Editorial – Photographer Michael Greenberg – Website www.phototerra.com

LOCATION: Train museum.

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3, 24-70 /2.8 set at about 50mm at f4, ISO 800, WB is set to flash.

LIGHTING: The lighting is a bit complex with total of 4 flashes (sb800) connected with each other wirelessly with TTL mode off. One fill light is coming from the window; the other one is gelled and set to maximum zoom while pointing at the sit next to the model. The third light is bouncing behind my back that creates overall fill. The forth light is also gelled and zoomed to 85mm while pointing at the ceiling where the male model is sitting.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This shot is one from the 6-spread fashion editorial for high-end wedding magazine that is distributed in Montreal and Toronto. The whole idea of the photo shoot was about a girl who travels around the globe to find her prince. One of the beginning shots was her boarding the train an accidentally dropping her suitcase. The suitcase, which we filled with lots of plush toys, opens on impact and the entire rail track is filled with toys. I thought this was a beautiful opening to the story. So, this shot is a continuation of the concept. I put the male model and asked him to observe the bride. I asked the bride to look into the window anxiously to make the whole moment natural and believable. No one is striking a pose and this is what makes this image work in my opinion.

POST PRODUCTION: The postproduction is simple and it is not. In terms of cropping and lighting it was there and I didn’t have to change anything. However I had to retouch her skin and shape her arms just a bit. Saturation boost of +15 was applied. WB was adjusted to cool off the image a bit. I always strive to have my photography as natural as possible. I believe in my photography skills rather than my Photoshop skills.

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Crash-Art studio, Nottingham, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D and Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS L

LIGHTING: Natural light coming from a huge window camera right and two small Jessops VL35 video lights set up camera left – to the side and behind the model.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I took this portrait approx 4 years ago when I just started getting back into photography. It’s a simple portrait of a friend and model. It was the last image of the day before packing up. I asked Kaylee to sit on the stairs and give me some attitude which she did perfectly. I love the lines and the colours in the image.

POST PRODUCTION: I saturated the colours in PS and smoothed her skin. That’s it, nice and easy and the whole image including shoot time and retouching took 15 mins.

Sports – Photographer Steve Bonini – Website www.stevebonini.com

LOCATION: This was shot on location in Arizona at a real life, but make shift gym where the hard core go to train.

CAMERA AND LENS: Camera was Canon 1 DS Mark 3 and the lens was the Canon 24-70 2.8. The 24-70 is a lens I use a lot because it can shoot wide as well as portrait perspectives. This was most likely shot at around the 40 mm mark so that the front weight enlarged a little bit, but not so much that the weight lifter shrank away because of the distance from the camera.

LIGHTING: Lighting was simple, and assembled quickly. One Profoto beauty dish with a grid camera right, and for the background, I used a medium soft box off to the left. As always, it’s a balancing act when adjusting light levels, but it came together fast because we knew we were on a schedule.

CREATIVE PROCESS: For me, the ” process ” is a result of many years of shooting as well as just knowing how you want it to end up. In the days of Ansel Adams, it was called pre-visualizing, and I suppose that’s still valid. The great thing today is that you can check your results on a monitor instantaneously to see if you chose a direction that works.

POST PRODUCTION: The post production was handed over to master retouch artist Scott Dorman at Smalldog Image Works based in Atlanta. Scott has worked on a few of these for me, and for the same client, and I love his style. Pretty much, the image was as you see it now, with the exception of adding the words on the weight plus some general beauty moves, which bring the show to life. Scott jokingly calls it his ” kick-ass filter ” and I’d agree a hundred percent!

Portrait – Photographer Rick Wenner – Website www.rickwenner.com

LOCATION: In studio @ Brooklyn Studios – Brooklyn, NY

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 85mm 1.8 set at f/13 ISO 100.

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS 1100 in an Elinchrom 39″ Deep Octa, high camera left.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This photo was created during a test shoot with Rachel. I gave the stylists full creative control over one look and here’s what they came up with. I love this image because it almost has an old Hollywood feel to it. My only direction to Rachel for this photo was to keep her eyes to the light and she took care of the rest.

POST PRODUCTION: Adjustments in Lightroom of lowering the saturation rather than greyscale conversion, slight increase in clarity and contrast. Imported into Photoshop CS3 for basic skin retouching and stray hair removal. Little bit of dodging and burning for more contrast.

