"Untitled" @stefincolour - Tumblr Blog

Recreating an image

My choice of photographer for this task is Erik Johansson. His ability to mix reality and fantasy is what drew me to his style of photography and post production.

You will find the image that inspired me here:

http://www.erikjohanssonphoto.com/commissioned-work/2i67w1l2hk28j1p6dfd5kpf9ooiecz

I love pretty much everything about this photo:

- the perspective twists - the surreal feel - the shapes, especially the circles created with the magnifying lenses - the leading lines playing tricks on my eyes - the desaturated and filtered look - the pattern repetitions (the Es, the birds)

I did not attempt to recreate the image fully, I just wanted to play with precarious balance and lines and put some of my imagination and current emotions into the mix.

So I fished out an image from a few months ago

[f 4.5, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/2000s, 50mm lens]

Then holed up in the photo studio at NMIT to get some shots of myself on a black background with a tripod, my camera on a timer and manual focus

[f8.0, ISO 200, shutter speed 1/3s, 18-55mm lens at 18mm]

I used the free transform too to resize myself in proportion to the foggy background, then masked this photo to remove the background (on second thought having a white background would have been miles better in post production). Finally made it black and white to (hopefully) try and conceal some of the masking that didn’t go according to plan. For the same reason (and to add a bit of ghostly feel to myself) I have made my layer slightly transparent.

Here is the final result: Balancing act

Interior

For my interior photo I chose to:

- dress the room - use my tripod - use my 18-55mm lens (at 18mm) - do some bracketing (5 exposures at ISO 100 f22: 1/10sec, 1/5sec, 1/3sec, 0.6 sec, 1sec)

Here is the first photo out the bracketing series I used for the final image

I used the HDR pro automation in Photoshop and did the following adjustments:

- increased exposure, details, strength, vibrance and saturation - decreased shadow and highlight

I also cropped the image slightly and used the curves layer to darken the highlights.

I then masked the image to make it black & white while leaving the clothes in colour. Here is the result.

I wasn’t entirely happy with the result, because the camera moved slightly as I was adjusting the exposure and the image appeared blurred.

So I decided to apply a filter (stylise | oil paint). Here is the final result... I’d like to call it “Dressing the room” ... :)

Not sure you can see the effect the oil gave the photo... but hopefully if you click on it you can see it in full size. :)

Fun!!!

Does this count as an architectural photo? The gargoyle jury is still deliberating!

Sneaky architectural shot taken during screen printing class... Couldn't resist those lines talking to the church roof in the back ;-)

Product photography (v2)

I went back to the photography studio and this time used construction lights on both sides of the cube tent.

The camera settings were slightly different too:

Aperture f11 ISO 100 shutter speed 1/8 second AWB set to tungsten

Once again I worked on the raw image to increase the brightness of the whites and remove some of the orange hue with tint and temperature (which was still there, despite changing AWB setting). I only used photoshop for cropping.

Here is the result :)

Attempt at fine art

I wasn’t aiming at any symbology here, just trying to tell a story. Our image course is centered around the armistice celebration in Tapawera this November. The image below is inspired by the theme of war.

I was lucky to come across the Berry collection on Te Papa’s website and images can be used for education and artistic purposes, so I took some liberties...I made the picture into a prop and that inspired the gif below.

Here is the official credit: The photograph is of Herbert James Freeman with Marguerita Freeman and baby Zena, 1917, Wellington, by Berry & Co. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (B.045581). The collection has some amazing images, check them out if you get a chance.

If you look at the photo in this photo, you may recognise a familiar face... I was trying to put myself in the shoes of those left behind in NZ.

Here are the technical details:

50mm fixed lens ISO 100 aperture f22 shutter speed 2 seconds AWB tungsten Photos was shot inside a white cube tent (similar to that on the video, but bigger), with a construction light shining from the left and a LED studio light on the right.

Processing in Lightroom:

temperature lowered tint increased exposure increased whites increased

I cropped the image and added just a b&w adjustment layer in Photoshop.

Looking forward to trying something different at home, when my brain is not so fried from a week of learning!

;) Stef

Product photography

Here are my pre-production images

Both images were taken with the same settings and processed the same way. Here are the details:

50mm fixed lens ISO 100 aperture f22 shutter speed 2 seconds AWB tungsten Photos were shot inside a white cube tent (similar to that on the video, but bigger), with a construction light shining from the left and a LED studio light on the right - hence the issues with the boxes looking different in colour and the camera struggling to adjust AWB.

