Ok so for today I just wanted to quickly reinforce something that I’ve written about before… i.e. how giving your photo shoots a theme and using Moodboards can not only help you as a Photographer but also help your model to model, so that ultimately you end up with the best possible results from your Photo Shoot.

In the latest issue of German Photography & Digital Imaging magazine Pictures I’ve a 4 page article where I cover exactly that; specifically looking at how my best buddy Dave Clayton has gone from hating having his photograph taken to now making regularly magazine appearances and modelling at my workshops.

So just in case you don’t read German here’s some links to where the content of the magazine article was adapted from posts on this site:

• How to help your Model to Model
• How I’m using Pinterest as part of my workflow
• Photographers: Do you Scrapbook?

On a side note seeing this transformation in Dave’s confidence in front of the camera has been fantastic and working with Dave at my workshops and other projects has been and always is a total blast; in fact calling it ‘work’ seems kind of wrong. Although not my personal assistant we do a heck of alot of stuff together and plan on doing a lot more in the future so here’s looking forward to lots more, ermmm work in the coming weeks, months and years

As always if you have any questions or comments, or maybe even ways that you find help to get the most from your photo shoot,then please feel free to make use of the comments section below, but in the mean time,

Enjoy

•     •     •

Well, to kick the week off, today I want to talk a little bit about the social networking site Pinterest…

You see Pinterest has been around for a while now and it seems to have had a mixed reception and up until this point I too had resisted getting on board but for no other reason than thinking I just don’t have time for yet another social networking site…or do I?

From the brief look I’d had at it when it first hit the headlines and from the little I’d heard across the internet I understood Pinterest to be somewhere to well, collect pictures of things that you liked and share them with others…seemed kind of pointless to be honest. However the penny seems to have dropped and now I’m embracing it with open arms, so let me explain why but before I do let me explain why I even decided to take another look at Pinterest.

You see I now produce a Newsletter [Link] and what has been really interesting is the answer I get when I ask people where they heard of me; I’m getting more and more people saying they found me through Pinterest. I also put my name into Google the other day to see what other sites I might appear on or be linked to and sure enough Pinterest came up…and this is all before I created an account. Needless to say this is what made me decide to take a second look at what it was all about.

So, first off let’s talk business and how I’m now going to be using Pinterest in my workflow.

#1: Last year I wrote a post about how I use Moodboards [Link] and to be more specific the Moodboard App on my iPad [Link].
In brief when I’m working with a client I encourage them to collect pictures that they see on the internet that have the kind of look and feel that they want in their own photo shoot.

I’ll also ask them to email me pictures so that I can start putting a moodboard together of what they like and ones that I find. We then meet again before the shoot to make sure we’re 100% happy with the look we’ll be working on. This practice works really well for me and it’s one that I’ll continue to do but now, with Pinterest I see this whole process becoming alot more streamlined.

Using Pinterest couldn’t be easier; all you do is sign up (for free) and then when you see a picture you like on a website, you click the ‘Pin It’ button in your browser window and you’re done…it literally takes seconds.

So with that in mind think about it…

Your client who is using Pinterest creates a new board called something like ‘Photo Shoot’ so that when they happen to see a picture they like they ‘Pin It’. Now because you’re ‘following’ your client on Pinterest, every time they add a picture you see it…instant moodboard.

#2: Another way that I see Pinterest being really useful for me is by being somewhere I can instantly collect pictures that I use for inspiration and shoot ideas. Whereas before I would have to right click on a picture, put it into iPhoto and then sync with my iPad, all I need to do now is ‘Pin It’ and the picture can instantly go into a folder I’ve named ‘Inspiration’. What’s more with the Pinterest App [Link], the boards I create I can see on my iPhone, my iPad and my computer…everything is in sync.

So that’s how I see Pinterest being incredibly useful for me from now on and yeah it’s nothing ground breaking bur just how I see it fitting into my workflow. Sure not every client will be on Pinterest or even want to be but it is early days after all.

