Studio on a Shoestring

Reverse Engineering the Pros Lighting Setups

deborahwolfe — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:00:58 +0000

Or, How to Read a Catch Light or Two

I’ve been studying images for longer than….well, a long time, dammit. Just take my word for it.

Whenever I pick up a glossy magazine or a music CD or even a movie poster, I try to figure out how it was lit.

I study catch lights the way some people study baseball stats.

Apparently Other People Do This Too

It’s nice to know I’m not the only ~~fool~~ ~~geek~~ ~~nerd~~ photography lighting aficionado out there.

Annie Leibovitz, Jill Greenberg, Patrick Ecclesine, Dave Hill and others laid bare.

Check out It’s All in the Lighting, Baby! by Melanie Mann, a photography assistant to the pros out in L.A.

This is a fantastic blog post, replete with awesome diagrams and behind the scenes videos.

Enjoy!

Biggest Black Friday Sale EVER from Totally Rad

deborahwolfe — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:36:05 +0000

Save 35% on absolutely everything in the store.

Totally Rad usually has a fantastic Black Friday Sale every year.

But this year, they’re out doing themselves.

They’re offering 35% off on EVERYTHING in the store.

That is a PHENOMENAL offer and they’re pretty psyched about it!

Math Challenged? Percentages don’t mean a thing to you?

Let’s say you purchase RadLab, the completely radical, visual-based photo editing software. That puppy usually sells for $149. But this Friday ONLY it will be $97 dollars.

That is a savings of $52 DOLLARS.

Hello? You’re getting one of the most innovative photo editing software programs AND your walking around with 52 bucks still in your pocket.

Am I the only one who thinks that’s awesome?

Fence sitters listen up.

If you’re still hesitating about parting ways with your currency, these reviews might interest you:

RadLab is a Game Changer

New Lightroom Presets From Totally Rad Really Deliver

Out of town? Not to worry. Their store is smart phone friendly!

Hope all of you have a really wonderful, or at the very least a non-offensive Turkey Day!

Better Living Through Manipulation

deborahwolfe — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:00:27 +0000

iPhones, camera apps and Pop Art

I joined Flickr in October 2007. At the time it felt like I was a late comer.

As I have certain obsessive tendencies, I had resisted the urge to join for well over a year.

I was concerned I would go down that rabbit hole and not come up for air for….years. And that, folks, is why I’ve never tried meth and don’t have Angry Birds on my phone. Nopie nope. Can’t do it.

Ah, what wonders to behold.

But I did join and I’m glad I did. The dizzying scope and array of artistic talent and vision presented on Flickr is staggering.

One of the first people I noticed and marked as a contact on Flickr was Barky aka Mark Schreiner, and his was one of the first images I ‘favorited’.

Mark’s work has a fantastic, shall we say lurid quality I find very appealing. It’s fun, bright, cheeky and dripping with slurpy color goodness.

It finally dawned on me that I would like to know a little bit more about this person whose work I’ve been following for 5 years.

Road trip!

Not really. But imagine me saying ‘Interview!’ just like you would say ‘Road trip!’

So yeah. The interview thing. S’what I did. Here’s the paraphrased scoop.

But first, a little background noise information.

Name: Mark
Age: 696 months and counting
Marital status: Married to Tracey
Current location: San Jose, CA
Education: College dropout
Interesting tidbit: In recovery for record store management
Spiritual cred: Returned to the fold i.e. family business and single-handedly ‘saved’ the Hallmark Card brand
Signs of intelligent life: No children

Yes, but what about his capital ‘A’ art background?

“I did take a couple of photo classes at college and made a C in both of them. My stuff was terrible. We had assignments and I don’t do well with assignments or deadlines, at least on the creative side.”

Did that stop him from becoming a complete photography genius?

Um. No.

Creative Influences for $500 Alex.

Andy Warhol. Duh.

Dali, Salvador.

The Man. Ray.

Kim. The ex-girlfriend. From 20 years ago. Let it go already. I’m just ~~dead serious~~ kidding.

Wife Tracey. There, that has restored the warm fuzzy feeling inside my tummy.

Dad. See ‘spiritual cred’ above.

On a more serious note, Mark’s dad passed away a few years ago, but in an odd, loving and curmudgeonly way, his “persistent dislike” of Mark’s photos pushed him to keep trying. I, for one, am very glad. I LOVE them.

