Bounce Lighting + Basic Skin Softening = Cool Photo

Westcott kicked off its nationwide Top Pro Tour yesterday in NJ with yours truly. As usual, I handed over my tethered Canon 5D Mark II camera and let several of the participants shoot!

Oh yeah! Before it was my turn to present, Dave Piazza illustrated the beautiful lighting effects that can be achieved with constant lights (Spyder Lights). So, it was Dave on constant lights and me on flash. :-)

The lighting for the above image was simple: We bounced my camera-mounted Canon Speedlite 580 EX flash into a Westcott large reflector, which softened and spread the light.

Here is one of my favorite images, shot by one of the participants. It started out as a color file, which I converted to black-and-white using Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro. I added the drop shadow and thin black line in Photoshop.

To soften the model's skin, I used this skin-softening technique in Photoshop:
- Duplicate the layer.
- Change the blending mode of the top layer to Overlay.
- Go to Filters > Others > High Pass.
- Press Command/I.
At this point, the entire top layer should be softly blurred.
- Use the eraser tool over the eyes and mouth to sharpen those areas.

Thanks to all the photographers who participated in this fun event! And thanks to our model, Laurence Yang, for helping to make the photographs look great. Tip: never underestimate the importance of a good subject.

I hope you can join some of my photographer friends in the other stops on the Top Pro Tour! You can save $20 by using this code when you register: TPT7231.

To learn more about lighting, check out my latest app, Light It!

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. You can get a 15% discount on Silver Efex Pro, and all Nik plug-ins, here.

Black-and-White HDR Rocks!

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is becoming more and more popular – and easier than ever with programs like Photomatix, and now with the new (and greatly improved) HDR Pro in Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Even though these programs are powerful and offer almost endless creative options, you will find that exploring additional black-and-white options open up additional creative possibilities. I say "additional" because you can desaturate an HDR image to create a black-and-white image.

One reason for the added creative options in black-and-white imaging: When you remove the color from a scene, you remove some of the reality. When you remove some of the reality, your picture can look more artistic and creative.

Here are two examples of black-and-white HDR images. Both images were original created in Photomatix from color files. To create the black-and-white effect, I used Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro plug-in.

As an aside, Ansel Adams was a master of HDR imaging. He created high dynamic range images in the wet darkroom by burning/dodging, using different filters/papers/chemicals, and by vary exposure times. Kinda interesting when you think about how long HDR has been available – to pros like Mr. Adams.

Back to Silver Efex Pro. You'll find several cool Presets, which suggest starting points for your images. One is Antique Plate, illustrated below. After selecting a Preset, you have many other creative options, including which color digital filter to apply to an image, shadow/highlight control, brightness, contrast, and of course, control points.


You can get a 15% discount on Nik Software products here.

If you have CS5 (or CS4), other options for creating black-and-white images are available in ACR (under the HSL tab) and as a Black-and-White adjustment (use an Adjustment Layer).

Have fun creating your black-and-white HDR images.

Explore the light,
Rick