Filed under: Media, Photography | Tags: Photoshop, polarizer, reflections
The idea was to photograph a series of pet-food packs. This seemed easy enough, but it wasn’t as simple as it might seem…
The plastic packs proved highly reflective (as seen on the left image), so a few tricks were required. Firstly I used a polarizing filter over the lens, then I experimented with polarizing gel over the flashes. This helped a lot, but the final tweak came via a simple trick – namely to take one photo, move the lights and take another. The two images were then overlaid in Photoshop, and using selective masking I could paint over most of the reflections showing a non-highlighted part of the pack in the layer below (I left some reflections on purpose to communicate the surface feel)
So far so good…
Filed under: Media, Photography | Tags: blu domain, bludomain, Domain name, Web Host, Web hosting service
Sigh… A word of warning if you’re thinking of setting up an account with Blu Domain. http://www.bludomain.com/
While their templates and web hosting work fine, the back end support really lets them down…
For a couple of months I have been trying to arrange a Domain Name Transfer – a simple process. They have had me pay two minor invoices to action this, but still I wait. The customer rep has been patient and helpful, but even now she has gone silent – perhaps embarrassed by her tech people.
Enough already. Time to rant. My opinion, now tarnished, is to avoid these people.
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Following my attempts to emulate Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon, this photo is based on the work of C.S. Ball.
Fill-light bounced off card in front of model and below camera, soft boxes from rear left and rear right. ISO 25. High res version from Sinar.
Clarence Sinclair Bull. b. 1896, d. 1979, USA Clarence Sinclair Bull was the head of MGM’s stills department for nearly forty years, Clarence Sinclair Bull, along with George Hurrell virtually invented celebrity portraiture as we know it today, capturing with rare artistry a breathtaking roster of stars in brilliant and often surprising ways. His magical and dream‐like photographs in particular his collaboration with Greta Garbo, whom he photographed almost exclusively from 1929 until 1941 became the classic images of Hollywood portrait photography, instrumental in fixing the essential look of a star and in setting standards of beauty male and female ‐ to this day. Bull’s days at MGM included 200 of his enduring portraits of such legendary film stars as Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr, Gary Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivian Leigh, Spencer Tracy, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Jean Harlow and Greta Garbo – in fact he took over 4000 photographs of Garbo. He became Garbo’s favourite photographer (she had clashed with Hurrell and did not care for his manic personality) and as her power at the studio grew, she eventually requested that only Bull photograph her.
Winner of four Academy still photography exhibition awards, his early interest in photography took him to Hollywood in 1918 where he was hired as an assistant cameraman at Metro Pictures. He shot stills of the stars during the production breaks, and when Goldwyn merged with Metro in 1924, he became head of the MGM stills department, and remained at MGM for the rest of his career. Though Bull was experienced in every branch of his department, from lighting to printing and retouching, he is best‐known for his remarkable portraits of Hollywood stars.
An attempt inspired by American photographer Irving Penn’s series known as The Trades. Penn was a master of simple light and careful composition. Although he used studio flash (as was used here, one softbox feathered to left background and one camera right ro subject, triggered by PW), Penn was also famous for using window light – especially his series of portraits taken in tent-like studio that he took to New Guinea and other countries with fascinating results.
Clarity, composition, careful arrangement of objects or people, form, and the use of light characterize Penn’s work. Penn also photographs still life objects and found objects in unusual arrangements with great detail and clarity. While his prints are always clean and clear, Penn’s subjects vary widely. Many times his photographs are so ahead of their time that they only came to be appreciated as important works in the modernist canon years after their creation. (Wikipedia)
Following my attempts to emulate Irving Penn, this photo is based on the work of Helmut Newton. It kind of drifted from Newton’s sometimes stark lighting, but ended up being a fun shoot.
Helmut Neustädter (b. 1920, Berlin, Germany – d. 2004, West Hollywood, California, USA) was a German-Australian fashion photographer noted for his nude studies of women. During WWII Newton was interned by British authorities while in Singapore, and was sent to Australia, arriving in Sydney on 27 September 1940…In 1942, he enlisted with the Australian Army and worked as a truck driver.
