LOCATION: Larmer Tree gardens, Wiltshire

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 24-70 lens. I selected this particular combination to ensure I would not lose the perspective in the background.  200 sec 2.8 800 iso

LIGHTING: Just available light, no addition.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The couple were rehearsing the first dance, I gave them instructions on what I was trying to achieve, they responded with aplomb.

POST PRODUCTION: Adobe Photoshop CS3 with tone only.

Portraits – Photographer Andres Reynaga -Website www.reynaga.co.uk

LOCATION: Chalet Aurore, Meribel

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D mark II, Canon EF Zoom lens - 24 mm - 70 mm - F/2.8 - Canon EF

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Ranger Quadra 2 heads

CREATIVE PROCESS: Shot for a luxury magazine, added water drops in the foreground to add flares to cover up the caracteless chatlet.

POST PRODUCTION: Added a bit of contrast as the image came out a bit soft because of the back light, soften skin and thats pretty much it.

Portraits – Photographer Andres Reynaga -Website www.reynaga.co.uk

LOCATION: London Studio

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D mark II, Canon 85mm f/1.2 LII lens

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Digital 1200 RX pack, 2 A300N head, silver umbrella, honeycomb grids

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is one of a series of images done for a rock bar in London McQueen that host live gigs. They required full life size prints that would suit the bar so I looked for a tattooed model and got music props.

POST PRODUCTION: Desaturated the colours, soften the skin, rotated the image to portrait format to gives a floating feel.

Portraits – Photographer Luc Coiffait -Website www.luccoiffait.com

LOCATION: Hopkinson Building, Nottingham

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and 85mm 1.2 L II

LIGHTING: Natural light only.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Andrea is a friend with a creative spirit and together we create and inspire each other to make still and moving images.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – added a cross processed action I made and lowered the opacity. Then finished it off with a curves adjustment layer to boost the contrast.

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor -Website www.photographsbycrashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Cafe, Nottingham

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and 200mm 2.8 L IS

LIGHTING: Natural light only.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I wanted to create a sort of mannequin/ghost feel while people go along with their normal everyday lives. Not noticing whats going on within their surroundings.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – added a cross processed action I made and lowered the opacity. Then finished it off with a curves adjustment layer to boost the contrast.

LOCATION: The background image was shot in Denver Colorado and the subject was shot in my LA studio.

CAMERA AND LENS: I am currently using a Canon 5D Mark II.  The background image was shot using a Canon 16-35 2.8 set at 16mm, and the basketball player Ryan William was shot using a Canon 24mm TS f/4 lens.

LIGHTING: Here I am using three Paul C. Puff Einstein’s, set at the high speed flash duration.  The two side lights are run through two Photoflex large soft boxes with grids and my main overhead light is run through a medium Photoflex Octodome.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image came from a project for the Ball Up team, which is part of the Pro Streetball Basketball league.  The concept was to have them photographed in urban street scenes.  I shot a total of 11 players on a white sweep in my studio and knocking them out in Photoshop CS5.

POST PRODUCTION: All the final images were composites and the biggest challenge for this project was coming up with 11 different backgrounds.  The original backgrounds were shot in HDR and processed through Photomatix, and then all the post edgy techniques were done in Photoshop CS5.

Joel has been a huge inspiration to me throughout my career. He is an awesome photographer who is willing to share his knowledge to help you take your photography and business to the next level. I highly recommend his video tutorials, which you can purchase on his blog.

Weddings – Photographer David Murray – Website www.davidmurrayweddings.com

LOCATION: Andover Massachusetts (Boston suburb)

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 and Nikkor 17-35mm 2.8

LIGHTING: Available light only

CREATIVE PROCESS: It was my first Hindu wedding and was just getting my bearings at the beginning of the ceremony.  I noticed several boys, being the curious kittens that they can be, trying to see what was on the other side of the silk cloth that had been set up as a barrier between the bride and groom. This is the part where they see one another for the first time.   I got down on my knees, and took the camera down closer to the floor and away from my eye.  I set the camera so that the red focus square would be on the right side of the frame.  After that,  I just kept pushing the focus button as the action unfolded, hoping that I was framing the subject correctly.  The frame shown was the result of what happens when boys will be boys!

POST PRODUCTION: There was little done in Photoshop.  The image is a raw file.  I had exposed for the groom and his parents (left side of frame), which meant that the boys were almost two stops under.   Pulling them out of the darkness is just a normal event for a former newspaper and wire photographer, because it is, for them, about the moment.

