For a while I am walking with this idea in my head to create a book, a photo book of coarse. I already got a theme and some ideas on the type of photography. Below you will find an sample of the first test shots.

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In the near future I will explain the whole idea, but for now you will have to do with some teasers, and a working title – Phantoms

The first shoot where I tried the floating concept (or should I say hovering?). My daughter and I had a lot of fun creating these trick photography photo’s. Wondering how we did it? – just place your mouse over the large image to see the un-edited version.
After shooting we went straight home (to warm up and) to see the result. After a few tweaks in Adobe Lightroom we were both satisfied with the end result.

The whole idea is that you support your subject with something that  distincts from its surroundings, so in my case the green stool. This can be easily removed in an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop. Make sure you place your camera on a tripod and make the shot. Then remove the subject and the stool without altering the rest. So in the above example we needed to be careful not to leave footprints in the snow or bump against the sled. Take a second shot (without the little lady and stool) and in Photoshop you load both photos. Place the one with the subject in it on top of the other.
Use your favorite tool to remove (erase) the green stool from the top image. And as if it’s magic you will see it disappear. (In other words the image in the back will show where the stool was. And because you used a tripod it will not differ from the top image.
In my case I was careless and I needed also the remove the pulling rope which was tied to the sled. As you can notice I also had to created (draw) the missing parts of the black pants of Nicki otherwise her legs wouldn’t look natural. To top it off I also extended the scarf, and added shadow on the

A while ago I have been working on an old concept. (I just realised that I also need to place those photos as well (will do tomorrow)) The concept is about floating, and in this particular case, it is my 4yrs old daughter who will be doing the floating (flying, hovering, or whatever you want to call it).

Above you can hover with your mouse over the image and you will see the before and after versions

My first edit was the one here on the right. After toying with it for a while I can to the conclusion it still needed a few things. So I kept fiddling until I came to the result here above. I especially like the movement that I added to the image.
For this I used Adobe Photoshop and added radial blur to the wheels and motion blur to the background. When done I re-imported the photo into Adobe Lightroom so I could make the last adjustments. (vibrance, clarity, and whitebalance)

As added bonus we also brought the slede. And this became the prop for the next shot, which you can see here on the left. We used the same technique as before. But more about that later on.

Have been playing around with Adobe Photoshop to get a new look and feel for my next project. And am still not convinced what road to follow.

Feel free to let me know what you like best. Color or the old fashion Black and White? Just leave a comment.

Click on the photos to see more (I also included the originals so you see what was changed)
[Canon G12, with flash]

Been playing with something new – cinemagraphs, a photo with a litte bit extra. Cinemagraphs are photographs with a subtle moving element in it. Originally the idea was created by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg. On their website you will find some very beautiful examples (http://cinemagraphs.com).
For me this was the first tryout and I still see many hurdles to take before I get the image that I want. But hey practice makes perfect. Just let me know what you think of this one.

Just some experimenting within Lightroom. I did like the result so I wanted to share them here, click on the photos to see a larger version.

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I just realized that I never published anything about my new water drop setup.
So here it is. I have been busting my head for a long time on how to get around the issue of spending way too much money on an expensive drip installation and an electric trigger system.
And finally I saw the light. I needed a medical drip. So I started my search on the net and it took me a while to realize that it was a quest with no end. III asked around if someone knew somebody that had access to medical supplies. But no luck.

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Finally I found a website here in Holland that would sell drips to private an address. But only the drip system and not the bags that you need to fill up with liquid.
I decided that I would figure something out and ordered two sets. When I received the package I opened it as soon as possible and examined the system. Never paid any attention to stuff like this so did not know what to expect. Luckily one end had a thick sharp end, and I figured that I would be able to push this thru the cap of a lemonade bottle. And so I did.
I filled the bottle with water and found out that it was not working. I took a while to realize that I needed an extra hole in the other end of the bottle to let air in. And guess what, I had a system that produced drips that I could regulate.
So still no trigger system. I decided to go with the old fashion system – good luck.
See below for my first umbrella drops. Next phase will

Another experiment that I have been working on, water drops. This is still a huge challenge for me. I keep doing something wrong.
The results I get are alright but that is where it ends. I have been reading many tutorials and this has improved the results but I am still not satisfied. There is always something (little) that prevents me of getting the result that I want.
For example, when you look at the pictures in this gallery you will see little white spots in the water. These are little air bubbles that were sticking to the bottom of my glass bowl. And I couldn’t find a way to get rid of them. I do realize, after reading a few more tuts, that I need to use the duration of the flash as exposure time and not the actual exposure time from the camera. So this will be something to play with. I also know now that you don’t need to light the actual water drop but that you need to use the reflection of the light. All little things that you need to be aware of…
Will be continued….

More experiments with drops of water on flower petals. Or as I like to call them ‘Flowerdrops’.
Don’t ask me why but I love to play with this concept. For starters it is fun to do, and I can learn a lot while trying to beat the problems that I will encounter.

It gives me the opportunity too play with several aspects of photography, think about; Close-up shooting, light setup , composition, and color. So in a very tiny space I can work with all these different factors. Just see it as my mini studio on the dinner table in the kitchen. The only thing that you need to remember is to keep your flowers fresh…

• Close-up shooting: Static objects, so no moving bugs and other influences from mother nature
• Light setup: You can use small flashed and little pieces of paper, so no big studio lights and soft boxes.
• Composition: It is very important to set the right position, (otherwise the water drop will not show the image of the flowers in the background) So I need to think about composition which is a nice challenge. But also possible because of the small setting
• Color: Most flowers are very colorful, which gives me the opportunity to play with these colors, and the small setting gives me the freedom to easily change backgrounds.

If you keep the above in mind you will be able to create nice pictures. For me it is looking for that little bit extra. And I do realize that I still have many roads in front of me.

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Found some tutorials on the net and started to play with them. Not the result I was hoping for, so again, I need more practice. I still thought that the end result was worth putting on the site.
I do like the rough look that is generated by using the high pass filter in Photoshop. But you can read more on that in the tutorial. I’m still thinking about doing this with a female portrait. Hopefully without offending the lady…
The tutorial can be found here link.
There are actually several tutorials and most of them are interesting enough to spens some time on