Tag Archives: photography

March 24, 2011 · 4:13 am

Senior Portrait Tips – Jennifer

I’m planning on starting up a senior portrait business in Warrensburg this summer, but that means I need more examples to create advertisements and show just what I can do. So over Spring Break I decided to try and photograph some seniors for free- they got a free one hour session and ten fully retouched photos on a CD that they can print themselves or order prints through me.

Since it’s been a while since I’ve been to my hometown, Mom talked to a few people she knew, contacting a homeschooling group that might want senior pictures.

Never underestimate the power of social networks and free sessions. I photographed Jennifer yesterday, and these are a few of the resulting pictures. I also have two photoshoots today, with a total of three people. Another tip worth noting is that it’s always good to have a backup camera and to start setting up early. For some reason my Rebel XS decided it didn’t want to trigger my studio flashes. Luckily the 30D did, and I was able to shoot with that.

Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157626340368366/show/

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Filed under Client Work

Tagged as 30d, alien bees, backup camera, canon, on location, photography, pictures, portraits, rebel xs, SBibb, senior, Stephanie Bibb, studio, tips for senior pictures

March 16, 2011 · 7:49 am

#3 Advanced Color Portrait – Couples

Last weekend I asked Joe and Cherise if they were interested in being the couple for my assignment. Luckily it turned out that we had great weather on Saturday, and the lighting was perfect for what I wanted (long shadows, warm lights). We went out to the park on Holden and Lion’s Lake, starting around 4:30pm. I was particularly interested in the light I expected to come at around 5:10 pm, and it came as hoped.

I also brought along Isaac, my fiance, as photo-assistant, as well as a Canon 580ex Flash. (Which I had read the manual just before the shoot). I built a softbox out of white posterboard and wax paper (Isaac’s idea for the wax paper diffuser) and put that on the flash. While the flash worked, it was nice lighting. Unfortuanetly something caused the LCD to start flickering and it stopped firing, so I had to put it away after the first few poses. It was nice while it lasted. Over Spring Break I plan to learn more about how to use it.

Anyways, these are the resulting pictures, using Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.

Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157626280849202/show/

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Filed under Advanced Color Portrait 2011

Tagged as afternoon light, Canon 580ex, couple, couples, digital imaging, existing light, flash, group, image, on location, outdoors, photography, photos, portrait, portraiture, retouching, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, UCM

March 4, 2011 · 4:25 am

Dyptics – Two Photos As One

This week’s Material’s and Processing assignment was based on the idea of dyptics- using two images in one to create a story or concept. The first one I created I call Broken Nature, and the other I called Natural Magic. I played with Bokeh (the background out of focus but still present) and some texturing. I also employed the use of borders.

I’d be really interest in creating a portfolio using the concept of dyptics, but I’m not sure how I want to do that yet.

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Filed under Materials and Processing 2011

Tagged as combining images, combo, conceptual, dyptic, materials and processing, photography, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, storytelling

February 16, 2011 · 10:27 am

#2 Beauty Light – Butterfly

For my Advanced Color Portrait class, we needed to use a beauty light. So I checked out a beauty dish from the photo checkout, and used my own alien bees and fabric backdrops (held up by ducttape, safety pins, and a curtain rod). I talked my friend Kel into being a model, and after the last face paint I did, decided to try something a bit more light hearted. I wanted to include some digital editing, so I used textures and a couple other techniques. In the meantime I had the song, “Butterfly” by Smile.dk stuck in my head the entire time I was working on these pictures.

Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157626069901626/show/

Song that inspired this shoot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_qwUS8Uqjg

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Filed under Advanced Color Portrait 2011

Tagged as alien bee, beauty, beauty light, butterfly, canon, face paint, head shots, images, Kel, lighting, people, photograph, photography, photos, portrait, rebel xs, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, UCM, umbrellas, University of Central Missouri

February 8, 2011 · 10:41 am

#1 Advanced Color Portrait – Hollywood Lighting

For Advanced Color Portrait class, we were supposed to create hollywood lighting using butterfly lighting and Rembrandt lighting. I sided with doing two sets of people (though I did pull in Isaac for a couple shots after Katie’s shoot) and going from there.

Flickr Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbibb/sets/72157625881521301/show/

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Filed under Advanced Color Portrait 2011

Tagged as alien bees, butterfly lighting, face, glamor, glamourous, grid lighting, grid spot, head shot, image, images, photo, photography, photos, picture, pictures, portrait, portraits, Rembrandt Lighting, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb

February 2, 2011 · 7:34 am

Ads and SEO

Recently I was working on articles for the company I freelance with, writing articles for a printer ink. Shortly afterwards I noticed that several of the advertisements online now showed that site- and the same happened with another site later. While I worked on novel writing information, self-publishing sites kept being advertised. During my Advertising Photography class, my teacher mentioned that a similar instance happened to him.

Apparently advertising is getting better at targeting computers and your recent searches, supplying more direct and useful information directly to the potential consumer. I would like to know what other people’s thoughts are- do you like having more direct ads? Or is this an invasion of privacy? What kind of problems can this bring up, and how does it help advertisers?

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Filed under Life

Tagged as ad, ads, advertisement, advertising, business, cookies, direct, new ads, photography, privacy, search engine optimization, seo

January 29, 2011 · 6:13 am

Refraction and An Anti-Drinking Ad

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.

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Filed under Materials and Processing 2011, Personal Work

Tagged as ad, advertisement, alcohol, blue, color, dice, drinking, drunk, image, liquid, materials and processing, photo, photography, public service announcement, rainbow, red, refraction, SBibb, shiney, Stephanie Bibb, stupidity, sun lighting, translucent, transparent, UCM, University of Central Missouri, warp, water

January 12, 2011 · 3:11 pm

Architectural Photos

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.

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Filed under Personal Work

Tagged as architectural, architecture, dallas, dallas texas, editing, layers, levels, masking, photo, photography, photoshop cs4, portfolio, resume, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, texas

January 6, 2011 · 5:01 am

TextureVault and Lens Sharpness

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.

http://www.texturevault.net

View My TextureVault Portfolio Here: http://www.texturevault.net/view_photog.php?photogid=1067

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Filed under Personal Work

Tagged as aperture, camera, Canon Lens, digital imaging, ISO, lens sharpness, lenses, microstock, noise, photo, photography, photos, SBibb, selling photos, sharpness, Stephanie Bibb, stock, stock photography, texture stock, Texture Vault, textures

January 4, 2011 · 4:25 am

Food Photography – Thai

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/