Who needs a camera when you have an iPhone?

There is a world wide movement starting. People are abandoning their SLR/DSLR cameras in favor of using iPhone cameras exclusively.

I wrote about this emerging trend in my review on DPS’s latest ebook, iPhone Photography – How to shoot, edit and share great photography.

Here’s what Mark has to say on the subject:

“My parents gave me an Instamatic camera when I was 12, so I have been shooting since then, but never seriously until the past 20+ years.

I probably still have every photo, slide and digital image I’ve ever taken either in several boxes or on this computer……

I’ve had a SLR since I was in my 20′s, but when digital cameras came out, I was the first to have one.

I have owned at least 8 digital cameras. Then I bought a Canon DSLR Rebel xti about 8 years ago and started to go crazy taking photos. Almost everybody liked my stuff, so it just encouraged me.

About 3 years ago when I got an iPhone, I decided to do an experiment and take only photos with a bad camera phone. I figured if I could take a photos with a crap camera, I must know what I’m doing.

What was supposed to be a couple months experiment has now gone on for over 2 years now. I do own a fancy Sony DSC RX-100 compact I bought recently, but I rarely use it.

My iPhone 4s is my go-to camera everyday. I sold the Canon DSLR about 2 months ago.”

Questions, I got questions.

DW: Where do you get artistic inspiration from? What will prompt you to pick up your camera and aim it at a particular thing/place/person? Do you always have a pre-planned idea in mind, or do you wing it?

MS: I rarely have a pre-planned idea, maybe once in a blue moon. Usually a photo is taken at a moment’s notice and I may forget about it for a week or sometimes a month before doing anything with/to it. Almost all my photos are taken in and around the home, so my inspiration comes from my closest surroundings.

DW: What are you looking for in your imagery? Is there a particular feelings or mood you try to evoke?

MS: I think it’s obvious I try to be the most colourful guy around. Lots of saturation is my trademark. After that, my photos are humourous and playful. Once in a while I take a serious photo, but not too often. Many of my titles are from a song or musical artist.

DW: Tell me anything you can and are willing to share, about your post-processing decisions and techniques.

MS: I sometimes will work on a photo on the iPad for an hour and then discard it. Other times I make one change and then post it. I go for the saturation button first. After that it all falls into place ~ or not.

DW: I love your work. It is deceptively simple, extremely lurid, super saturated in color and playful. Much of it reminds me of Warhol’s work. One of your most recent, Take Me to Your Photographer, is AWESOME. I realize there’s no ‘question’ here, just letting you know what I think. I will be featuring several of your pieces from your photostream, and that will probably be one of them. Actually, you could tell me a little bit about that piece…..

MS: Take Me to Your Photographer is a photo of a new toy robot I had bought. Of course it looks nothing like the actual robot after I finished with it. I took the photo probably 6 months ago one night, messed with it and posted it to Flickr. The next morning when I looked at it, I didn’t like it, so I took it down as I quite often do. Then I looked at it again a couple of weeks ago and re posted it. I guess I like it now. It’s a happy shot.

But most important of all…

DW: What is the significance of your screen name, Barky?

MS: It’s been my nickname for the past 25 years, given to me one drunken night when we were all barking at the moon. I think I howled the loudest.

DW: I LOVE your icon (Shoney’s Big Boy). Anything you want to share about its significance?

MS: The only significance is I grew up eating that food in Washington Dc. Then I bought a Big Boy Bobblehead, photoed it about the time Flickr was starting up and made it the icon.

In conclusion.

It ain’t the equipment. It’s the eye. Wherein beauty lies.

Feast your eyes on more of Mark’s funtastical, phantasmagorical and utterly beguiling artwork below. Then check out his Flickr stream. Seriously. There are so many amazing pieces over there I had a very hard time selecting the handfull I needed for this post.

Want to know which iPhone apps he prefers?

Scroll to the bottom to find out.

And finally the man himself. I hope to meet him someday, maybe when his MOMA show opens. That’s called ‘positive thinking’, and when you do it for the good of a fellow human being, you get jelly beans in heaven.

I don’t believe in heaven, but if I did, it would have jelly beans and gummy bears.

Thanks Mark!