After the war, in 1945 he became an Australian citizen, and changed his name to Newton in 1946. In 1948 he married actress June Browne, who performed under the stage-name ‘June Brunell’. She later became a successful photographer under the ironic pseudonym ‘Alice Springs’ (after Alice Springs, the central Australian town). In 1946, Newton set up a studio in fashionable Flinders Lane in Melbourne and worked primarily on fashion photography in the affluent post-war years. He shared his first joint exhibition in May 1953 with Wolfgang Sievers, a German refugee like himself. The exhibition of ‘New Visions in Photography’ was held at the Federal Hotel in Collins Street and was probably the first glimpse of ‘New Objectivity’ photography in Australia. Newton went into partnership with Henry Talbot, a fellow German Jew who had also been interned at Tatura, and his association with the studio continued even after 1957 when he left Australia for London. The studio was renamed ‘Helmut Newton and Henry Talbot’. Newton’s growing reputation as a fashion photographer was rewarded when he secured a commission to illustrate fashions in a special Australian supplement for Vogue magazine, published in January 1956. He won a twelve-month contract with British Vogue and he left for London in February 1957, leaving Talbot to manage the business.
He left the magazine before the end of his contract and went to Paris where he worked for French and German magazines. He returned to Melbourne in March 1959 to a contract for Australian Vogue. He settled in Paris in 1961 and continued work as a fashion photographer. His works appeared in magazines including, most significantly, French Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylised scenes, often with sado-masochistic and fetishistic subtexts. A heart attack in 1970 slowed his output somewhat but he extended his work and his notoriety/fame greatly increased, notably with his 1980 "Big Nudes" series which marked the pinnacle of his erotic-urban style, underpinned with excellent technical skills. He also worked in portraiture and more fantastical studies. (from Wikipedia)</i>
Following my attempts to emulate Irving Penn and Helmut Newton, this photo is based on the work of Richard Avedon.
b. 1923, d. 2004, USA. In 1944, Avedon began working as an advertising photographer, but was quickly discovered by Harper’s Bazaar and began providing images for magazines including Vogue and Life. Avedon is equally renowned for his photographs of celebrities and the non-famous.
In both cases he was always interested in how portraiture captures the personality and soul of its subject. As his reputation as a photographer became widely known, he brought in many famous faces to his studio and photographed them with a large-format 8×10 view camera. His portraits are easily distinguished by their minimalist style, where the person is looking squarely in the camera, posed in front of a sheer white background. Avedon would at times provoke reactions from his portrait subjects by guiding them into uncomfortable areas of discussion or asking them psychologically probing questions. Through these means he would produce images revealing aspects of his subject’s character and personality that were not typically captured by others. Avedon became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker in 1992.
He has won many awards for his photography, including the International Center of Photography Master of Photography Award in 1993, the Prix Nadar in 1994 for his photobook Evidence, and the Royal Photographic Society 150th Anniversary Medal in 2003. (from Wikipedia)
Funny how existing laws (which have handled democratic freedom of expression just fine for eons), have been “temporarily updated” with some new laws for World Youth Day in Sydney. The worrying part is that the government has decided that “being annoying to a Catholic pilgrim” will be an offense - so you can be arrested and fined $5,500 for pissing a pilgrim off.
WYD will be held at Randwick Race Course, and will result in many road closures and transport challenges – although those issues pale compared to making “annoyance” an offense.
I love the spirited response that is so typical of the Australian spirit. For example, these t-shirt slogans are big sellers in Sydney right now…
- You can fine me $5,500… But I still won’t believe in God
- WYD08: We close 300 roads so 300,000 can close their minds
- Good luck Pope – I’ve been waiting for a miracle at Randwick for years
- “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who wear t-shirts that cause annoyance or inconvenience…”
- I survived a Christian Brothers education
- Oh no, I stepped in Dogma
- Too many Christians, not enough lions – Randwick 2008
- annoying & inconvenient
- I’ve been touched by the Catholic Church, so where’s my $2 billion?
- World Youth Day: You can cross yourself, but not the city
There’s more creative genius at the Remo General Store. Looks like their user-generated t-shirts will be big sellers for WYD…
Apple has published an excellent Storage Solutions primer. The document outlines a variety of options and then leaves it to the reader to consider what’s most appropriate for their needs. Recommended.
Bizarre scenes and Britney Spears are nothing new, but the vultures chasing her ambulance are a new low. No doubt they see no link between this kind of pressure and her fragile state-of-mind. Where will this end up?
Photo Credit: Splash News Online