Film Still – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website - www.photographsbycrashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Lonesome village road.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d Mark II and Canon 85mm 1.2 L II.

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: I was scouting some locations and taken some stills of the lead actress for an upcoming short called Subconscious. I asked her to cover her face with hair leaving one eye visible and walk towards me. I asked her to raise her hand as she approached the camera. This was the first frame and it worked. It was a very overcast rainy day, which added to the atmosphere and made the models hair wet.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – Silver Efex Pro 2 was used for a contrasty black and white image. I then added a texture, which is a shot of my car window covered in rain and dirt. I also played around with the eye to give it a more sinister effect.

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

LOCATION: Stubton, Nottinghamshire, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d Mark II and Canon 16-35mm 2.8L

LIGHTING: Two off camera Canon speedlites placed on the bands speakers. Canon ST-E2 transmitter on the camera.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I always try to create an image that is completely different to the norm on the first dance. I love to include family, friends and the band within the frame to add dimension and also to create an image the bride and groom will cherish forever. I was taking a photo of the bride and groom when I saw the bride’s father’s hand pop into my frame. I pulled back to include his face and pressed the shutter. The expressions are wonderful and Dad seems so interested in what he is capturing on the screen.

The lighting from the off camera speedlites is perfect and rims all three of them. I use this setup on all my first dances when I can.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – Silver Efex Pro 2 was used for a contrasty black and white image.

]]> http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/2011/05/02/the-still-image-with-crash-taylor-34/feed/ 0 http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/2011/03/15/the-still-image-with-crash-taylor-33/ http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/2011/03/15/the-still-image-with-crash-taylor-33/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:42:56 +0000 admin http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/?p=642 Portraits – Photographer Richy P. Walton – Website www.photograffiti.tv

LOCATION: The break dancer was shot in my studio and the background was a local car park in my home city. The car park had not long been finished which helped as it was pretty much empty when I went to shoot there.

CAMERA AND LENS: For the break dancer in the studio I used the Canon 50mm 1.8 (cheapestone) I use this lens for most things in the studio, it is fantastic for the small price of £80. The lens that I used to shoot the background was the Canon 20mm 2.8, I just just love the effect that this lens gives, it’s also a reasonably cheap lens that is great for the price. Both of these lens are used for pretty much all of my work. The portrait and car park were both shot with a Canon 5D.

LIGHTING: The Portrait had two six foot soft boxes lighting him from behind, a smaller soft box was used camera right and left and then an Orbis ring flash was used for fill. All soft boxes had Bowens 500s on them and the Orbis had an old Canon EZ speedlite through it. The car park was shoot with the natural light available and was made up of five different exposures which where then run through HDR software.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The break dancer was great, he had so many cool moves that he could pull off first time every time. I had the car park in my head and wanted a pose that was just totally impossible on a normal portrait session. This one for me was the most impressive.

POST PRODUCTION: The car park was HDR, I then took it into Photo Shop where I grunged it up a bit and took it from that horrible HDR look to something more believable. I used curves and blending modes with duplicated layers to achieve the final look. The portrait looked pretty cool off camera, I just had to match the colours with the background really. I again used curves to match the contrast with the background.

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

LOCATION – A farm in the English countryside

CAMERA AND LENS - Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 24-105mm f4 IS L

LIGHTING – Lowell ID video light

CREATIVE PROCESS - This is a film still from a HDSLR short film using the Canon 5D Mark II. It was my first time using the camera in a video capacity and the results were stunning. The film took us 4 hours and was handheld as we didn’t have any other equipment, not even a tripod. We start production on the next one in April, this time we will be experimenting with camera dollies, jibs etc… If you want to check out the film here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh2CKvKp89U

POST PRODUCTION – This is how it looked straight from camera. I added a curves adjustment layer and the shadow on the wall to give the effect the younger vampire is looking at this figure. It adds a lot more mystery to the image.

]]> http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/2011/03/15/the-still-image-with-crash-taylor-33/feed/ 0 http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/2011/01/18/the-still-image-with-crash-taylor-32/ http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/2011/01/18/the-still-image-with-crash-taylor-32/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:04:11 +0000 admin http://www.thestillimagewithcrashtaylor.com/?p=631 Wedding – Photographer Jonathan Dear – Website www.vibrantphotography.com.au

LOCATION: In the middle of Lake Illawara, about 2 hours South of Sydney, Australia.

