New Blogging Platform

This week I launched a new website design that also has an incorporated blog.  If you are looking for new blog posts, please go to:
http://www.lukephotography.com/blog/

Photography Background: DIY Crackle Paint

Here at Luke Photography, it is time to start building new sets and painting new backgrounds for the upcoming senior portrait season.  This year, I've decided to add a few new grungy backgrounds to the options that I have for senior pictures.  One background is authentically weathered and beaten down, the other had to appear that way.

I visited a salvage yard that sells old architectural parts that are taken from buildings that are slated for demolition or major renovation, and purchased couple of pairs of old exterior shutters that are 8 feet tall. Years of sun exposure and weather have cracked, peeled and faded the paint, and they had a beautiful patina on them.  All it took was a wire brush to scrape off the loose paint, and they were good to go.

I acquired five fiberglass interior doors in the past 6 months.  Didn't pay a dime for them.  Three were being thrown out, and I rescued them before they hit the dumpster. The last two doors were near the curb in my neighborhood on trash day.  Score.  Now I had to make them look as old as the shutters, without waiting 80 years.  Yeah, I'm a little impatient.

Attention Amateur Photographers: It's Not About the Camera

I was photographing my local high school hockey team last night and there was a father of a player on the opposing team alongside me.  As photographers secretly always do, we were both sneaking peeks at the other's choice of camera and lenses.  He had a high-end Canon camera and lens, both of which are often seen in the hands of professionals.  He held the camera dearly, shooting and immediately checking the results on the camera's LCD screen, and seemed genuinely interested in why I was just standing there calmly watching the teams warm up, my camera snuggled in my bag.  Surely I couldn't know what I was doing.

During the player introductions, I pulled the camera out, took one test shot, and stood at attention during the national anthem, while he was still shooting and frowning at the results.  Once the game was about to begin, we exchanged pleasantries, and that's when the chat-fest began.  He was having trouble getting good color rendition, exposure, and asked me what I was doing.  I explained that I had previously set a custom white balance for the ice rink so that my colors were perfect, and I know the light levels in the rink, so that my exposures were always consistent.

Speaking Engagement at Photo Northeast 2014

I will be returning to the Photo Northeast convention in Woodcliff Lake, NJ as a speaker again in 2014.  I was asked to present my program "Sports Portraits With an Edge" on how I create unique and dynamic sports portraits.

I have gotten quite a following among both photographers and high school athletes for the interesting images I create, while trying to make these 17 year old kids look like professional athletes.

Link to Speaker Page

I last spoke at Photo Northeast in 2011 when I presented my very popular "Big Budget Results with Low Budget Equipment".

Photographing Sports in the Rain

 

I like to support the local high school's athletes, especially those who've come through the studio for senior portraits, by taking photos during their games.  In the fall and spring seasons, there are many times here in the Rochester, NY area when it is raining, and I needed a way to keep myself and camera dry while photographing sports games without going out any buying expensive rain gear for myself and the camera. Holding an umbrella while you are photographing anything is a lesson in futility, so I needed a hands-free umbrella option, using items I already had.


I needed a way to hold the umbrella in place over my head, without holding it.  If you've ever watched flag bearers marching during a parade, you've seen the belt-type apparatus that the end of the flag sits in while they're marching.  I needed this, and then something to hold the umbrella further up the shaft, to ensure that it stayed upright during use.




I dug out a PCV structural fitting from a past project (DIY light table) and dug out a nylon strap used to mount my kayak to my car.  I cut slots in the PVC fitting so I could thread the nylon strap through and create a base that the butt end of the umbrella could sit in.

What Successful People Do On the Weekends

Mid-December paddle in the snow and ice of Hemlock Lake

Before I worked as a full-time professional photographer and opened my studio, I worked as a part-time photographer, and devoted most weeknights and many hours of the weekend on my part-time profession. My weekday hours were filled with my duties as an environmental scientist (12 yrs.) or software quality manager/engineer (12 yrs.), which were my two careers in Corporate USA.  My fellow photographers were never surprised to get e-mails from me at 2am from my home studio, then followed up by at 7:30am e-mail from my corporate job.

Drew - Fairport HS Senior Portraits, Class of 2014

 Drew comes from a family of soccer players.  He has three younger brothers and they all play, sometimes totally 11-12 games a week for the family.  Knowing how important it is, and knowing how good of a player Drew is, I had planned something special for him.  Little did I know it would be over so quickly.

