I recently completed a job for Tera at Sassimi, a boutique fashion designer in Seattle. And while she is small for now, she wants to grow her business. I think she will do well. Oh, and you can visit her site here at Sassimi.com.

(For those looking for Project 52, please visit the project52.org page for all the info.)

The assignment:
Shoot the collection for a web gallery/catalog to catch the eyes of retailers who may be interested in carrying her lines.

Challenge:
- The robes to be sent look better on medium height women, not the tall fashion models we are used to hiring for this kind of gig.
- The colors are very pastel and we must be able to show the texture of the material.
- The material was a hybrid Terry Cloth (not the easiest texture to light).
- We needed to keep the background as unobtrusive as possible and render the colors well.

Not a terribly difficult set of parameters, but there are small challenges that must be met.

We started by figuring out how many shots would need to be finished, and the different angles/configurations that would be possible within her budget. I then figured the time that would be needed to do the job, and scheduled a date that would allow me to shoot, process and do any reshoots within a reasonable time.

Models were contacted and we booked two that fit the wardrobe and would be available on the dates we needed.

The wardrobe was received and we found that terry cloth and the hybrid terry/bamboo material didn’t handle being wrapped and shipped without being totally wrinkled. I used an industrial steamer to take all the wrinkles out, and we had to iron a few spots to get the look smooth and natural. The wardrobe was hung on a studio wardrobe stand and we began to catalog the shots.

I made notations on which would be worn by which model, and the wardrobe was divided into the two groups.

One of the things that Tera wanted was to make sure the texture was visible. It was a big part of the wardrobe’s features and it needed to be front and center. I had thought of using a big softbox, but at when I tested it, the light was too soft and it didn’t delineate the texture as well as I had expected. The material was more fine in texture and way softer than expected.

I chose a large umbrella instead. The 60″ satin white gave me soft light with a bit more direction than the softbox did. The wrap around feature of the large umbrella would also allow me to use some negative reflection on the opposite side of the light to create more contrast and texture.

Whenever I am doing a shoot with multiple items like this, I will do some tests to make sure the light, background and models look the way I, and the client, want them to look. I don’t want to do this when the models arrive as that is billable hours for them, and I want to make sure the clients money is well spent… not wasted on me trying to figure out what I want to do while the models are on the clock.

I knew the wardrobe was going to be easy to do, as they are all spa wear and wraps. So I staggered the models so I wouldn’t have one waiting around while I was working with the other. This also allowed the makeup time to be offset as well.

Efficiency is so important when doing a job like this… and this one was a small job at that.

I keep a shot list next to the camera station and we mark each outfit off as we shoot it. This way nothing is forgotten or mistakenly left out – triggering a reshoot. And if I miss the wardrobe shot, the reshoot is on my dime… and profit starts to dry up due to errors that are easily corrected by staying in control.

Here is the lighting scheme that I ended up using. As you can see, it is quite simple.

The large umbrella is in close for more contrast with the soft light. It is also set to do some wrap around to the shadow side of the face… but not too much as to kill the texture on the robes. The large fill is brought to the front of the model and works as a fill for the front of her, and a scrim to kill the light from bouncing all around the cove.

The shadow side of the robe is enhanced by the darkness reflecting back to the camera from the shadow side of the subject… even the Terry cloth can see some dark and reflect it back a little.

To say it again… the umbrella is big and close so the light is soft. The closeness also creates a faster fall off on the subject due to the Inverse Square Law, and the fill is controlled to be bright across the front of the model and the wardrobe, but dark to provide more contrast to the negative sides of the subject and the material.

You can see the sculptural qualities of the light here on this closeup of the Terry cloth.

The tighter weave of the Terry/Bamboo was a bit more smooth, but the lighting handled it well. All in all, we had a nice, simple light with some complexities added by the negative fill.

I was also the designer on this job. The website is quite simple, and very SEO friendly. A full CMS is included and Tera can keep her list of retailers up to date as well as changing out the images in the galleries. I keep monitoring the site for a few months after launch, and Sassimi is starting to appear on organic searches under our targeted keywords.

One of the important things to do on a shoot like this is to keep the light consistent. I was able to make the composite shot for the header quite easily as the backgrounds all matched perfectly. The consistency makes post go so much easier.

I will close out with some screen shots of the site with the images in place.

Thanks for following along. Stalk me on Twitter, and see the workshop pages at Learn to Light for more information on the workshops we offer.

No related posts.

This article is a look at the creation of a simple still life with one light in the studio. See it after the jump.

At this point I want to remind everyone of the incredible opportunity this week. Selina’s amazing Clarion Call is this coming Thursday/Friday, February 10, 11. It is all day both days and the lineup of guests is amazing.

Check out who will be sharing their amazing insights with you all – for FREE!

Heather Morton – Through The Buyers’ Eye
Rob Haggert – Vision and Value
Gail Mooney – Motion? Pictures?
Nick Thomas – Repositioning For Your Best Shot
Louisa Curtis – Show and Sell
Frank Meo – The Secrets of Agents
Kat Dalager – Presenting You
Keith Gentile – Databases That Deliver
Adam Sherwin – Viral and Vital
Eric Kass – Designed To Sell
Don Giannatti – Visionary Web Site
Rosh Sillars – Socialize Your Media
Jack Hollingsworth – The Twitter Tutorial
Allen Murabayashi – Google and You

This will be something that will be talked about, imitated, shared and remembered for a heck of a long time. Be in on the first one. Register here, and be ready to be pumped!
For Selina’s Teleseminar, click on the banner.

PROJECT 52, Assignment 6 Information is at the Project 52 site this week. The assignment… Chocolate. You have been assigned a last minute shoot for a local chain of restaurants for a shot for their menu – and the specialty of February… Chocolate. NOTE: Image bust be a square format image. Square to fit their menu image slot.

Lots more info over on Project 52, so jump on over and get involved. It doesn’t matter if you have not been involved from the beginning… get involved now and get your stuff ready to go pro… or at least shoot like one.

A big shout out to the folks who took my Phoenix and San Diego workshops… thanks folks, we did have a blast. Special thanks to Christine at Arte Bella for helping he San Diego workshop with a ton of behind the scenes efforts and scoring some wonderful models for us. Thanks Christine.

Next up workshop wise is Austin, Texas. March will take us to Sacramento for a workshop, and in April we are back in Omaha and West Palm Beach for back to back workshops. Check the schedule out here. There is an advance workshop being planned for the first weekend in April, but we are waiting for a few things to get nailed down. The April advanced workshop will be focused on studio lighting and still life/product work.

