The Official Photography Thread - Vol. 3

[ecruteakcityboy]

Bought a t3i about a month ago and love it. Im starting to get the hang of it. Been holding back on uploading pics because I still have the kit lens and no tripod, meaning its no where near the picture quality of y'alls pics.

 

[justothegreat]

a lot of good work up here guys. after 10+yrs of lurking/not posting, id figure its time to give back anyway i can. im not a photographer, but am a retoucher, so if any1 has any questions regarding post-production, let me know.

www.justinpaguia.com

i know i put my site up before to give advice, but i finally updated it after 3yrs. i answered a few questions last time on my old sn.

holla

 

[la08native]

Bought a t3i about a month ago and love it. Im starting to get the hang of it. Been holding back on uploading pics because I still have the kit lens and no tripod, meaning its no where near the picture quality of y'alls pics.

Nonsense homie.

Post those pics!

Went to the Observatory... got there too late.

This was shot on ISO 5000... does the quality of the lens ultimately affect the noise production?

Handheld

F 2.5

1/30th

ISO 5000

 

[Fong$tarr]

 

[bigrockford]

Nonsense homie.

Post those pics!



Went to the Observatory... got there too late.

This was shot on ISO 5000... does the quality of the lens ultimately affect the noise production?

Handheld
F 2.5
1/30th
ISO 5000

I like it! Great pics Fong! But what is it with photographers and that bridge? No hate, but I feel like I have seen that bridge more than people who live there lol

 

[Fong$tarr]

^^^^^To give myself some sort of credit, that was actually the first time I've been up there and I've been living in SF for almost 5 years now. Don't get me wrong cause I did feel like I was doing something that millions have done and I didn't feel that there was anything creative out of it but I had a extra day on a car rental (I don't have a car) and took advantage of going there just for the hell of it on a Monday. The worst part of all that I hope no one notices is that I had to clone tool the hell out of each photo cause my sensor literally had tons of lint in it. It looked like a bunch of small pubic hairs. I have no idea how all that got in there but I am assuming its from just shooting in the cold nights at some places I have been at. I just bought some sensor cleaner at a local camera shop ($35!!!!!), so hopefully I can take care of that later.

Also scratched my Mark 2 finally. Huge gash on the top of the body! Man...I was throwing a hissy fit the other day.

 

[ecruteakcityboy]

 

[bjamez20]

030 by bjamez20, on Flickr

 

[dunksrnice]

Last night.



ore on my blog as always - www.dunksrnice.net

 

[benssick]

Work

 

[fived]

Messing around in Lightroom

 

[adobo]

a lot of good work up here guys. after 10+yrs of lurking/not posting, id figure its time to give back anyway i can. im not a photographer, but am a retoucher, so if any1 has any questions regarding post-production, let me know.

www.justinpaguia.com

i know i put my site up before to give advice, but i finally updated it after 3yrs. i answered a few questions last time on my old sn.

holla

repped

 

[la08native]

a lot of good work up here guys. after 10+yrs of lurking/not posting, id figure its time to give back anyway i can. im not a photographer, but am a retoucher, so if any1 has any questions regarding post-production, let me know.

www.justinpaguia.com

i know i put my site up before to give advice, but i finally updated it after 3yrs. i answered a few questions last time on my old sn.

holla

The slider function on the before and after pictures is real cool!

 

[Fong$tarr]

justothegreat......what programs do you use for post production? Is it a combination of photoshop and other programs? And are most of your post production work really artificial? Like do you always go to that point in each photo where when you touch it up, you end up pretty much making a false scenario? I noticed the car pic on your site and wondered if you just blended a different background with the car. From my understanding with just general post production with photos, you don’t want to go into that much touching up but with advertising, I guess it is suggested.

 

[justothegreat]

sup fong,

nah, its all straight up photoshop. theres still a lot of retouching involved with big budget campaigns. the car photogs i work with shoot every angle of the car plus light it all differently. my job is to piece it together like a collage, then add a "look/mood" to the image. there are times where we use CGI into shots at the studio i work for. matter of fact, the honda crv rear shot was all cgi. i had to add that "atmospher/mood". when our cgi team delivers files, it looks grey and bland. i have to add the pop to it. does that answer your question?

justo

edit* i also use capture1 to process raw files photogs give me, but thats about it.

 

[Fong$tarr]

CGI as in people using that program called Maya?

So say for this photo, what was the general process for it? Was the gun and chips rendered in a computer or was that just another bunch of photos and you just photoshopped them in? Also how much layers of editing do you mostly do? Is it just the typical photo adjustments liek curve, saturation, etc or is there something else you are doing aside from that? Sorry for all the questions. Just curious cause I feel like my PS knowlege is somewhat limited from what I already know from masking layers to just typical airbrushing. Thanks.

 

[bigrockford]

I used this and then the Clean Sensor tool on my camera and the specks are gone! justothegreat did you make the website yourself? It looks nice. Did you go to school for graphic design or something? I only ask because I was wondering how you get a retouching job.


