Monday Night Light Recap - Output Action

Enjoy!  Any questions, comments, or concerns shoot me an email Hal@Lightworkshops.com

Fiat Lux!

In the Vineyard with JWu!

Canon Explorer of Light Jennifer Wu

Jennifer Wu demonstrating fill flash for landscape and macro purposes last night in the vineyards of Paso Robles, CA.  We spent late afternoon and evening in the vineyards shooting the soon to be harvested Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, vines, and rolling hills. 

As Jennifer was demonstrating the flash I was executing.  I attempted to overpower the setting sun with a Canon 580 EX II and a Hanson Fong skin glow card.

We just returned from another 5 hours of shooting this AM.  The weather cooperated beautifully as we shot and watched the fog roll in below us.  More shots up soon.

Fiat Lux!

Fogbow!

Canon EOS 5D Mk II, Handheld, 3 shot stitched pano

The often talked about but rarely seen fogbow appeared today in Los Osos' Montana de Oro.  Pictured is Canon Explorer of Light Jennifer Wu shooting the fogbow. 

Up this morning at 5ish to shoot sunrise and then chased the light and fog around Los Osos.  Good living.

Fiat Lux!

Late Friday Post

Good day here at Light.  Jennifer Wu is leading a Canon Field Photography course around the Central Coast.  We worked in the lab for most of the afternoon becoming a little more familiar with our cameras and prepping to shoot. 

The moody atmosphere just begged for some B&W treatment.

Canon EOS 5D, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, Induro C213, and RRS BH-55

Lightroom, Photomatix Pro, Photoshop, and Topaz Detail

Will most likely reduce the contrast tomorrow :)

We spent a few hours on the beach north of Cayucos working some of the day's lessons.  The fog did not cooperate with us so most of the time was relatively low contrast and moody, but fun nonetheless.

From a different angle color jumped nicely.

Canon EOS 5D, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, Induro C213, and RRS BH-55

Lightroom, Photoshop, and Topaz Adjust

We'll be up early tomorrow to catch sunrise and then off to a few more spots in and around Los Osos.

Fiat Lux!

Monday Night Light Link and Wacom Winner

Click the following link to register for the best free hour of live, online training anywhere, Monday Night Light with Hal Schmitt.  Come join us Monday 28 September from 6:30-7:30 PM PDT.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/651978768


Thank you for the huge attendance at last week's Wacom session.  The winner of the free Wacom Intuos 4 tablet is Kay P. from San Luis Obispo, CA.  Light staff will be in touch today!

Congratulations to Kay and thank you to all participants.  Wacom will have the demo DVDs out shortly.

Fiat Lux!

Some of Today's Maternity Shots

Interpretation #1

Interpretation #2

In the studio today with a very pregnant (9+ months) woman shooting some maternity shots.  It was a great day as I had recently set up a Profoto D1 Air system at Light.  We shot and created for about five hours and ended up with some fun shots.  Whether classic or very artistic the entire process was simple with a tremendous model and the right equipment. 

I am not sure how I worked the studio before the D1 Air.  For those who have never used the system, a proprietary wireless system controls all of the studio lights from a simple remote.  I did not have to touch the controls on any of the generators the whole day (a huge benefit especially for the overhead hair light I have mounted eight feet in the air.) 

Tomorrow Canon and Light are sponsoring a talk in San Luis Obispo with Explorer of Light, Jennifer Wu.  Still time to sign up or just meet us at the Monday Club in SLO.

Fiat Lux!

Great American Fish Company - Morro Bay, CA

The image above is from our recent HDR Intensive course.  The almost final product is a combination of many images, programs, and plug ins. 

I shot the scene with a Canon 5D Mk II, EF 17-40mm f/4L, Induro C213, and Really Right Stuff BH-55.  I used the restaurant as a demo for the class and automating the bracket process.  The bread and butter shooting sequence typically calls for three shots of 0, -2, and +2 EV.  This did not work for the restaurant as the shadows needed more light than the +2 EV provided.  I modified the exposure compensation to shoot another series of three shots yielding sufficient exposure of the shadows below the pilings and deck.  Lightroom imported the six shots and I removed one of them before preparing them for the virtual TIFF export to Photomatix Pro. 

In Photomatix Pro I processed twice, once for realism and once for hyper reality.  Both results are shown below.

After reimporting to Lightroom via the plug in, I sent the two shots to Photoshop and created a stack.  I modified the layer blend mode of the hyper realistic interpretation and did a little retouch work.  I stamped the visible layer and then launched Topaz Detail to generate a little extra sharpening for content. 

Back in Lightroom I modified saturation and also did some painting with light using the Adjustment Brush.

On a different note, we'll be announcing two big 2010 projects later this afternoon.

Fiat Lux!