2010 and twelve days in!

Only twelve days into the new year and what is not going awesome?! I'm sure there lurks hardships and obstacles close by, but that's apart of life and one must be ready to persevere and overcome. I encourage and empower you to do so!

By the way, I truly appreciate all of the readers of this blog. The amount of readers (that's YOU!) has doubled only over the past quarter, thank.you.so.much!!

Now, get to shooting, retouching, interacting, and infecting the world around yourself with positive and healthy energy!




MUA/Hair: Kate Carroll
Model: Miss Ashley
(Amazing team!)

This ain't yur typical mid-west type of fotograph!

I retouched for six hours today and felt that I would share my efforts with you. Hope you don't mind. ;p

***click image for full size***

Actually, this image wasn't included in the six hours of retouching. This was my fun work after the other work.

I opened this image and stared at it for a minute or three and then said "DONE!" Easiest retouch ever. I enjoy retouching my own work because it helps me to pay attention to capturing better images for I don't have to retouch them that much.

Someone asked me the other day if I was a professional photographer. I was confused by the word 'professional' and replied "I'm a photographer." They understood something. Either that I didn't consider myself professional (hope not) or that I didn't care much for the use of extra titles. 'Professional' would indicate popularity and/or getting paid really well, I think. I don't really know. Anyhow, next time I will say "YES, I AM!" We are what people believe we are.

The St. Pete/Tampa Supershoots event was a blast. Great people there and lots of opportunity to capture images that have nothing to do with the mid-west...like shooting on a beach!

A big thanks to Tiffney for being a bright spirit during our shooting time. You rocked it!!

There is a Supershoots event coming up in January 9-10 (2010), here in Peoria, IL. I will be there for the two days mentoring and also instructing a 2 hour course on digital retouching and post production techniques. If you are interested, please write me at joshua.berardi@gmail.com

Getting Paid For Your Photography

JimmyD recently posted over in the Supershoots forum a video of Harlan Ellison talking about getting paid as a writer as apposed to getting exposure or publicity.

You can watch this short (3:24) video of Ellison talking about a situation where this arose and his thoughts on it.

Watch it a second time and replace the word "writers" with "photographers."

I think of it this way, my mortgage company doesn't accept publicity or exposure for payment, and neither does McDonalds. So, why should I?

This image is of Roberta looking amazing as usual! Thanks Roberta!

Oops!! Missing Links!

I was reorganizing my images online the other day and created a few missing links on this blog. I went back and fixed all but one which I deleted and will have to re-upload once I'm back at the home base.

I hope no one got hurt and that everyone is OK!

:D

I've seen this picture before!

I was reading a photography post where there was an awesome image posted. It only took a few replies before someone pointed out "hey, isn't that idea getting old?"

Well, isn't the ideas of most photographers getting old? I mean, seriously, the image I posted on this post is pretty cool. (Well, I thought so or I wouldn't have posted it.) I'm definitely not breaking any barriers here. But, I wasn't trying to either. If photographers had to shoot something totally unique, there would be a lot less photographers in the world today. But, that is okay. Sometimes people put down another photographers work because it looks like some other photographers work they have seen before, but don't speak too soon, I'm sure your work looks just like someone else's. Maybe you only have not run into them yet. I'll assume I don't do anything special or different until it's widely accepted that it is. But, since I'm not going for that I'm guessing I'll never hear such a thing.

When I'm shooting I have a fairly clean slate in my mind. I know what the model looks like, and maybe saw some clothes she has, and know the relative location where we will be shooting, but beyond that I don't think too much about what I'm exactly going to be shooting. This works for me. It may not work for you.

I could image what a headache it would be for another photographer to be in my shoes. But, I couldn't really do that well in the shoes of a photographer who plans out too many specific details. Saying that I guess I'm sort of a go-with-the-flow sort of shooter. I'm a go-with-the-flow type of guy in general. So, I think that's probably a good thing that my personality and my shooting style match up. At least I'm not trying to be something I'm not. Wow, did I just blog a post of therapy for myself? Probably sounds like it, but what's more important is for you, the reader, to clear your mind and shoot with purpose and accuracy. If you want to claim the title of photographer, be the best photographer that you can be and nothing less!

The above is Dalida. She rocked this image a few weekends ago for me. Thanks Dalida!

