Project 50 - Week 3 - Leeloo, Fremen Baby

Project 50 - Week 3
Subject: Leeloo, Fremen Baby


It was a close call, but I finished this weeks project!  A bit of a early-week cold and an upcoming move certainly occupied a lot of my time, but in the end I completed the project!  For my week 3 project, I wanted to use some portrait photographs that I recently took of our friend's baby's first birthday party.  I tried to use a few different techniques in these photos, both during the shoot and post-production to give them an interesting look. 


All-in-all, for my first attempt at any sort of portrait shooting, I'm very pleased with the outcome.  Two of the post-production techniques I used for some of the photos include: duo-toning (with a "Warm Gray" filter effect) and tri-toning (as a sepia effect).  Two of the photos I left unaltered, because of how well they show off the blue of her eyes. 


In regards to her amazing blue eyes, the name of this project "Leeloo, Fremen Baby" is a tweak on a "geek joke"; Fremen are the group of characters from the Dune book series (by Frank Herbert) who live on the planet Arrakis and due to their constant consumption of "Spice", all of their eye's have turned "blue-in-blue".  Leeloo clearly has a lot of Spice with her Cheerios.

Enjoy!

Note: a larger version of these photos will be viewable on the www.anttree.org website within the next few days. 

Project 50 - Week 3 - Concept

Project 50 - Week 3
Concept

For this weeks project, I've decided to work on some of my portraiture skills.  I am going to try and make a portfolio of 8-12 shots of some baby pictures I recently took.  The trick in this project is two-fold, the first part (which is already complete) was trying to take a more "portrait"-level photograph (compared to just a "snap-shot") and the second part is managing the post-production aspects.

While taking the pictures I was more concerned with the person and trying to isolate them from the background and add a nice bokeh (the soft blurring of the background/foreground in a photo to isolate your subject).  I also used an off-camera flash to try and generate a more natural look and feel.  While taking the shots I constantly had to remind myself; "aim for the eyes!" because no matter how good you think a portrait may look, if the eyes are blurry its going to be rejected. 

For the post-production components, I'm looking a few items: retouching, softening skin tones, color balancing, creating both artistic-looking mono- and duo-toned shots, and formatting the final shots into a complete portfolio (all images standard size, title bar, signature line and layout).

Hope you enjoy the ride!

Photo 365 - Day 364 (Day 365)

Day 364 (July 2nd, 2011)
Title: Day 365

And now, Day 365 of my "Photo 365" project.  Let's just say it has been a very long week... err... month... uhm... year. I have to say, looking back at the last 365 days, I've taken some good photos, some bad photos, and a whole lot of "in-between".

The alternate name for this photo was: Twitchy.  

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 363 (Day 1)

Day 363 (July 1st, 2011)
Title: Day 1

Ah, there I was, all excited and happy; "Sky's the limit!"  Day 1 of my "Photo 365" project...

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 239 (Meeting The Mustache)

Day 238 (February 27th, 2011)
Title: Meeting The Mustache

If you saw my earlier Daily Artist post, you will know that I was lucky enough to meet one of my favorite artist recently, Sergio Aragonés.  He's a great cartoonist (Mad Magazine and Groo), that I've been reading and laughing too for as long as I can remember.  He was one of the guest at this years WonderCon in San Francisco - and was one of the major factors that got me to go!  If you ever get the chance to meet the man (and the mustache), I would highly recommend it.  He is very friendly and nice, and can draw cartoons at the speed of light.

Tech-bits: Being that I'm in this picture, I was unable to control all of the settings - but prop's to Theresa for making sure Sergio was in focus!  I'm out of focus because I didn't step forward a bit to be on the same focal plane as Sergio - So remember kids, when using a wide apature (f/2.0 in this case), make sure all of your elements are on the same focal plane! 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 193 (Kaleidoscope Portrait)

Day 193 (January 12th, 2011)
Title: Kaleidoscope Portrait

If I had to pick one area in photography that I feel I've avoided, it would be portrait photography.  Mostly, because people are a bit crazy.  When taking a picture of a leaf, you never hear: "Ahh!  Don't make my nose look to big!  Is this my 'good' side?!"  The leaf just sits there.  So, for some reason I've always put off take shots of people.  That's not to say I don't want to take pictures of folks, it just really hasn't come up before. 

While I was playing around with some other techniques, I decided to take some kaleidoscope photos and why not get some portraits while I was at it!  Kaleidoscope photos are pretty simple really - take a black piece of card stock or paper, poke a lot of tiny holes in it and tape it (or otherwise secure it) to the front of your lens.  In essence, it makes your camera a multi-pinhole camera.  As for the settings (f-stop and shutter speed), its all guesswork to be honest.  Most of the time, the shots are just strange blurry blobs, but sometimes you can get something neat.  This is one of the neat ones.

Enjoy