I often hear comments about the sharpness of my work, and photographers are constantly asking me how I get everything so crisp in all of my photographs. The careful process of creating tack-sharp images starts in front of the lens and finishes with the conversion to JPG or printing. I do not use filters on my lenses except for the polarizer as needed, and turn to my sharp prime Nikon lenses first. I also shoot in the f/8-f/11 range whenever I can, and always use my heavy tripod if practical.  These practices and techniques yield very shap images in-camera.

The other process that yields me the sharpest-looking images possible is my sharpening technique. There's no single setting or acction that will work best on every image, but once you understand the concepts of sharpening and the problem with using the sharpening presets in Photoshop, you are well on your way to creating ultra-sharp, natural looking images without halos or blotchiness.

Sharpening images is something we all do as photographers, but most of us really have trouble getting the best effect without causing halo's around dark edges and other problems that are emblematic of overshaprening. The sharpening algorithm in Photoshop increases contrast along edges - this works great, but it will often overshoot at the edge of a transition leaving a double-image or halo. Photoshop has built in a way to keep this fram happening but hid it in a place outside of the sharpening tool. Under the edit menu, there's a selection called "Fade..." after you use the unsharp mask, it becomes "Fade Unsharp mask" - when you select this, you will be given Fade modes, which are the same as the overlay modes on layers, but only affect the sharpening that was just done on this layer. In this video, we will run through this process and show the before and after :

 

 

Here are some before-and-after closeups of his hair:

In 2009, I set out to create some images that were more photo-art than traditional photography. After spending years striving to capture reality in the most exciting and true-to-source ways, I decided to break out into the world of "photo-art" as many traditional photographers call it. My first step into this realm of artistic endeavor was to create an image that I had in mind for years. In the 90's, I fell in love with the Tomb Raider games and always wanted to create an image like you see here.

About the same time I found Tomb Raider, I also came across this great location with a catacomb right in southern Arizona. I was out exploring ghost towns and found this incredible location that I filed away in the "must shoot" category. I only returned in 2009 when I was planning out this shoot.

Marbella is a dancer and we wanted to do something athletic, fun, and sexy. She was the perfect Lara Croft for me, so we decided to come out to this ghost town in the middle of the desert and spent a few hours in 110 degree heat. Marbz rocked the shoot and launched my foray into Heroic images!

I revisited this image in 2010 to update the look. I used a process more like my current images, and gave this image some new life.

For such a complex looking image, the lighting was dead simple. I used a 30" octabox just to camera left, above the level of her gun so that it would cause that long highlight running down her arm with nice, smooth shadows underneat. That was the extent of the lighting setup. Sometimes simple is perfect, and I think that any more lighting would have really hurt the video-game feel of this image. Here's a lighting diagram:

The post processign was quite simple, I performed my grunge effect to increase contrast in the walls and ground, then added some exposure to sculpt the highlights and removed some to smooth and deepen the shadow transitions. I won't do a video specifically on this image, but the techniques are similar to what I show in these two articles: Create your own Heroes, and Glam to Grunge.

Hit me up in the comments if you have any questions or would like me to do a start-to-end tutorial!

 

Ever wonder how much time it takes to create the grungie, high-contrast images that Dave Hill pioneered?  Would you be surprised to learn that you can create the effect in under a minute? This 5-minute tutorial is designed to show you how to create this effect and get you on your way to perfecting your own technique and creating your own style.

I started with this simple image of model Andreyha - We did an 80's rocker chick themed shoot when she was just starting out. I had just purchased some new Bowens lighting equipment and wanted to test it out before using it commercially. This shoot with Andreyha produced some great results and this is one of my favorite images from that evening. this is how it looked Straight out of the Camera:

A fine image in its own right, but it didn't have the punch and edge that I remember from my teens in the 80s. I wanted something more hard, more dirty, more gutteral. It's how I remember the music, how I remember my life from those days. The edge has dulled on the music and the photos from those days - this is a good example of creating a feeling rather than replicating a look. I wanted to shoot how I remembered feeling, now replicate the exact look of the era. This image was lit and shot specifically to process with this edgie look. Here it is processed:

 

The lighting setup was quite simple, but the details are important. I side-lit the back wall to create high contrast. I used a tall stand and a narrow-beamreflector to aim down at the floor, creating a hot spot directly behind her. This is usually a bit garish, but fits this location and syle perfectly.The key was provided by a small softbox camera left. I wanted some of the effect of direct point source lighting, but wanted to soften it just a bit.  My 20" square softox is perfect for this type of work. The fill light was bare bulb, tourned down load to lessen the fallof on the right edge of Andreyha's arm. Notice the highlight on her left shoulder.

 

 

The image processing took me less than a minute. Here's a 5-minute video that will show you how I did it. If you would like to download the PSD file, it's avaliable in my Repository.

Want to create your own heroes series? Here's how!

I receive a lot of questions about my Photoshop technique. The best way to explain important technique is to use an example image and show what I did to create it icon a video. This image of Justin Current is going to be used for his 2011 calendar.

The subject image was shot in-studio with a single overhead octabox. I used my 7' octabox suspended directly over him with him standing about 1 foot from the rear of the box. This caused nice shadows and great highlighs on his hat. As cool as the popular 3-light setups are with edge lighting on both sides, I felt that it would be a bit too unrealistic for this image. Many photographers find a lighting setup and use it for years. I tend to be more versatile in my approach and light based on the final result I am looking for.

Here's the final version - the image we decided to go with for the calendar:

OK -- now on to a working copy with a tutorial. The techniques in this tutorial are the same as this final image - -I just pushed the adjustments to achieve this hyper-effect:

 

The background images were taken the same day as the studio image. Iwent out in mid-day sun to avoid long shadows. If Tucson had overcast days, shooting on one would have been a great choice, but with perenial sunshine, it was best to shoot mid-day.

 

Here's the original concept drawing I made months ago. It has a similar feel to the final image, though the elements are very different. If I had better skills as a sketch artist, I would draw feeling... as it is, I draw to remind myself of what I'm preparing to create and allow the concept to deveop.

 

Before you watch the video, download the working "Create your own Hero" PSD file from my Repository.

Now, on to the Photoshop Tutorial:

 

 

Gear used in this photo: Nikon D3X, Bogen 3035 tripod with 3047 head,  sigma 10-20, nikkor 85mm 1.8, 7' octabox, and Bowens studio strobes.

Basic Photoshop Techniques covered: Non-destructive workflow, layer masks, adjustment layers, exposure adjustment layer, photo filter layers.

 

 

I recently photographed a series of images for Kurij, an upstart soft drink maker. We wanted cool lifestyle images that were a bit fun and trendy, but with an underlying message that Kurij is for everyone to drink at any time. I wanted consistency of lighting and feel, so I chose a lighting theme and carried that through each image. The processing was guided by the client, with some images brighter or more saturated than others. They felt it was better to complement images individually, focusing on the flexibility of the drink; rather than keeping a consistent feel through all images and risk a single mood. I think this was a wise choice.

The standard lighting throughout the shoot was my single large octabox. I put a 12" reflector inside the center of the box to create an effect where the outside edge of the box is brighter. This causes softer falloff in the shadows. Most were shot with a 12-24mm nikkor lens to create an intimate feel. There's a tradeoff in lens selection. Longer lenses lack intimacy and a promote a feeling of voyeurism. The wide angles bring the scene more intimate, but there can be some serious distortion issues. I like to use wider lenses for this type of work, then work with composition to create an intimate image that is visually pleasing and reasonably true to perspective.

 

This image was lit with the 7' octabox placed outside behind the camera on a balcony. The strobe was firing in though large windows.

 

In this image, I placed the octabox to camera right and balanced with ambient from windows on the left.

 

This "Poker" image was shot differently. I bounced one of my Bowens strobes off the wooden ceiling and manually color balanced using a gray card. In the foreground, I placed a 48" reflector under the camera to recreate the soft fill light of the octabox. The important part of this image was to emulate the lighting of a poker game. I am satisfied that this requirement was met:

 

Here's an overview video on the processing of the guitar image:

A web-sized copy of the PSD file can be downloaded from the Repository if you would like to follow along and see how the layers work.