OK – that’s enough shop talk, so let’s get to the still life shoot complete with short video and Photoshop screen shots.

Small studio shooting, what we used to call ‘table top’ is a favorite of mine. This is a very simple shoot with only one studio light on a boom. The subject is a decanter from the kitchen and some “ice chips” that we use for drink shots for a ‘crushed ice’ look. These are made from acrylic and really look great as ice in a glass – or uncut diamonds. I usually keep 3 or 4 million dollars worth of uncut diamonds around for shots like this, but they were unavailable because my vault guy wasn’t there.

Using a single 3′x3′ softbox on a boom, I brought the light in close to the table top. The table is a metal top, so it has a medium efficiency… certainly enough to get a specular source off of the area around the glass object I am shooting.

The glass is very efficient, so the specular reflections off of the various facets and shiny surfaces. The other side of that coin is that the efficient surface will also reflect the areas where there is no light. I can choose to make all kinds of reflections with cards for a single exposure, or add them one at a time and blend them with Photoshop.

The specular on the surface extended back behind the decanter, so I placed a scrim board in front of it (flag if you will) to cut the reflection of the light in that area. Keeping the back dark with the glass lit up so well adds some dimension to the image that wouldn’t exist if the background simply stayed lit all the way from front to back.

I recommend that you try to work these out with the single image approach before going all out on the multiple shots and layers approach. I think it is very important to figure out how the speculars are created, where they go to look right and how to achieve that liquid highlight that makes efficient surfaces LOOK efficient.

A single Norman head attached to an 800WS pack set at 200WS is our light. It is brought from behind with an angle to it to help feather the light away as it comes closer to the camera. The angle also helps present a specular source right behind the glass. (Have I ever mentioned how important booms are? I have? Good. I cannot imagine being a photographer without a boom. Make it your first – or next – purchase.)

The camera is mounted to a small camera stand and locked down for the shoot. I am shooting tethered into a MacBook and using the Canon software that comes bundled with the cameras.

You can see the set up in the video below. This is what I consider a very fast, easy set up for a table top. At least one that is on a surface with the camera aimed down.

Video: (please note that we had previously built this shot “LIVE” on LE LIVE, so the folks who tuned in saw us build the basics and get the exposure down. I then made a quick vid to capture what we had done.)

Below you can see a set of images that show what happens when we are looking for exposure. Taking various readings from pointing the dome up to pointing it at the camera are taken. We begin with the dome pointing toward camera and it is too hot. Stopping down a stop makes the shot more appealing, albeit a bit darker than I want it to be.

Bringing in a fill card from the front lightens up the set as well, so I make a note to darken that within Photoshop. I call it “increasing the vignette” and in my head I saw a much smaller specular background reflection, so that would be something I may work in with a second scrim or do in Photoshop… this time Pshop.

After getting the main exposure the way I wanted it, I made an additional 6 shots with the cards in the image to give me the specular sources on the glass. This helps to keep the glass “lively’ and not simply reflecting the dark studio. Attention is paid to what the cards are doing from camera. It is best do to this with an assitant.

You can see the different shots I used to make the final image here.

Photoshop Screen Shot 1:

You can see the dark sides of the glass as it simply reflects the dark studio surrounding it.

Photoshop Screen Shot 2:

Now I look at the shots where the card was used to create highlights and carefully cut out the places I see the difference. I add some space around this so I can feather it in after moving it over.

Holding the shift-key down and putting my move tool in the area that I have chosen with the lasso tool, I hold the shift key down and slide it to the main image. It falls on a new layer, and the shift key being down makes it fall directly on the place it needs to be. If the camera has not moved, you will probably have to do nothing to the alignment… it should be perfect.

If the camera has moved, the best thing to do is increase the magnification of the new layer, change it to 60% opacity and nudge it into alignment.

Occasionally, the fill card will have lightened the background or edges slightly causing a visible line. We fix that with a layer mask.

Click on “Add Layer Mask” icon and choose black with a small, soft edge brush. I use an opacity of 35% when I am doing this. Carefully paint the edges that you can see with the soft black brush. That will reveal the layer below and you can feather them together to make the edge disappear.

Photoshop Screen Shot 3:

Here you can see the layers and masks used to create the final image seen below. After the layers are blended I add a blank layer and set the Blend Mode to “Overlay”. With black and white brushes and opacities of 9 I will slowly and carefully lighten the areas that need it, and darken the areas that need to be a bit darker. This method does not destroy the image nor does it change the color of the pixels… it simply darkens the luminosity of it by placing a darker or lighter mid-tone above it.

When that is done, the Tony Kuyper Luminosity Masks are applied as I see fit. I love these masks and use them on every image that passes through my little pixel factory here.

Final Image after Photoshop:

You can see the result of our efforts above.

Thanks for coming along on our little journey. We will be “LIVE” in the studio next week, so watch for the schedule on the Lighting Essentials “LIVE” page.

Thanks for coming along. We will be doing a lot more of this stuff. I promise. Follow me on Twitter, visit my About Me page, and if you are interested in one of our lighting Workshops, check out Learn to Light for more information. I am doing one in Austin at the end of this month and in Sacramento in March. They will both ROCK!

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2. The Hard Life: Embracing and Experimenting with Small Light Sources: by Steve Korn The Hard Life: Embracing and Experimenting with Small Light Sources...
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Josh took my workshop in Houston a couple of times. His work has really grown. I saw these images and asked for a write up from him. It is this guest post. Welcome Josh Brewster to Lighting Essentials. BTW, Josh will be assisting me at the Austin workshop. A great opportunity to meet him and learn a ton about lighting and photography. Let’s let Josh tell us about the dance images.

The Assignment
My girlfriend manages a dance studio, so occasionally small gigs float my way. A few days ago, I received an email from a parent whose daughter, Kaila, is enrolled at the dance studio. Her daughter was applying to a number of intensive ballet camps this summer; each application required her headshot as well as photographs of a few dance poses. The applications were due in less than two weeks so the images needed to produced and delivered quickly.

Research and Preparation
Dance, especially ballet, is very detailed and very precise. A pose or leap can be ruined by a shoulder that is slightly too high, or an arm slightly too straight. In real-time, an incorrect pose can be covered up by swift motion or forgiven due to the complexity of the dance routine. A photograph, however, freezes that motion and removes the dancer from any form of context. Any mistake, slight or significant, becomes glaringly obvious. So in terms of an application process, she had to look perfect.

