First try at Product photography

Here is my first and (so far) only Product shot. This was done for a college photography class and was much more involved than I originally anticipated. I chose Pond's skin cream because I had it on hand and it's simple container colors appealed to me; I felt like I had more options with a simple container than I would with a busy one. I also decided very quickly that I wanted to work with some type of flower or multiple blooms.

On the day of class that we were scheduled to shoot our products, I had a bag of different flowers and ferns with me along with a couple of plant pods and some miniature peaches. I had a vague idea in mind but no concrete plan for the look of my final photo. As we got closer to my turn as photographer I noticed that the plants and flowers I had with me were beginning to wilt. All of the flowers and leaves in the photo below were from the flower beds around my campus, I was even lucky enough to find a dead lady bug!

The lady bug received mixed reviews but the overall reaction to my final shot was positive. I really like the way all the colors in the leaves and flowers compliment the colors of the jar rather than matching it. The fern leaves on the right also helped to separate the jar from the similarly colored backdrop. I don't know that product photography is really my calling, it's definitely not a passion. It is nice to know that I have a style of photography to fall back on if I am unsuccessful in portraiture.

Editing Portraits

Portraiture: Before and After Editing

or

How I Avoid Going Too Far

*For this post I will be using photos from my previous post 'Senior Portriats' as examples. To see more photos from that post please click on the link listed under BLOG ARCHIVES.

Before any type of editing.                                             After a softening of facial skin and blemish removal.

When I look at these two photos (and I assume when most people look at them) the photo on the right is immediately more appealing. There is nothing different about the posing or lighting, and nothing has been done to the coloring or exposure of the photo on the right. The only difference is the texture of the model's skin and the appearance of blemishes. She almost seems to glow in the after photo, and the overall look is more finished.

When I am smoothing someone's face I usually start with the blemish or discoloration that stands out most and work my way down. With this photo I began with the under eye. This model has bags under her eyes that stand out in the before photo. I used a smudge tool in my editing software to drag some of the lighter skin color over the dark bags. This helped to both smooth and lighten the bags in a relatively natural looking way, its very easy to over edit a face. I constantly change the zoom of my image so I can see both up close and as a whole what my smoothing is doing to a model's face. 

I then looked for any blemishes with noticeable discoloration and used the same smudge tool to effectively erase them from the face. I followed up by very slowly using the smudge tool to smooth the texture of the whole face so that it was uniform with the other changes I made; it would look unnatural to have the under eyes very smooth and the rest of the face texture different. I finished with a pass over the entire skin using a softening tool to further mask any editing I had done. It's important not to soften the actual eyeball, I also avoid the lips and teeth. If your model's teeth are a little less than perfectly white - now is a good time to adjust them, there are many ways to do this. I try to make it as easy as I can, so I first try to select the teeth and adjust the amount of white. If that outcome looks funny or unnatural I play with different settings until everything looks right.

The most important thing to note is that I have not fixed any flyaway hairs or done any extensive airbrushing or pixel-pushing to try to change my model's appearance drastically. The more adjustments made the more noticeable the editing becomes.



To the left of the black line is the untouched skin texture and to the right is the fully edited and smoothed skin.

Location Shoots and Abandoned Buildings

I really enjoy being out at a location and capturing my point of view. I like to try to keep my camera with me at all times, batteries charged and spare memory cards handy because I'll see something outside the car window and I have to stop and photograph it.

Some of my favorite photo shoots have been out in the middle of no where at abandoned building sites. I'll drive out into the dessert either here in California or out in Arizona and just wander until I come across something that's been left behind. The weather out there is hard on man-made objects and buildings; the paint is chipping, the glass is broken and more than likely everything is covered with spray paint and tagging. There is something beautiful about these places, and as the desert begins to reclaim them I am sometimes privileged to run across them and try to capture their transformation with my camera.

Apple Valley, California

Above: The neon sign above a long closed convenience store in Apple Valley, CA.

Above: An abandoned conference hall in Apple Valley, CA. This is the main room in which the floor is almost completely unsupported.

Above: Steps leading to the main room of an abandoned conference hall in Apple Valley, CA.



We found a child's shirt as we approached the conference hall, it was laying in the middle of the path. Something about the colors of spray paint used on the walls of this building appealed to me, it seemed to be mostly pink and blue with splashes of orange. Maybe it was the way it complemented the surrounding landscape.

Rock-A-Hoola Water Park

 Above: The entrance to an abandoned water park along the 15 freeway. This place closed in the late '90's and when you walk around it seems like the owners just closed one day and walked away. The offices still have filing cabinets filled with paperwork and the desks still have chairs and telephones. It's a bizarre place to visit, and an incredible location to shoot.

                                                       

                                            

                                                                                              

Above, Starting from upper left: 1) An abandoned lodge along Lake Dolores near Rock-A-Hoola Water Park. I love this shot, when I look at it I see two photographs. I see the whole photograph and then I see a secondary photograph being framed by the open window. 2) A water tower painted with a fading Coca-Cola bottle. This is right next to the Rock-A-Hoola property. 3) The canopy inside Rock-A-Hoola meant for shade on open days. It is now torn and faded. In the background you can see what was once the park's food service window.

My favorite section inside Rock-A-Hoola was the 'kiddy pool'. Everything was still there,

unlike the rest of the park in which slides were falling apart and falling over - the slides in that location were still fully intact and undamaged. The platform to wait in line for the kiddy slides wasn't cracked and looked new compared to the other structures around it. It seemed untouched by the harsh conditions in the desert, like all it needed was to be filled with water again and it would be ready for use. This photo shows the contrast between the Children's pool and it's surroundings.

Senior Portraits

 We're quickly approaching graduation season and I've been lucky enough to take a few young ladies' portraits. Location shoots are very popular currently in Senior Portraits, so here are a few taken at Crystal Cove in Newport Beach, California with my latest Senior - Salina.

 I love the above photo because it really captures the personality of the model - she is very fun and light hearted in person.

 

CONGRATULATIONS SALINA!