Lighting painting interiors.

Hello,

Today is like to share a process with you on how I like to light my interior images.
If you’ve ever tried to photograph a building interior, you know how tough it can be to properly expose all parts of the scene. You know how many areas tend to fall into darkness.

When this happens, many photographers will just try to recover the shadows with a brighter exposure or some dodging and burning. Unfortunately, that can lead to muddy results which often display a lack of texture and colour.

One technique that I like to use with modern photographic tools is light painting.

One method would be to literally stop down the aperture, wear an all-black outfit, and wave a light around for a 30-60 second exposure to fill in shadows.

Luckily, things are a bit easier these days. You can use a single Speedlight and see the results instantly.

I personally like to use a speed light and a remote to pull it off, (depending on how much power I’ll need.)

The aim here is to add light in spots that appear to have natural light falling on them – either from landscape lighting or interior lighting. Adding flash or hot light will dramatically clean up the quality of the light, by giving it direction and fall off. Whereas the ambient light may create a muddier appearance due to having no directionality, incoherent colour casts or being mixed with the window or interior lighting.

Above is an image of myself adding a pool of light onto a foreground part of the scene.

A couple of points to remember -

• The camera has to be on a tripod or secure point and does not move throughout the process.

• The camera has to be in manual mode to ensure that each frame remains consistent. Focus, exposure, ISO, colour temperature etc.

While using a Speedlight I use pocket wizard triggers, one on the flash, one in the hot shoe on the camera, and another as a trigger in my hand which is able to fire the camera and flash remotely.

Again here are a few more images of me moving around the scene adding more illumination.

(Schoolboy error though, this time I forgot to pack my coloured gels and so had a bit more photoshop work to do after the fact.)

Once all the images are captured, they are imported into photoshop and aligned.

Using a base layer, (without any flash) I add each illuminated frame on top.

Changing the blend mode to “lighten” and adjusting the opacity, I am able to change the intensity and have greater control of what is lit.

Finally using a layer mask, I paint out everything that is not required to help to keep the image clean.

The final example of this technique in use.

Personally, I think the before image would have been a flat, uninteresting image. By adding light to different parts of the scene I feel brings in greater interest and a more polished professional product for my clients.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about this technique,

please drop me a note.

Kind regards,

Lee

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Christmas decorations along the Golden Mile

Hello, I hope that you are well.

18 sleeps until Christmas….

Here is a photo of Blackpool prom getting into the spirit.

I hope that the bow is well secured, as we have been seeing some high winds recently.

Lee

Petrofac Christmas

Congratulations for Petrofacs Industrial services Rope Access team, for doing an amazing job installing the buildings Christmas decorations :)

Through either a work rotation or weather, i have not physically been home for Christmas day since 2014,

and so just call me Mr Christmas as the Ramsden family are going the whole hog this year.

I hope that you all have a great time, either at home with your families, or if you are stuck at work, hope that you make up for it double when you return.

Thanks

Lee

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Photography tool - image stitching.

Good morning, i hope that you are well. 

Today i'd like to share a quick thought on how you can use image stitching to over come problems.

I appreciate that this is nothing new, but with some fore-thought it can become a powerful tool in your arsenal. 

I was commissioned to shoot an office building. The front had no access due to very limited space and parked cars in my way. Even with the lens at 24mm it was simply impossible to fit the building into frame. So stitching is the only way forward. 

The above image was created with around 25 images. 

View fullsize

Here you can see the images used, 

the camera was mounted on a tripod and i systematically panned left to right making sure to over lap alot. The building took 3 passes.

Always best to have more frames than needed, than have pieces missing down the line. 

With each up date of Photoshop CC i have noticed that it is becoming much better at stitching. 

In the past it would have not been able to do this, and for these cases i use Autopano Giga 3.0 stitching software, but photoshop managed ok with this. 

Now by using a tilt shift lens, and/or a parallax tripod head, your job in post will be so much easier, but as i do not own either of these i had to make do. The majority of my time was spent straightening the stitched image. 

As with all panos, shoot in manual, turn white balance off auto so all the images remain consistent. 