CAMERA AND LENS: 5D Mk II + 70-200 f/2.8L IS – I started wide, but the sky wasn’t that interesting, so I found an area I liked and isolated it with a longer lens. Usually my 17-40L lives on my lens for environmental strobing action.

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Ranger Speed RX AS pack firing an Elinchrom A head into a Mola 28″ Setti Silver Beauty Dish with white diffusion sock. Unit was triggered by the Skyport RX triggers, supported by an avenger C-stand. The c-stand was pushed down into the wet sand until the legs disappeared and it didn’t move. The pack was sitting on a tarp we brought to keep it from getting wet. The pack was powered right down to its minimum of 1.5 (approx 17ws)

CREATIVE PROCESS: Another photographer / friend of mine took his rubby-ducky (inflatablemotorboat) out on our local lake and found a nice looking sandbar. We shot there for a while using the models own wardrobe but weren’t really feeling it. The model was kinda awkward and she wasn’t what we expected when we cast for her. It wasn’t until we popped her into the wedding dress nearthe end of the shoot, I started to get into the shoot.

POST PRODUCTION: Not too much, some cleaning up (pelican poo etc), the typical huge amount of dust I get on my images from my dirty sensor and some selective dodging and burning. The lighting really did most of the work for us.

Fashion – Photographer Jay Mawson – Website www.jaymawson.co.uk

LOCATION: Apartement, Leeds, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm 1.8

LIGHTING: Natural Light

CREATIVE PROCESS: The shot was for my book; the model is predominantly an art nude model – I wanted to bring some fashion into her portfolio. I also wanted to capture some of Leeds in the images, I feel a strong attachment to my home town!

POST PRODUCTION: Lightroom export – contrast and colour adjustments only

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

LOCATION: Beautiful old house in Nottingham, England. This location was stunning as most of the rooms had old wallpaper and hand painted walls.

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

LIGHTING: Natural Light coming though a huge bay window camera right and I was shooting into a mirror.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This was an image taken for a personal project I’m working on. It’s a series of portraits over two years with my favourite model and friend Ava. She is awesome and between us we come up with great ideas for shoots. The end result will be a limited edition book entitled Ava which will consist of 40 portraits over the two years.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop was used to give it that vintage colour effect which I achieved through some of my actions. I also added a border.

LOCATION: My studio in Yorkshire, England

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm 1.8

LIGHTING: Natural Light

CREATIVE PROCESS: Shot as part of an editorial set for a makeup artist focusing on Indian influence in fashion

POST PRODUCTION: Lightroom export – B&W treatment only

Portrait – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com | www.crashtaylorphotographer.com

LOCATION: Grade II listed building in the centre of Nottinghamshire, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 3 film camera and Canon 50mm 1.4

LIGHTING: Natural light and a Lastolite Gold reflector

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is part of a personal project I am working on which is based on films like The Sixth Sense, The Others, The Ring, Poltergeist etc… The project will consist of approx 20 cinematic stills from ideas I get from watching these films. The models are brilliant and really enjoy acting out the scenes.

POST PRODUCTION: I started with a yellow film effect filter which complimented the ISO 800 film I was using. I added a texture which I overlayed several times over the image and finished with curves and dodge and burn.

LOCATION: My studio in SF

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d Mark II & Canon 24-70mm L.  Shot at 50mm, f/11 to keep the sharpness. Shutter speed sync to 1/160 to prevent any natural light from coming in to the shot and freeze any movements by the model.

LIGHTING: Profoto D4 Pack, Acute Heads, Profoto Softlight Diffuser.  Grids for the back light to limit the light spill on the background.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image is part of a personal series project entitled “mask”.  A black and white still life and fashion/portrait shoot with warrior/urban/hip inspired wardrobe.  It is a collaboration between myself and stylists I work with.

POST PRODUCTION: Processed via Adobe Camera Raw in color then converted to black and white in Photoshop.  There are a bunch of ways I do black and white but this was a black and white adjustment layer with the blue’s punched in a bit more to give it more contrast and deep blacks

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: A very old house in England.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 1D Mark IV and Canon 85mm 1.2 L II.

LIGHTING: Daylight and Lastolite reflector. There was a huge bay window behind me and to camera left. My assistant was holding a Lastolite sunlite reflector just below the model, out of frame.