With perfection in mind, I made a few executive decisions:

1) Big lights – I like to think I am a good photographer, and I know Kaila is a phenomenal dancer, but I was fully prepared to shoot the same leap over and over again until everything (my shutter finger, her pose) matched up. Wall powered units were a must; battery powered speed lights just would not be able to keep up the pace that was required.

2) Support squad – I invited my girlfriend, Kaila’s dance instructor, and Kaila’s mom to the shoot. Between two trained dancers, a high school musical theater teacher, and myself, we were able work with the subject through every aspect of the shoot. I made sure she was aware of the key light, the dancers scrutinized her movements, and the musical theater teacher (her mom) helped her project her personality.

3) Shoot tethered – Shooting tethered into Lightroom 3 allowed the aforementioned support squad to have quick visual feedback for Kaila. More importantly, we were able to decide as a group exactly when the winning shot was captured so we did not tire Kaila out through excessive repetitions of the same dance step.

4) Shoot low – For the poses, I knew that I would want to get my camera lower to the ground, perhaps just below Kaila’s hip level. This lower perspective would make her leaps look higher and her legs longer.

Artistically, I wanted to create images that really showcased Kaila and only Kaila. Something inside me screamed “gray seamless,” so I went with it, knowing that it was versatile enough for both the head shots and the poses.

Day of the Shoot
Since the dance shots would require Kaila to be leaping around and eventually putting her hair into a bun, we decided to start the shoot with her headshots while her hair was looking nice. I wanted to deliver two different looks: one that was open and one that was slightly more dramatic.

For the first look, I set up a large 6x6ft diffusion panel to the left of where Kaila would be sitting. Then I set up a strobe with a socked beauty dish to fire through the diffusion panel. I could have forgone the beauty dish and used a standard reflector, but I wanted to diffuse the light as much as possible before it hit the subject. I was also planning on using the socked beauty for the rest of the lighting setups, so it saved time when transitioning to the next setup. To the right of the subject, I placed a large white reflector for fill and positioned a smaller silver reflector to be in her lap to bounce some light up from below. A final low-powered, gridded softbox from behind and to the right brightened up her hair and added a highlight to one side.

Photography by Josh Brewster

The second look was a classic butterfly setup. I moved the socked beauty dish directly overhead and tilted it down towards her face for the key light. The silver reflector in her lap stayed in place and the power on the hair light softbox was increased significantly. A gridded strobe was aimed to hit the background right below frame, creating a nice gradient on the background.

Photography by Josh Brewster

After getting the head shots, Kaila went off to change into her first costume; I got to work modifying the lighting setup. There were a number of considerations that I took when I chose my modifiers and placed my lights. I knew I wanted my key light to be the beauty dish and I wanted it to project Kaila’s shadow on the background. I set it up camera right.

To prevent the shadow-side of Kaila from going dark, I setup a large softbox directly to Kaila’s side. This served a double feature of filling in the shadows and creating a kicker highlight to outline her figure. To keep the light from spilling onto the background, I added a grid to the softbox. The final light was a gridded strobe high and back to camera right, once again helping outline Kaila from the background.

This lighting setup was pretty loose, meaning that there was a wide area in which Kaila would be acceptably illuminated. We shot the Kaila in her blue lyrical costume for an array of freeform poses and leaps, and then shot her in her ballet leotard for her more technical arabesque and second position en pointe poses (apparently it is really hard to hold this position on her toes… I tried and failed spectacularly).

The entire shoot went quite smoothly, with plenty of energy and laughter. Aside from being impressed with her athleticism, I was continually impressed with Kaila’s desire for perfection and great enthusiasm throughout the shoot.

Photography by Josh Brewster

After the Shoot
That night after the shoot, I sent off a proofing gallery where they could look at all the images and choose which would receive the final edits. Before I shut down my computer for the night, I did a quick check on Facebook, where I discovered that she had already posted eleven of the photos to an album and given me proper photographer credit and a link to my website. Nice. Part of me writhed, knowing that those images had not yet received the royal editing treatment. However, her friends were commenting up a storm despite my loose crops and slightly crooked horizons, so I did my best to cope.

The next day, I received a list of the photos they had selected. I edited them and sent them off. I got an email back asking if I could create a black and white version that they could hang on the wall; I obliged.

So far feedback has been pretty positive: “These are amazing. We are so happy with how they turned out! Thank you SOOOOO much. Everyone is flipping out over the pictures.”

As much as I liked hearing this, I will not be fully satisfied until I hear the news that Kaila was selected to attend the summer camp. My bet is that she will breeze on in. Until that time, however, I’ll just occupy myself by taking more photos.

Thanks Josh. Nice work and explanations as well.

Hope you all enjoyed this piece by Josh. Make sure you visit his website, and send a comment his way if you enjoyed it.

As always, follow me on Twitter, join us at Project52 and remember to check out Learn to Light for information on the workshops for this year.

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Well, my Volleyball client needed a new ad. That’s great. We needed it to be concepted, shot, and produced in one day. A day that had me doing other things as well. Stressful? A little, but I have been at this game long enough to know that it will get done. It always does.

Concept was easy. The software they design for Volleyball coaches currently runs on Palms and handheld devices. A lot of coaches are wanting it to run on a laptop as they are starting to carry laptops to the games for other things and it would be nice to only have one device courtside. Announcing the availability of a PC based software for laptops is the overall message of the ad. It wasn’t meant to overshadow the total message of the two available software packages, but to let those who are currently using the older software that a new tool was now ready.

We always strive to be a little different. Most of the ads that are in the trades are either big time products like Adidas and Nike or small, mom and pop solutions for a niche of court volleyball. I want my ads to look as good as they can and also stand out. Shots of volleyball players taken under less than ideal lighting abounds. We have been going for the still life approach since we started working together in 2002. The ads stand out. They get noticed and the client gets inquiries and sales. Score!

This ad will be running in several trades, but the first deadline was “Volleyball Magazine” for the August edition, I believe. Court Volleyball closely follows the school schedules. The printing is pretty good in that magazine so I can push the gamma a little.

Before we dissect the shot, I want to remind you all of the Missoula, El Paso and Memphis workshops. We still have a few openings and it would be nice to have you there. We are doing a special 1 day intensive workshop on the NIKON CLS system with John Groseclose in August. It will involve studio and location work with single and multiple Nikon strobes. Both manual and iTTL will be covered. Look for more information soon.

