Musicians

We posted on Craig's List looking to photograph bands and musicians. Here we are with a photograph of Breanna and the Spice Girls, Yes really, we also photographed her with Jimi Hendrix and with Elvis -- at the WAX museum :-) We even got to "meet" Prince while we were in NYC, ok so he might have melted had he left the building but it was still fun.









The BEATLES!


iBreanna -- very fun and east to create, from almost any image (since you are making a silhouette out of it it doesn't even have to be properly exposed or tack sharp).




I found a website where you can numerically enter in the 'Apple colors' so these greens, blue and purples are genuine.





Teenagers are the obvious choice for the "i" theme but babies, dogs and adults can be done up this way too...





OK now here is a real live (no wax) beautiful actress that Tom photographed.




I was playing around with the 'onone' frames (http://www.ononesoftware.com/) and created these two versions of this photograph.




Here is the B&W with a hint of chocolate action again, I really like the effect.



OK here is a sample of what her final poster/CD cover/magazine spread could look like. The words are actually a brush in Photoshop from Sandy Puc.

Buddy painted

After seeing Summer as a painting I had to try it with this dog...

This is another golden retriever, a large 4 year old male. This photograph was taken on their porch using a reflector to bounce some light into the dog. Below are 4 versions of the same photo, the original (a little blah and cluttered), the edited version (pretty good) and then two different paintings. I kind of prefer the last one because of Buddy's eyes (click on it to make it larger).

Summer has been painted

Our new puppy Summer will be 6 months old on Wednesday. I took this photograph of her and then turned it into a painting.


We have been taking puppy classes, which are really to train the people not the puppies ;-) at Paws and Effect here in Hamden (http://www.pawsneffect.com/). I brought Amethyst to them years ago when she was a puppy and now they have a bigger and better facility. Summer is a quick learner, but sometimes only when she wants to. We talked to the owner and we might set up a day in the fall to offer Holiday card photographs for her dog owners. I think that would be a LOT of fun!



Created a painting from the photograph



and then framed the painting. She is sooo cute (OK maybe I am biased, but come on, she really is cute)

The wonderful world of Chroma

Most of us know that there is nothing behind the weatherman when he gives his report, he stand in front of a 'Chroma' screen and the background is put in behind him. Tom and I have been using this system for about two years now. Here are a few examples of children and 'chroma' backgrounds. They are great because we can photograph the baby or child comfortably and then later change the background. We have several examples of this type of editing on our website (www.TLC.smugmug.com/children), especially in Peyton, Sydney and Eleanor's galleries.

Here is Erika reading to her son Peyton in front of our Chroma blue screen. The background is OK and this photo looks very good in Black and White, but see below what we can do with this...



Peyton has been removed and it now sitting on a toadstool...



Eleanore on a leaf...



Eleanore on a flower...



Eleanore in a nest...



Eleanore on a lily pad...


We have lots of these photographs with almost infinite potential. I enjoy these immensely although I am still awed by the simplicity of a B&W photo of five tiny fingers wrapped around their parent's finger or ten tiny toes.





I believe that sometimes simple B&W photography just allows the soul of the people to show thru more.



But it's still great to have the ability to give these little angels wings...

The McFarlane's

We photographed Valynne and her husband Bernard, plus their two 'kids'. I put 'kids' in quotes because they are both grown and in fact Aaron has recently gotten engaged.







Bernard






Julia...



Ahh...siblings...


I was trying something creative here, paint brushed the edges of the photo and then put a keyline around them.




OK, above is Aaron in color. I have been trying different Black and White conversions. Below are three different versions. The 1st one to me is too flat. I like the second one but the third one (a B&W conversion with a hint of chocolate) is my favorite. Which one do you prefer?








The action that made the above B&W is called "B&W with rich chocolate"


Here is Jackie, soon to be Aaron's wife...





I just love this B&W rendition of the two of them. Perhaps they will use it as a signature photograph for their wedding reception.





A collage of the whole McFarlane family. I used an action purchased from MCPActions http://www.mcpactions.com/ to create this collage.

Touch of Light Touch of Darkness

We are always looking for and creating new actions to speed things up and creatively improve our photographs. I came across these today via the 'Digital photography School'.

Jodi also has an interesting Blog full of creative ideas, news, tutorials, actions, tips, etc. http://mcpactions.com/blog/

Check our her simple but very effective tutorial on layers http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/understanding-layers-in-photoshop/

This is what Jodi writes "Have you ever wanted to just lighten the face in your photo? Have you ever wanted to just lighten a part of a photo you did not expose properly? Have you ever wanted to add emphasis to part of the photo by darkening the surround area but leaving the subject lighter? If so, I have a special treat for you. It is an action called “Touch of Light Touch of Darkness.” It will help you achieve this look! I have been getting requests to make and sell an action like this for months. But I have decided as a gift to my loyal MCP Actions Blog Readers to make this a FREE action. In exchange for the free action, I would love for you to spread the word about my blog -tell your photographer friends to come get the action here too. This is a Blog EXCLUSIVE. This one will NOT be going on my regular website.

Here are four before and after photographs using her Touch of Light Touch of Darkness actions.

Peyton before Touch of Light Touch of Darkness

Peyton After Touch of Light Touch of Darkness

Peyton after Touch of Light Touch of Darkness, with a portrait filter

With a 'Scott Kelby frame' via an action I created after his seminar

Socrates and Leonardo "Before"

Socrates and Leonardo "After" Touch of Light Touch of Darkness

Beautiful Sydney "Before"

"After" Touch of Light Touch of Darkness

with portrait enhancement too

"Before"

"After" Touch of Light Touch of Darkness

with Painter