Mark’s Four Favorite iPhone Apps:

10 Best iPhone Camera Apps Besides Instagram

deborahwolfe — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:00:17 +0000

At least according to The Huffington Post…

I found this interesting article about iPhone camera apps whilst stumbling about The Information Super Highway.

According to The Huffington Post, aside from Instagram, the following 10 camera apps are the best:

Hipstamatic
Camera+
IncrediBooth
CameraSharp
Fast Camera
Group Shot
CamWow
Pro HDR
Gif Boom
Flixel

Read the entire article and watch the video for Group Shot below:

The More Things Change…

deborahwolfe — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:00:28 +0000

The More They Stay the Same.

Woman. Girl. Female. Gal. Femme fatale. Saint. Slut. Virgin. Maiden. Tramp. Trollop. Whore. Strumpet. Slattern. Mother. Daughter. Dyke. Wife. Sister. Grandmother. Skinny bitch. Fat cow. Dog faced. Blubber butt. Thunder thighs. Pure as the driven snow. Fallen woman. Temptress. Sweet heart. Bride. Darling. Beloved. Chubby. Homely. Ugly. Plain Jane. Handsome. Bull dagger. Fatty. Sheela NaGig. Ingenue. Teen. Tween. Buxom. Busty. Prostitute. Starlet. Tart. Cunt. Witch. Hag. Call girl. Doll. Moll. Fish wife. Haridan. Vixen. Catty. Widow. Pubescent. Nubile. Crone. Old bag. Bag lady. Flirt. Tease. Prick tease. Frigid. Bitch. Party girl. Lesbian. Loose. Faithful. Long suffering. Harlot. Nag. Ball and chain. Old bat. Help mate. Bimbo. Good girl. Wicked. Black Widow. Delilah. Curvaceous. Plump. Fat. Pig. Porker. Sow. Lithesome. Lady. Madame. Mistress. Courtesan. Nurse Rached. Babe. Medusa. Goddess. Working girl. Street walker. Cougar. Lolita. Big boned. Girl friend. Fat ass. Little woman. Bad girl. Divorcee’. Queen. Princess. Dowager. Lover. Nurse maid. Old maid. Nymph.

What am I on about now? This.

Once you see, you can never not see.

Free Vintage Photographs

deborahwolfe — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:00:34 +0000

As well as some awesome postcards and illustrations.

I love digital collaging and am always looking for sources of inspiration.

I have a library of old family photographs, and sometimes use those in my creations.

For example, here’s a piece I did entitled Storm Gatherer, using a photograph of my mother and her older sister, from way back in the day.

But sometimes we all want something new.

Or old, as the case may be.

While stumbling down various and sundry internet rabbit holes, I tripped up on Vintage Printable, a website that describes itself thusly:

“We provide free, public domain/out-of-copyright images for you to print or download. Most of the images are vintage naturalist or scientific illustration, but there are loads of other images, too.”

It’s an awesome site, with searchable galleries in all these different areas:

Animal
Art
Botanical
Color
Entertainment
Environment
Geopolitical
Juvenile
Medieval
Printed
Science

Check it out. Maybe it’ll trigger a creative burst of energy. It’s where I found my octopus.

Inspiration from Old Photographs

deborahwolfe — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:00:22 +0000

“I’d like to be under the sea…

In an octopus’ garden in the shade. He’d let us in, knows where we’ve been, in his octopus’ garden in the shade” Richard Starkey aka Ringo Starr

Original Inspiration

I found this vintage photograph and postcard while browsing a few free online sites. The octopus postcard came from Vintage Printable.

Other Elements I Happened to Have on Hand

Completion

If you would like to view it larger, click the image above or click here.

Other examples of digital collage:

My Daughter as Marie Antoinette

The Oracle Consults Her Muse

Digital Art – Blurring the Boundaries

Win a new iPhone 5

deborahwolfe — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:00:59 +0000

Buy DPS’s new book before October 2, 2012 and be eligible to win a new iPhone 5

Last week I wrote a little review on Digital Photography School’s newest book, iPhone Photography – Shoot, Edit and Share.

Since that review, DPS has decided to sweeten the pot for those who purchase the book.

Buy BEFORE October 2, save 25% off the retail price AND be eligible to win a new iPhone 5.

