Vintage/Retro Photo Post Processing Tutorial
I recently went down to Jacksonville, FL for a trip to house hunt because I will be moving there with my family mid September this year. While I was there I had the pleasure to meet up with a buddy of mine in Sebastian, Brian Storey (please check his work out; I can’t say enough about his skills). He made a few phone calls and was able to line up two models for both us to shoot, Taylor and Emily. I had a lot of fun and can't wait till I move in down there.
After posting some of Emily's photos, I was getting a lot of people asking me how I processed the photos. Although, not every one of her photos was processed like this exact tutorial. I will help explain how I did two of my favorite images from her session. I like to process a lot of my photos with a vintage/retro/old poloraid feel to them. I enjoy that style, and I feel it helps convey certain moods in photographs. Without this type of processing there would of been nothing exciting about the image. The original image is fine SOOC (straight out of camera), but the mood is created by the tones and final post-processing I did to it. Not every photo will come out like the end result in this tutorial. A lot of factors depend on how the end result will look. For example how well the original image was strobed, your scene, and original tones in the image.
You need a well lit image to begin with. It doesn't matter how good your post-processing skills are, you will need a good SOOC shot to begin this process. A lot of people don't understand the importance of lighting in your image (this is whole other topic). If your image isn't well lit, your image is broken. Always think ahead when you are on a shoot for how you think you will be processing the photo. This will help with model placement, poses, lighting, and other things to make your post-process (PP) easier and quicker. My workflow is always Camera>Lightroom>Photoshop. I split my editing almost equally between lightroom and photoshop now, but that also depends on the type of photo concept I am working on.
Here is my original image. It is a good exposure and I'm happy with it, but the mood just isn't complete.
Online Poster Printing Giveaway!
Online Poster Printing Giveaway
Online Poster Printing and I have teamed up to offer you a great opportunity to win a poster print for FREE!
Online Poster Printing is offering this prize up to one lucky winner. Check out the details below on how to get a chance to win this cool prize!
About OnlinePosterPrinting.com
Online Poster Printing is all about combining great quality prints with outstanding service! Powered by a brand new fleet of HP 9000 digital printers and a well trained team of printing experts, they are equipped to offer their customers the best in large format printing. They strive to keep our company on the cutting edge of printing technology. Who else can offer you a 1-Day Turnaround on rolled prints, competitive low prices and an astounding Money Back Guarantee to ensure your satisfaction?
Their goal is to provide outstanding customer service and amazing prints at an affordable price! They believe in professional quality printing that shouldn’t cost a fortune.
Prize
18" x 24" Rolled Poster
- High Gloss
- 18" x 24"
How to Enter
- Leave a comment below describing how you would use this free poster print.
- *(optional) ReTweet this post on your twitter account with the following text ...
RT @rohixx: Enter to win a Free 18x24 Poster Print - http://bit.ly/bpFoHz
Rules
- Specifications: 1 Business Day Turnaround
- Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
- Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only. You must be 18 years of age or older to be eligible for this giveaway.
- Entrants must specify a valid/working e-mail address in order to be contacted for their prize.
- This contest ends on May 11th, 2010. Only entries up to this date will be accepted for the giveaway.
- The winner will be notified on May 14th, 2010.
*Contest is now closed.* - 5/11/10
Molly Menard Shoot
I recently had a chance to hang out with Molly, who is a local model (sort of). She is one of those girls that will model for anyone, but doesn't like to boast about it. She has done some work with me, C.T. Pham, and i recently found out she has had work with Abercrombie and Fitch advertising. Molly knows she's very pretty and could easily jump start a modeling career, but has other priorities in life.
This session wasn't something I scheduled, nor was it really something specific I wanted. We were just hanging out, and there was some stellar natural light coming in from my window. She had my awesome shades on and decided to bounce around like a lunatic on my bed. I saw the fun in this, and immediately knew this would be a great photographic opportunity to show her personality.
Case Study of the Amanda Photo Composite
This will help show illustrate the process I went through to create Amanda's Photo Composite.
Here are the stock images that were used or partly used somewhere within the photo.
Canon 5dmk2 EG-S Focusing Screen Review
I recently bought the EG-S Super Precision Matte Focusing Screen for my 5dmk2. I love to shoot wide open on my lenses, and currently I own all primes that come in lower than recommended f/stop range for this screen. The 50mm f/1.4 and the 85L f/1.2 MK2. If this is your first time hearing of this focusing screen I will go through a brief description of it below.