Greer - Thomas Aquinas HS Senior Portraits, Class of 2014

After Greer's session, I was starting to think that the studio was specializing in those high school boys that wanted nothing to do with senior portraits.  He wasn't too thrilled with the idea of having his picture taken, and I thought it would take a miracle to get him to smile.  As most of the athletes that come through the studio have done, we were able to get some really interesting and unique photos of him in his uniforms.

Jenn - Fairport HS Senior Portraits, Class of 2014

Jenn is the other half of the Crater twins, a lacrosse-playing brother and sister from Fairport.  During her consultation she described herself as funny, easy-going, and athletic, and I found her to be exactly that.  Her mother described her as being shy and quiet, so I wanted to show that with the following photo of her in the spotlight on the studio floor. Jenn is a goalie on the girls' lacrosse team, so we had to make sure we took the time to include that in her session.

Ryan - Fairport HS Senior Portraits, Class of 2014

Ryan was one of those boys that didn't have much interest in having his senior portraits taken, and was mostly here because his mother wanted him to.  After his initial consultation where we talked about what we would do during his session, he was actually looking forward to it.  During his session, he was very relaxed and gave me some of the most comfortable smiles of anyone I've seen this year.

Sarah - Fairport HS Senior Portraits - Class of 2014

All I knew of Sarah before she walked into the studio was that she played 2^nd base on Fairport’s varsity softball team.  We had that in common, as I played 2^nd base for many years.  By the time her session was done, we had more in common, as we both loved her photos.

Kelsey - Fairport HS Senior Portraits - Class of 2014

Kelsey had just finished her last final exam in the morning of the same day her senior portrait session was scheduled.  I half expected her to be tired....or cranky....or both.....but I was pleasantly surprised when she walked in, showing her 1,000-watt smile and was really ready to go.  We knocked off numerous great photos in the studio, then proceeded to go outdoors and pick some nearby locations that provided studio-quality light, and her face just radiated the great smile. Sometimes my job as a photographer is difficult....trying to coax 'natural" smiling expressions from difficult high school seniors who don't want to be there....then there are days like this with Kelsey that make all that worthwhile.

David - Fairport HS Senior Portraits - Class of 2014

David is one of the studio's ambassadors from Fairport High School for the Class of 2014 and plays on the varsity soccer and baseball teams.  He was photographed in early April, at the beginning of the baseball season, so we decided to concentrate on that for the sports portion of this session and save the soccer photos until we could get outside during the summer months.

There must have been some real magic in the sweet, left-handed swing I captured in the lead photo, because David was in the position to win the Section V baseball title in the bottom of the last inning, and stroked a clean single to drive in the winning run from third base, setting off a riotous celebration. Ever the non-selfish player, he deflected all the praise and instead was happy that the team won it for a great class of outgoing seniors, including three that came through the studio last year for senior portraits.  Further prof that kids that come to Luke Photography for senior portraits go on to do big things.

...yeah, like "I" had anything to do with that....

Sports Team Portraits a Different Way

Field hockey team that was composited from 26 individual photos of the individual athletes

Luke Photography has been working with the booster clubs at the local high school do create unique and interesting team and individual portraits of the high school athletes. Sports are really a big part of Fairport High School's environment, and they really were interested in something different than the tried-and-true standard athletic photos that most teams get.

Lighting set up:
Overhead beauty dish, two gridded soft boxes
left and right behind the subject, and an umbrella
on the background

After arranging for use of the school's cafeteria, I set up my mobile studio using a four light setup and grey paper background.  The main light on the subject is an overhead strobe in a 24 inch beauty dish, which gives off a soft but edgy light that I love for athletic portraits. There are two strobes placed diagonally behind the subject that are outfitted with medium-sized gridded soft boxes. These lights provide nice separation light behind the subject, and are usually placed to match the digital that I plan on putting behind the subjects. Finally, there is a strobe that is bounced out of an umbrella that lights up the background.

The Fairport Modified girls' softball team ready
for their Hollywood close-up.

Raw image

The raw image out of the camera looks like this. A quick pass of retouching is usually done on the face, if there are any blemishes or shadows that can easily be taken care of.

Background stripped out

I usually Topaz Remask, a Photoshop plug-in, to strip out the subject from the background.  Each player can be done in 8-10 seconds.

New background image inserted behind subject

A new digital background is placed behind the subject. I create many of my own urban backgrounds (e.g parking garages, industrial buildings, etc.), but these stadium backgrounds were purchased from StreetscapeBackgrounds.

