Before and Afters

Sometimes a good image can be made a great image with some solid post production aka photoshop. Either the colour is off, or the densities need some bumpin' or there is some shit in the background that was super impossible to avoid, thats when you can't avoid it, the dreaded photoshop! dah dah dahhhhhh. I definitely stand by the words that "photoshop should not be used to make a bad image better but a good image great!" Shoot the shit knowing that post production shouldn't be your life saver, try to do as much as you can to avoid spending time on the darkside, cause time is money right? nail it in camera first then take it to the next level in post. I try to do that as much as possible, but its impossible to avoid some post production, its just the reality of the game. Here are four images of mine that I shot with varying degrees of post done to them. the RAW image is on the left(or top) and the finished photo is on the right(or bottom). Before and After, Bam!

So this was a shoot for a private airline I did, the client and I wanted some major changes to the image. There were some major issues with the background and the girders in the ceiling that needed to be removed and simplified, aswell as a drain in the floor, red carpet t be extended and licsence removed from both plane and car for privacy issues. I also wanted the image to appear as if the young couple were arriving at night, so brought the background down quite a bit and added a little midnight blue to the situation.

Shot on film, the field in the foreground just wasn't doing it for me and needed to be bumped up to draw your eye in more. The colour for me wasn't where I wanted it to be, so dabbled in fixing that a touch and brought down the sky to get the clouds lookin' gloomier, cause that's how I roll, pure gloom fest.

This photo of famous playboy artist Doug Sneyd, needed a ton of tiny little things done to it to take it where I wanted it to be. First, we shot in his studio in his home, I really don't like messing with peoples stuff, as it maybe in a certain place for a certain reason, so the composition is pretty straight up. If you were to go into his studio now, this is legitimately what it would look like. There were some things I did want moved to make the background more simplified such as the door handle, plant and vent. There was also a painting on the wall and appeared to be coming out of dougs face, so got rid of that but isn't in the example above, my bad. I also did the usual colour correction on dougs skin and outfit.

From the same shoot as the first photo. This image for me looked pretty good but had some distracting shit in the shot and needed to be fixed. First the shadows were super ugly and hindered seeing all the way to the rear of the plane clearly, removed those. The model also had a leaf tattoo on her foot that needed to go, aswell as a few issues with the ceiling of the plane. Then the usual colour correction, as this is a digital image and digi red is not kosher. A bunch of little stuff was done to get this photo where its at, and deem it "client ready".

So here are a few examples of what I like to do to my photos, all photos are pretty good straight up but needed some touching up in post production to get them where I really like them and want them to be. word.

Sex trophy.

I was recently approached by a friend of mine to take photos of her brand new baby the stork had just dropped off. Now normally I don't shoot this kinda stuff , just not passionate about it and I know some people that are, so I try not to tread on their turf. I Also know how some moms can get (experience from working at a lab for a while and having to do baby passport shots) they can get a little crazy. On top of crazy moms and being over the whole baby photos thing, people often want their babys doing some lame anne gettys shit which I am definitely not into, nor have time to entertain. However, Erin was down with whatever which made things much better and substantially less cheese.

I wasn't sure how to approach this type of gig, so I decided on kind of a "photo journalistic look", baby and mom interacting while using natural light on my end, with a touch of some sucky attempts at more posey shots to round out the photo session.

baby Abe kickin' it in his crib.

This shot of Abe in his crib is my attempt at something a little more posed. I tried to make it natural, baby sleeping, they do that right?

baby Abe and mother.

Luckily Erin has a sweet pad with lots of character and awesome big bay windows which added some sweet natural light which I was totally into.

Erin and baby Abe.

Like I said before, Erin's pad is full of character, hence this shot of a young mother Tereasa. I just loved the obviously juxtaposition here, one of my faves.

So I survived the dreaded baby shoot, this is my first and probably my last(unless the price is right). Its a lot of work and takes tons of patience and everything is based on a new born's mood which is ridiculously hard to predict, just not my cup of tea. I like grown up, even though they can act like babies too.

A visit to the doctor.

