I couldn't resist!

Sorry for the delay in posting--it's been a busy few weeks.

I was supposed to be there as lighting director and a support to my new student who was making her debut behind the camera. Luna was doing an anthropology project for a class at the University of Hawaii when she contacted me. She was to explore the culture of a field that was unknown--but of interest to her. She wanted to explore fashion photography. She assisted me on a few shoots and took a bunch of notes, but I felt that she needed to actually conduct a shoot for the project to be valid.

Luna took on the challenge and set out to find her first model. She found Esther. Esther was indeed very pretty, but she was as much of a novice at modeling as Luna was at professional photography. Hmmmm...new photographer working with a new model...could be a recipe for disaster!


It wasn't! Esther was a great sport as I made Luna make the tough decisions about the lighting (with a little guidance) and as she built the set. Luna did NOT make the classic first time photographer mistake--she did not freeze and take way too long between shots. She kept shooting and directing Esther (with some whispered directions from yours truly).

I may have helped more than the usual assistant, but it was definitely Luna's shoot--she determined the lighting components and took on the task of directing a new model. Esther was great too. She was goood fun and was easy to work with. I think that it was a great success for both ladies.

Oh yeah, I was looking through the viewfinder at one point and Esther was in what looked like a very natural pose. Instinct took over (I've been pushing the shutter when a pretty girl is in front of my camera for thirty years, so I just starting shooting!) and I grabbed about 8 shots. The photograph of Esther that leads this story was one of them!

Liquify Filter

Sorry, this one’s being posted in multiple places because it’s a great technique. There is an incredibly wonderful filter at the top of the filter drop down menu called “Liquify.” You need to play with this tool if you haven't discovered it yet. Eddie Tapp introduced it to me several years ago and I quite frankly forgot about it. I ‘re-discovered” it this year and it as become once of my favorite retouching tools. It works by moving pixels around in some unusual ways. The filter has several tools to choose from. The two that I use most often are the forward warp and pucker tools. There are others like “bloat” and “swirl,” but I don’t have much use for them yet. You can also mask off areas that you do not want the tools to effect.

When and how do I use these tools? EVERY model will have a shot where the pose is great and the expression is terrific, but the body position creates a “roll” of skin that looks very unflattering and makes her look heavier than she is. I use the forward warp tool to push that roll of skin back where it belongs...and ”voila!” she is back in the shape that actually represents her body! I use the hash mark in the center of the brush as my start point to push the pixels.

I have every model “arch their back and suck in the bely.” It creates a flattering pose. I shoot fast and sometimes I catch a shot where she relaxed--or the angle extends her belly a little too much. The Pucker tool does a great job of tightening a loose stomach.

I mostly use the forward warp tool to open a model’s eyes a little. Sometimes a model will have a lazy eye where one will appear more closed than the other. While this is a natural phenomena that occurs to a degree in almost every photograph, sometimes it can be too distracting. Other times you’ll have a great model who gives you a wonderful expression but in doing so closes her eyes too much. This was the case in the photos below. Joanne Guillermo is a lot of fun to work with. She is a beautiful model with many very natural expressions. The smile in these photos is real and genuine, but in doing so her eyes wound up squinting a little too much. I opened her eyes by VERY gently using the Forward Warp tool in the Liquify Filter. The cropped versions of this commercial shot show the before and after results of using this tool.



















You need to use these tools with caution because they are very powerful and you can easily get an unnatural looking distortion. You can “Undo” one step, but as far as I’ve seen there is no History trail to revert to--you have to start over if you go to far and are beyond a single step mistake. Play with the controls on the right side of the dialog box to find the settings that work for you.

Photohop stuff

Anyone using Adobe Photoshop CS4 on MAC OS 10.5? Do you wonder where your old workspace with the solid backdrop went? Do you see your desktop through your workspace? I talked to somebody at Adobe today. Click the "Application Frame" in the drop down "window" menu to get your old interface back.

New Lesson posted!

I have posted a new lighting lesson at www.dantzigphotography.com! This one features Naomye and describes a "Hard-Soft" lighting technique. Check it out...it's FREE!

The size of your light does matter!

Size: I have often written about the influence that the size of your light will have on your image. My Back to Basics book will lay out these differences in great detail. In short, small light sources will lead to a harsher quality of light than a larger source placed the same distance from your model. This little bit of information plays a great role in my decision to use a particular light modifier.