One of my favorite clients is Aveda Institute. In addition to working with the corporate office, I have been selected to photograph the graduating projects of their up and coming future professionals. These groups always have creative ideas and great fun with their challenging photo shoots. This class project was themed "vintage" -- each of 8 students selected a particular theme and a model and recreated a vintage look from their chosen era. My job was to complete the look.  With no prior knowledge of what looks and eras would be requested, this type of shoot is great fun and a challenge for me as a photographer. Why the challenge? I had 8 models to shoot in two hours, on location - and the shoot was at night. Zero natural light. I had the opportunity to shoot everything from 1940s fresnel spot look to 80's glam fashion.

 

All images photographed with my D90, 85mm lens, and Bowens Studio Strobes triggered by Pocket Wizards

Photographed for an advertisement about bringing the world to mobile phone browsers, this still life image of the Bonsai Tree and Blackberry may look a little complicated, so let's break it down and show some video of the setup. As you will see from the setup and video below, the Bonsai images is straight from the camera with only minor dust spotting  on the plexiglass.

                                                               

Here's the same tree  shot with clean overhead lighting. There's nothing wrong with the image, but it's flat and very bland... there's nothing really right about it either:

Here, we added lots of color and light separation. In the video, I walk around the set and discuss all of the pieces of the setup.

Here's the video of the lighting setup description:

 

I shot images as I moved and adjusted the lights. Because I was shooting digital, I chose to take a lot of photos, more than I would have if I was shooting polaroids back in the day. You will see some tests where I sprayed a fine mist of water into the image to simulate fog. It didn't work as I had hoped, so the final images don't have the mist... Here's the evolution of the shot as seen through the lens:

 

Equipment used: Nikon D90, 105mm micro-nikkor,  Bogen tripod, and Bowens Studio Strobes triggered with Pocket Wizards.

 

The second image of the blackbery was shot with similar light, but the BB was pulled to the back of the plexi and stuck fast to a light stand.

 

This image was comp'd in the Bonsai image for the final result:

One of my jobs this week was to work with Justin Current on a calendar project. I enjoy working with Justin and very much like this type of shoot. My goals were to show his versatility as a model and to show him at his best while incorporating as many different styles as possible.  Shooting many types of images during the same day while incorporating a common thread is great fun and a challenge.

 

This particular image was taken in the doorway to my studio's office. I wanted to contrast the harsh overhead sunlight with soft, diffused light inside. I wanted the illusion of indirect sunlight inside, but the contrast between the interior and exterior was very high, and the shaft of light coming in the doorway was way more directional that what I needed.

 

I set a large softbox with a gold interior to the right of the door and removed the front baffle. I reflected this into a white v-card to create the very warm, soft golden light that maintained some directionality. I then added a silver reflector behind Justin to the left so there would be a slight edge on him and he stands from the background.  Shot this image on my Nikon D90 with a 60mm lens at f/11, 1/160 second to expose for the sunlight on the wall.. The 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor is an amazing lens - I've owned this one since 1990, it has become a great portrait lens for my crop-sensor cameras.

 

Post processing was less than it may appear - I simply reduced the saturation a bit and added a small amount of sepia tone. The golden light dappling on the steps was a result of the softbox placement, not a Photoshop hack.

Keep watching for more of Justin, and I will link to his calendar once it becomes available this fall.

I've owned a couple Domke bags over the years. When I was a young shooter 20 years ago, I purchased the F-3x shoulder bag. it was my first Domke. I was unfortunate to have my Tamrac 614 full of gear stolen but was able to purchase a small amount of replacement equipment. I could only afford a few replacement lenses and a single body, so I purchased the F-3x. It was the best-made bag I could find for a reasonable price back in the early 1990's. I used that bag for many years and really enjoyed it. I like the black bags, but the red Domke trim always looked a bit garish to me, so I blackened it with a sharpie and love the inconspicuous look.

