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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Fashion Photographer Benjamin Kanarek "In the Wind" Fashion





Benjamin Kanarek "In the Wind" Fashion "Paul & Joe" Paris
Uploaded by benjaminkanarekblog. - More lifestyle, fashion and how-to videos.

Check out this wonderful behind the scenes video by Pro Fashion Photographer Benjamin Kanarek on his blog here, whose images have graced the covers of Elle and Vogue from time to time. In this video, you see the creative ways Benjamin used hard flash light and mixed them with gelled H.M.I lights with a little shutter delay and some cool photo editing by Freddy Baby, Paris. Some reverse engineering on lighting inside.



First of all, we would like to thank Benjamin for sharing his techniques, though he didn't give details, the video speaks it all for any trained eye. Heres a breakdown for those who still couldn't figure out.

Take a good look at the video from the link provided to his blog above.

Target:

From what we see, the aim was to blend fashion with little bit motion and colors to show spring collection in an upmarket hi end style.

Team:

No matter how good the photographer is, the final image is only as good as the weakest link in the team. This video is perfect example of team work with everyone at their creative best. In one scene we see the stylist or MUA helping to set up the wind machine(fan). It helps to have people like this around to build a healthy creative atmosphere. Look at the model. She is the perfect example of what a model is required to do. With just the basic explanation of the theme, she just took off...and was spontaneous with her variety of poses. Hair was perfect to show motion, yet stylish. You see Benjamin directing the hair stylist in the beginning. And of course, since this blog gives equal importance to Photo Editing, there are some wonderful seamless retouching in there which just makes the picture and image.

Lighting:

To achieve this effect, Benjamin has used some H.M.I with magenta gels on them....i see around 2...to light the entire background....along with 2 flashes with magenta gels probably at low power.

The main light, is a hard light from flash with reflector, at a height higher than the models head and place at extreme right of camera for some shots and lon left for other shots. The light is high providing side light to the model and has a flag/cutter/gobo below it so that the light concentrates on face and mid body. Below the main light is another hardlight with a mixed pink and blue gel lighting the floor and feet area. You can see the nice contrast and the hard shadows this light creates.

Note the scrims and flags used to cahnnel the light and prevent the backlight from spilling on the model and to avoid flare in the lens.

Motion:

As you can see, there is motion blur in the model movements and dresses. A mix of techniques have been used here. Obviously....people are moving the cloth on behind....so that is one. This, and the model movements have been captured in camera by keeping a slow shutter speed, i guess either 1sec or little bit less than that. This also helps to balance the exposure between the H.M.I lights(which need longer exposure) and the flash lights. The motions have been more enhanced by the photo editing using blur techniques in various layers and blending them into one for the final image....along with some selective desaturation toning.

Please read the comments below where Benjamin fine tunes our reverse engineering with some facts.
http://www.benjaminkanarekblog.com/2010/01/16/in-the-wind-making-of-video/

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The best in RAW conversion.



Did you know when people take pictures, they interpret each scene slightly different? Because everyone's perspective of images in photographs is different, using SILKYPIX Developer Studio to adjust the color, tone, and the white balance of the image can truly help you express your feelings through the photography. "SILKYPIX" RAW development engine brings your memories to life. "Make your special moments your special memories."
  • "SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.0" can generate beautiful pictures from the RAW data taken by a digital camera. "SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.0" creates the highest-definition picture which cannot be obtained by taking JPEG or TIFF pictures.
  • Using SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.0, you have complete control to multiple functions to adjustment the color, tone, and white balance ultimately creating the highest resolution picture taken by a digital camera.
  • SILKYPIX is equipped with the function of thumbnail, and group pictures development, which all can be saved in the Raw data folder.
http://www.isl.co.jp/SILKYPIX/english/

Here is link comparing various other RAW converters like Adobe RAW, LIghtroom and photoshop again'st silky pix. Silky Pix produces better detail, sharper, images than the others hands down
http://www.pictinas.com/tomi/astro/english/silkypix.html

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Micheal Tapes Free Lightroom Tutorials



These are some really informative tutorials on how to use lightroom. Even though its for lightroom 1.0 its great for getting the gist of the workflow. Check them out at the link

http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/Photoshop_LR/02/index.html

Friday, January 8, 2010

Pclix LT The affordable, portable, time-lapse solution





If you have the desire to easily photograph time-lapse sequences using a digital still camera then this device is for you. The Pclix LT is easy to use and program, it fits into just about any camera bag and is compatible with a long list of digital cameras*.

With the Pclix LT you can trigger the shutter of a digital camera every second or every hundred hours plus anywhere in between all in one second increments.

Using the Split Second Mode you can even trigger your camera in tenths of a second if your interval is below 10 seconds. This is a first for digital camera control giving you greater flexibilty when using shorter intervals.

The Pclix LT has 99 interval settings directly at your fingertips. Ten of which can be programmed by you to any duration you choose up to 100 hours. As well the Pclix LT can be told how many images to take using the Image Count Option, there's a Start Delay Option plus the shutter can be up to an hour in length using the Bulb Option. Programming the Pclix LT is straight forward and extremely easy. Once your user preferences are set they are stored in memory forever or until modified by you when needed.


http://www.pclix.com/pages/pclix_main.html