Rocket Blower by Wills Lost Camera, on Flickr

 

[justothegreat]

CGI as in people using that program called Maya?

So say for this photo, what was the general process for it? Was the gun and chips rendered in a computer or was that just another bunch of photos and you just photoshopped them in? Also how much layers of editing do you mostly do? Is it just the typical photo adjustments liek curve, saturation, etc or is there something else you are doing aside from that? Sorry for all the questions. Just curious cause I feel like my PS knowlege is somewhat limited from what I already know from masking layers to just typical airbrushing. Thanks.

 

yup CGI using maya, but im not sure if my companies CGI team uses any other software.

for that picture you posted actually contained no cgi. the chips and cards were shot separately, an assistant threw them in the air and the photog shot it. for the gun, i actually had to fake. i have a background in illustration as well, so to pull this off i did these steps:

1. cut out the top of the gun only, put it on its own layer, then move it back so its firing

2. i had to clone out the original barrel, so i used the clone tool to add more wall.

3. googled images of gun firing for reference, im not familiar with guns so i had to see what moved and what stayed

4. drew/painted in the barrel and rod...not sure what theyre called

5. added motion blur to the top so it looks like its firing.

as for color, i use a lot of curves, color balance, hue/sat sometimes even levels. its more about training your eye for color then anything else i would say. when to stop adding contrast or what colors compliment each other. 

the amount of layers i use depends on the image, it can range from 20 to up to 200+. it sounds scary, but if you know how to organize and put layers into folders, its not so bad.

dont worry about all the questions, thats what im here for.

 

[justothegreat]

I used this and then the Clean Sensor tool on my camera and the specks are gone! justothegreat did you make the website yourself? It looks nice. Did you go to school for graphic design or something? I only ask because I was wondering how you get a retouching job.


Rocket Blower by Wills Lost Camera, on Flickr

sup bigrockford.

haha id be lying if i said i did my site. my previous site i did using dreamweaver, but since it was 3 years ago, i completely forgot what to do. instead, i bought a theme from themeforest.com for wordpress and modified it. a lot easier then relearning everything all over again.

i went to school of visual arts, minored in illustration and majored in advertising. i got into retouching my accident. for my senior year, i took an advanced photoshop class to fine tune, but ended up being cool with the professor and he got me an internship at a photography studio. i just excelled at it and once i graduated, the photography studio hired me fulltime. from there, i made more contacts, went from the photo studio to doing catalog, which helped me learn more about color in cmyk, then did more freelance to expand my book. once i was confident enough in my book, i just emailed a lot of retouching studios asking for work. i went on a lot of interviews and have been turned down a lot, but i just kept pushing.

 

[yanky]

Justothegreat that retouching of the 599gto is amazing. Can I ask how you accomplished that? I'm guessing you had the background saved from a previous shot?

 

[Fong$tarr]

yup CGI using maya, but im not sure if my companies CGI team uses any other software.

for that picture you posted actually contained no cgi. the chips and cards were shot separately, an assistant threw them in the air and the photog shot it. for the gun, i actually had to fake. i have a background in illustration as well, so to pull this off i did these steps:

1. cut out the top of the gun only, put it on its own layer, then move it back so its firing
2. i had to clone out the original barrel, so i used the clone tool to add more wall.
3. googled images of gun firing for reference, im not familiar with guns so i had to see what moved and what stayed
4. drew/painted in the barrel and rod...not sure what theyre called
5. added motion blur to the top so it looks like its firing.

as for color, i use a lot of curves, color balance, hue/sat sometimes even levels. its more about training your eye for color then anything else i would say. when to stop adding contrast or what colors compliment each other. 

the amount of layers i use depends on the image, it can range from 20 to up to 200+. it sounds scary, but if you know how to organize and put layers into folders, its not so bad.

dont worry about all the questions, thats what im here for.

Good stuff. I guess you put in some serious work in these photos. I am actually going to post process a photo like that when I get the chance. Just to see even how my PS skills are. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[justothegreat]

Justothegreat that retouching of the 599gto is amazing. Can I ask how you accomplished that? I'm guessing you had the background saved from a previous shot?

thanks homie. for the gto, i always ask/tell photogs that whenever they shoot, always shoot background elements or anything else that might be useful for a later shoot. i have a folder full of skies, clouds, beaches, sun flares, etc to use in cases like this. i put in a better looking sky, while adding in a lens/sun flare in the top right corner. for the car, the photog only had a limited time and couldnt shoot/light for each angle. he lit the car overall, and had trust in me. if youre familiar with the pen tool in photoshop, i used that to follow the lines of the car. once i had selections made, i either lightened or darkened certain parts using curves adjustments to get contrast on the body. after that i just gave it an overall cyan tone for a cool atmosphere.

 

[justothegreat]

Good stuff. I guess you put in some serious work in these photos. I am actually going to post process a photo like that when I get the chance. Just to see even how my PS skills are. Thanks for the explanation.

hey dude, contact me anytime for any critiques.

 

[yanky]

DSC_0822 by Yanky4585, on Flickr

 

[la08native]

Just Juan.