My early concerns with the Domke bag system were the lack of padding and the lack of sealing zippers and overall waterproof-ness. I read all the marketing materials and just didn't see that it would keep my gear as safe as the newer padded bags, but I really liked how it moulded to my side as I carried it, and I was amazed at the amount of equipment it could carry comfortably in the very small bag. Each time I purchased a new piece of kit, i found a way to add it to this tiny bag. I owned and used this bag for over ten years, and can attest that I dropped the bag a few times and even slid down a riverbank and dunked it completely underwater for a second, and nothing inside was wet or damaged. I even stitched this bag together as it started to wear through, only giving it up when it became so worn that I could no longer keep it together.

Finally, I replaced it with the now-discontinued Lowepro Trekker 200. This was a fine, padded, weather resistant bag that wore well while hiking. My major problem with this setup is setting the bag down flat requires that the part that rests on your back is down on the ground, picking up dirt and thorns. I still enjoy my trekker bag for long hikes with limited gear.

My digital kit consists of two bodies and ten lenses, so I finally returned to the Domke line with the F-2 Original Shoulder Bag. This bag packs quite a bit of gear and is very comfortable to carry short to medium distances. I have had some major back injuries so I prefer to wheel my bag if it's over 40 lbs. I shopped for a wheeled bag, but decided to keep the domke and set it in a luggage caddy I purchased at a department store for $25. This setup is works very well.

In all, the F-2 is a great camera bag and uses space quite efficiently. I think every shooter would benefit from considering a great Domke bag for those times they want a light-weight bag that has great classic styling. Some people have complained about the buckles not being as easy to open as the common plastic clips that are on most bags. This is true when the bag is new, but when the bag has a few years' use on it, it still closes securely when the competitors' bags are opening  because their plastic clips are worn.

 

This is a bag that will give you years of use and doesn't scream "steal me" like so many other camera bags do.  Another great benefit of this bag is that I fly with it a lot. Being the most gear space I can fit into a smaller bag is a huge benefit.

 

 

I'm often asked how I create the smooth contrast and realism in many of my images. I created a video for those interested. This image of Justin needed a bit of contrast boosting and smoothening of the transitions into those highlights and shadows. I have a process that I use that adheres to my non-destructive workflow Photoshop technique.

 

Scroll down for the "before" version.

The video can be viewed below. If you would like to follow along on a layered copy of this image, visit our Repository for the PSD file.

I was recently enrolled to work on an advertising campaign for a soft drink company.  Ronnie drinks G2. We created this wicked haircut by enlisting the owner of my favorite barbershop, Headliners. We then toughened Ronnie's appearance by adding tattoos and piercings, as well as increasing his musculature in Photoshop:

 

 

Here's Ronnie without the Tattoos:

And the original file before Photoshop processing:

The lighting setup was pretty straightforward. I used my 85mm lens on my D3S, and set up a a simple 3-light setup with my Bowens studio strobes. Single overhead large octabox and beauty dishes with grids on both sides behind Ronnie to provide edge lighting. The Gatorade was lit with a fourth strobe firing through a gridded snoot.

 

 

A very common designation these days is the "effective watt seconds" for strobe output. There are a lot of disagreements about the value of this designation and if it is based on reality or a marketing fabrication. I have long wondered about strobe output and the comparison between my pack and head system and a very common modern monolight.

Last month at the monthly social I host at my studio, I had the opportunity to test my Bowens pack system against two different monolights with high "effective" w/s designations. Both of the monolights had a designation of 1600, with an true 640w/s output. I put identical Bowens-style 7" reflectors on both strobes and aimed them at a wall 15' away.

Here's where I explain that I was just looking for a baseline idea of output, not trying to do anything more scientific than simple A/B comparisons. I did not test light quality nor am I claiming that my comparisons are 100% exact.

The monilights at full power both had an output that gave me f/22 at 15' underexposing a white wall by 1 stop -- that's a guide number of 240. To reach the same output with my older Bowens Estime pack and head, I needed to dial in 1000 w/s  -- so, in my estimation, the monolight is almost twice as efficient, but still falling short of the "effective" designation. This designation may be more in-line with the output of older norman or speedotron packs, but I don't have any to compare.