It's like sooo 1985!

Tonight I went to see my cousin play high school football. Everywhere I looked kids were wearing 80's clothing. It totally freaking ROCKED! Girls wearing tight pink jeans with multi colored flourescent high tops and sweet haircuts! I was excited because this is the era I grew up in and I actually thought it was pretty sweet. ;D

I was in Atlanta last weekend and had to shoot the make up artist. She was a sheer bubble gum 80's rocker chic in this outfit...doesn't get much better that that!

I hope everyone is having a great week. Keep shooting!

New childrens book on digital retouching!

I have been extremely busy retouching and thought "isn't there a machine that could do this work for me?!" Then, I thought of Paul Bunyon. Then, I thought "maybe I could write and sell a childrens book! Here is the idea:

Animated adaptations about two legendary folk heroes. "The Legend of Joshua Bunyon" relates the adventures of the mighty retoucher, a man who, as legend has it, could stand in Illinois and cast a shadow all the way across Missouri to Kansas. "The Legend of John Henry" is the story of the greatest computer-programmer of all time. Joshua takes the challenge of retouching faster and cleaner than computer retouching software can, in an test of man against code.
[original here]


The lady posted today is Angel. She left me quite a positive comment on a photography website the other day and I wanted to share.

""Josh is a AMAZiNG PHOTOGRAPHER 2 Work with! One of my favorites!!!!
Just thought I would let everyone know that! And, once again thanks 4 the new images!!!
YOU FREAkiN ROCK!!!!****
Can't wait to work together again=)
Angelleigh""

...amazing AND freaking rock. Sweet!

Learning Photography Lighting

A person wrote me the other day asking for advice about learning lighting for photography. They said something to the effect of 'i'm looking into getting strobes and a softbox...' and I immediately thought 'Whoa! Slow down!'

When it comes to lighting it seems to makes sence to start with something simple and then work into more complex situations. So, what lighting is simple?

Well, lighting in general is fairly simple once you understand how it works. For this post I'm not going to go into any math or ratios, but I am going to go through a few steps in learning lighting.

First of all it's probably a good idea to start with natural light.  This is a great intro into seeing natural light the way god intended it. Go out and shoot natural light. Shoot in direct sunlight, shade, side lighting, back lighting, butterfly, etc...shoot until you get great dynamic images that get attention. Once you do, you have just mastered one light!

Now, pull out your reflectors and start bouncing the light around. Figure how to shoot great images with your reflector and natural light. Once you get the feel of controlling the given light, you will be ready to have a light source of your own!

Now, get one strobe and learn what heigth, angle and intensity you need to make good images indoors. Use the knowledge you learned in dealing with natural light and a reflector to your strobe. You will quickly learn how to use your one strobe.

Next, get a second strobe. This is the point where you will need to start measuring the light intensity with a light meter.

In my next post I will go over some basic ideas on using one strobe outdoors and two strobes indoors and outdoors. 

Until then, happy shooting! 
 

Photography Inspiration

Today I was thinking "what inspires people to shoot certain things?" Sometimes photographers will copy something they have already seen. Or, capture it in a slightly different way. Some simply guess and hope for the best. Others draw up every detail and create what was in their mind.

Although I have a folder on my computer that is also on synced to my PMP of images of other photographers that I really like, I have not once went to shoot and looked at them. I have ideas in my mind, but they are always foggy at best. Usually a generalization of an idea. I like this and it works for me. I believe it's because I have a small foundation for what I want to shoot, but I don't tie myself down with too many details for during the shoot things can move more naturally.

Just about every shoot I have done in the past few years feels very winged. I try and make the best with whatever situation, equipment, clothing, and weather was available at that time.

I'm slowly getting better at looking around and seeing what would and wouldn't look great in an image. I'd imagine most things could look great in an image if it were captured in some interesting eye-catching way.

I think it would be fun to get a few photographers together and all shoot the same scene, like this old loading dock in the image above, and see how each person interprets it. Of course the other photographers couldn't watch what the others are doing because that would alter the natural creativity of each person during their time to shoot.

In the end everyone could compare and discuss their ideas during their shoot and what it looks like in the end. I believe this could quickly open doors for everyone into thinking about capturing/creating images in a different way.