Fashion – Photographer Rachel Hanel – Website www.rhanelphotography.com

LOCATION: Michigan

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 with a 50mm nikor lens

LIGHTING: 1 Travelite 750 watt head with a medium soft box

CREATIVE PROCESS: I love the rawness of this image, and the model’s expression (Maddison Quinn with Ford Chicago), somehow it just all worked together perfectly. We were shooting an editorial out in the woods and we were using a house (generally used during the summer) and it had this awesome velvet couch that I just had to shoot somehow. The suit is a velvet Cavalli piece that just looked great with the couch. Stylist is Beckett McMahan, Hair/makeup by Morgan Blaul.

POST PRODUCTION: I used a color tone on this image (curves layers in Photoshop) and I added a lot of contrast. I love to bring some blue into the shadows and yellow into the highlights, and then add a little cyan for fun. There were a lot of layer masks and a lot of curves layers for this image. I love to manipulate the color manually instead of using a program or plug-in to do it for me. I really love to give each image a unique finish, since no 2 images are the same in tonal range.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Fawsley Hall, Northampton

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and the awesome Canon 16-35mm 2.8 II L

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is a image I try to capture at every wedding. It’s definitely not an easy shot and it did take some time to perfect. The bride and groom have no clue. We are walking back to the reception venue after taking some portraits. I’m walking with the camera holding it at ground level and firing away at 16mm. This is one of two exposures out of 10 that captured the moment. I love the angles, the movement in the dress and hair and how their feet are in sync as they walk. It’s different and the bride loved it.

POST PRODUCTION: I ran my cinematic film action which includes a hue/sat layer, a detail enhancer, a blending mode and an advanced blending option as well as some grain to give it that film tone look.

Fashion – Photographer Rachel Hanel – Website www.rhanelphotography.com

LOCATION: Chicago apartment

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 with a 50mm nikor lens

LIGHTING: 2 Travelite 750 watt heads, with medium soft boxes, one behind the model and down the hallway, the other behind me and slightly to my right.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is a great example of an image that just happened by accident. The model (Heather Kuzmich) was in love with the wardrobe stylist’s cat and I decided to humor her and let her do a few images at the end with the cat. They ended up being my favorites from the set. You always have to be ready to go with the flow and capture things as they happen. Stylist is Beckett McMahan, Hair/makeup by Morgan Blaul.

POST PRODUCTION: I didn’t do too much to this image, just basic skin retouching and a bit of a color tone in Photoshop CS3. I love to give my images colorcasts because I feel that it brings a certain separation from reality. It becomes more surreal. I always use multiple layers (I love layer masks) of curves/levels in all of my work.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: London

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L II – Camera was in manual and speedlite on ETTL

LIGHTING: Canon 580 EX II bounced behind me into the roof of Rolls Royce

CREATIVE PROCESS: We were driving through London in the most beautiful vintage cream Rolls Royce, on our way to the reception. I turned around to ask a question when I saw them both looking out the window at the famous Oxford Street. I snapped off a frame and caught this wonderful loving moment between the two of them. It makes me wonder what they are both thinking as they sit holding hands enjoying this magnificent ride through central London.

POST PRODUCTION: I enhanced the details using curves, surface blur and unsharp mask. I added my film effect action to give it that cinematic film look, which I love.  I also added some film grain to the image using a layer filled with grey and then added grain and some Gaussian blur.

Weddings – Photographer Simon Mark Whitton – Website www.smwphotography.co.uk

LOCATION: Leeds, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3s @ F2.8, 1/100 sec, 800 ISO Canon 24-70mm f2.8

LIGHTING: Window light

CREATIVE PROCESS: The makeup artist was late due to the weather (heavy snow) so the Bride got dressed first and then had her makeup done after. There were two mirrors in the room so after shooting the obvious; I started looking for a new ‘angle’ on the scene and the ‘reverse’ shot in the mirror worked for me.

POST PRODUCTION: The original image is a little ‘blown’, but I thought it was worth rescuing it with a little Photoshop work and a bit (OK, extensive) toning etc to give it a more ‘artistic’ feel in keeping with my signature style.

Fashion – Photographer Richard Redleaf – Website www.redleafstudios.ca

LOCATION: Abandoned Farm House. Rural Saskatchewan, Canada.

