This was a gift to my husband. He’d surprised me by dressing up all fancy-like and grabbing his sword (nice way to introduce the idea of an impromptu date), and I got a few pictures. A few days later I put this together, using some pictures I’d shot earlier of a hawk he spotted and some woodsy pictures. All the images are mine and this was completed in Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4.0. đŸ™‚
Filed under Personal Work, Photo Illustration
The moment has arrived! I have new photographic illustrations to show off. This was done with Katherine modeling, and she did a great job doing and portraying what I asked. And the dress fit, two. Definitly helpful (especially when I find the dress I want to use, then find the model, afterward). The theme of this one started out with the idea of doing a Soda Pop Shop or sock hop look. Or really, it came from looking at old Coca Cola Ads and wanting to try to emulate those ads.
So I tried that on a couple of pictures. First one… well… it needed work. So I tried it again using a different pose, and I’m hoping that one captured more of the look and feel of the old ads. Also, thanks to my husband’s grandfather to letting us borrow a time period coke bottle to use. And thanks to McDonalds for having those cool Coca Cola glasses. And funny thing is, I’m not even that big of a soda fan. So there’s my note on the usefulness of finding props that aid in the appearance of time. So yeah, there was my fun experiment with commercial advertising.
Meanwhile, I also did a few images meant more in my usual style of sci-fi, dystopia, and fantasy. And reminder to self… don’t watch MirrorMask right before starting on a manip project. Great movie, awesome effects, but totally messes up how I usually do digital manipulations.
If you’re curious to see the images I’ve just mentioned, take a look at the Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157630562937410/show/
Otherwise, enjoy a few samples here. đŸ™‚
Filed under Book Covers, Personal Work, Photo Illustration
So I’ve been meaning to get these pictures edited, and I finally have. (And got the CDs sent off to thier respective families). These are pictures of my cousins kids, one on my dad’s side and one on my mom’s side. If you want to see more, they also have Flickr Slideshows of a select few of them. The first two on Cousin Joe’s pictures have been fully edited. The rest all had basic edits done to them in Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4.0, and I’m really enjoying the way CS6 saves things. Makes it really nice to work with, since it lets you keep working while its saving. đŸ™‚ Still need to work on the Lightroom watermark thing, though it looks like it could be a handy function.
Anyways, thought I’d show these, since I do take portraits to. (But don’t worry, up next we’ll be back to photoillustration). đŸ™‚
Cousin Joe’s pictures:
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Uh… the last one is me being swarmed by the little kids.
Flickr Slideshow:Â http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157630546854622/
Cousin Kristin’s Pictures:
Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157630546726198/show/
Filed under Personal Work, Portrait
In Advance Studio we learned a trick to create a daylight appearance inside a studio setting. The trick is to use hot lights (continuous lighting) in conjunction with the daylight setting of white balance in your camera. To add some blue to the shadows, you can put a CTB (Color Temperature Blue gel) on the inside of a flash softbox (make sure it’s not too close to the bulb, though, to avoid damage). In the product shot I tried to bounce the flash off blue paper to get a sky effect, and my professor suggested lighting from beneath the table to get the rising sun gradient effect in the background. In the picture with peeps, I used the CTB method.
Filed under Personal Work
In my materials and processing class, our last assignment was refraction- showing bending light waves and such. I wound up shooting dice in a champagne glass filled with water for the assignment, then made it into an advertisment/public service announcement.
After hearing a couple of friends talking about how much money they spent getting drunk and partying (and basically acting stupid), I decided it was time to create an anti-drinking poster. This was the result.
It started out with a class assignment to create refraction- the bending of light. Notice how the bottom dice looks bigger and in strange proportion to the others? They are actually all the same size, sitting in a glass of water with sunlight shining on them. Note, aside from basic levels adjustments and sharping, I only edited the text. The dice have not been digitally edited.
Filed under Materials and Processing 2011, Personal Work
Recently I was asked for examples of my photography related to interior architectural type photography. While I didn’t have any recent examples, I remembered taking a lot of architecturally based photography last spring break in Dallas, Texas. So I pulled out the earlier external harddrive and went through the photos to find the ones I felt best represented the potential client. Then I used what I knew about levels and masking with layers to improve them with my current skill level. I sent them the slideshow of photos along with five other relevant photos for thier review.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157625811495552/show/
I don’t know if I’ll get the job or not, but it did help illustrate the importance of being visible in the community (the client found me while I was selling posters at the Holiday Market), and of working quickly to provide a portfolio.
Filed under Personal Work
After much trouble trying to get a texture accepted onto Texturevault, and nearly giving up on it, I finally went into their forums to ask why my photos weren’t being accepted. I had sent in roughly ten photos over the past couple months, with everything being rejected based on too much noise or not being sharp enough. When I looked at my photos, I found that all of them seemed to have the same amount of noise, same slight blur, and I couldn’t figure out how to get it any sharper. The support on Texturevault forum suggested I try an ISO of 100, and I decided to finally look up how to test for lens sharpness (which I had been meaning to do for the past month).
I found this review (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/lens-sharpness.htm), which seemed rather harsh to me, but I came out of it with one very particularly piece of information in mind- that lenses have a sweet spot where they will be at thier sharpest, not necessarily at the wide open apertures (which I typically like to shoot), and other apertures won’t be as sharp. Pushing a lens to its extreme will result in photos that “test the limits” and aren’t as sharp.
Keeping that in mind, I went out into the afternoon light and took a few pictures- all at ISO 100, but at 1.8, 10, and 22 apertures. Immeadietly afterwards I loaded the pictures onto my computer and looked at them at 100%. The results were surprising- I finally saw what my teachers and books have meant by Chromatic aberrations (1.8), my pictures seemed to be hopelessly blurred at 1.8 and 22, but at 10- they sharp. Not extraordinarily sharp, but definatly sharper. And there was no noise.
Woot!
I chose the two pictures that were the best and submitted them to TextureVault. This time they were accepted. I am happy to say I now have a way to test for lens sharpness, and in the meantime, I’ve just got to take more texture photos and figure out how to make sales.
View My TextureVault Portfolio Here: http://www.texturevault.net/view_photog.php?photogid=1067
Filed under Personal Work
Yesterday my mom and I went to a Thai restaurant called The Magic Noodle Bowl. Knowing how nice they present thier food, I brought my camera with my new 50 mm, 1.8 lens. I used window lighting and available light. These are a few of the shots I got. We ordered steamed dumplings, pad thai, and lo mein with chicken. They also served soup.
Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157625746283610/show/
Filed under Personal Work
I’ve finally started using DeviantArt again to promote my work. Though I figure it will take a while to actually acrue any sort of large following to successfully sell prints, I think it could prove useful for gaining comments on photos I have taken as well as my manipulations, along with serving as fresh inspirations for new photos. Below is a link to my account, along with a screengrab.
Filed under Personal Work
These are some of the photos that I used in Mid Program for my portfolio. I focused on digital imaging. Also, I presented mock book covers (though Distant Horizon is a mock book cover for a story I am currently working on with my fiance) and movie posters as ideas for potential clients.
Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157625181255815/show/
Filed under Personal Work
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 