Also the two boxes are slightly different colours (brown kraft paper on the left, grey brown paper on the right).

Processing in Lightroom: temperature lowered tint increased exposure increased whites increased Processing in Photoshop: Layer mask on box on the left to reduce saturation flattened image Increased saturation on flattened image Two large speckles adjacent to text removed using clone stamp

Post-production images

I’m not sure why despite upping the whites and the picture looking OK on screen, the background is still coming out slightly salmony...

It was serendipitous how I needed photos of my product packaging prototypes for my NMIT course... and the online course required some product photography. I was lucky to be able to use the photo studio on site with the lights and the fabric cube.

:) Stef

“Sky” replacement

I couldn’t help but stray from the original brief when it came to sky replacement. NMIT’s G block lends itself to all manners of Photoshop fun... especially the grey concrete floor...

So instead of a sky replacement... I did a floor replacement... then went a bit nutty with the layers, the masks and a gradient rectangle to blend the lot. :)

As an after thought, I probably should have used the underexposed shot, as it would have lent itself beautifully to blending in the second image... although that would have been more of a double exposure and less of a replacement.

More HDR trials

Here are some more HDR trial - bracketing first then the HDR composite. I have tried converting some to black & white to see what that would look like.

Loving the ghost car in this one. Even though I spotted the option to remove the ghosts, I decided to leave it to add a bit of interest to an otherwise quite plain photo.

HDR outtake

As usual, it’s good to share the failures too... this HDR image merges 5 images at -1, -28, 0, +56 + 1 exposures. I did take them without a tripod and when I ticked the option for auto-alignment Photoshop did the best it could to fix my shakes...

I do like the fact the shaking only becomes super obvious in the top steps, so if the viewer persists in following the stairs all the way to the landing, they will find out about my little mishap!

First round of HDR trials

3-exposure bracketing of indoor space (from underexposed to overexposed)

Unfortunately my focus was on the floor just before the stairs (rather than on the stairs)... will have to try again with manual focus.

The HDR result is not bad though, amazing the amount of details that shows. I’d like to play some more with grainier textures like wood. I am pleased that the spotlight on the stairs is still visible on so is the one on the left wall, as I think they make this space quite interesting (it isn’t so obvious in the day, but the cloudy day helped).

HDR

Found the HDR setting on my phone! Not amazing but the difference is noticeable!

HDR off

HDR on

Can't wait to try some bracketing on my DSLR 😊

HDR

Found the HDR setting on my phone! Not amazing but the difference is noticeable!

HDR off

HDR on

Can't wait to try some bracketing on my DSLR 😊

Wondering around Nelson

Some more unprocessed building images from little old Nelson

Architectural photography

Here are my picks/pics for architectural photography

For the outdoor shot I have chosen a detail of NMIT’s Library. The library’s lines are straight and the building itself is very geometrical with many harsh angles, however, the architects have places some curly detailing where the pillars meet the sail like roof. For some reason I often find myself observing the curls, and the shadows the create, from different angles and distances.

The photo was taken with a 28-200mm lens at 28mm focal length. Aperture was set to f14, shutter speed at 1/125. Metering was set to centered weighted (which is probably why some of the foot details are visible despite the strong light) and white balance to sunny.

Once again, detailing is what caught my attention. The NMIT G Block staircase is hard to miss in all its wooden glory! It almost looks like a shot out of Labyrinth.

The photo was with a 28-200mm lens at 28mm focal length. Aperture was set to f14, shutter speed at 1/15. Metering was set to centered weighted (which is probably why some of the foot details are visible despite the strong light) and white balance to sunny. I tried experimenting with indoors settings for the white balance but the colour adjustment was too far from the original I could see from the viewfinder. Also the building has lots of natural light, so I felt that there was no need to adjust for the artificial lighting, since it’s hardly noticeable.

Both photos were left untouched (no cropping, no Photoshop processing). Will post more shots from other buildings in a separate post.

Who would have thought Nelson had so many hidden treasures... This reminds me of Venice... Perfect front ragged back.

When you've left the camera at home, because the forecast said rain... Well, at least the building is not going anywhere... 😉

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