before I accidentally started deleting some pictures. 

In all, I think its a great modifier, and one I will use often.  From the few quick test that I have done, I really like the look that I can achieve with the egg crate grid attached.  I did this write up because I've been able to find some stuff on Paul Buff's Octabox but nothing that really spoke specifically to the  35" Paul Buff/Alienbees Octabox or anything other then general info.  I'm sure this is not the best review out there and leaves much to be desired, but I hope it will be a little helpful to someone who was in the same boat as myself trying to pic out a Paul C. Buff/Alienbee Octabox.

Update:  This is an old blog post which I never got around to sharing.  I just wanted to add a few pics that were taken using the Octabox in the real world.  Hope this can help someone.  Again keep shooting training and practicing