CAMERA AND LENS: 5D, 50mm f1.2 Lens.  Settings: f1.2 | 1/1600 | ISO 1250

LIGHTING: Available light only

CREATIVE PROCESS: Amy and I shoot with prime lenses, which force us to move around our shooting space. Every image always has multiple angles, and sometime you just need to move around your subject, and you will be surprised at the different looks you can create. This image was again captured using only the available light from a single window in the room. It was shot from a ladder, and we made sure we had her face turned into the light.  We wanted the image to have feeling, and tell a story.

POST PRODUCTION: We capture everything in RAW, and crop in camera.  Tone was created using Red Leaf Actions.

I just wanted to say Richard that I use and love your actions and textures. If you’re looking for a great set of actions to enhance your work these are brilliant. Check them out here www.redleafboutique.com

Portraits – Photographer Stuart Wood – Website www.stuart-wood.com

LOCATION: Dronfield in Derbyshire 22nd February this year in the late afternoon when the light was dying.

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 30mm lens @ f9

LIGHTING: One Ranger location light to one side

CREATIVE PROCESS: This was a commission for Sunday Express Magazine about people who rely on dogs. Evie has hearing problems and Gem is a trained hearing dog. I wanted to show the deep empathy that the two have for each other. I thought I would use the cold weather to my advantage and isolate the pair together surrounded by the dramatic but hostile environment. For me it worked better than all my expectations when Evie closed her eyes and the dog did too! This only happened for a fleeting moment but it shows perfectly the indomitable bond between them that I was trying to capture. Forming the perfect pyramid shape they look so safe together, like nothing could ever hurt them.

Even though I planned the shot and added to the drama with my location light by making their surroundings darker than the subjects, it still needed that extra input from the pair that for me lifted it from being a simple likeness to saying something so special about what they have together. I am very grateful to the both of them for giving me that. The picture editor later rang me to say that the shot had reduced the magazine editor to tears.

POST PRODUCTION: included darkening the sky and foreground snow slightly

Pictorial – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: 3am under the Arctic sun in Finland

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D, Canon 16-35mm

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This photograph was taken at 3am under the majestic Arctic sun a few days after my wedding in Finland. I was out fishing with some friends enjoying a beer when this frame appeared in front of my lens. It just summed up the relaxing time I had that night and a moment I will never forget.

A few days ago I was thinking about how important photography is to me. I have a terrible memory, so if I don’t take photos I don’t really remember much. So for me to have my camera with me at all times helps me to remember my daily life.

This image is going to be available as a limited edition print of 20. If you are interested please let me know.

POST PRODUCTION: Only a curves adjustment layer. That is pretty much what the sky and lake looks like under the Arctic sun. Absolutely beautiful.

Fashion – Photographer Amy Redleaf – Website www.redleafstudios.ca

LOCATION: Abandoned Farm House. Rural Saskatchewan, Canada

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D MII, 24mm f1.4 Lens.  Settings: f1.6 | 1/1600 | ISO 1600

LIGHTING: Available light only

CREATIVE PROCESS: This series of images was taken in an old empty house in rural Saskatchewan. We had planned this shoot for a couple weeks, and arranged a model, makeup, a real flower hair piece, various outfits and props. Once all our items came in we planned out the various shots that we wanted to achieve during the shoot. It was a session to stretch our talent and creative abilities. We shoot only with available light and the images from this session really highlight the beauty of natural light. As a husband and wife team we both shoot and often we are taking images at the same moment just different angles. In this case Richard was shooting from above and I was shooting across the record player to the model. The model was amazing to work with, we told her to close her eyes and pretend she was enjoying listening to the music from the old record player.

POST PRODUCTION: We capture everything in RAW, and crop in camera.  Tone was created using Red Leaf Actions.

Fashion – Photographer Hugh O’Malley – Website www.hughomalley.com

LOCATION: The model shots were shot in my studio in Hackney in London and the background components were shot in a car wrecking yard in North London

CAMERA AND LENS: The car parts were shot on film.  The settings for an iso 200 speed film were 1/60 at F5.6.  The best images were then scanned to high res digital. The studio shots were taken on my Nikon D3x with a 105mm lens and a 50mm lens at a speed of 1/125 and F8.0 at iso 100.  The tighter head shots with the 105mm and the wider body shot with the 50mm