Here are a few related articles you may enjoy after reading this post:
Adding some Texture to an image.
Another shot with post production for the same client.
Finding the right mix for blending ambient and strobe.
Shooting Food on Location

Thanks for visiting and tell your friends about the site. And now for the soup-to-nuts shoot of this ad.

Gathering the Props.

After the client and I spoke about the shot, I designed a quick sketch and then headed out the door to get the props. First stop was Home Depot for a pair of shelves to use as a background. They were out of the size I needed (?) so I decided to use the pair I had at the studio. They were in pretty good shape, and I could fix any small problems in post. I needed only a small amount of surface for the foreground, so finding a clean spot should be OK.

Then off to Sports Authority for the Volleyball props. Very important to make sure that they are for court volleyball, not sand or beach volleyball. Different ball, different accessories. And very important for the client’s message. The software is for court volleyball and it is targeted to court volleyball coaches that would see the problems instantly.

I have done a few shots for these guys before and I know what they want. A closeup shot with places for a headline and type. We don’t want to look like all the other folks in the Volleyball magazines. We like a more detailed and idiomatic approach.

The final piece was the laptop. The point of this ad is that the software is now running on laptop computers. Previous versions are for Palm and handheld devices. We needed the laptop to be very visible, so I decided to use my rather new Toshiba and cleaned it up nicely.

Setting the props initially.

The angles had to drive the viewer to the center of the shot to the “Power of Two” and to let the laptop and volleyball be important items for the composition. I like angles. I like convergences.

I placed the items to focus the eyes and then started placing the additional items all pointing toward the back of the image and the volleyball. I am not placing for perfection here, I just want to get an idea of what the things will do when being next to each other.

Setting the Light.

Bringing in the main light is next. I haven’t fully set up the shot yet. I wait until the light is in the position I want before finishing the design.

A strip light with a Norman head at 400WS is set at a slight angle toward camera and slightly behind the set. I needed the surface of the light to be visible in the laptop top… providing a definite liquid specular and shape to the laptop and the water bottle. Using a boom gives me much more flexibility for the set. NOTE: get a boom. Get two of them actually.

I placed the light in the center horizontally, and then looked carefully at the way the light fell on and was reflected by the laptop and volleyball. I made a few changes to the setup and then started to make angles for the shot with a handheld camera. I was using a 20MM lens for its view and convergence.

Using a camera stand or tripod.

After determining the angle of the shot that made the most sense to me, I got my camera stand in position. I like using a camera stand in the studio versus a tripod. I trip over tripod legs and that will kill the shot I had worked so hard to position. I still trip over camera stands, but with a camera stand it kills the toes and leaves the camera in position. Priorities.

I also love the little tray for keeping all the stuff I use to shoot with on the platform right next to me. When I am shooting tethered I can attach a laptop to it as well. This time I am not shooting tethered because the laptop I am shooting is the one I usually shoot into. I could have moved one of the Macs over, but time was a consideration.

Lighting Position

You can see the camera stand and the light as they relate to each other in this shot. Note the angle of the light and how far back on the set it actually is. I like using a strip light for these kinds of shots as it has a wonderful fast fall off behind the set.

I keep my power pack in a close proximity and the cords are out of the way. The cleaner you keep the floor around the set, the better it is for the shoot. Having to move stuff around all the time while trying to concentrate on the shot becomes a distraction. Keep the floor area clean. Keep the cords out of the way and tape them to the floor if there is going to be traffic in the area.

The initial shot.

This is the shot I got when I got the camera into position. There are many challenges that need to be met on this initial exposure. The contrast is too great, and the shadows are too deep. The ball is too dark and there is no reflection on the front of the computer so it completely dies. There is a loss of any kind of definition on the side of the water bottle.

This is not unexpected on the initial shot. In film days this would be Polaroid one. In digital it is sort of a sketching thing.

Adding Fill and Reflective Cards.

I added two white pieces of fome core on both sides of the set. These cards are not set randomly, but rather they are angled to provide fill AND reflection. The reflection is the priority as there will be naturally some fill there as well. I needed to get something down the side of the water bottle, and on the front of the computer.

Having a couple of stands or small booms to clamp your cards on is important. You don’t want them to twist away after working a reflection angle for a half hour.

The Set Shot From Behind.

Here is the set from behind showing the ball and the holder that kept it in place. You can also see how the cards are in close to the camera as well as the way the light is angled toward the camera.

On the left on this shot is the edge of a grid spot aimed at the edge of the set. This is giving me a little texture on the knee pads and a slight glow on the side of the ball. A little splashed behind the ball and that added a little bit of cool back light.

I also liked the way the light spilled a bit over onto the front of the set, giving some dimension to a dull part of the image. This little part really added something to the shot.

The Effect of the Fill Cards.

There is a huge difference in the shot now. The cards are doing their jobs adding speculars on the front of the computer as well as the cord and the whistle side. This little bit of light adds some touches that makes the shot live a little. At this point I have decided to shoot this image.

You can see the dramatic difference in the images as we added the reflective cards. I keep all kinds of sizes on hand. Fome core and white boards as well as silver sided and gold sided shiny boards. Even little scraps of boards are kept to use as fill for tiny objects.

Adjustment to the shot and Photoshop Notes

After deciding the shot, I pulled the card and loaded it up on one of the desktops in the studio to look at it closely before committing the image. I made mental notes and also printed it out to mark it up. Remember that I usually shoot tethered, so I simply convert the shot into Photoshop to review on the laptop.

You can see some of my notes here. I need to open the highlights a little, fix some problems on the background, adjust the lighting on the ball and then make sure the light was even across the laptop. I needed to make sure the shot was lit with the right exposure so I also bracketed my images… from f-22 to f-11. Yes, I knew that f-11 would be too bright on most parts, but if I needed a lighter section of the dark areas, I could always pull it from the lighter images. I didn’t have to do that, but it is always a good idea to have something like that if needed.

Final Shot as produced from the camera

Finished Shot after Photoshop

Here is the final background image. I added the screen from a screenshot as I don’t have the volleyball software running on my machine. I took the screenshot and manipulated it to fit the screen then took the opacity down to 80%. Some usual Photoshop post production work to get a better contrast and some edge darkening.

Thanks for going along for the ride. Shooting images for advertising can be very exciting, but attention to detail can make the difference.

