I had a rare opportunity to photograph a pair of Mustangs this past weekend: one, a classic 1947 North American P-51D (“Lady Alice”) – doubtless one of the finest aircraft ever built; and the other, a 2012 Ford BOSS 302–one of the finest muscle cars on the planet.  How cool is that!

Many thanks to Dick Fields for arranging the shoot — I know it wasn’t easy to get clearances to be on the runway–and to Dr. Ken Wagner and Dale Havlu for bringing the horses to the party!

Thanks for dropping by!

J

Hi Friends,

No question about it – compositing is THE hot technique in Photoshop these days.  It’s a great way to create an image that couldn’t exist otherwise – since subject and background are typically in completely different locations. It’s also a terrific technique for wrangling lighting for large groups that would otherwise be difficult to control.

Masters of compositing like Joel Grimes, Matt Kloskowski, Calvin Hollywood, and David Palmer have introduced us to the “art” of this technique.  They’re also great sources of information on the process – from shooting to post production.

I wanted to share a couple tips that will help make your composites easier to create, and more realistic with regard to the blending of subject and background.  That said, I’d like to paraphrase a quote I picked up from a Joel Grimes workshop.  When Joel is taken to task on an image by someone who says that the background perspective, color, angle of view (whatever), doesn’t match the subject, his response is pretty much along the lines of, “I’m an artist.  It can be whatever I want it to be.”  So, as not to be shackled by the constraints of realism, here we go…

Tip #1: Shooting for Compositing

I prefer a three-light setup for compositing: one light as a key light from either directly above the camera position, or just slightly left or right of camera, and two edge lights behind the subject, aimed at the subject to provide some separation of the subject from the background.

In the image at right (one of the individual images used in the Hobbits composite at the top of this post), Cat is lit by a Nikon SB-800 speedlight in a 3-foot gridded octabox, just above the camera position.  There is an SB-800 to either side of her, slightly behind, flagged (to prevent lens flare), and aimed at the background. Frankly, I’ve done the rim lighting a number of different ways: with and without soft boxes, aimed at the subject, aimed at the background.  Different results with different techniques, but the important thing is to be able to have a good contrast between your subject and the background from which they’ll be selected.

The background does not have to be white, but it should be plain, and light enough to provide enough contrast with your subject so that the subject’s edges are well-defined.  This will make your selection process much, much, much easier.

Tip #2: Learn Photoshop’s “Refine Edge” Tool

Photoshop’s “refine edge” tool is probably the most important advancement in compositing technique in the history of compositing.  Combined with your favorite initial selection technique (quick selection, pen tool, etc.), the refine edge tool cleans up your selection in ways that you cannot imagine.  No more third party masking plug-ins necessary.  You’ve got it all in Photoshop.

Tip #3: Consider your Background

Before you spend a huge amount of time trying to make the perfect selection of your subject, drag your subject image onto your background, and THEN do your selection / refine edge with the view mode set to “on layers” so you can see your selection in place on the actual background.  Depending on how similar the original subject background is to the composited background, you may not need to be as precise as you think with your selection technique. For example, in the composite “The Root of Jesse” cast portrait below, the intended finished background was to be white.  So, I shot the individual portraits on white, and really only had to be particularly clean on the selections where people overlapped other people:

Tip #4: Layer Masks Are Your Friend

Using layer masks as you make your selection in Photoshop rather than deleting pixels provides you with way more options for refining, cleaning up, altering your selections going forward.  Once you delete pixels, it can be a real pain to go back and recover parts of the image after the fact.

Tip #5: Experiment with the Finished Image

To expand upon Joel Grimes’ comment, don’t worry if it doesn’t look “natural.” Typically, composite images are not meant to look like they were “photographed that way” (i.e., as a single image).  You’re the artist. Do it your way.

There’s lots more to compositing, but hopefully, these few tips will get you started in the right direction.  I’d love to hear more of YOUR best practices for compositing.  Post ‘em in the comments if you got ‘em!

Thanks for dropping by!

Jon

Hi Friends,

I had the privilege this week of providing family portraits at the 2012 Ronald McDonald House Family Christmas Party.  I don’t know the total number in attendance, but I photographed about 75 family groups, and with the help of my son, and the generous donation of a printer, we were able to print 4×6 photographs on site for the folks to take with them.

Thank you to the staff of Ronald McDonald House for all you do.  And thanks especially to my good friends, Royce Rumsey, Pat Finnerty, and my son, Conner, for your invaluable support and assistance!

For folks who were there, and looking for your portraits, you’ll find them in the gallery below.  (Note, there are several pages of thumbnails).  To grab your photo, click on the thumbnail for the larger version, then right-click to save the image to your computer).

Blessings to you this holiday season!

Thanks for dropping by!

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Hi Friends,

Had a blast working with the Weinstein family this week!  They used the pretense of a family portrait shoot to get everyone together for a big family BBQ – something they’ve apparently not been able to do in a while.  We shot at the beautiful Tustin Ranch Golf Club, and many thanks are due to Jolene, their wedding coordinator, for making it simple as simple could be!

A few of my favorites from the sitting…

More family portraits to be found in my Family / Kids gallery.  And if you are looking for a portrait photographer for an individual or family portrait, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for dropping by!