LIGHTING: The car parts were shot using natural light and on film. The studio shots were shot with a beauty dish on a 500w head almost directly above the model looking down and another couple of lights (500w flash heads with barn doors) used as rim lights to pull her out of the dark background.  With her head tilted back she got a good amount of light on her eyes but with her head in a normal position you can see we got these very deliberate dark shadows under the eyes which add to the air of mystique.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This project was very much collaboration between me and the hair stylist – Andrew Thomas-Corbett.  We met a couple of times before the shoot to discuss the concept and inspiration.  He was very much inspired by Aleister Crowley’s Thoth book of the Tarot and I have always had a fascination with the Occult so I was very familiar with them.  The drawings on them are very beautiful.  We also liked HR Geiger’s artwork (the artist who did most of the art direction for the Alien movies).  We also looked at Tibetan Mandalas and a few other sources.  We wanted to have an industrial feel, a sort of robotic feel but still maintain something of the organic and we wanted them to be sensual and seductive. We explained the concept clearly to the Model so she would be able to interpret our brief with as much information as possible.  Our makeup was done by Angela Deviatova.

POST PRODUCTION: For the background I took parts of one of the crashed car images and mirrored it 4 ways.  Thus creating a symmetrical mandala effect.  The model and the hair required some basic skin cleaning and cleaning up of frizzy bits but Magda (a lovely Polish girl from Leni’s Model Management)  had great skin to start with so this didn’t require much work except that it had to be done in triplicate.  I normally do final skin work with a dodge and burn on a 50% gray fill layer with blend mode set to ‘Soft Light’.  Then I brush with a white or black brush on a low opacity.

The next part is where it got a bit creative and required lots of masks to reveal and hide certain parts of each figure.  The patterns on the skin were done with a combination of layers with a multiply blend mode and masks revealing the underlying patterns. To burn in the edges and other areas I didn’t want the viewer to be distracted by, I used a channel mixer layer set to ‘Black and White with Red Filter’, set the blending mode to ‘Multiply’, invert the mask and brush back in the areas you want with a white brush on the opacity you require.  A bit complex but it gives you a great degree of control.

Finally when I’m happy, I’ll output the .jpeg and run a sharpen filter on it.  I don’t like to have merged layers in my .psd file while I’m working.  Non-destructive editing is the order of the day. The final series of images were exhibited in a Gallery in Bethnal Green just before Christmas 2009.

Fashion – Photographer Claire Pepper – Website www.clairepepper.co.uk

LOCATION: A location house called “The Perch” In Camberwell, London.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Lens Canon 50mm f1.8

LIGHTING: Natural light – window is behind her and the light is being bounced back in with a silver reflector held quite close. Camera on a tripod on f1.8 and 1/80th iso 400.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The theme of the shoot was based around the location - a dusty old house full of vintage props. Generally just wanted a nostalgic wistful feel as if the girl was stuck in this house and time had moved on…. (Most of the other shots from the story were wider shots but I wanted to do a close up as she had such a great face. We really wanted the light to reflect off the feathers and make them glimmer.

POST PRODUCTION: I slightly desaturated the image, put a bit of lens vignetting on, and boosted the contrast slightly. In the original image her hair was reflecting quite blue, so I made a duplicate layer, took the blue out of the bottom layer and erased through just on the hair so as to keep the blue in the rest of the image. (A bit of a lazy method to be honest probably not to be encouraged…!)

Styling by Louisa Daniel

Make up and Hair by Ellie Tobin

Model is Nadia @ Select

Portraits – Photographer Elizabeth Sawdon – Website www.lizzysawdonphotography.com.au

LOCATION: Our family room, in front of our piano.  Port Douglas, Far North Queensland.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 5D Mark II – Lens 50mm f/1.2L -  ISO 400, f11, 1/160 I chose the standard focal length because I wanted the portrait to reflect my vision, we were inside and with the 50mm I can be close enough yet leave space around the subject.  There was little room to move, our kitchen bench was right behind me. ISO 400 – good iso for working with off camera flash indoors. I played around with the aperture and the shutter speed when working with the flash; keeping in mind I didn’t want excessive shallow depth of field in the image.

LIGHTING: off camera Canon speedlight 580 EX, triggered with pocket wizards, 1/16 power.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This was quite simply, the first time I had tested out my pocket wizards.  I set the flash up on the light stand; the piano stool was placed conveniently so I invited my children to come sit for a picture.  This portrait of my son Izaak [11] was taken in the minute or so he decided to cooperate with me. While waiting for me to adjust the camera he blew a beautiful bubble and I caught it just in time.  I got him to blow a few more bubbles but the first one was the best.  I love the deadpan expression.  It is vintage Izaak, complete disregard for authority!

