Here are some images from a recent shoot of my Cousin Rikki and his Girl friend Amanda, who are now the proud parents to a wonderful little son called Harvey.
Rikki Venstone
First event shoot.
Well where to start with this one,
I was asked by my Cousin and his Mrs, if I could document the Naming Ceremony of their gorgeous little boy.
I was very excited to be given this challenge,
but then you get the guilt,
"will i be good enough",
"can i produce the goods",
on one hand you think its fine as they are family and not paying customers, but just as fast you think this,
its then you realise that being family, you know everyone who will be looking through your work and showing it off, so the pressure is even greater.
Deep down people who know me, know that I do enjoy pressure, and so I looked very forward and enjoyed the day massively.
One down fall i found though was that, i enjoy the documentary style of pictures and not posed.
If i see a shot i then take it, but i noticed after the event, i got the images printed off into a book. The feel of the book was greatly received by most, but some were upset as they didn't make it into the book. Looks like this might be a problem at events, as not everyone is in a good picture and im not wanting to take a picture for pictures sake.
A Huge Congratulations to my cousin
We welcome little Logan to the world. Born 26th March 2009
Practice With fun things.
I have found and strongly recommend, that to work your way through the photoshop tools by having some fun!
Take pictures of your friends and try different things, if it works out or not doesn't matter, you will have learnt loads, which you can take to your "proper" pictures.
This image came about, as the faces you see are my cousins, who have an unnatural obsession, with the computer game, Final Fantasy 7. Yeah ok I have completed it twice but thats beside the point....
To insert the faces I was learning all about using layer masks, blend options and layer styles, to make all the separate objects to fit in.
Here I read in a magazine about making people look like robots and thought what a cool idea. Plus something great to learn. For this effect, you learn about the clone stamp, as you have to remove the eye brows and features, colour changing a picture and using the photoshop pre-set effects like the plastic wrap filter.
So are these images any good? thats not the point is my answer.
you learn a lot from having a play,
When I first started on Photoshop, a simple cut out would take me an age! But now you look at it different and your work flow is a million times faster, but the bottom line.... it is FUN!