TredSpeed Promos, with Raye.

Promo shots for mu husband's auto-shop. The model was a friend of mine in junior high before she moved to Vegas, and has since grown into a glamorous diva. It was great to see her after the better part of a decade, especially after watching her grow as a model and her watching me grow as a photographer!

I was trying to veer away from the played out bent-over-in-a-bikini kinda of car shoot, and even those that I've found that were staged like a babe was working on stuff...well, they were done pretty blandly (and badly!) So...an attempt! We're working on a calendar for the shop, so there will be more where these came from. This first shoot won't be included in that however since the calendar will feature strictly Datsuns.












~ Thursday, June 9, 2011 0 comments

Photoshop DJing, a tutorial.


After posting this photo, I've gotten numerous comments remarking how sketch-like it was and wondering how it was done. I haven't done a tutorial in a while, so...bottoms up!

I didn't feel like redoing the same image, so I chose another one that I took in the same cam-whoring session. Both these photos were taken in simple, diffused window light. The light in the photo is important to the effect--things need to be exposed evenly. Click the screenshots for a larger view.

Now, I need to you click the Channels tab on the Layers palette. Here you will see an RGB channel, and the Red, Green, and Blue channels separately. An RGB image is a composite of, obviously, all the Reds, Greens, and Blues in the picture. Each pixel is a combination of different percentages or each. The programming in our precious Photoshop doesn't actual "see" direct color though, so the numbers that make up the color percentages of each pixel are determined through the 3 separate B&W channels that Photoshop does see, using the amount of grey in the channel as a filter for how much of the color would shine through into the full composite image.

Above, I've displayed all three channels of the image I'm working with. You can see that skin tones etc. that have warmer, more red colors, are very light in the Red channel, but not so much in the Green and Blue. If this were, say, a photo of the ocean, the Blue channel would be primarily light instead. How I'm using the channels here is to manually define the tones in the finished B&W image. I want the glowing, lighter tones for the hair and eyes, and the detailed, darker tone for the skin, so I'll be using the Red and the Blue channels.

Click on the Red channel to display it, then Select All, Copy, click back to RGB and back to the Layers tab, and Paste. Repeat for the Blue channel.

Now your Layers palette should look something like this. Your original, a B&W Red copy, and a B&W Blue copy. The trick to mixing the two B&W layers is using a Layer mask. Select the top layer, then click the Layer Mask icon on the Layers palette (circled--or Layer>>Layer Mask>>Reveal All). This will give you an essentially empty canvas next to your layer that you can draw on with the brush tool to define what shows and what doesn't. Make sure you're painting with black to mask parts of the layer off, and white white to bring them back. The great thing about Layer Masks is that you can always change your mind without permanently erasing the actual layer!

I masked off the hair and eyes by drawing over them in the Layer Mask, as you can see in the thumbnail. You can also change the opacity (circled--essentially the strength) of your brush while painting for a less severe mask in certain places or however you see fit. Now the parts of the layer that I didn't mask off--the skin primarily--are darker like they are in the Blue channel, while the masked off parts allow the lighter Red channel to show through.

When you're satisfied, merge the B&W layers together (Layer>>Merge Down).

To even out the tones even more, I created a Curves layer to very slightly decrease the contrast, by making my brights darker, and my darks brighter.

Now, to get "sketchy." Make a copy of your B&W layer, and then you're going to apply the High Pass filter (Filter>>Other>>High Pass). As I'm writing this, my husband leans over and says, "High pass filters are for music, dummy," and he's right! In music, a high pass filter is used to only allow certain high frequencies through the amplifier. In the case of Photoshop, the "frequencies" allowed by the High Pass filter are the concentrated high contrast ares, like edges. The filter then boosts the saturation in these areas. The High Pass filter is especially useful in that it only affects the edges and details of an image, allowing you to sharpen just those and reduce noise sharpening in broader areas like skin.

When you choose High Pass, a window will pop up with a preview of the image and a slider prompting you to choose your radius in pixels. With a smaller radius your details will be more defined, and with a wider radius they'll be, well, wider. For this layer I'm choosing a wider radius. How little or big you choose to go depends on the size of your image, and of course, you! Play with it.

Once your filter has been applied, go to your Blending Mode menu on the Layers palette (it should say "Normal" to begin with). You'll want to choose either Soft Light, Overlay, or Hard Light (circled). I recommend either Overlay or Hard Light as they create a more drastic effect, and you can then modulate that with the layer's opacity (circled).

I then repeat this process by creating another copy of the original B&W layer and applying the High Pass filter again, this time with a smaller pixel radius.

As a finishing touch, I create another Curves layer to just slightly boost the contrast, and....

You're done!



~ Thursday, June 2, 2011 0 comments

Thunder Drift ProAm, Round 2.





I know so little about shooting events like races aside from point-and-click. Unlike fashion photography, you're not in control of, well...much, and that is where expensive, huge glass and lightning fast reflexes really make a difference--things that aren't in my otherwise well supplied camera bag. Whenever I'm at a race, I'm always looking to work the light & shadows, and this isn't usually what people are looking for. Plus, the middle of the afternoon sunlight isn't going to do you any favors. Maybe at next month's I'll rent a more appropriate lens. Practice practice practice!


~ Wednesday, May 25, 2011 0 comments

From my pocket camera!

Shot from a moving car on a Canon D10 (point & shoot camera!), with a color boost in Photoshop after. There is no reason to complain about cheap cameras!

Cars are just about all I've been shooting lately, and it's an entirely new experience. Making something look good at 70 mph is a lot different than making a static, stoic model look good. There will be lots more where this came from!


~ Monday, May 2, 2011 0 comments