Then, everyone go re-shoot the same scene together and see what comes of it. I don't have time for any of this, but it seemed like a great idea. If you do it, e-mail me results and I will blog it! :D

Why focusing and recomposing is a not-so-great habit in photography.

(Any image in this post that is hard to see...click on it. It will load a full resolution version that you can see much better.)

I see this done often and I still do it myself from time to time. When one tilts their camera upwards to focus on the eyes of the model then tilts the camera back down to compose the image. Seems harmless, and it may be harmless if you are shooting at f/8'ish to f/16 or more.

(remember shooting at apertures of around f/8 - f/16 and more results in a wide depth of field whereas shooting from f/5.6 - f/1.8 results in a shallow depth of field...click here for a visual example)

Now let's take a look at what happens if we are shooting between f/1.8 to f/5.6'ish.




















Imagine holding the camera in this diagram that I spent 20 minutes drew up real quick for reference. We point the camera up to the eyes of our subject, which are 6 feet away. Perfect, the eyes are in focus. Since we are shooting in open apertures, lets say for this example, f/2.8, we have the eyes in focus and about 2 or 3 inches on each side of the orange line going through our subject is in focus. Beyond those few inches things are out of focus. Now, let's keep that focus point and tilt our camera down for our three quarter shot.
























Now that we have tilted our camera, notice where the orange line of focus on our subject has moved to. It's not focused on the eyes anymore. Now our focus has moved several inches behind the eyes. Remember those few inches we had? Now the eyes are out of focus.



In the image of Tiffany above I did this very thing. Here is a close up of the focusing for you can see this error in action. CLICK on this image to load a bigger/clearer version!

The collective ideas of several are better than yours alone...sometimes.

I have talked with Tiffany for several months now and we finally got to meet up and shoot. Just like any first shoot things start off with typical cookie cutter type of shooting and then eases into an artistic blend of every one's ideas and expressions. This first shot I took about 15 shots and never felt like I totally got the pose right. I showed Tiffany the shot and she said "oh yes! it would look better if I moved this leg here." See, Tiffany saw what I was trying to do with this shot, picked up my slack saw my vision, and then added her valuable input to make it better than if I had done it solely on my own. Good work Tif!

In post I did some special steps for the feel of this image would be custom. I shot this using 4 stop bracketing and a tripod. Next I made two different HDR's and mixed the properties of those two HDR images. I then painted back in some parts from one of the original images. Last I did the typical retouching that most images receive. A lot of work, but not so bad with a new computer. I simply wanted to try something new.

Everyone is going to be a photographer!

I don't know how it is where you are at, but since the economy hasn't been looking good (I mean in the past year) I have heard more people say they want to be a photographer.

I'm not sure what pulls people into photography. Is it because they see pictures and have a desire to make them their selves? Maybe a self expression sort of thing? If they want to make money doing it they will not express too much into their work. And, if they fully express themselves chances are they will not make much money doing it. And, then probably stop. Or...OR OR OR ooooooOORR, they will become totally insane (like the rest of us shooters) and continue shooting in the industry without much pay BUT with a big smile on their heart and face!

Something I noticed about people who love to take pictures, they are slightly crazy. Including myself. Hell, I'm probably totally insane at this point and don't even know it! ;D

But, I love photography. Come to think of it. Photography is similar to a religious cult due to it's ability to create a social group of slightly off kilter people that drive great distances to hang out and take more pictures. We shall name our god Canon! This is allllll a bad idea. But it's true. Photography changes how we see the world and it changes our lifestyle. If it doesn't for you then you are probably already totally insane with photography and forgot what non-photography life is like!!! Sooooo, come, lets hang out! :D

The above is the lovely Miss Ashley. She was doing make up for a shoot and decided to jump on stage for a few minutes. I think she did really rowr.

On the beach, 50's style!

I had the honor of working with Zairia from the St. Louis area recently on a pin up shoot. It was a really great time shooting. The models had the looks and great attitudes! All of them did a great job! The image posted here is of Sandra. It took her and I about 5 seconds before realizing that we worked together perfectly as photographer and model. Everything came easy. That doesn't happen all the time or even often.