POST PRODUCTION: I cloned out the background on the right of frame; the piano keyboard with a magazine resting above it was very distracting.  I preferred the shadow. I then applied a subtle reduced colour action and unsharp mask.

Weddings – Photographer Martha Ramirez – Website www.udsphoto.com

LOCATION: Downtown Miami at a quaint cupcake shop called “Two Girls and a Cupcake”.

CAMERA AND LENS: The equipment I used was my baby, the Nikon D3 with a 24-70mm .My Settings were 1/200s iso: 400 Focal length:  32.0mm     and f-stop f/13.0

LIGHTING: Alien Bee Pro Photoflash B1600 with a 4ft. Paul Buff Soft Box from high above.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image was conceived mentally a few weeks prior, along with my Art Director. The idea was to go back to an era that was fun and careless. Not knowing what the model would look like, or if the idea would even work, we scouted locations, shopped and borrowed props, in hopes that it would all come together.  It turns out the model could not have been more perfect! The skates fit just right and the make up and hair were exactly what I had envisioned. The end result was the “Retro Chick”. This one is true to my heart, as I spent most of the 80″s on skates.

POST PRODUCTION: Little was done to this image in post. A little vibrancy added to the colors and Viola!

Auto – Photographer James Russell – Website www.russell-photo.com

LOCATION: Cheadle, Cheshire. Just in a garage, not a glamorous studio.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D 24-105mm lens at 45mm. f16, 1/180 ISO 200. I needed to maximise depth of field and as I wanted the front to dominate, I chose not to use too long a focal length. Max shutter sync speed used to avoid any ambient light from registering.

LIGHTING: 4 Elinchrom monoblocs with soft boxes and black umbrellas, 2 positioned on each side of the car and one with a grid at the front.

CREATIVE PROCESS: My client had given me an open brief and simply wanted me to create a dynamic image. I like simplicity in a photograph and set out to create a minimalist image with a rim lighting effect. The front end is very aggressive with an interesting structure so I decided to concentrate attention on this plus those great headlights. I was originally told I would have as much time as I needed to take the shot, but when I got there I was promptly told I only had one and a half hours! Hardly enough time to light a car but I set to work straight away and managed to complete the assignment. The lights with umbrellas were positioned halfway along the car to light the interior and mirrors. The two lights with soft boxes were placed at the front to give side illumination and pick up all the detail at the front, in particular the area under the headlights. A light with a honeycomb grid placed at the front added a touch of sparkle to the rings. A separate exposure was also taken with the headlights switched on to be blended later.

I love the image and it has just won me the Advertising category of the Professional Photographer Awards, so I am very proud of it. At the time I took it, it was a big deal being one of the first cars in the country and has received much press adulation since, so I felt privileged to be able to take the shot. The image relies on symmetry and of course the reflection for its impact. I chose a straight on composition to emphasise the aggressive nature of the vehicle.

POST PRODUCTION: Since I was shooting this in a garage as opposed to a purpose built studio, it was necessary to retouch the bonnet to remove reflections and this also allows the famous Audi rings to dominate this part of the picture. The mirror image is also added in Photoshop, by a simple inversion of the image, reducing its size slightly, adding a gentle ripple effect and darkening down to make a convincing reflection. It has created debate as to whether the reflection is real or ‘Photoshopped’ so I must have got something right! As it was a black car anyway the final thing to do was to convert to black and white to enhance the graphic feel.

Sports – Photographer – Christian Aslund – Website www.christian.se

LOCATION: Ramundberget, Sweden

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8. 1//250 Sec. f/18

LIGHTING: The sun is slightly behind the cottage creating hard shadows that I wanted to eliminate. I used two Hensel Porty battery powered generator with three heads to freeze the skier and the same time lighten the cottage. The Lynx is illuminated by two Nikon SB-800 flashes from each side.

CREATIVE PROCESS: We wanted the lynx and the skier being in focus in one shot so I had to shoot on a high aperture for the depth of field. Therefore we had to crank up the power on the flashes, and also for compensating the hard shadows. Skier Jesper Bjornlund, did a couple of jumps before I got him in the position I wanted. The landing was really flat and shitty but Jesper is one of the best mogul skiers in the world right now so he is used to that.

