Theme Ideas?

I really want to do a shoot that has an Alice and Wonderland feel to it.  I want some ideas of some props, backgrounds, etc.  Anyone?

Test Shots

So Here is my first attempt was using the SB-900 and the umbrella (which blew over in the wind...yeah, not a wise decision. LOL)  This was off to the right of the camera.  I set it on manual and adjusted the light up and down.







This is the second one, where I used the 900 with the softbox off to the right of the subject and a direct light from the sb-28 to the lower left of the subject that was adjusted down a lot so it wouldn't put out too much light.








This one, I was able to get the look I was wanting (finally) *claps happily*
I put the SB900 with the softbox on manual, used a higher setting on the flash so it gave off  more light, brought it close to the subject and pushed up my aperture.  This gave it the affect that made the background look darker.

Lighting Equipment

Okay so I get the equipment, after months and I do mean months of saving.  Here is what I have:

Off-camera flash: SB-900 (which is awesome by the way) and a SB-28 (older flash unit, but works great and cheaper)

Light stands and attachments for the flash units that hold the flash and umbrella called a umbrella adapter (see right), which you can go to any camera shop and buy them and they are around 20 to 30 dollars.
Two umbrellas and one Lumiquest soft-box

Trigger:  Okay so everyone talks about Pocket Wizards, but man, they are way too much money, so I got some off brand from Japan, and they work great.  I think I spent $36 and got three receivers and one trigger off of Ebay.  Its called Yonguno Digital, CTR-301P.  Now you can use your camera to trigger your flashes with the built-in flash, but it is too difficult, especially when you are not in the line of sight of the infrared.

Lighting

redwood forest Originally uploaded by jwlphotography

I admit, I am obsessed. I spend hours on flickr a day....I know, I know, crazy! Although I think I was obsessed before, I really became obsessed when I stumbled onto a photographers blog and saw his amazing photographs and I wanted to learn how to get the same look. This was one of my favorites. Although JWL photography (You so have to check out his blog, he has to be the expert on lighting! love, love, love his work...wait did I say love his work yet?) seems to do a lot of special effects too (which I hope to learn someday, that will be my next obsession), I wanted to learn the lighting first.


Test Run:
Okay, as I try to perfect this lighting thing, I will share with you my journey. For all of you in the same boat, you have to check out Strobist, That is the place to go to learn how to do off camera flash. My problem was actually doing it, so here we go, lets look at some test run, trial and error over the next few post.

Getting perfect skin in photoshop using Topaz Detail

Use a Duplicate layer



Open a layer mask


click back to your duplicate layer


Open Topaz Detail 2 under filers (http://www.topazlabs.com/detail/)


Click on soft looking and click ok

Click back to your layer mask and use your brush on the color black to bring back the detail in what you do not want soft like the eyes.

Then go to layers an flatten when done.


Use Clone and healing brush to take out any other unwanted details in the face and the rest of the photo.



Use the Photo filter in your layers menu as shown, adjust opacity to your liking.


Flatten the image when done.



Increase saturation of any color you may want to stand out more like the blue in the back by going to replace color under image menu

Select the color and increase saturation.

And you are done

Different Textures To Download for Free

I made these in Photoshop.

DIRECTIONS: Click on which one you want, right click, than upload to photoshop, drag to the picture you want it in, In the layers box, put the texture layer to overlay, adjust opacity to liking in the layers box, than flatten.

How to make the eyes brighter in Photoshop

1. Make a duplicate layer under the layers tab.
2. Burn: move down to 10% under shadows and burn the dark part of the outside ring around the eye.
3. Dodge: the color part of the eye.
4. Select the eye and under filters hit "sharpen more" once
5. under image, go to adjustments, replace color, select the color of the eye that you want to enhance and increase the saturation.
6. Adjust opacity on the layer to your liking and flatten image.