I used one strobe with a 48 inch umbrella to camera left, up near the height of the models forehead, and slightly pointed down. I used warming filters/gels on the strobe to enable me to get a warm skin tone and pull the kelvin down on the camera to achieve the blue water. I spent only a few minutes in post. Wallah!

Saint Louis Graffiti Wall

I remember a long time ago I got to go up into the Saint Louis arch. That was a neat experience. What I didn't know then is that there is a huge wall, more than a mile, right below the arch that separates the water and land/railroad.


Graffiti artists from all around makes stops at the wall and 'battle' other artists work. Not sure how this all exactly works, but sounds like a fun thing to be aware of. I'm curious to what artists do this sort of thing and what other cities have such places to graffiti.

This image was shot with two strobes. The backlight had several 1/4 Cinegel (#3409) to give the wall a warmer feel. I wanted to use red or blue lights for the background, but I didn't have anything but the Cinegel's with me. The main light was a 42 inch silver umbrella. A flashlight was used for focusing since it was totally dark while shooting.

The model is Elise. She did a fantastic job of taking direction while also having fun! Props to Miss Ashley for doing the make up and hair with a half dead flashlight!

Photography Everywhere

I have been traveling for the past week and a half with my camera and it has been a blast. I'm learning more everyday how much I really do enjoy photography.

I decided to take on a couple of shoots, two weddings, and a whole lot of traveling over 15 days. It doesn't seem like that much work until those 1,000+ images are filling up the hard drive and 1:1 previews are rendering on my 6 year old computer.

It seems like it will take 15 days to get the images prepared! It most likely will! I only have to slow down on traveling and taking on too much work until I get caught up in post. But, it happens. I'm keeping this ball rolling at least for awhile. It really comes down to updating and tightening my work flow and thing should become less backed up.

Before I owned a camera or knew how one even worked, I was a full time digital retoucher for several years. The only reason I purchased a camera is because I was sick of fixing so many 'common' photography errors. I was set on getting things right in the camera. Well, the tables have turned a bit. Now I'm almost shooting more then I can get done in post. I'm actually quite excited about this for it's sort of allowing me to feel like a photographer. Maybe someday I can get those silly "say cheese" lines down and be a pro! That's what pros do...right?

;D

The above is Pieya from 2007.

Photography Workshop - Hit The Lodge

The most profitable photography workshop I have attended is one that doesn't have rows of tables trying to sell me items. It isn't held in a huge hotel conference room with hundreds of people where you feel alone in a crowd. It doesn't even require you to have a fancy wrist band to get around the area. If you have not heard of such a workshop it's named "Hit The Lodge" and is only one amazing workshop out of many put on each year by Supershoots.

Here are some things you will be able to learn about at the Hit The Lodge event this year!

• Learn techniques in Fashion, Glamour, Commercial, Beauty,
  Photojournalism, Portraits, Fine Art Figure, and Swimwear.
• Outstanding instructors and mentors who are there to help you.
• Learn different lighting styles in Studio and on Natural Light
• Photograph beautiful models prepped with professional make up artistry!
• Enhance your portfolio, galleries, window display and self promotion pieces
• NEW for 2009 - Fine art figure seminars with dK

and...

• Light Room, Adobe Photoshop, and Retouching Seminars taught by...ME!

Yes, come see me teach on post production retouching techniques using Lightroom and Photoshop. It will be a great time to ask anything you are curious about with this software!

The duration of this event is 5 days. Plenty of time to fill the brain with all of the information you are looking for! The dates of the event is June 11-15 and is located in Pike County, Illinois.

If you can not make this event there are plenty of other events this year. Come to Supershoots.net (instead of .com) to be apart of the Supershoots community. Post images to your portfolio, post to the forum, write other users, take a walk on the runway. Come see what the hype is about! And, if you create an account, don't forget to add me and say hello! My portfolio is here!

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Read a post I made about last years Hit The Lodge event here.

More retouching in the news!

Adding to the previous post of retouching being in the public eye.

2009
In this debate photo journalist Klavs Bo Christensen had some amazing images that he shot in Haiti. He submitted these images for a "photo of the year" contest. (What I like to call a POTY contest.) All was well until the judges suspected that Klavs used "too much" photoshop retouching.

Defining "too much retouching" is going to be difficult. I can see it now, images submitted into photo contests end up in court with the argument of determining if "too much" retouching took place. There are some interesting parts in the article about differences in RAW data and how it appears.