What I learned is that the "effective" designation is not necessarily accurate, nor is it as much a fabrication as I had previously believed. I also saw variances in the monolights color temperature and overall output from one image to the next - it was clearly visible in my color histogram on the D3X. I didn't have a lot of time with the lights and wasn't in an environment where I could test accurately and come to a scientific conclusion. My general impression is that I'm very happy with my Bowens gear, but I'm certainly not going to be a gear snob about it - there are good reasons to buy less expensive equipment,including significant output for the investment and less expensive replacement tubes - but there are definite advantages to the big pack systems or pro-name monolights : light quality, consistency, rental availability, maximum ouput on each of my 3000 w/s pack exceeds any available monolight.

I have some colleagues with Profoto and Dynalite systems, so I will definitely be rounding up some equipment for a shootout.

 

 

This image of Orange Crush soda was shot using a snooted light just over the bottle to create the glow effect on the top of the soda.  a medium softbox for a nice diffused light, and a grid snoot with a blue gel to add the blue coloring to the ice. The ice is sitting on a white plate. Photographed with a D90 and 105mm Micro-Nikkor. I use Bowens Studio Strobes.

I added  a pinch of salt to the soda just before the exposure to lighten and add a bit of head to the top of the soda.

 

This week, I had a full-day shoot with Xtracycle, a bicyle manufacturer based in the Bay Area. This was a fairly typical product shoot, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to discuss how my commercial jobs work.

I received a call from the marketing director at Xtracycle a little over a week before the shoot. He had some questions about my work and the studio then wanted to know the price for a 1-day shoot. I asked him how he found me early in the conversation. He Googled studios in Tucson, where I rank very well.

He wanted catalog-style images of his 7-foot bicycles shot on a white cyclorama. I explained that I create images and price based on usage, so we discussed his web needs and that he would not be putting the images in a print catalog at this time. We discussed his needs and determined that he could have the Post Processing done in-house to save substantially on my fees. I quoted him a discounted price for 200 full-bicycle images and we scheduled a date.

The following day, I forwarded a copy of the contract for him to review and sign.

Later that week, I  spent a few hours looking at competitors' websites as well as my client's, reviewing the shortcomings of his existing image set and learning industry standards for his product.

Three days before the shoot, I confirmed with the client that the shoot was on and then secured my assistant and planned my studio prep time and testing.

One day before the shoot, I closed the studio for cleaning and preparation. I cleaned the studio top-to-bottom and organized my equipment. I stocked the icebox.

I tested my lighting concepts by setting up my own bicycle for a shoot and verifying that the studio lighting was exactly what I was envisioning. After finalizing my own lighting preferences, I marked everything with gaffer'st tape and sanbagged my stands. Then, I painted the cyclorama.

When I shoot tethered with an AD on site, I customize the white balance and calibrate my laptop monitor so that the image looks spectacular in Camera Control Pro. Once the paint dried, I shot reference photos and fine-tuned my white balance.

Morning of the shoot - I arrived an hour before the shoot and got myself organized and briefed my assistant on the details and explained my lighting approach.

Client arrived at 9:00 am, and client, AD, assistant, and I unload the equipment truck of bicycles and accessories into studio. We discuss the shot list. We position a test bicycle, choosing the lightest color so that we can verify how it looks on white. After review, we decide to make some slight changes - client thought contrast between highlight and shadow of crossbar was a bit high, so I raised the overhead softbox and added some fill card. We retest and are ready for production within 10 minutes of rolling the first bike into the cyc.

The next 8 hours are all about shooting multiple bikes in countless configurations with accessories.

We finish by photographing a dozen or more accessories unmounted. This was done on a tabletop setup on 40x60 foamcore.

I deliver the camera-raw images immediately via a personalized USB Flash drive engraved with my website and phone number.