POST PRODUCTION: The image was exposed like a slide so the only post production in Photoshop was adjusting the contrast and colors a bit.

Weddings – Photographer Ryan Browne – Website www.ryan-browne.co.uk

LOCATION: All Saints Church South Yorkshire

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 Camera with a 70-200mm @ f 2.8 1/160 3200 ISO

LIGHTING: No additional lighting was used.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This shot was taken just after the signing of the register, I had moved to the back of the church to give the guests a bit of room to get a shot of the couple. In my mind this is the time when you can get some really relaxed shots of the couple as they pose for friends and family. Totally unaware that I am also covering the moment.

POST PRODUCTION: The shot was processed in Nikons NX2, This bit of software is the best there is for processing NEF files. Once opened in Photoshop a conversion was done to black and white and the contrast and brightness was then tweaked. Once I had finished this I selectively burned in a few areas of the image to draw the eye towards the couple.

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: At a friends studio in the center of Nottingham in 2007.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark 1, Canon 70-200 2.8 IS L Settings – 1/200 at f8

LIGHTING: 3 foot Bowens soft box camera left.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Pretty simple really. I just love the black and white lines in her clothes against the background and the attitude in her pose.

POST PRODUCTION: I desaturated the image using Photoshop’s channel mixer and masked out the blue shoes on a layer mask. I also slightly saturated the shoes.

Sports – Photographer Christian Aslund – Website www.christian.se

LOCATION: Fernie, BC, Canada. Skier: Adam Falk

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3, Nikkor 14-24 mm f/2.8. 1/250 Sec. f/3.5

LIGHTING: Hensel Porty 12 Lithium; a compact, weather resistant, light and not too expensive Battery powered flash generator that is well suited for action photography.

CREATIVE PROCESS: We found this location in Fernie and decided to wait until after sunset so we could use a flash. The weather was bad; flat light and grey so by using a flash we could control the scene. The snow covered rocks looked like a moonscape so we tried to emphasize that when lightening the scene.

POST PRODUCTION: I never do any image manipulation on my editorial stuff. It’s basic development from raw file in Camera Raw to Photoshop, where I mainly work with curves for color and contrast.

Weddings – Photographer Brett Butterstein – Website www.brettbuttersteinphotography.com

LOCATION: Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado, January 17, 2010

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 5D, Canon 35mm F/1.4, ISO 1600, F/1.4, shutter 320th of a second.

LIGHTING: Video light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This couple was married in a ghost town in winter in Colorado where there is nothing but log cabins. I placed them outside of a window to the big dining room where they and their families would later have dinner. I’m inside shooting out. The groom’s brother is holding my video light on the couple. The blue is the snow outside. The darkness of the room was perfect because it hid any potential distracting elements. This picture could not have been made during the day. It took me a while to see this composition. I originally wanted them small in the window surrounded by complete darkness. Then I began including the lights on the ceiling and chose to tilt the camera to get a more interesting composition.

POST PRODUCTION: I use Adobe Lightroom to tone my images. I saturated the color and darkened the couple with the burn brush since I don’t like really bright, artificial light in my photographs.

Fashion – Photographer Stuart McIntyre – Website www.photonottingham.com

LOCATION: Photo Nottingham Studio, Nottingham City Centre

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D MK11- 17mm to 40mm f4 lens (set at 28mm) Iso 100, f 9.0, 160th of a second

LIGHTING: I used a large soft box high and to the right, and a smaller Courtney honeycomb on the colourama to create the highlight on the background.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Gore Couture commissioned the project; a small design company based in Nottingham who create hand-made, gothic, couture corsets. The title of the assignment was “Absinthe Fairy” for their “Essence of Absinthe” corset and was the culmination of a two-month project involving a team of creative specialists lead by Photo Nottingham.

We were inspired by gothic imagery, dark fairytales and the bohemian movement in Paris surrounding the drink of Absinthe. It was decided that the classic “green fairy” representation of the Absinthe Fairy would be combined with an alternative edge of gothic horror to produce an innovative and extraordinary set of images that represented both the garment itself, the image designer and the concept of the drink that inspired their creation.

I feel the strength of this shot is drawn from the impact of the image and the attitude it conveys. It is certainly “on message” for Gore Couture and their brand; outrageous, stylish and sometimes a little cheeky. The lighting and composition have combined to make the “fairy” stand off the page, and the wide-angle lens emphasises this also.