I hope that this helps, and when you are trying to shoot a subject larger than your frame, that you remember this technique. 

Thanks

Lee

Helvellyn composite images.

Hi, i thought id share the images that i used to create the image bellow.

The top left image was me putting my idea down as a drawing.

The Helvellyn page was created in photoshop with taking some information from Wiki.

Also i used a wood effect background which was warped and pulled about to make it fit into the scene.

Helvellyn Composite.

View fullsize

Morning, I thought id share a composite image that i created recently for a bit of fun.

I am still yet to climb Striding edge, but will complete this in the summer.

As i have mentioned in previous posts, i do these type of images as i really enjoy thinking of a concept and then trying to execute the idea, and if nothing else it certainly hones my photoshop skills making me quicker and understand all the tools more in depth.

Thanks

Lee

Composite with a snow machine in the garden.

   Nikon D800 f10 1/125th ISO 100

Good morning, hope that you had a good weekend.

This was the set up, pretty straight forward really. Two light sources, both camera left. The elinchrom ranger in a large octa positioned in front of myself, so the light was feathered and soft.

with a bare elinchrom quadra behind back lighting the snow.

With a snow machine you can see on the left of the image.

The image was shot with grey paper background intentionally to aid in the photoshop work afterwards.

Image set up and execution around 45 mins, and all photoshop work an hour and half.

Some times these images can take a lot more, but having the final goal in your mind and through experience you can achieve that goal much quicker and have a nicer final product.

  Nikon D800 f10 1/125th ISO 100

A subtle technique, but goes a long way..

Hello, here is a little tip which i have recently picked up and thought id share as it makes such a lovely difference.

When working on images of buildings here is how i now add contrast.

Rather then use contrast adjustment layer, i created two levels layers, one darker and one lighter - both with black layer masks.

Now take your time, and paint in, where the face of a building is lighter, make it lighter and the dark side darker. It takes a little time, but certainly gives your image much more depth and a 3D feel to them.

 This image has the effect turned off. 

The extra layer you can see is a contrast adjustment layer to the lighter layer.

Here is the final image with the contrast technique added. 

Subtle but certainly makes a lot of difference to the image.

The view from the Shard London HDR image break down.

Hi, hope your keeping well and have had a good weekend. 

Here are some images from the previous London landscape image that i have posted. 

I wanted to show the images used to create the final image. 

I clamped the camera down to the handrail using the Manfrotto Magic arm and using a cable release i rattled a few bracketed frames. 

I have included the metadata on each image, but other then converting to jpg, they are straight from the camera and in the order the camera took them and i added to Nik softwares HDR efex pro 2.

Here is the first base image. In face i quite like this exposure but i personally prefer having the extra range to play with. 

And finally this is the out put from the software. As you can see it has little punch, no halos. or even much contrast going on. But the key is to get a nice base to start with, and then bring this into photoshop and make it your own.

I have tried many different HDR software on the market and not one will you be able to click process- done.

But i do think that this is a good thing, no 2 images will ever be processed the same and so this way it makes you take your time and make something unique and more realistic.

Here is the final image. 

Thanks.

Lee

An Edit from Glyn Dewis course.

With having a couple of images, one of Dave above and Steve below taken in a studio, i wanted to play and create something a bit different. The lighting and images of the guys were taken on a Glyn Dewis course, but these edits are made up of my own ideas and my own stock images. 

Attending a photoshop based course, you learn techniques, and tips on how to improve.

I find that it also inspires me to push the creativity and want to make up my own images.

Thanks 

Lee

Glyn Dewis Photoshop Course.

I recently attended a second course ran by

Glyn Dewis

and was thoroughly impressed.

Here are some images that were taken and edited on the day.

Glyn teaches you how to take an image in the studio like the above, and then how to edit to the one below 

I have attended a couple of these courses now and throughly enjoy them, No matter what level of "photoshopper" you are, you will learn heaps from the new Kelbyone Photoshop world tutor.

Glyn's style of teaching is fantastic, he has loads of energy and you can feel the passion of what he teaches he clearly loves. I would strongly reccomend a course of his.