See you next time.

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This post looks at creating an ad from a very simple layout. The client, Dimensional Software in Palo Alto, CA, needed to have an ad produced in nearly no time. An opening in a magazine came up last minute and a fax was sent to me with a sketch of the ad that we had talked about.

We will take a look at how the shot was done, and how making the layout a part of the planning and thinking process.

A reminder to check out the recent posts below for links to some great interviews, lighting information and ideas to give you a lot to do with your photography. The tag cloud on the right, below the banners, also is a great way to find out what is on the site. You can spend all day here, LOL.

Also, you may have noticed the banner on the right side. Midwest Photo Exchange has teamed up with Lighting Essentials to provide a page of hand-picked (by me) lighting gear. From pack/head kits and mono lights, to stands, booms and reflectors, this is a page with some best-of-breed equipment chosen for durability and value. And my readers save 10%. Just click the link to see what is offered.

So, let’s get on with it and see how the ad was created in a very short time.

My client, Gerrie, and I discussed the look and feel of this ad. We had no time to do it but decided we would get it out the door by the end of day. She notified the magazine and we went at it. A discussion of what the featured item was supposed to portray followed. I wanted to know everything about the TapRecorder and why it was an important thing for a volleyball coach to have.

Gerrie explained that this device and software eliminated the hand-written notes, stickies and such, that coaches were using. Gerrie, also a coach, knew the pain and what it would take to eliminate the pain… so we began the design process.

We wanted to feature the software, and we wanted to show visually how the software and device would contrast the messy paperwork of doing it by hand. By placing the hands with the device over a mess, we could show the contrast it was hoped.

Gerrie and I worked with fax and ended up with a quick, ‘napkin’ layout. This is used to keep us both on the same page, not necessarily a heavily designed layout. I work with both, this is a sketch for position.

While there are much tighter layouts out there, these kinds of sketches are done a lot. And they convey a lot of information to the photographer. For instance, we know that there will be headline type at the top of the ad, and that there will be body copy on the side opposite the hands. Copy and type can be a real challenge… color of background, ‘overly busy’ background, or light-to-dark contrast that makes it hard for copy to read.

I began setting up the shot on a small table. Placing the camera at an angle to the board that creates a foreground/background. Choosing the wide angle lens, a Canon 21-35L at approximately 24MM gave me a nice sweeping feel. I try to get an idea of the lens choice and angle and then build to that when doing product and still life. It is just how I work most of the time.

The lighting needed to look like it was natural and real. I took a softbox first and was disappointed with that light… seemed to boring and uninteresting. My second thought was to grab four of five glass blocks and put an Omni behind it in ‘spot’ configuration. Ahh, now I had light coming from the back and some dramatic shadows driven toward the camera. This gave me a much more interesting background.

I took the props and started to build the layout, keeping in my mind where the type was going to go, and where the hands would be. I knew there may be some challenges as the client wanted it to be very cluttered and have type over it. But I had my idea for that already in place so I went ahead and created a pretty dense mess of stickies, charts, and all the rest of the background. We wanted it to look messy and show the contrast, so sometimes you go overboard to drive the point home.

Keeping the light down low added the shadows coming toward the camera

Taking a few exposures at auto white balance showed a pretty warm color from the tungsten Omni. I changed the color balance on the camera to Tungsten and took a few. I was shooting in RAW, so I could have done it in the processing, but I wanted to see what it looked like on the camera. I decided to shoot at both color temps which would be quicker. The shutter speed was long at about 1/4 second.

Building the set was time consuming and I spent a little over an hour working the light and the props till I had them where I wanted them. At that point I took the shots.

You can see the difference in the color here. For me, the warm is too warm and the cool is too cool.

Now I had my background. And I moved to the shots of the hands. Should I shoot them with the background or separately? If I was to shoot them with the background, I would have to light them separately and work the shot to have a drag shutter with the hands in strobe… that could be very time consuming and even a little motion from the hands could create a shadow around them.

Separately – it was a no-brainer decision.

I began looking for some hands. I called a few models I knew and timing wasn’t gonna work. I had to have the shot done by noonish to get it ready for the magazine for end of day delivery. I checked with the people in businesses near me. Scars, bad hands/nails… sheesh.

I did it myself. Moving to shooting on a softbox I did a few shots but the light was very hard to do with one handed shooting. I couldn’t get the fill to come in tight enough cause it was my hand… argh. So I decided on natural light. It would look more ‘natural’ anyway.

I took a white board and two fill cards outside, I set up in the northlight of the studio and set the fill cards in close. Shooting the left hand with the device was fairly easy. I held it out in my left hand and tripped the shutter with my right. The camera was of course on a tripod. However, shooting my right hand with the stylus proved, well, challenging. I was twisted like a pretzel to get it right. I had to take several of those to get it right.

Placing the white board behind the hands meant an easy cut in Photoshop. You can see what I did in the shot below:

With the white board, the hands were very easy to cut out.

Notice how the wide, broad light of the north sky makes a wonderful highlight on the device. Also notice how I turned the angle to get the top right and right side dark in the left hand shot. That is because the right hand would be placed over it. It would not look natural at all if the highlight continued under the right hand. The right hand would naturally cast a shadow, so I had to take that in mind with these shots.

Quickly using the magic lasso tool, I grabbed the hands from both shots and moved them to their own layers. I used a feather of 2 to keep the edges a bit more natural. At this point, I retouched the hands and cleaned up the device.

You can see the layers and the masked forced DOF created by two layers - one sharp and one soft.

The shot above shows the beginnings of the ad as it starts coming together. I used two layers, one soft and one sharp, and a layer mask with a gradient to create the DOF fall off. This further moved the hands into a position of ‘subject.’ I also blended some of the warm background image into some of the cooler image. I think it created a more interesting and rich background, and makes the hands and the device all that more interesting.

The hands fit perfectly, so all I had to do then was get a jpeg screen shot from their device and add it to the shot. Using the transform tools I was able to take the screenshot and carefully place it on the device. I lowered the opacity to about 80% and that let a little of the sheen of the original shot come through and looks more like it is a device screen. A moderate amount of Photoshop blending at the edges and we had it.

Next, I had to add a logo (so that I could keep it transparent) and also the lightened area for the type. Placing the logo on its own layer means that I can move it if necessary. The lightened background area was created by the marquee tool, with a feather of 75. Choose the area I wanted and fill it with white. I then lowered the opacity to a place that felt good and gave it a try. I tweaked it a couple of times to get what I wanted.

