I delivered the shots to Santa processed like he wanted them. I wanted this set to have that kind of feel. I remember all the Coca-Cola ads featuring Santa Claus I saw when I was young, and I’ve always been a fan. I have a definite idea of what Santa Claus looks like, and I was going for that look. I spent a lot of time in Photoshop CC and Topaz Impression for these images. I also use a great application from Topaz Labs called Impression, which is designed to turn images into art, i.e., paintings or other fine art. I’m also a big user of the Google Nik Collection.
.jpg "topaz impression portraits")
I’ll stay in Lightroom for general adjustments to images, and I’ll go to Photoshop CC for fine adjustments. I catalog all my images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Probably the most important technique notes were (1) the SB-910 was in remote mode and turned down 1.3 stops, and (2) I was using rear-curtain sync, i.e., dragging the shutter.
TOPAZ IMPRESSION PORTRAITS ISO
The camera was set to ISO 100, f/8, and 1/3 second.
To camera left, my wife was holding a Lastolite Tri-Grip diffuser with the gold reflector cover attached. There was a fire in the fireplace emitting a soft gold glow, but I enhanced the glow just a bit by using a small LED light covered with a full-cut CTO gel (CTO stands for Color Temperature Orange, and full-cut means that the gel has the strength to balance blue to white ). I had a Nikon SB-910 speedlight with a Lastolite softbox attached on a stand on camera right, slightly above Santa’s head, and just behind his shoulder line. The camera was on a tripod, and the pop-up flash was in command mode. I was shooting with my Nikon D800 + a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VRII. Here is the setup for the first round of shots: In the first set, which I’ve titled “By the Fireplace,” he wore the “traditional” santa clothes – red pants and top with white fur trim. Santa brought three sets of clothes with him, and he wanted shots with all three sets. The energy we mutually created during that hour set the tone for the day. He was a great subject, because he pretty much knew exactly what he was looking for, but he worked with me to tweak the execution of the shots. Santa got to my house about 10am, and we spent an hour or so reviewing the plan. It turns out that the dead flash was the only technical glitch of the day. A couple of LED lights, gaffer tape, and a C-stand did the trick, or at least allowed me to stay with the plan. Most of my shooting plan was built around two lights (I also have an SB-910) so I quickly had to improvise.
I was in great shape until I started checking out my lighting and found out that my second flash unit (a Nikon SB-700) was completely dead. The day before Santa was scheduled to arrive, I went over the entire shooting plan again and checked out every piece of equipment, prop, and light I needed. I usually spend a good deal of time before a big shoot making sure my equipment is ready and set up properly. I studied hundreds of shots of the jolly old elf, and I put together a shooting plan that I thought would capture the best settings. Santa contacted me and we set a date for the shoot. I mean, who would actually turn down SANTA? (Can you say “naughty list?”) Santa contacted me a few weeks ago and asked for some pictures for his web site and a few other marketing and promotional items. This time pictures with Santa meant me TAKING the pictures, and Santa sitting for them. Put on the good clothes, hop in the car and head for the Rich’s department store in downtown Atlanta, wait in line, sit on Santa’s lap, go over the list, smile for the camera, head back home. It’s been a while for me, but it was an annual tradition in my house. How many of y’all have had your picture made with Santa?
0 kommentar(er)