Michelle standing in for a lighting test.

The other day I shot some photos of a doctor for an article. Didn't realize how cramped those spaces are till I tried setting up a soft box and awkwardly banging into walls every where I went trying to position the damn thing. I ended up bouncing the light since that was the only real option I had without loosing my sanity. My efforts can be viewed in the up and coming Pie Magazine Issue 4.

Calspo Project

A while ago Tamara asked me to help her out with some photos that show what she does on a daily basis for a contest being held by CALSPO. The concept that we came up with, was to show the interaction of the SLP with the client while He/she interacts with a alternative communication device. We also wanted to show the actual speaking tool in a totally separate photograph aswell, so we paired them up in a dyptic to make them more effective and visually appealing. The dyptics ended up giving the project a contemporary feel, which is what we were going for. For Tamara and I it became so much more then a contest entry. I was glad I could help make something so moving for her, and I got to see the difference she's making for these kids(and families) first hand. So if we didn't win anything in the contest we still could feel good because we did something important for each other, awwwwwe(we ended up getting first in the photography category!)

To read the writing, click on the photograph.

Go Talk 20 AAC device aka "The Speak and Spell"

Speaking Green Button(not sure what the actual title is) an AAC device

Iphone as an AAC device.

So these tools are often used to communicate the basics, such as turning a page or what to eat, Anything that can help these kids communicate their needs, wants and opinions. I am quite obviously not educated in AAC but from what I understand and have heard and seen, the devices work by combining multiple buttons to form a sentence. This is especially the case with the Iphone and the Go Talk 20. The "Speaking Green Button" is slightly less elaborate and more basic but still equally effective in terms of transmitting a message.

Recent peoples.

Brandon no.4

I recently purchased new lighting equipment and have been dying to use it, luckily I have some friends that like it when I take their photos and Brandon is one of them. He seems to be always down which is great because wrangling people to shoot can be difficult at times, no one wants a photo of themselves? I don't know if taking "nice family PG photos" is what I do but I do think the pictures I take are attractive in one way or another.

I do feel however feel this photo isn't as good as it could have been(operator error, not you Bran its all me) and could even be described as a "miss". When I look at it I feel like it is something that would be considered average or something that might be produced in the first year of photography school. Maybe more post production, maybe a tighter crop could revive this sucker and label it "useable"? who knows.

Brandon no.5

The man that is always down, Brandon again, shot at Garage Studio. Shot similarly to my buddy Garrette, I just love showing the set and everything and using the environment to frame the homies. The great Annie L does this time to time, so why can't I? I find it interesting when other photographers do this because you get to see how they work, what they are working with and where they are working, its kinda like a lesson in lighting and composition all in one, plus it looks cool don't it? Cool lookin' photo is what its all about right?

Kim, broken nose.

One of my fave photos this year so far. Pretty straight up shot but the photo has an infinite amount of context and narrative that could be applied to it, its this that makes it so appealing to me. Thanks Kim.

Garrett in the Garage.

Garrett Williams.

Photo of my friend Garrett, Kenora newspaper writer extraordinaire. Shot on location at "The Garage Studio".

Garrett Williams no.2

Garrett was very relaxed infront of the camera and made shooting him super easy which is not always the case when shooting friends. Oddly I still have friends that are nervous when I take their photograph no matter how long I have known them.

Changes.

Andrea no.1 Originally shot for the series "Immortalized In Flesh"

This is the first version of the Andrea photo for my series "Immortalized In Flesh" that I recently removed and replaced with the image below, making a better fit with other images.

Andrea for the series "immortalized In Flesh"

This photo was taken a while ago for my second coming of the series "Immortalized In Flesh" that I initially passed on. I returned to it as I liked the shape and just the look that Andrea has, plus her first photo didn't mesh well with another photo I took later of 'Kim' that was posed in a similar way. The photo of Kim looked better interms of posing in conjunction with her amazing tattoo work, so Andrea got the boot and had to be switched up for variety purposes. Deems da breaks! Luckily I like this photo just as much as Andreas first intended shot(and so does she), so its all good!