I usually want to use a large light source for white garments. The larger light modifier spreads the light over a broader area and has less contrast, so the light is more even. The highlight created by the light is not as intense and it is easier to maintain the detail in white clothes.
Model: Tasha






In contrast, I like the smaller lights when I want to use shadows to accentuate an outfit. For example, I will go to a Small Stripdome if my model brings a dress or a gown with a lot of folds. The small Stripdome adds a nice bit of contrast without the possibly brash feel of a spotlight. The shadows created really show the dress’ lines and design. However, I do not want the images to have so much contrast that I lose detail in those same shadows. I normally use a much larger softbox behind the camera. I set this light to provide one stop less light than the Stripdome. The half-stop fill that the large box adds keeps the needed detail in the dress while allowing the smaller light to dominate the look and feel of the image.

Model: Mapuana (Image From my book Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers)

“Testing” and Working with a New Model

“Testing” refers to a shoot where the intent is to try something new. You work with a model who needs some work to either build or update his or her portfolio, so it’s a “win-win.” I’ll usually try at least one new set-up for each test shoot before reverting back to a tried and true technique to make sure that my model gets some great shots for her “book.” Why would someone at my point in my career want to keep “testing?” Well, for one thing I truly hope that I have not stopped learning about the field that I love. Secondly testing on a regular basis keeps you fresh and enthusiastic. Thirdly--and perhaps most importantly for me--the images that I create on a test shoot become my stock of images that I can then use for my books, articles and blogs like this one. It is very important to get written permission from your models to use the photos in this way. There is even some debate about whether you can post mages to your own website without a written model release. MY NON-LEGAL opinion on this matter is NO. I will not post or publicly use any image where I do not have a release to do so. Now, I know that releases are not necessary for editorial work, so technically I could use the images for my articles without a release, but I don’t.  BTW, the topic of releases is always discussed upfront before the shoot--there are no surprises on my sets.

Where does working with a new model fit into all of this? Well. I have to admit that many of my “flashes of brilliance” come from hindsight (I’m joking about the brilliance, but not about the hindsight). I’ll usually try out my new technique for the first lighting scheme of the day. This--in hindsight--makes sense because it will usually take a new model some time to warm up and become comfortable in her new role. The very fact that you are “testing” a new set up means that it might not work. Why not use the time (and shots) that you are shooting to get your model warmed up?  If the lighting works, but you haven’t got great shot of her yet then you can always go back and shoot that style again later. If the lighting scheme does not work, then you haven’t wasted any great shots of her on so-so lighting.

The latter of these scenarios played out this weekend. Elise is a beautiful young lady with an impressive athletics resume. In fact she played volleyball for a college team that is a perennial top 10 to top 20 squad. She’s quite confident on the court. Modeling however, is a whole different ball game. This was only her second professional shoot and she was understandably a little nervous. I’ve worked with new models for a very long time, so I know that is just a matter of time before the jitters go away and she starts to have some fun. I used this time to try out a lighting idea that quite frankly didn’t work!!! Elise was plenty warmed up by the time we changed the set-up and she was a champ by our third lighting and outfit change. We wound up having a lot of fun and I captured some great images of her--and I learned that I have to make some modifications if I want that first lighting scheme to work! See: Win-win!

Growing Pains

My tried, true and trusted PC finally gave up the ghost after about 15 years of great service.Yes, there were upgrades along the way, but the basic machine lasted well over a decade. (Drop me a line if you are in the Los Angeles area and need a computer. I’ll hook you up with my buddy who built me a MONSTER of a machine) It was decision time: get another PC or go with a MAC. I went with the Mac and it has not been an easy transition. I tried to run both platforms by using a virtual machine program for a long time, but that did not work as well as I hoped. I eventually wound up with Adobe Photoshop CS4 for PC and MAC and was (am) amazed at how differently the two versions work. First it seems to me that colors are different in each version--and I use a numbers based method to color correct my images. My color correction technique is a combination of techniques taught by Dave Cross, Martin Evening and Eddie Tapp. I’ve published my step-by-step method in several places, but you can see it here for easy reference: http://dantzigphotography.com/?page_id=121. I wrote an action to make the process of identifying the gray point automatic. Imagine my chagrin and angst when the action--which worked for years in my PC versions of PS--didn’t work! I went through the process manually to no avail. I was flustered to say the least. I went back to www.photoshopuser.com and found Dave’s original video and found a difference in how we were doing this procedure. When you look at my article you’ll see that I was making a duplicate layer of my background layer and filling it with 50% Gray before changing the blending mode to “Difference.” Dave added a “New Layer” from the icons at the bottom of the layers palette (which adds a new blank layer above your background layer) and then continues by filling this new layer with 50% gray and changing the blending mode to Difference to find the most neutral gray spot. I tried it. It works and I wrote a new action so I am back in business. SO...REPLACE “Duplicate Layer” with “Add New Layer” when you follow my color correction technique.