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While I was setting up the studio for the shoot with Nickita and Mick I made some test shots. I used myself as subject to get the light the right way. When I transferred the images o my PC I noticed that some of them were actually quit nice. So I started to play with them in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. To see more just click on the images.

What did I do? First of all I got my exposure on the correct setting in Lightroom, then I opened it in Photoshop. Played with contrast and brightness.

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When I was satisfied I copied the main layer and set the layer mode of the copied layer to “Soft Light’. What this does in a B&W photo is make you edges more vivid, and this will give you the idea that you have sharpened your photo. That’s all I did to all but one.

The one on the left was actually a single HDR (HDR made from one single shot) that was tonemapped and then set to B&W. From there I did the same actions as I did on the other photo’s

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On one of my trips through the country side I saw two rowing boats filled with water laying the waterside. And I thought these were a good subject for HDR. Brought my tripod and 16-40mm lens and made some shots. Back home, after trying a few settings in Photomatix I did not like the results at all. Then I remembered an article I read on the internet which showed an example of black and white HDR photography. (link). The article shows an nice example that appealed a lot to me. So I decided to try it myself (on my own way – not following the tutorial) and I must say that I am very pleased with the result.

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For many months I have been driving by this barn, even plotted it on my GPS. But never took the time to stop and take some pictures, until now.

I can’t explain why but I just like the whole scenery and always had the feeling that I needed to photograph this, in HDR. So finally I did.

I had a lot of dust on my sensor and because this is not normally the case, I experienced something new. The HDR process emphasizes the dust spots in a way that it is almost impossible to remove them. So to make sure that I could still use the images I decided to give them a old-fashion look and feel and applied a sepia filter to it. Personally I like the result and it fits the idea I had in my mind.

Mick

Did a new studio shoot last weekend with Mick. And again, learned a few new things about shooting kids. Had to do a lot of retouching due to the fact that I used the small background paper. My initial thought was – small kid, small background, but a little 3 months old will not listen to any directions, so you need to have enough room to play in. Ergo, a bigger background would have given me more playground. And will prevent a lot of Photoshop work afterwards.

Another lesson learned was that I need more time. As soon as the little rascal decides that it is enough, you have to listen. And a curious Nickita to my side wasn’t a good idea either. All that Mick did, was observing Nicki and he did not pay any attention to the camera. So we already talked about a new date for a more relaxed photo shoot. And this will take place at Mick’s house, so if he decides that it is enough and he gets tired, this won’t be a problem. Overall I am more then happy with the results. So I placed a few examples in the gallery.

[Canon 5D, 24-70mm, Soft box, Standard flash head, silver reflector]