#505 -- Compositing #1

I have to admit that I've always been interested in compositing -- blending two images together ... using Photoshop to try and tone and blend them so it's a believable merger. When I was shooting Alyssa in late December we started talking about space, and I remembered I had downloaded some high res space imagery from NASA's hubble telescope. The image above was shot on a white background, so the blending was pretty simple. And some of the new features in masking and refining masks in Photoshop made the task relatively simple. Image of Alyssa: 1/60 sec at f/8, two SB800s providing some rim light, main light is an SB800 in a Westcott Rapid Box. Some warm, magenta overlays were added in post to help blend the composite.

#504 -- High Speed Sync with the Pocket Wizard Flex and Mini

During my shoot with Alyssa, I wanted to try out some new Pocket Wizard Flex and Mini triggers I got recently. These were shot in my back yard with a shallow depth of field, using high speed sync. 1/2000 sec at f/1.8, 85mm, ISO 200, light from an SB800 in the Wescott Rapid Box from camera right.

#503 -- Blue Umbrella

Normally during the week between Christmas and New Years I try and do a few test shoots with new gear and some different techniques. The photo above of my second cousin Alyssa was taken last weekend. Tried out a couple of new things. First, the background is a Westcott 7 foot parabolic umbrella -- decided since it was so large it might make a decent and interesting background, so I set up three flashes firing into it, all with Roscoe Blue Bell gels. Main light was an SB800 in a Westcott 26" Rapid Box boomed overhead on a C-stand. Just below the camera frame Alyssa is holding a DIY beauty reflector that I made from three silver cake platters from Party City. Ended up not getting the intense blue that I wanted for the background, so eventually shifted the white balance to 4000 K manually (making the entire scene more blue) and putting a 1/2 cut CTO gel on the main light (which brought back the main light to more of a neutral skin tone on Alyssa). If you're interested here's the lighting diagram.