MAKING DEPTH OF FIELD HAPPEN

I am home now from Italy, and it's time to work on my images in Photoshop. Besides simply processing the RAW files, I look for composite material that will allow me to come up with images unlike anyone else has. There are lots of photographers at carnival in Venice, and I like to create images that are unique to my own way of seeing things.

I photographed this very unusual model on Burano Island, but because I was so close to her -- the camera was about 15 inches from the mask -- the background wasn't in focus. I could have used a tripod and f/32, but with so many other people who wanted to photograph her from this bridge, I just didn't have that luxury to spread the legs of a tripod. Therefore, there was only one way to do it.

I took two pictures. I first focused on the model and took the picture, and then I re-focused on the background and took the second image of the colorful houses and the canal. I then used Photoshop to put the sharp background behind the model.

To do this, I used the pen tool in CS4 (this tool is not available in Elements, and for those of you who use Elements the lasso tool can be used instead of the pen tool to precisely cut out subjects). The pen tool is the most exacting method to select any subject. Many people are intimidated by this tool, but it's quite easy to use. It simply allows you to lay down a line of dots around the subject. I work at 300% and place the dots precisely where I want them. When you complete the 'circuit', click on the paths palette and then in the upper right corner of that palette use the small tab to pull down a submenu and find 'make selection'. In the dialog box that opens, I chose one pixel as the feather radius and clicked OK. The model was now selected, and at this point it was a simple matter to paste the background in.

Finally, I pasted in some stormy clouds to replace a boring and distracting white sky. The sky was perfect to provide soft and diffused lighting on the model, but it didn't look good as part of the background.

Note the eyes of the model. She was wearing pink contact lenses. It looked truly incredible, and I feel it adds mystery and intrigue to the picture.

PHOTOSHOP COMPOSITE AT CARNIVAL

My favorite image so far of this photo workshop in Venice is the composite I created
of a costumed model in a palace. I obtained special permission to bring our group into a 17th century palace for a two hour photo session, and unlike last year where I did some HDR, this time I photographed various paintings and wall panels for backgrounds. I cut and pasted one of them behind the model you see here, and I was very pleased by the result. I used the pen tool to carefully cut around the sofa and the model, taking extreme care (at 400% magnification) to cut around the feathers in the headdress. I think the lighting is especially interesting with the tungsten sconces on the wall and the main light coming from a large bank of leaded glass windows.

WHITE BALANCE CHOICE AT CARNIVAL

I shoot all of my outdoor images with a daylight white balance. Because I shoot in RAW (as you should be doing), the color balance of the images can be tweaked in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) or Lightroom later if I'm not pleased with what the daylight WB gives me. However, I find that most of the time I like the color. In deep shade when I shoot under an overhang such as the corridor of arches at the Doge's Palace in San Marco Square in Venice, the pictures tend to be a bit bluish. I could choose 'cloudy' WB to eliminate that, but sometimes I like a cool color cast. So, I use daylight WB and then decide how to tweak the color after-the-fact in post processing.


As much as I like using a wide angle lens, it's great to come in tight on the amazing masks and the color that surrounds them. Care must be taken, though, that the depth of field is not too shallow. I don't think out of focus details in these costumed models look good. Therefore, I was using between 400 to 800 ISO in the low light of early morning, and then as it got brighter I was able to shoot the images at 200 to 400. This gave me enough depth of field to keep the important parts of the composition sharp.


Even though I like the golden lighting of sunrise and sunset, overcast conditions produce extremely soft and very flattering light. The contrast is low and the colors turn out to be much more brilliant than you'd expect. It's my favorite type of light for outdoor portraiture of any kind -- kids, animals, families, and costumed models at carnival.

OFF-CAMERA FLASH

My photography group and I photographed at dawn today. Surprisingly, there are quite a few costumed people already waiting for photographers. It's dark, of course, and the choice we have to get sharp, well-exposed pictures is either to use a long exposure on a tripod or a flash. I experimented with off-camera flash to illuminate some of the wonderful Venetian costumes, and I explained to several people in the group why this type of lighting is so much better than on-camera flash.



To do this, I mounted a transmitter on the camera and had one of the members in my group hold the flash off to the side. To get the kind of lighting you see in these images, the flash was held at angles from 45 to 90 degrees to the lens axis. That gave me the dramatic light on the models that shows so much dimension and depth.



I set my camera on Program and the flash on ETTL. This is an automatic exposure mode. To assess the lighting, I would take a picture and then study the exposure and the way the shadows and highlights fell on the mask and costume, and then I adjusted accordingly. I used the exposure compensation feature on my Canon 580EX flash to vary the exposure until I liked the results. I loaned the transmitter to several of the photo students so they could get the same pictures, and they were all thrilled with the results.

CARNIVAL IN VENICE 2010

I am in Venice, Italy right now conducting a photo workshop during carnival. As usual, my blood pressure at least doubles or triples because of the amazing color, the brilliant and creative costuming, and the classic backgrounds that this medieval city has to offer. It's an incredible high to be here and to see such a wonderful event.



My photo group shot today on Borano Island, which is famous for it's colorful houses, and I demonstrated how ultra-dramatic a wide angle lens is for portraiture. I used my 14mm lens quite a bit and photographed very close to several of the models. That's the key to creating visual impact with a wide angle -- get close.



Later in the day we shot in a 17th century palace and again I used my wide angle lens to capture the ambiance of the place with a beautiful model. It was a special day, and everyone in my group got incredible images.

I will upload more photos tomorrow.

DEALING WITH TERRIBLE BACKGROUNDS

When I led a photo tour to Turkey last October, we had an evening photographing the famous Whirling Dervishes. The men dress in white while female Dervishes are in color. The normal room in which they perform is beautiful, but this particular evening it wasn't available. Instead, we were stuck with another room that was less than ideal. In addition, there was scaffolding in it so workers could do some maintenance of the high ceiling. The dancers performed right in front of the metal scaffolding. I was very disappointed because, to be honest, the background looked pretty bad.



The only approach was to abstract the background. This is what I explained to the people in my group. We blurred and zoomed the background as the dancers performed, and I also took individual shots of windows and door frames as I zoomed my medium telephoto lens during the hand-held exposures of 1/2 and 1/4 second. As it turned out, the resulting abstracts looked great behind the dancers. I love turning a negative experience into a positive one.

Photographers face challenges of all sorts. Much of the time there are solutions either photographically or within Photoshop to fix the problem. In this case, I used both.