Next was to make a copy of the Photoshop file as a flattened Tiff and get it into the page layout program. I was using Quark at this time. I use InDesign now. I still have Quark for some legacy clients, but all my new work is on InDesign. Placing the Tiff in the background, I placed the headlines and copy into the document and sent it for review.

How the final image looks before I placed it in Quark for the copy and headlines

Here is the final background. You can see what we did to the image to get it ready for the text.

Here is the final ad as it ran in the Volleyball magazines.

Final ad as it ran in 5 different Volleyball magazines and trades

Thanks for coming by. We will have another post on shooting to layout soon. That layout is far more detailed and presents a different set of challenges. Please remember to visit my sponsors BorrowLenses.com, Mighty Imaging, SmugMugPro and MPEX and see you next time.

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Recently I had the pleasure of working with Coni of Glacier Design and her client, Alicia on a big catalog project. It was to be a couple of dozen shots. Most are what I would call a “drop and pop,” or simple product shot. Well, of course nothing is as simple as one thinks it will be. And that challenge is met so much easier when there is some planning and preparation in effect. And that Alicia and Coni had in spades.

We knew it would be a hectic couple of days and we were pushing against a printing deadline. Alicia came with an SUV full of boxes and bag and props. We set up a few tables in on area of the studio and then placed the items in a shoot order. Coni had set a shot list so nothing would be misses so we organized the product in a fashion that would allow us to get and stage the products in some sort of order.

The product is potpourri, scent bottles, gift boxes and reeds. Most of this is pretty simple, but some of the boxes had a cellophane type material over them and that created a bit of a heartburn when trying to kill the reflection, or at least smooth it out a bit, while still maintaining light to the front of the box.

Before we take a look at this shoot, I want to welcome a new sponsor to the LE Site and the Workshops. SmugMug Pro is now a sponsor of the workshops and every attendee will get a one year membership in the SmugMug Pro account. This allows hi res images, hi def video and includes a shopping cart for selling the images you shoot. I am so pleased with their support and even more excited about seeing all the attendees getting a well designed web page with a shopping cart. And we also want to shout out to my other sponsors, BorrowLenses. com and Mighty Imaging. Thanks guys.

Also to remind everyone that the Kansas City workshop is full as is the Dallas and Washington DC workshops. I am hoping to see some of you in Mexico. At this point we only have three openings for Mexico. And don’t worry about the news, we are heading to Rocky Point and it is pretty calm there. Missoula Montana will be a lot of fun and we are thinking about adding a day to that for those who want to miss a day of work and shoot environmental portraits with me.

Let’s get on to the catalog shoot.

We started out with a shoot list and a ton of product. Some of the images needed to be shot on white seamless and some with a more ‘set’ look to them. We chose to shoot the white background stuff first. And there was a reason for that. The drop and pop stuff had to match existing work, so I looked at the catalog they had shot previously and decided on the lighting that would match.

It was also imperative that the light not change drastically between images. These were inserts, headers and full page shots. They should match for this area of the catalog, so we wanted to create something that would be easy to switch between the drop and pops and the still life work.

I took a strip light and placed it over the set and slightly behind the product shoot area. Slightly… like a few inches. I tilted it a bit forward so we could get just a little bit of light to fill the cards in that I knew I would need. This kind of work demands a lot of fill cards.

I also wanted to have a little ‘pop’ from the rear so I added a grid-spot on a medium Norman reflector. I took it behind the set just a little bit and aimed it at the center point of the product. I set this backlight to be 1/2 stop brighter than the main light. This would give me an ‘edge’ to the shots without adding too much of a ‘rim’ look.

Here is the set I used for these shots:

This is the shot diagram for the still life shoots. The drop and pop are minus the background light. The light facing back was to create a little drama behind the shots and not have the background be so ‘flat’.

Our first shot is one we will look at is a potpourri shot. The background was one that Alicia wanted to have a natural, tropical look. While she built it, I worked on the exposure and fill card variations for the glass. Alicia then carefully built the potpourri to make it show as effectively as possible and I did a few last tests. We then added the glass items and checked to see that there wasn’t any strange reflections that would give us trouble later. Lastly we added the candle. Alicia lit the candle only as we were ready to shoot it.

I should note that for these kind of shots, I usually use a tethered approach, shooting straight into the computer. This lets me tweak the looks and also lets me share with the art director and client the EXACT the shot as it comes out of the camera.

The shot below shows how the background has a nice clean look to it because of the small backlight. The gradient actually brings the eye back to the product itself. In this specific shot I moved the backlight to be a little off center so it wouldn’t have that ‘studio product’ look to it. There are cards in front and to the camera left side keeping the fill in check and when you look at the potpourri, you will see a nice highlight on the edges from the backlight Grid-spot.

The image below shows the way glassware holds up with the lighting. The backlight gives a sparkle to it, and the subtle backlight from the grid-spot on the reeds shows how nice a little extra touch to the lighting can render the image. There is a sense of shape to the reeds and and the liquid looks almost sensual. The fill cards surrounding the set keep the shadows at bay and also add a bit of highlight themselves.

This final shot above shows the boxes and the items for a long thin shot at the top of a catalog page. There are carefully placed cards all around the set to provide a nice smooth transition from the lighted sides to the shadow sides. As well, they provide a smooth surface to be reflected back from the product. This pops the color on the boxes as well as keeping the gold printing nice and shiny.

These shots are always a little tricky so be so very careful in the placement of the items. The angle of the boxes have to seem natural, but still show the items as they are meant to be seen. The labels must be straight, the edges of the boxes cannot be damaged, and if they don’t fit exactly tight, use double edged tape to keep them tightly fitted closed.

We lit the candle at the end of the setup phase and I used a long, 2 second exposure to get the candle to look lit. Once the item was focused, we killed the lights, tripped the shutter and waited for the shutter to close before I turned the modeling lights back on. We had to make sure that the candle wasn’t blowing all over the place and we also needed to make sure that the pool of wax wasn’t too much.

Here are two set shots to show the lighting in the real world, so to speak.

For fun, I will share this fun image I posted on Flickr. You can get an idea of the controlled chaos that happens when there are so many ‘moving parts.’ You can see the camera stand I use and the tethered computer and lighting.

EDIT: Here is a graphic with some pages showing the use of the pics I did.