At the end of the course Glyn doesnt just shut the door behind you... The majority of the class heads over to the local curry house which is a great way to chill out and chat with like minded people.

The model above is the UK NAPP founder Dave Clayton, who is a great guy. And as you can see likes to dress up and have a laugh.

Cheers Guys, once again another fantastic course, learnt loads, met some great people and had a good crack in the process which is what its all about.

Police Composite image.

Recently I have had a play with a large composite.

I have for some time now wanted to have a play trying to blend multiple images into one image.

Now my attempt is not pixel perfect, by any stretch of the imagination,

but it was certainly a great learning curve. And something very enjoyable.

I have previously posted in my blog, it’s a great way to keep up to date with the tools of Photoshop

and to try and keep your work flow fast.

It is amazing how quickly you can get skill fade, and end up doing things the long way round.

Your selections, dodging, burning will come on leaps and bounds the more practice you do.

I have included some screen grabs to show where I started and what I have

added.

A starting place of a background from iStock photo.

Straightened the lines and cloned in more of a foreground.

Started adding some elements to the image, i didn't like some in the end and so didn't make it to the final image.

Happy with the placements of the elements. Added a texture over the ground. Just need to render the image with shadings, colouring and few little bits which certainly take the most amount of time in the whole process.

I have enlarged some of the small details so you can see.

I must of been in a real dark mood when i designed this image ;0)

Glyn Dewis Workshop

Well the other week i attended my first studio workshop ran by a Glyn Dewis. (UK's version of the photoshop guys) and i was highly impressed.

It was a half day workshop titled

"a workshop full of character"

and the aim is to give you the tools needed to try and create a fun image like the one above. Glyn sets up the lighting but gives you pretty much a free Raine to move the model where you want to in the light, and to pose him on how you see fit.

Once you are happy and have the image that you are after, you all then go through some photoshop techniques on how to create something different. Glyn shows you how to improve an image up to a nice respectable standard... and then the fun starts and you are taught how to push things and come up with great concepts and the fun really begins...

The day is broken up as follows-

• RAW Conversions

• Cleaning up your images (Dust spots etc…)

• Removing Blemishes

• Eyes (Brightening, add contrast, colour and sharpening)

• Creating Texture/Adding Details

• Dodging and Burning

• Cut Outs (Getting the most out of Photoshop CS5 Refine Edge Command + Extracting using Channels for those using earlier versions of Photoshop)

• Adding in the Background

• Creating ‘The Look’

• Special Effects and lots more

My finished image, I can not take the credit for the lighting on Dave Clayton, who was a fantastic model. Or the style he was dressed. But i did really enjoy finding the stock images and coming up with a theme to produce the finished result.

Arm Wrestling.

Last night i went round to a very good mate of mine's in Manchester. After a few beers the camera came out and so we had a mess around.

Here are a couple of images - the making of the idea, and the finished image…

Lee has Discovered PHOTOSHOP!

As anyone who is looking to improve their photography, will at some stage came to the cross road, where you have to decide, 

how and what to use to edit your images. 

After much reading as there are hundreds of programmes out there, some free, some mega expensive. What offers you what.

I chose the Adobe Photoshop brand, there are many versions, and different programmes, but I am a big believer in buying what you can to try and limit the need to upgrade at a later stage. So I went for Photoshop CS4 and im over the moon.

Well, I say over the moon lightly, its more frightened feeling to be honest, you sit there download the programme and it opens, oh my!

Now what do I do?

There are a million of settings, boxes, tools....

hmmm I think a book is going to be needed for this or a Degree course Ha!.

I would strongly recommend downloading Podcasts, they are free and offer some fantastic tuition,

if not there are various magazines out there, books all sorts on the photoshop software.

Here are a couple of pictures of me playing about on Photoshop, i took the first image trying to be smart and have a photo of lots of me, but that evening out in a bar, a mate suggested a picture of trying to give yourself a head lock...

Aaaarrrgghhhh,, you cant throw a curve ball at me like that!

and so hung over the next morning, all i could think about was to try and create this shot,

and so here is me - giving myself a head lock :0)