Raw image

To create the composited team  portrait, I photograph each player facing directly towards the camera, then at a 45-degree angle to the right, then to the left. Using Adobe Lightroom to filter through the images, I pick the best image of each player, trying to get equal numbers of "lefts" and "rights", and several facing directly at the camera.

Background stripped out

Using Topaz Remask, the subject is stripped out of the background.

Using Adobe Photoshop, each player is placed into the image, row-by-row to create a pleasing arrangement.  There are multiple blank layers that are added above and below each player's layer on which I brush in shadows, which would occur naturally if the team was actually photographed all together. These shadows make all the difference in the image, and although time consuming, turns this from a run-of-the-mill fake image into one where most of the parents can't believe the athletes were not all photographed together. 

When complete, there are often 45-50 layers in the Photoshop file: one for each player, at least one shadow layer per player, and several other shadow layers where their feet are touching the ground. In the photo above, several players were wearing flip flops or were in stocking feet, so the team name banner covers up the bare feet of the front row players that could not be hidden in the back row.

Everyone is still smiling when they're done.

The JV hockey team shown below was one of the first teams that I created this way.  The individual player's photos again were close ups of their faces in front of a really nice rink background.  When the hockey parents show the team photos around, I soon had baseball, field hockey, softball, football, boy's lacrosse and girl's volleyball teams on board.  

Many people ask me why I photograph team portraits this way, because it is much more a time investment than just lining a team up and photographing them all together.  First and foremost, it allows me to get great, consistent light on each and every player's face.  This is not always easy to do in a large group.  The accent lights that appear on each player's face helps define it and delineate it from the players behind them.  There is no way this accent light would get onto the player's faces at the center of the group if they were all photographed together simultaneously.  The second reason is that it looks different. Being different gets you noticed.  Executing this different vision on a consistent basis keeps you moving forward, onward and upward.

One of the first team composites that I created.
Once other teams caught wind of this , they were lining up to take part

Corteney - Fairport HS - Senior Portraits

I love photographing the contrast of warm and cool colors together, as shown here by the warm reddish orange of Corteney's dress and the cool blue of the worn denim jacket, then the warn rusty tones of the hand-painted background.  Corteney was the first to be photographed against this background, and it looks like it was made just for her. 

Ashley - Fairport HS Senior portraits

Ashley is the 3rd model representative from Fairport's Class of 2014 to have her senior portraits taken at Luke Photography.  She plays basketball almost year-round and is a starter on Fairport's varsity basketball team.  She is tall and statuesque and looks as much like a model as any athlete I've had come through the studio.  Although she was getting over a cold and didn't feel well, she certainly gave all her energy during the 3-hour session, then has to turn around that evening and go to work.

McKenzie - Fairport HS Senior Portraits

McKenzie is one of five model representatives from Fairport High School that are getting the word out on the street about the unique senior portraits done at Luke Photography.  She is very outgoing and we certainly had alot of laughs during her session.  We even took advantage of a fairly warm and sunny early April day to venture outside and photograph around the Village of Fairport.

Olivia - Fairport HS Senior Portraits

Olivia was the first of this year's model reps. in the studio for the upcoming HS Senior portrait season.  While I had alot of high school athletes come through the doors of the studio last year, I wanted everyone to know that there are many more looks that can come out of the studio.  This is why I requested that Olivia be one of the studio's representatives this year.

Digital Photo Restoration

A client that I had done portraits for two years ago came to me with a beat up photographic print of his wife's parents that they wanted restored.  It was the only print of this photograph that the family had, and it was a treasured heirloom.  They were from South America, and although the print only was estimated at 50 years old, it was hand-colored, textured, black and white print.  They wanted the retouched print to be as close to the original as possible.

The print had various amounts of surface damage, but had no major tears or missing pieces, which significantly increases the level of difficulty during restoration.  But because the print measured at least 11x14 inches, it was also too big to be scanned all in one piece, so that notched the level of difficulty right back up there.

Photographing Beer

I recently started photographing various trademark beers for Fairport Brewing Company, a local microbrewery.  Although all the foods and beverages that you see in magazine and television advertisements look deliciously steamy hot or refreshingly cold, nothing could be further from the truth.  There is an art to making month-old, cold hamburgers look lip-smackingly good.  And in this post, I’ll show you what makes you want to dive into room temperature, flat beer.

With the exception of some English beers that are preferable served less than cold, most beer is served cold, so that is what advertisers want you to see and crave.  But again, what you see is rarely what it really is.