An apology to those who follow this blog. We have been crazy busy lately and doing some reconfiguring after losing the laptop a few weeks ago. And even though everything was indeed backed up, there are still a lot of business things that were an added challenge due to the loss.

But let me tell you that we have a lot of good things coming up.

I promise.

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This post features two shots from this past weeks workshop in Phoenix. My Phoenix Workshops are fairly intimate affairs because I draw smaller groups and my studio is rather intimate as well.

In the first half of Saturday we work on portrait lighting and working with basic lighting setups. We start with one light and work it until we need to add a second light for some reason. Hairlight, more wrap, additional side lighting, 3-point and more are added to the mix.

For these two shots, I used a single light on the subject. The shot of Briana does have a second light for the background but it is not affecting the subject lighting.

Before we get into that… New Workshop dates are being nailed down now. I have some people wanting me to come to the twin-cities, and we are looking into cleaning up that East Coast month. Maybe moving one of the mid-Atlantic dates to a west coast. Montana is a go and so is Chicago. Watch the signup page for a location near you.

So let’s go look at how we can work with one light to create this look. Some of you who are very familiar with this kind of lighting – it is a favorite of mine – may also find some new things as well.

Starting out with the shot of Hayley we will examine the image closely. Here is the image as processed.

Camera: Canon, 100MM 2.8 Macro

The light on Hayley is one strobe on a boom. Over her about 3 feet, and back behind her about 3 feet. The V-Card in front of her is about 3 feet away and wrapping on both sides of her. Camera is aimed through the slot cut in the middle of the V-Card, and we have to check for possible flair.

Here is a lighting diagram:

I call this lighting “Beach Lighting” and it is one of my favorites. I call it beach lighting because it resembles the light I used to shoot under on the West Coast all the time. Bright, very bright, hazy sun and natural reflection from the sand. It can be somewhat contrasty with the hair blowing out a little in order to get that front light correct, but that is OK within the genre.

If you want the light to be a little less on the top of the hair, take a small boom and put a 10″ square flag or scrim directly above the hair… you will see it go dark as you place it in the angle to create a shadow on the hair. Move and adjust to taste. Be sure it isn’t much bigger than 10″ because you don’t want to kill the light on the V-Card in front of her.

There are so many fun ways to change this lighting up. Adding a small light from camera for a catchlight, adding a couple of small lights to each side of the V-Card to give a softer 3-point light and more. Caution… be aware that the light is turned toward the V-card so if you get too close, you can get some considerable flare. Watch for flare, flag it if necessary.

We had finished shooting white on white, and decided to do some black on black. Briana put the black fur (a studio wardrobe staple, and a fake… so now stop hatin’ on me, got it) and a bright turquoise top for a splash of color.

Our main light is a medium (42″) satin white umbrella in bounce mode. It is on a boom and very close to Briana… close enough to use the ‘wrap’ to add light on both sides of her face. Standing behind your model, you will be able to see how the light from the umbrella helps to wrap around the side of the model’s face. If you can see the umbrella from behind her, the side of her face is being lit.

We added a couple of V-Cards on each side of her to further open the shadows, and then put a shiny board under her to add some edge to the fur. Without these close, very close, V-Card fills, the fur would simply have no texture. Adding some bright cards to create speculars on the tiny hairs of the fur was what was needed.

You can see the bright, open shadows this light created under Briana’s chin and eyes. Keeping the eyes bright is one of the concerns I have when lighting. I find I can keep them open and bright by working the light close to the subject.

I wanted to keep the background dark, but also have some gradient to help bring out the texture of the fur. The eye sees the fur and its subtle texture while the background is subtle but smooth in transition.

We chose a small 33″ umbrella with a black back aimed at the black seamless. It is nearly on the floor and mounted on a short “background” stand. Keeping it about a foot from the background allowed a very soft, subtle light-to-dark background light. I tip my umbrella down very slightly when I do this, not wanting too much of the light to wash up the seamless wall.

The last thing we did was take a 12″ by 36″ white reflector and put it over her head at a totally oblique angle… in other words it is vertical to the light and behind her head about 6″. This gives a very subtle, but visible, hair separation light.

We hope you are enjoying Lighting Essentials, and tell your friends. You can sign up for an RSS feed to stay on top of our posts. See top right of the home page. Also, if you like the posts, add them to the social networks you like by clicking the “Save/Share” link at the bottom of this post.

See ya next time.

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One of the ways to separate the subject from the background is to use a spray light. The light creates a ‘halo’ of light to dark behind the subject and helps make a flat background more dynamic. It is a fairly simple technique with a lot of variations possible.

We can do this with all kinds of lights, from speedlights to normal reflectors and beauty dishes. Each can add its own look to the spray, and make it work within the framework of your image.

Before we get to this technique, I would like to let you know we are adding Montana to our workshop schedule this summer. If you are a photographer in Montana / Wyoming area, be watching the site for our Montana workshop date. UPDATE: Montana is June 20 and 21, 2009. Signup is active on the schedule page.

We are also having a pair of advanced workshops in Phoenix in February and March. We will only be taking photographers who are already familiar with lighting tools, but need to step out and get some real experience with models and shoot situations. Limited to only 3 photographers per day, the workshop is fully focused on shooting. We have models for the day, and will be working in studio and on location. Portfolio / Web Site review will be required. See the Learn to Light site for more information on January 26, 2009.

Now… on to some simple ways to create a spray light and a gradient background for your work.

The portrait of Vanessa shows how the background works to create a light-to-dark base for the face and shoulders. The background is behind her about 10 feet. This helps create a dynamic background for the portrait to sit above. The look is far different than a flat background… and keeps the eyes right on our subject.

Keeping the wall 10 feet or so behind her helps blur it from limited DOF. I am shooting here at about f8 at 1/60 at ISO 100. With an 80-200MM L at this distance, the background drops out pretty fast. I am out to about 160-170mm with the lens, so it is quite a telephoto.

Adding a hair light gives a nice shoulder accent. For this shot there is a silver/white ‘Zebra’ over the top of her and slightly back. It creates a nice little accent that is still there even against the bright background gradient. You should really watch this area, because if it the background is too bright, it can kill the separation between the highlight on the shoulder and the spray light.

Marissa is wearing a white shirt in this shot, and it separates fine from the backlight.

The closer the light, the tighter the spread of light. This shot shows the background light at 6″ from the wall.

This close up shows how close the light is actually to the wall. Just about 6″. I think being very careful with the heat is a great idea.