After the client left, I documented the locations and settings of all of my equipment so I am able to reproduce the exact look for their next model year, then I tore down my lights and painted the cyclorama.

 

 

For this shoot, I used my Nikon D90 tripod-mounted with 30lb of sandbags to weigh the setup down.  Shooting tethered, the AD was able to approve each image and record filenames to match his spreadsheet. All images were photographed with my 60mm Nikkor lens for its legendary sharpness. Because we were shooting multiple angles, I chose f/16 for all images.

Total time invested in this 1-day commercial photo shoot: 20-24 hours. Any idea what's missing from this time?  I didn't do any post processing on the 225 images that I delivered to the client. That can greatly increase the time investment and is entirely invisible to the client. The cleaner you shoot, the less processing, but there will almost always be some -at least a few hours.

 

What else is missing from this quote -- website updates, maintenance, SEO, direct marketing, networking, social media marketing, etc. etc. Cost of doing business.

That's why I can't simply charge a 'day rate.' It's not fair to me or the client. If I was charging a day rate, would I have spent as much time preparing for the shoot or would I have spent the first two hours of billable time figuring out my lighting? If I worked slower, would the shoot have gone to two days and I would have doubled my money? These are questions i don't even want to think about. I plan, prepare, work efficiently, and provide a great product to my clients. They are paying for my photographs, not my time.

 

Many photographers use the seamless paper backgrounds. Myself included. I use black seamless with gels all the time, have a white seamless for location work when I'm away from my cyclorama, and use different colored seamless paper regularly. Until recently, I was using my location background stands in the studio and would manually roll the paper.

I was recently thinking about this and was thinking about making the huge investment oaf something more permanent in my studio. My experience with the paper drive systems was that they were extremely expensive. I searched for background drives and was quite stunned by what I had found! B&H carries multiple sets of extremely inexpensive solutions for this problem. I decided to test the chain drive waters by purchasing a simple chain drive and bracket set. I mounted it to a studio wall and it works flawlessly. My next purchase will be the autopole expan drive so I can use them at most locations. My old-school background stands will be getting much less use in the future. If I do more portrait work in the future, maybe the motorized background drive set would be a good investment, but until then I'm just relieved that I won't be tearing the edges of the paper and dealing with the ladder every time I want to switch colors or fresh seamless.

This was a a great fighter-themed shoot for an upcoming calendar. We wanted to show multiple facets and illustrate an underground fighting location with the blurred and obscured background.

One of my favorite desserts has always been key lime pie. I wanted to update my food work, so I decided to start with a self-assignment that I could really sink my teeth into.

I met this beautiful young lady last Saturday. Her name is Lauren and she has never had her photo taken outside of the annual school pictures. I suggested she chose the wardrobe and she found a nice dress on the rack and we got started.... The start was actually pretty rocky, she was nervous and didn't really know what I expected of her. She had a natural reluctance to model and was unsure of herself. The shoot wasn't going extremely smoothly - yes, she was doing everything asked, but she was uncomfortable and it showed in our work. We decided to change things up and put her in some of the clothing she brought to the shoot. We chose these cool skinny jeans and great Zoo York t-shirt.

Not knowing that she jumps on a trampoline in her spare time, I asked her to jump and spin and kick -- she came alive! We were able to catch these beautiful images showing her natural beauty - she was obviously comfortable in her own element.

 

The lighting was relatively simple. I put a single octabox (ABR800 Moon Unit) above and in front of Lauren and went with a pair of Beauty Dish Grids on either side behind,  so that  there were smooth edges.  This is basically similar to a 3-light grunge setup that is quite the rage right now, but I throttled the rim lights back so that the main light was the brightest by abotu a half stop. The bacground was lit with one additional light (not shown).

 

This shoot reminded me how important it is to focus on the model and be in touch with their feelings on the shoot.

I was recently asked to shoot some tests for fashion designer Nina and Lee. An emerging designer with presence in the US and the Far East, N&L designs are classic and conservative, but have a wild side. My goal was to create timeless images that illustrate the maturity and refinement of the designs and cross many 'looks' to communicate to the designer a number of photographic options.