Hi Friends,

I recently had the privilege of photographing the team at Machine Precision Components: a custom machine parts fabrication firm in Southern California.  These guys will create anything as I understand it, but they specialize in manufacturing custom precision parts for aircraft – some you may have heard of: say, the Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II (aka, the Joint Strike Fighter), and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

It was quite the education for me to follow the process from concept drawings to CAD programing, to CNC machining from raw stock — aluminum, steel, titanium —  finishing, and precision measurement for quality assurance.

The challenge for me was to illustrate all of these steps in still photography.  The client wanted to convey to potential customers their strict adherence to process and the extraordinary level of craftsmanship and quality control. Shooting on location, rather than staging things in a studio setting adds an additional layer of realism and context to the images. Of course, such requires careful balancing of ambient light and very controlled strobe to create the mood and atmosphere, and draw your attention to exactly what we want you to see.  In addition, I have to be conscious of not getting in the way of their work.

In the end, I think we pulled it off, and the client was quite happy with the resulting imagery.  Can’t wait to see it on their website (which is currently in the processes of being rebuilt).  A few of my favorite images from the shoot follow…

Prepping the design and programming for the CNC milling machines:

The owner was quite proud of the fact that they use mobile tool carts — taking the tools to the job instead of having to move back and forth between machine and tool supply station.  I thought this illustrated that concept pretty nicely:

Raw material to finished product:

Extreme attention is give to quality control – requiring precise measurements and tracking of process:

Mauro — the owner / president– has reason to be proud of his operation:

Their building features brand new signage created by the extraordinarily talented, Darcie Copeland.

Corporate / commercial photography is my passion. More images of a wide range of business professionals in my Corporate Gallery.  If you find yourself or a colleague in need of professional imagery for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for dropping by!

J

Thanks for trusting me with your likeness this morning! For those who had your portrait made, you can download them from the gallery  below by clicking on the thumbnail, then right-clicking (Mac folks, control-click) on the larger image, then save to your drive.  (I thought this would be easier than individually emailing everyone with their images).

The images are a bit oversized for typical web use, but I figured that gives you room to use for different applications.

Hope you found it a fun experience, and have some use for the resulting image.  If nothing else, you now have a mugshot for your BNI profile page!

Thanks again!  See you all next week.

J

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Hi Friends,

I’ve been doing a fair amount of corporate portraiture of late.  Some are photographs on a neutral gray background for compositing purposes, and many are environmental portraiture – showing the client in his or her work environment.  Thought I’d share a few of my recent favorites here…

There are lots more corporate / commercial portraits in my portfolio gallery.  Feel free to have a look and leave a comment.  And if you’re in need of professional imagery for your business marketing materials, social media, website, print, or just want a portrait to hang on your wall, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks for dropping by!

Jon

Hi Friends,

Thanks to my good friend and fellow photographer, Royce Rumsey, I was provided media credentials with [nearly] unrestricted access to this weekend’s Dana Point Concours d’Elegance charity car show.  Along with Royce, Booker, Bob, Ed and a bunch of my Photoshop and photography students, we provided complete coverage of the events of the weekend for the PR firm secured by the Concours committee for promoting this year’s event.

This year’s theme focused on the “Legends of LeMans”, but with more than 200 cars entered, there were vehicles of all stripes and lineages present, including the winner of the prestigious 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Best of Show award:  Peter and Merle Mullins’ amazing 1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne (below).  I don’t think anyone was surprised that the Mullins’ Voisin took Best of Show at Dana Point as well. Simply an amazing piece of rolling art!

We managed to capture all of the LeMans racers in one location on the field, with famed collector (and all-around really nice guy) Bruce Meyer himself walking amongst them.

The official concours event took place on Sunday, but Saturday was an open car show and brought in some terrific American classics and hotrods, as well as a fine collection of VWs and Microbuses:

On Sunday afternoon, we were treated to a flyover of vintage aircraft…

The gallery below includes the entry photographs of nearly 200 vehicles as they proceeded to their designated destination on the course.  As you can see, just a phenomenal gathering of cars…

Thanks for dropping by.  And special thanks to Royce, Booker, Bob, Ed, and all my students who made it possible!

Gallery of Entries: 2012 Dana Point Concours d’Elegance Charity Car Show

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Hi Friends,

I have the distinct privilege of being the guest blogger today over at OC Bride Magazine.  My post is the result of a conversation I had with my Pastor at Anaheim First Church of the Nazarene regarding where NOT to scrimp on your wedding planning, and features some images from recent weddings: Eli and Sarah, Ana and Brian, Samantha and David, and Lisa and Jake.  More of their images are available in my wedding and engagement portraits gallery.

Please click the OC Bride Magazine link and give it a read.  I’d be curious as to YOUR thoughts as well.  Feel free to comment below.

Thanks so much for your continued support!

Photographed several members of an LA-based legal practice yesterday.  Their web folks needed a couple images right away, so I shot a few of my favorites off to them last evening. They used the following portrait of one of the principles in a composite for a promo push this afternoon:

Great bunch of folks – a lot of fun to work with!  More images to come…

Thanks for dropping by!

J