Now we pull the light back about 2″ to 8″ from the wall. Notice the wider spray, and slightly less contrast from center to edge.

Now to 12″ from the wall or background. The light is now very widely spread and there is a soft gradient from center to edge.

The color for the background here is “Thunder Gray.” You can get that color in seamless, and we have our back studio wall painted that color. This technique works best on the grays and darker colors.

One more shot of Marissa here:

This last shot shows how subtle the look can be. We have a hair light on Marissa, and the spray light is adding a dynamic look behind her. The hair seems to be lit, and yet in the corner we can see some dark background to let the blonde stand out.

I like the spray light look. It can be done with far more subtlety than these as well. Photographers like Platon, who shoot a lot of editorial portraiture, depend on variations of this kind of light to provide subtle definition to their subjects.

Try using a Gary Fong diffuser for some softness, or add a few layers of gel for a color. I find that spray lights work well on dark to medium gray backgrounds. Colored seamless, old canvas, walls and wallpaper can also be used to advantage.

If you try this, post a shot or two to the Flickr Lighting Essentials pool and tag it: le_spray_light. I would love to see how some of you take this idea and change it up.

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Well this one is kind of fun. I found this in the archive box and remembered that it was a kinda fun little slide show. This “soundslide” offers a look into how I took a single lighting setup and shot it two ways.

I use a big softbox often when I am working with talent. Michelle is an ice skating choreographer and teacher. She needed some new shots and I wanted to do something a little different.

You can do the same thing with a large scrim and speedlights. Keep the fill cards in tight and watch the ratio between the lit and shadow parts of the face.

BTW, we have upgraded to WP 2.7 and man, is it cool. If you are running a WP Site and haven’t upgraded yet, you really should. It is, as they say, awesome.

But now let’s take a look at how a single setup can create two different shots can be made from the same light setup.

Push the go button and adjust the speakers. That mellifluous tone is yours truly. Hey… I don’t want to hear it. But you do.

I think the SoundSlide Presentation pretty well shows everything you need. Watch for more multimedia coming down the pike here.

Here is the diagram for the lighting used.

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Today’s update is one from the archives, but it is still a great post you will enjoy. Even includes a 16 minute video… bad audio, but you will get the ideas from the shoot. We are doing better audio for our next releases, but this is what it is.

I would like to take a few lines here to discuss the upcoming workshop schedule for next year. We are heading to new places and been invited back to some great places we visited this year. We are always looking for new cities and hosts to help us bring the workshops in. The workshops are very different for next year… and the workbook will be fantastic. Those of you who have taken the workshop will be able to download it from the member’s page as soon as it is finished… before the first of the year.

I also want to say that it has been a memorable year meeting all kinds of new people and making friends in cities far away. I wish I had more time to stay in touch with each and every one of you, but alas… However, if you have questions or want to share your work with us, please hit the Flickr group for Lighting Essentials. This group is for people who have taken the workshop or have the DVD.

Our next couple of Tech Sheets are ready and I think they may surprise you. The one for this Friday is a product shoot with lots of reflective surfaces. We accomplish a lot of finesse with only one light. And you can follow along with your own item and learn a lot about doing small item product photography.

If you haven’t checked out the Magazine in a while, we have big plans for it and it will be getting its own URL very soon. Let me know if you like the interviews and insights, I do like working on it.

Be sure to see the previous post on shooting with two strobes on the beach… Not your typical two strobe setup.

So let’s jump back in time about a year (and 30 pounds for me) ago and take a look at three studio shoots with simple tools.

Here’s the movie: pardon on the ad that pops up – that’s not from me. When we went with Megavideo, they didn’t have this crap… you will have to close the window that pops with the free movies. I am very sorry about this new item they have introduced. I will be moving the movie to a new host very soon… but for now you will be annoyed. Sheesh

This video tutorial starts with a simple one umbrella and fill card headshot. I consider it a classic glamour look with flat light and dramatic fall off on the sides. We use a shiny fill card to open the shadows under the chin, lip, nose and eye sockets. It also lights up the eyes very well to present them in stunning color. Our model is Briana.

Gallery from first setup:

And a sample of the Contact Sheet:

Our second shot finds us using a piece of equipment for the first time. This is essentially one way I test out new equipment this same way: bring in a model and try the light by itself, then add fill and modifiers to see how the light reacts with it. In this case it is Megan’s DIY beauty dish. Amazing… an IKEA light reflector and a speedlight with a little ingenuity and super glue. Total price for this cool tool… > $10. We add fill cards and shiny cards, and I climb up on a small box for a somewhat different view. Below are some images from this setup.

And a Contact Sheet View:

The last shot uses two speedlights: one is the main and in a circular parabolic with tissue paper over it, the second with the home made beauty dish aimed at the background very close to it. This gives a very nice, gradual fall off for a back light. I really liked the look of this and will be doing another shoot with it soon. I have since used this on several shots and loved the look. Very precise modeling of features is its strong point.

Images from the setup above:

And a final Contact Sheet view:

Some PP notes:

I have a pretty standard way of working with pure photography, no special effects and such. For this image I processed it out of Canon software at a solid neutral exposure. I did not color correct it even though the tissue paper did leave a bit of a warm cast on the skin.

1. used healing brush to clear skin. I do this on a layer above the face most of the time.
2. used clone tool – lighten – @25% to further clear skin and problems. On the same layer as above.
3. created a new layer from the image and used the blend mode “soft light” at 25% opacity
4. I added a layer mask to this layer to paint back in some shadow density.
5. added a layer of 50% gray at softlight blend mode and then painted white at 4% for highlights (soft brush). This is a very gradual process and at 4% you can simply tweak it in with increments… not a slash and burn attack… heh.
6. Saved and created a new document from the combined layers. The first document is then saved as an archived base image for further exploration later if I choose.

The new document now has a clean face with perfect exposure. I added a little color correction with the photo filters 80A at 40% to clean some of the warmth up and then added my luminosity layers. These take a while to learn, but after you play with them for a while you will simply never be satisfied without them ever again. Tony Kuyper has them for you here: Please make a donation for all his time and pick them up. You will simply fall in love with them. Or you could do them yourself. Should only take a couple of months… heh.

Here is a screenshot of the Photoshop document with the luminosity masks:

The image has very little Photoshop trickery to it, but it does have some solid photographic background for the correction of blemishes and added contrast.

Hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

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