CREATIVE PROCESS : I was taking a series of photographs of the model for a personal project I’m working on. As we were leaving the location, I saw her talking to her friend in front of the wall and loved the light hitting her face. I said give me some attitude and the photo was taken. I love the background wallpaper, the colours and the natural light rocks.

POST PRODUCTION: I played around in curves with the colour and added some contrast.

LOCATION: Old San Francisco Naval Shipyard

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d mark II with canon 50mm 1.4.   ISO 100 -and 1/60 shutter speed with

LIGHTING: Profoto BPro-B2 Battery pack with 1 Head.  Used mostly for fill light since it was bright and sunny that day.  Also used a simple pop-up reflector on occasion (for fill light also).

CREATIVE PROCESS: This shoot was originally shot for a local magazine as a fashion editorial story entitled ” Running on Empty”.  It never went to print due to some creative power struggle.  I didn’t want it to get buried in the archives and since the images were not going to be in the magazine anymore I had complete control over what I wanted to do with them.  So I collaborated with ADAPT Digital ( http://www.adaptdigital.com )  here in San Francisco to give it a few (more) tweaks.  It ended up winning this years Photo District News PIX Imaging Contest (2nd Place for Fashion).

POST PRODUCTION: *see above

Portrait – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylorphotographer.com

LOCATION: Los Angeles alley

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 85mm 1.2 L II

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image is pure luck. I was taking a portrait of my brother when all of a sudden my son appeared in the frame. He sat down holding his biscuit and started stirring at his uncle. It’s the first photo I have taken of both of them together. It’s now framed in my studio.

POST PRODUCTION: I converted the image to black and white and pumped up the contrast. I then added a solid colour fill layer and changed the blend mode to soft light.

Weddings – Photographer Jaco Fourie – Website www.jdphotography.co.za

LOCATION: Science fiction museum Seattle USA

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3s with 14 – 24 F2.8

LIGHTING: Sun and 2 SB-800 speed lights.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I created this image at my workshop that I hosted in Seattle USA.  I love working at that building and can shoot there for days. This image is one of my all time favourites even thought it may not appeal to everybody. It is always difficult shooting into the sun working with just small light sources.  I used 2 SB-800’s. One is in front of the bride creating a bit of a rim around her face and the other was on a boom lighting up her head and back.  I like all the lines and even though the bride was standing still I posed her in such a way that it looks like she is walking up the stairs.

POST PRODUCTION: I cloned out all the light stands. Added a bit of defuse glow .

LOCATION: Santapod Raceway

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 1D MkIII and Canon 300mm f2.8 IS.

LIGHTING: Natural daylight.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The use of this lens provides a really good level of compression between the car and the “Santapod” banner.  The “banner” is over the finish line of the drag strip which is a quarter of a mile away from the car.   Putting the image into black and white enhances the “retro” feel of the image and the angle of tilt provides an additional dimension.

POST PRODUCTION: The image was shot in RAW and final processing used Photoshop CS2 together with Corel Paint Shop Pro to increase the tonal contrast and clarify levels.

Fashion – Photographer – Titus Powell – Website www.tituspowell.com

LOCATION: My studio in Ealing, West London

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D200 with Nikon 18-200mm VR lens, which is a great all-purpose lens because of its enormous range. The image was taken a few years ago, hence the old camera.

LIGHTING: Two Bowens Esprit Gemini 500s. One main softbox in front and above, and one small low snoot to pick out detail at the bottom of the dress. The ‘halo’ effect was created in post production.

CREATIVE PROCESS: There’s a full step-by-step explanation of how I created this on my website (www.TitusPowell.com), with all the test and intermediary images. Briefly, though, I went for a ‘religious’ pose and lighting and then the doves were added in post.

POST PRODUCTION: There’s a lot of post in this image: the doves, the halo effect, and also stretching the model’s dress to be about 50% longer/taller.

LOCATION: Paris, the Louvre. Around 8pm August 2010. It’s very hard to take a picture without tourists at the Louvre, but we had the advantage of a white wedding dress, so the crowd was very kind and gave us some time.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D MII with 45mm TSE Lens. I used the TSE Lens because I wanted a surreal effect for this image. It should look like a dream, somehow unreal.

LIGHTING: Available light, just a few minutes before sunset.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Usually I try to take pictures at familiar places that are different to what people have taken before. This was my target with this shoot.

POST PRODUCTION: I burned the highlights and did some toning, thats all. The rest was done with the 45mm TSE.