Just click the photo of the iPhone or this link to the book, iPhone Photography, to purchase your copy, save $5 and qualify to win the iPhone 5.

It’s a great book, and good luck on the contest!

Bokehful

deborahwolfe — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:00:37 +0000

Yet more iPhone fun.

Last week I reviewed the new Digital Photography School book on iPhone photography, entitled appropriately enough, iPhone Photography.

Since I received my copy, I’ve been avidly consuming the information and imagery. I’m AMAZED at all the different techniques and apps you can use.

Behind the times? Who? Me?

I admit to being a bit behind the times with all the iPhone camera hoop-rah. That’s probably because I’ve been a professional commercial photographer for so long, and SLR/DSLRs with interchangeable lenses have been the holy grail for eons.

Consider me a convert. I’ve decided to challenge myself to learn all I can about this emerging and exciting field of photography.

I’ve already downloaded the ProCamera app that Misho Baranovic (author of iPhone Photography) says is his favorite app, onto my iPhone and have been learning all the bells and whistles

But what about Bokeh?

As I have already stated over at deborahwolfe.net, I LOVE me some bokeh.

Well, imagine my surprise to learn you don’t have to give it up just because you’ve hung up your DSLR. Check out the Bokehful app!

I’m not so sure about the heart shaped bokeh, but hey….who am I to judge?

The best part?

Apps are CHEAP! Woo Hooooooooooooo!!!

Buy you some. Matter of fact, buy 2 or 10 or 20.

I feel like I’ve just discovered the super secret entrance to the world’s largest fire sale.

iPhone Photography – Shoot, Edit and Share

cynthialaluna — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:55:57 +0000

Sweet new iPhone Photography book by DPS.

“The best camera is the one that’s with you.” Chase Jarvis

Know what the two most commonly used cameras now being used on Flickr are?

The iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4.

That’s pretty impressive, considering a phone was a phone was a phone, just a few short years ago.

That’s why Digital Photography School has just released a new book, iPhone Photography – How to Shoot, Edit and Share Great Photographs.

Bet you can’t guess what it’s all about….

Oh, that one was too easy. I won’t make you actually say it.

Before I go any further, let me share with you what I’ve learned in reading iPhone Photography.

Um. Everything. That’s right. Everything. I’m so serious.

I had NO idea I could do so much fantastic, SERIOUS photography with my iPhone camera.

Just take a look at the photo on the left. Took it from my car, while I was waiting in the bank parking lot.

Is the DSLR with interchangeable lenses obsolete?

Not just yet. But I can see the day not far off, when we’ll be able to leave it behind without so much as a backwards glance.

I never thought I would say this, but….I hardly ever take my big guns out of the holster anymore. At least not for my personal shooting.

Contents please.

iPhone Photography has a LOT of fantastic, practical information and phenomenal photos packed into its 106 pages.

The table of contents says it better than I can. The book is basically broken down into three broad categories: Chapter One: Shoot, Chapter Two: Edit and Chapter Three: Share.

Contained within those 3 categories is all the following information:

Basics: where to begin?

Grip
The iPhone Camera
Touch Functions
The Photos App (viewing, selecting and organizing photos)
Selecting multiple photos in an album
Creating a new photo album

Taking control: camera-replacement apps

Camera-replacement app comparison table
My preferred camera-replacement app
Advanced shooting techniques with ProCamera

Finding your subject

On the street
With the family
In nature
Traveling abroad
At night
Finding your style
Native iPhone edit functions
One-touch apps

Filter-based editing

CrossProcess
Camera+

Professional editing

Snapseed
Editing app feature comparison table

Adding text and graphic elements to your photos

Joining the community
Basic sharing

How I share my photos

Additional photo-sharing apps

Building community through photo-sharing

Using hashtags to share interests, themes, and subjects
Local photo walks

Getting your images ready to print

Print sizing
Printing at home
Online print services
Case study: Instaburb book and exhibition
Closing words
iPhone photography resources, reviews and tutorials
Stay in touch with DPS

Who wrote it?

Misho Baranovic.

Who? One of the world’s leading mobile photographers, that’s who.

His street photography has been exhibited internationally at group exhibitions in Australia, California, New York and Paola, Italy.

He’s the founding member of Mobile Photo Group, an international collective of mobile photographers dedicated to promoting their work and presenting mobile photography as an important and evolving art form.