What is the EG-S screen?
(as Ken Rockwell explains)
These precision surfaces simulate ground glass and greatly increase brightness for f/2.8 and slower zoom lenses so popular today. They are designed to be bright and contrasty with these slow lenses.
Oddly, these modern screens get no brighter when you're using a lens faster than f/2.8. Try it: put on an f/1.8 or other fast fixed lens and flick the depth of field button. You'll see no change in anything until you stop down to about f/2.5!
Photographer’s Social Network: Shuttrr
I recently received an invitation to join the new photographer's social network, Shuttrr. It is currently in BETA mode and is allowing members by invitation only. If you want an invitation leave a comment below and I will send you the code.
It has a lot of features facebook has, but yet is catered to photographers. It is not an exact copy of facebook, but contains some base features that has made facebook popular and unique.
Below is a screen shot of what shuttrr looks like after you log in on the homepage.
If you are a photographer, I suggest checking this site out. It is fun and a great way to meet and network with fellow photographers!
SHUTTRR.com
Case Study of the Trevor Stinson Firefighter Photo
Below is a small case study put together to show the process of how I came about the firefighter photo of Trevor Stinson.
This was shot for the Monticello (Indiana) Fire Department Calendar that I am currently finishing up. It was originally scheduled as a 2010 calendar, but I think it might end up being their 2011 version.
Case Study
Final Image
Trevor Stinson: Monticello Fire Department
My New Business Cards
Received my new business cards today.
Uprinting.com was kind enough to send me 250 free business cards of my choice. Huge thanks goes out to Rachel in the customer service department that put up with my multiple emails, letting me have the 250 free prints, and getting the job paid for me. Much love.
I choose the uv-gloss and rounded die-cut corners. Came out perfect and printed exactly how i proofed them. Took a little while to get here because the proofs were approved just before Thanksgiving, but all in all Uprinting.com gets a big thumbs up from me! Will do business with in the future.
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- Print of the business cards
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- Finished Business Cards
Case Study: MFD 2010 Calendar
Case Study
Client: Monticello Fire Department – 2010 Calendar
Photographer: Ryan O. Hicks (me)
Model: Matt Schroeder
Strobist Settings:
Canon 5d2
50mm f/1.4
1/200s - f/5.6 - ISO200 - 50mm
580ex2 shot into 28” Apollo Wescott softbox camera left
Click to enlarge images.
Devising your own Freelance Contracts
Recently I read the article posted by the graphic designer Brian Hoff, “What to Include In Your Design Contracts”. He has some excellent information and I highly recommend you stop by for a visit and read through the article (and subscribe to his RSS feed if you haven’t). I am going to expand on his article a little bit, and his will set the base for what I am about to touch on below.
I would like to give some insight on how I devise my contracts. This will probably be more catered to the photography side, but you can take this and twist this to other areas of the design world. We will be putting together a basic contract for a photo shoot. Now I must use this time to make my disclaimer, as I am not a lawyer and I have limited legal knowledge when it comes to offering advice about contracts. I have read books, I have hundreds of copies of different kinds of contracts saved on CDs, and even took a law class last year, but that still does not make me an expert on the subject. Everyone should seek proper legal advice about his or her contracts if you plan to get serious about freelancing, and you cannot hold me liable if you plan to use anything in this article for a contract. I have pieced together my contracts from numerous sources of information and advice given to me from other individuals.
This contract contains everything in a single form from the description of the assignment with an estimate of the photographer’s fees, terms and conditions, and defined terms. Below each section contains a sample in .pdf form that you can click on and download.
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Shared 2 photos.
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BOOM! Finally received my OTA Android 2.2 update this morning on the DI. Thanks VZW. [rohixx]
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Designers, what's more logical to you. Using your logo wrapped N a <H1> tag or using the H1 tag as intended as headline content 4 each page? [rohixx]
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Tweets 2000 Free Photoshop Patterns http://bit.ly/cu0rfw [rohixx]
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I want to date a girl just so I can break up with her and get practice. [rohixx]
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For all my tweeps http://bit.ly/dDc2fW [rohixx]
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