Anyhow, after the judges chatted about moving his images into another category or giving them a 'special' (made up) prize for awesome retouching, they decided to pull Klavsimages out of the contest.

Pictured above is the lovely Marjorie. Shot in 2009.

Mmmm, RED!

Guess where this backdrop is located?!

I'm not telling, but it does involve a hotel and a wall. (again)

Okay, it's apparent I don't mind hotel walls on occasion. But this is only because I'm not paying much attention to the background. Or am I? Yes, of course I am.

I figured I would share my thoughts during the creation of this shot, and also after wards in post production/retouching.

Candee walked into the room with this killer red dress on that was totally awesome. It's perfect because she has green eyes which compliments the red dress. Our backdrop was an off white, eggshell as 'they' call it, color with a bit of a plaster/stucko embossing. This backdrop is totally uninteresting, especially since we are working with a strong red reflective material.

The first thing I need to think about is where I need my single soft box strobe to be for the wall doesn't look flat and/or blown out. But, it also has to light up Candee in a way that matches her beautiful bold look.

Light Placement
I placed my soft box directly behind me which will light up Candee well. I put it up high and point the center of the light to Candee's chest. My head will be infront of the soft box's hottest spot, (sometimes they can have a hot spot) so it won't make her chest brighter than her face. Also, and more importantly, with the soft box up a ways it will create a shadow underneath Candee's chin. The same effect is shared by the dress folds, and chest. This setup works also because I need the light to skip over the embossing of the wall a bit to show it's detail.

Post Production
In post I added texture to the wall to intensify its effect and also added red to the off-white color. Did I know I was going to make the wall red while I was shooting the image? Nope. But, I did know I was going to change it in some way to fit the clothing we were using.

Double Mega Pixels!

Reading this post title like a computer generated Nintendo voice after I made my ninja character throw out a hard core double combo on 'The Boss" ...made me laugh a bit. Anyway...

Canon released their 5D back in 2005. At that time I was packing my 9d 10d. I remember having a conversation with a friend about the 5d and its superior 12MP+full frame sensor. I remember making the point that I can't imagine needing more than a 12MP+full frame sensor in a camera. Anything more would be overkill and only help out hard drive manufacturers, because I would have to store these monster files somewhere.

My friend replied "oh, but that is what everyone thinks until the new technology comes out...then you find that you want and need what's coming out next."

At that time, I disagreed.

But today, I came to the realization, that I still pretty much disagree. *shrugs* Yep.

I still shoot with a 10d. But, I do want to upgrade to a 5d (mark II) at some point. The only reasons are full frame sensor and the ability to shoot at least 12MP. Two things that will directly improve the quality of my images. I really have no need to shoot larger than 12MP images. I don't care to copy them over and back them up either. Only takes longer. So, unless I'm labeled as a super awesome pro magazine cover shooter who gets paid millions of dollars for every image produced, I'll stick with my mass'ish consumer camera.

"But, Joshua! What if you 'came into' money, then what would you buy?!!"

Two 5d's?! *raises eyebrow* Always nice to have a backup!

Magazine Covers

Most magazine covers have the same general lighting setup. There are several variations, but for the most part it's all the same. Put the model in front of the camera, set up 1 to 5 (or more) lights, or however many you feel like metering, up all around you and your camera lens and shoot. Fairly simple process.

If you would like to understand this lighting better, go to any magazine rack and look at the catch lights in the models eyes. You will see 1-4 little white circles in most cases. Compare one magazine cover with 1 or 2 lights to another cover with 3 or 4 and look at the overall difference in how the shadows are laying on the model. It will start to sink in better the most you do this. (Yes, I do this and have for years!) Chances are a few covers won't make much since due to all of the retouching going on. Dang those retouchers! :D

Where are these magazine cover type of shots taken anyway? Well, I don't know. But, I'd imagine some big awesome studio with lots of rad toys that I would waste too much time playing with!

As in my last post this image was also shot on a hotel wall, with a single strobe, and a soft box. Obviously the light positioning and posing was much different due to different models, different clothing, and my ability to become bored quickly and change things up!

This image is of Summer Taylor. She has fantastic features and amazing curves! When she came out in her dress it screamed magazine cover to me!