Pets and Photography

In my very first post, I mentioned that I once read pets and children were some of the most challenging to photograph. My experience is that they are, indeed, the most rewarding and fun–as I love a photoshoot with the vibrant energy of playfullness.  Here’s my first experience at photographing a pet reptilian. (I think it’s an iquana…I know it is reptilian for certain…and whatever it is…it takes a gorgeous photo). Here, I tried out another new prop–the background paper roll. I have used fabric backdrops that span 20 feet by 10 feet up until now. The yellow paper roll provides a smooth area to bounce light off of. And, who knew, yellow is this reptilian’s perfect backdrop for a stunning photo or two.

A great portrait of pet and child.

Making a Digital Forest

Here’s a play by play of how I made a Digital Forest. What I don’t know about photography, well, I can at least employ mad skills in Photoshop to make up for it–for now. The goal, of course, is to do everything at the first click of the camera with lighting and scale. But, we’re learning. So, let’s see some of the final images of my cousin’s daughter–then we’ll open the hood so-to-speak.

Here is one of the original shots from my living room using a single soft-box light on the left of the subject.

Time to color correct the saturation of the reds, and begin extracting from the background. (White balance…what’s that?)

Now, over to my favorite in-a-pinch place– istockphoto.com for some vector art and a photo of dirt.

After opening up Adobe Illustrator and deleting the backgrounds from each vector image, I imported the modified .eps files into Photoshop. A few clicks (okay, a lot) to mess with shadows, bevels and my favorite–the Layers >Satin options– and those flat vector shapes start to take on a 3D look. The dirt is cloned multiple times to create the ground. And a trick learned from Burt Monroy at a photoshop conference tells you to look at the details. Notice the vector butterflies are given a shadow that appears on her dress.

Lastly, I use a plug-in from Digital Film Tools that’s certainly worth the $50 (or less with a NAPP discount)  if you’re at all into digital manipulation. Flatten the image and save as a new file. Then bring up the effect under the Filters menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it. See the final image gallery here.

Glitter Curtains are Props too

I read that children and pets were some of the hardest subjects to photograph. Being more familiar with the latter, I’ve mustered a treasure trove of ideas for props as backup, including: Glitter Curtains from Party America, a tangled mess of guitar and mic cables from the closet, my boyfriend’s guitar (hey, I only have an acoustic these days), and madonna-inspired fishnet gloves and hat (think the Holiday video meets Express Yourself). I love the results and how the lighting is enhanced with the reflective curtains. And, now I’m cool again…well, for thirty-somethin’. How do I know? Because my cousin’s teenager was lightening fast in uploading some of the pics to myspace. That makes me cool, right? Or, just an enabler?