POST PRODUCTION: The post-production was undertaken in-house, and included textural embellishments and tonal adjustments to create the final unique images.

Weddings – Photographer Jasmine Star – Website www.jasminestarphotography.com

LOCATION: Christchurch, New Zealand

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5DMII, 85mm, 1.2, iso 125, 1/2000sec, f/1.2

LIGHTING: Natural light.  The bride was in the shade of a trailer as we were shooting midday and it was quite bright.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I was teaching a photography workshop in New Zealand last month and it was incredibly hot and incredibly bright. Towards the end of the shoot, I asked the bride to sit in the shade and the only spot available was adjacent to a hot dog trailer.  She sat on a cooler (or what Kiwis call a “chilly bin”) and snapped a few photos.  Shooting in an area with limited environmental accoutrements can be difficult, but embracing the situation can help change your perspective.  And shooting at a f/1.2 always helps because it blurs out the background!  ;)

POST PRODUCTION: I try to use very limited Photoshop.  The picture was very cool due to the shade and the aluminum trailer reflecting light, so I warmed it up just a tad, added a bit of contrast, and a curves bump.  Then I burned the edges a bit to draw the focus to the bride.

Portraits – Photographer Christian Aslund – Website www.christian.se

LOCATION: Red Mountain, Rossland, BC, Canada

CAMERA: Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8. 1/160 Sec. f/6.3

LIGHTING: Handheld Nikon SB-800 with a Lastolite softbox attached fired with a Pocket Wizard.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I wanted a portrait of the local ski legend Brian and his characteristic face for reportage from BC. We only had a couple of minutes so the set-up was quick and easy with one handheld flash and five exposures later we were done.

POST PRODUCTION: Pulling the curves in Photoshop a bit for color and contrast.

Kids – Photographer Eric Doggett – Website www.doggettstudios.com

LOCATION: This image was shot in my backyard. We were setting up a trampoline and took a moment to get this shot before we installed all of the safety netting.

CAMERA: Canon 5D, 50mm lens, shot at f/18 at 1/250th of a second on a tripod. I was trying to get the image as dark as possible, as it was almost exactly noon when we took the shot (in the middle of August, in the middle of Texas).

LIGHTING: The scene was lit with a total of 4 strobes (3 of which were Zeus 2500 w/s lights, and the other was a White Lightning 1600). A large octabox is high and serving as the main light. There’s an edge light on each side of the frame. Finally, the White Lightning was used underneath the trampoline to light up the back fence. Most of the lights were set at or near full power, because they were far away from the subjects.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image was really the start of my interest in humorous photography. In some ways it’s a ‘conversation starter’ image, because people look at it and try to figure out if what they are seeing is really happening. Usually they will ask how I did the shot (good question), or they will ask if the kid on the left hurt his head (bad question). It was also one of the first images I created with a strobe system, and it has defined my style of shooting and post-processing since then.

POST PRODUCTION: This shot is a composite of two images. Brandon (on the right) is in the original frame, which we took several shots of to catch him at the height of his jump. Separately, I took Trevor (on the left) and held him on the trampoline so that he would be lit with the same lighting set-up. Then, in Photoshop I took Trevor and put him in the scene with Brandon. Some skin/clothing work was required to remove my hands, which were holding him. Once the composition was complete, I did some contrast adjustments in Photoshop, along with some selective use of the Lucis Art plug-in to get the look. Finally, a little bit of motion blur was added to both boys as well as some edge vignetting.

add space

Portraits – Photographer Paul Mobley – Website www.paulmobleystudio.com

LOCATION - Picture was taken in Mount Ayr, Iowa

CAMERA AND LENS - Camera was Canon 1ds Mark III, Lens was 35mm 1.4, Setting was 1/60 at 5.6

LIGHTING - Lighting was a custom made fill card with a mirror in the center to “open up the eyes”. A large black fill card on the left side to sculpt the faces.

CREATIVE PROCESS - I knew I was photographing “twins” for my American Farmer series. The shoot was planned for sunrise. As I drove to their dairy farm, I noticed the bright moon in the sky and hoped it would stay for a few minutes after the sun rose (which is rare). Fortunately it did. This picture was taken literally 30 seconds after the sun rose. Within 2 minutes, the moon was gone. The fact that the twins were identical and BALD made it even better. The moon, the baldhead, etc… perfect! Sometimes the photography gods really do smile down on us.

