digitalnoisephoto » Photoshop

Towers From The King

Lou — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:03:09 +0000

Ivan and I were killing some time in downtown, and I decided I wanted to shoot something. We ended up in Old Sac, and he had the brilliant idea of trying to get access to the third deck of the Delta King, with the iconic Tower Bridge in the background. The manager was nice enough to let us up there, and so we just put together a fun experimental shoot at night on Sacramento’s beloved Delta King riverboat hotel and restaurant.

I’m still working with my very less-than-adequate strobes, and it was pretty dark, so I was working with fairly long shutter speeds, between .5 and 4 seconds, depending on other settings. Overall it was an interesting experience. Basically, I learned to not wait until it’s actually dark to make a dark background. A 30 minute jump on the shoot and I’m sure it would’ve come out better. Either way, it was fun, we got some relaxing productive time, and basically had a good evening to end the weekend. I’m just thankful that Ivan puts up with my crap while I’m trying to figure out crazy stuff like this, it’s much appreciated.

Anyways… Technical details, summed up (it’s late, I’m tired): The Minolta firing through the shoot-through camera right up close, the Phoenix firing bare about twice the distance as the Minolta, from camera left feathered behind him a bit. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8, ISO 800, .5/sec @ f/11.

Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)

Lou — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:11:40 +0000

I’ve been a bit quiet here on the photoblog, but the camera hasn’t been coming out too terribly often recently. Such a shame.

In fact, it almost didn’t come out last night, but Sarah managed to talk me into doing a group shot. I can’t begin tell you how great it is to have someone who actually is excitedly supportive of it, it’s a nice change.

This is our group. Well, most of it. There are a few key people missing, but for the most part, this is the gang. Most of them are the regulars, although a few are new, which I always welcome. As crazy and retarded as we end up sometimes, it’s a good group, and we all have fun.

From left to right: Ninja, Jeff, Tony, Luke, Heidi, Colby, Sarah, Ivan, Eliza, Ray (sitting), Bill is behind Alisa, and me.

And yet again, photography while drinking equals mistakes–notice how I ghosted myself with the lights off in the background? Yeah. I was fully aware of it being a 4 second exposure, but I took off early on all shots. Why? Because I had a restless gang of drunkards who were giving me grief! Just kidding hehe. But I did end up ghosting myself in all of the shots, which I guess I would say was the only real issue I have with these, other than the fact that not all the back row are lit. Still, for doing this super rushed, I’m pleased with it.

Strobist info: 4 second exposure @ f/5.6, ISO 200, 50mm f/1.8 lens. Minolta Auto 118x flash triggered by Cactus v4 triggers, with my Phoenix flash slaved with a hotshoe slave (even though the phoenix has a built-in slave. wtf was I thinking? haha!)

Luke – 27th Street Parking Garage

Lou — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:08:28 +0000

So, I don’t normally go for the crazy post-processed artificial look, but because of the MASSIVE flare coming from the VAL’d light back camera right, I thought I’d go for it instead of attempting to fix it.

Dragged Ivan, Krissy, and Luke up to the top of the 27th Street Parking Garage on Saturday and made them brave the crazy cold winds so I can take silly pictures of them being, well, silly. Good times though.

The more I look at this photo, the more I like it, but I know it’s definitely not my M.O., so to speak. Either way, as long as I enjoy it for what it is, and Luke likes it, I guess that’s what matters.

I may put up more from that night later, but for now, I’m doing exactly what I said I wouldn’t do tonight and am up WAY too late. Night!

Figure workshop – Jennifer 02

Lou — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:01:52 +0000

Figured I should probably get another one of these posted. I’ve been procrastinating on a lot of these because Photoshop is borked on my machine somehow, and a lot of these require extensive use of cloning to get rid of unwanted background stuff. Lightroom doesn’t have much in the way of precision when it comes to this sort of thing, but it does the job in a rough kind of way.

Here’s one of the early shots into the shoot. Love how this came out, been one of my faves from the get-go. I pause almost every time I browse by it.

And I guess you could blame my friend Veronica for making me feel like I’m not doing my duty of posting new pics, and therefore getting me to do one of these when I should be showering and going to bed. Which I’m doing now, as it’s getting late.

Like it? Not so much? Post your thoughts in the comments!

OMG! WTF Did I Do??

Lou — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:52:58 +0000

Been talking about it for a few weeks now, but I went and did it Thursday night. I cut my hair! It’s gone! WTF!! Yeah, I know, I’ve lost my signature “metalhead” look, but even then, I guess I wasn’t too metalhead-looking. Either way, the long hair is gone, the short hair has returned after like, a decade’s absence.