I love these kinds of images because they’re “real”. Real people tend to give you their hearts. Where models and actors tend give the “standard poses” out of habit. I have to work much harder with professionals (to get a great shot) than real people. These guys were funny. Telling jokes between every take. Getting a serious expression was the key.  They are serious dairy farmer’s you know!

POST PRODUCTION – I did very little post production on this. I have some custom setting on my camera that boost the saturation a bit. That’s about it. Pretty straight shot.

Fashion – Photographer Gordon McGowan – Website www.gordonmcgowan.co.uk

LOCATION – Location for the shoot was my studio

CAMERA AND LENS – I used a Canon 5d mark2 with my favourite lens 24-105 set at f11 with a shutter speed of 125th sec

LIGHTING – I used my trusted ELINCHROM 500 HEAD with a metre square softbox flagged off with 4 black strips to cut down the light and also to shape the light and inside the softbox was another diffuser to soften the light even more, also the model was holding a small reflector so I could bring a little bit of light back into the area under the chin.

CREATIVE PROCESS – I just love dark moody images and for this shoot I also wanted to create a few images from the session with only two strong colours in the final image.   I also like the fact that with my lighting setup coming from above the model and spilling onto her face gives the final image a bit of an edgy mysterious look to it

POST PRODUCTION – There is really not a lot done to this image but what I did was I opened my image in Photoshop 5.5 then duplicated the layer and filled the layer with blue and then brought the opacity back to about 40% and then rubbed away the layer to reveal the strong colour of the dress and lips and that is all to be honest and  the total time  working  on the image about 3 minutes

Aviation – Photographer Chris Rose – Website None

LOCATION – In the skies above south central Pennsylvania

CAMERA AND LENS – Canon 5D Mk II with a EF 70-200 2.8 IS, shot at 95mm, F5.6, 1/100sec @ ISO 100

LIGHTING – Natural light about 30 min. before sunset

CREATIVE PROCESS – This Embraer Phenom 100 was photographed for the cover of AOPA Pilot magazine in the spring of 2009.  Our aerial formation crew of 5 departed northern Maryland about an hour and a half before sunset and headed north over central PA.  This, like most photo missions consisted of two aircraft, each flown by experienced and highly trained formation pilots. In this case the photo plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza flown by AOPA Pilot’s Editor in Chief, Tom Haines.  The Bonanza, a single-engine propeller-driven aircraft is a fantastic platform and is highly regarded by many aviation photographers. Its speed (and thus ability to keep pace with a wide range of subject aircraft), as well as the fact that it has two large rear doors that can be easily removed for shooting, make it an obvious choice for this kind of work.  Within 20 min. after departure, we arrive at the pre-determined shooting area with me facing aft and harnessed into the back of the Bonanza at the edge of the (now missing) doors.  The subject aircraft then joined us in formation, and we began a series of shallow and steep 360-degree turns, taking advantage of the how the light changed and moved across the aircraft’s exterior.  The in/out and up/down movements of the jet were controlled by commands given either over the cockpit radios or by hand signals between myself and the subject aircraft.  As the sun began to reach the horizon, we decided to make one more orbit, and as the Phenom rolled out of its turn to begin the course for home, I captured a series of shots – including this one.

POST PRODUCTION – I often get asked, “how many of your images do you enhance in Photoshop?” – my answer, all of them.  I never feel guilty about taking advantage of the flexibility that digital photography provides.  In the case of this particular shot, the wonderful evening sunlight did most of the work, but in my RAW workflow, every image gets at the very least a boost in vibrance and sharpened.

Chris Rose is a staff photographer for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association based in Frederick, MD, www.aopa.org.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION – Seville, Spain 2007

CAMERA AND LENS – Canon 40D – Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS

LIGHTING – The soaring Spanish sun.

CREATIVE PROCESS - I took this image while second shooting for a good friend in Seville, Spain. He was setting up some portraits of the bride in the doorway when all of a sudden her dress got caught in her shoe. Her bridesmaid came over to fix the problem and I knew that was the shot. I love the colours and the stance of the bride. Blue and yellow are opposite colours and always look awesome when together. I also love the moment the two of them are sharing.

POST PRODUCTION - I saturated the colours in curves and added some contrast and applied a border.