Obviously taking pics of oneself requires more effort than I’m willing to put forth, so I had Steve help me pull the trigger. He enjoyed it though, so it was fun times.

So what do you think? Like it? Don’t like it? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Figure workshop – Jennifer 01

Lou — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:46:20 +0000

I got in touch with a Sacramento-based portrait photographer by the name of Tim Engle, after I wrote up an article about him and his photography. He invited me to join the photography group he started, and luckily shortly thereafter, he ended up putting on a few workshops, which I gladly signed up for a session. The workshops were focused on two things–DIY continuous lighting and figure/model photography, and how to combine the two aspects. I definitely do love my DIY photo tricks, and I definitely love models/people. This sounded like a great time to me.

Our session consisted of about 8 or 9 photographers, Tim, and our model for the session, the lovely and talented Jennifer. To be honest, this is pretty much my first time ever shooting a real model in a real situation. Yeah, I’ve shot friends, bands, other people, but at least to me and my inner shy-person, this is totally different. I ended up being pretty nervous, not knowing what I wanted her to do or how to pose her–eek! But in the end, Tim was a great help during our one-on-one time at the end, and had some great ideas for me to work off of.

I shot a LOT of frames, and ended up with some pretty good stuff. This is just one of them. One of the good ones that didn’t require photoshop for killing out background elements that weren’t covered by the backdrop–lots of photogs, small space, not everyone gets the benefit of the backdrop all the time. And until I reinstall Photoshop on my laptop, this is it for now.

Again, definitely a really good time shooting with the group (despite how quiet I was lol), Tim is an excellent instructor, and I learned a lot through the session, as well as got some great shots of Jennifer. I’ll post more as I get them edited and whatnot.

Oh, and if this is the main pic when you come to this site, sorry for the lame crop on the graphic. It’s automatic, and I can’t target it. Bah.

The Brightness Is Bright

Lou — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 03:50:40 +0000

Another photo from the Apple Hill trip. Again, forgot the farm name, but there was this huge stack of apple bins behind the barn-type building, and I got a few interesting shots. I don’t shoot enough of patterns and whatnot, so I thought I’d do just that.

Brother From A Different Mother

Lou — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:55:47 +0000

I’ve had this shot lying around in Lightroom for a while, and I never got around to doing anything with this day’s shots. We went up to Apple Hill in October, and this one was a collaboration between Steve and I (mutual idea, his iPhone). Don’t ask me about the title, I’m tired, and it was the best thing I could come up with (although “One of these things is not like the others / One of these things just doesn’t belong” is still stuck in my head hehe).

Don’t remember which farm this was at, but it’s the one with the pond and fishing area.

Day 4/365 – Street Fighter IV

Lou — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:45:08 +0000

I know, I know. I’m horrible. I only got Day 1 because it was after midnight during an existing shoot, and I didn’t even bust out the camera on Day 2 or 3. Wow, talk about fail. Anyways. I decided that I really need to do at least as many days as I can. I’m too flakey when left to my own devices and existing plans/schedules, and rarely feel the desire or inspiration to shoot something. Tonight I did.

I thought I’d shoot something inanimate, and try lighting it. Here’s Steve’s Street Fighter IV fight pad, being held up by a black 360 controller and a DualShock 3 controller. Cause I’m that resourceful. Apparently I didn’t even bother to clean off the table hehe.

Strobist info: Vivitar 285 @ 1/16th power zoomed all the way in through a handheld white reflector (works well as a shoot-through, I didn’t feel like busting out the stand and brolly), triggered by the Cactus v4 trigger, propped up on the trigger and some random piece of video hookup gear (cause the foot’s busted off of it. urgh). Phoenix D92-BZS sat on the floor with two full CTBs (one creates too much white light, power isn’t adjustable on this flash) pointed up and to the wall a bit, triggered optically. Canon 50mm f/1.8 shot at f/5.6 @ ISO 100

Day 1/365 – Krissy Vomit

Lou — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:15:04 +0000

Yes, that’s the name she goes by. Krissy is definitely a very colorful person, and I came to met her thanks to Ivan and Jeff. We’ve only hung out a handful of times, but she’s becoming one of my closest friends, and is always a riot to be around.

This shot was taken just after New Years Eve had come and passed, and while this isn’t the first picture that came out of my camera once the new year hit, I think this is a good choice for my very first post of my Project 365. We’ll see how well this process goes, and hopefully I’ll manage to actually pull this off.

Strobist info: Umbrella’d Minolta Auto 118x up fairly close at a 45/45 camera left, Phoenix D92-BZS down low hitting her lower half a little camera left, Canon 70-210 f/4 shooting at f/5.6 @ ISO 100