As for how I’m going to be using Pinterest on a personal level, it’s actually reignited an interest in me to do something I used to do years ago i.e. collect pictures of things that inspired me and I wanted to aim for…a kind of dream board if you like…things that just made me feel good and that is surely a positive.

I use the internet a lot be it on my main computer, my Macbook, my iPad or iPhone so the likelyhood of me seeing something I want to ‘Pin’ is constantly there and all it takes is the click of a button.

So what about you? Do you see Pinterest becoming part of your workflow or do you view it as yet another social media site to add to the list? What about moodboarding…is this something you do?

I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts with this because using Pinterest this way is something I’ve only just thought of following one of my Eureka moments. Maybe you’ve been using Pinterest for a while now but is that for pleasure or business…or indeed both?

As always if you do have any comments/thoughts then please feel free to make use of the comments section below, but in the mean time,

Enjoy

>You can find me on Pinterest here [Link]

•     •     •

Had a superb day up in London yesterday with Dave catching up with Scott Kelby who’s over for the very last of his Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It seminars this coming Saturday; if you’re going I’ll see you there.

Of course because of what has now become a ritual we made our way quick sharp to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) in Covent Garden (the melted blue cheese topping is to die for!) which was then followed by another custom…coffee at Pret

In the afternoon Dave and I did the touristy bit walking aimlessly around London, camera around the neck taking pictures, drinking coffee, taking pictures and drinking more coffee…which I guess explains the expression on my face in the picture on the right

Later in the evening we headed over to Shoreditch and to the UK leg of the Cut & Paste Designer Challenge to catch up with and support Richard Curtis (Digital Imaging Architect for Adobe Europe). Richard gave a CS6 overview to a tough crowd of designers but almost brought the roof down because of the shouts of ‘Whoop! Whoop!’ as he demo’d a superb retouch using the new Content Aware Move in Photoshop…Amazing!!!

Video: Quick Tips
I also recorded a couple of tips I recorded whilst up Town that you may find useful when you’re shooting background bits and pieces for use in any compositing you may do.

If ever I’m out and about and have my camera with me I’ll always be taking pictures of buildings, the sky, textures…all kinds of things, and storing them in folders on my computer. You never know when an image will come in handy and of course building up a library of images like this can save you a small fortune instead of having to keep turning to stock images.

Anyway, here’s a couple of tips that we recorded yesterday up in London on what was forecast to be typical UK weather; you know grey skies and rain but actually turned out to be quite the opposite…so glad I was wearing a shirt, jumper and coat

Any questions or comments then please as always feel free to make use of the comments section below but in the mean time,
Enjoy

ps> I’ve a new video camera on order so yesterday ended up borrowing one; sure the results aren’t quite what you’d call High Def’ but hey

•     •     •

I’m going to be doing a 2 hour retouching webinar with the folks over at RetouchPro in the near future; the exact date and time is yet to be confirmed however it will be fairly soon, but in the mean time I just wanted to ask  a small favour…

I’m a little undecided at the moment which picture I should retouch so I wondered if you’d head on over to my 500px portfolio [Link], take a look through the images, and if you were to watch the webinar let me know which one you’d specifically like to see worked on from start to finish.

Once the date and time has been sorted I’ll be sure to let you know both on here and in my newsletter; talking of which Issue #2 will be going out at the end of this week so if you haven’t already you can sign up for free here [Link]

Right, that’s all for now so have a great day and I’ll catch up with you later,
Enjoy

•     •     •

Adobe certainly know how to put on a party when it comes to celebrating what is undoubtedly the biggest and most impressive update for quite some time.

Held at the stunning One Marylebone, Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch took centre stage and along with Senior Worldwide Design Evangelist Rufus Deuchler and Special Guests including Fashion Designer Wayne Hemmingway, the CS6 Creative Suite and Creative Cloud was officially launched.

Of course it’s the Photoshop side of things that I’m most interested in but seeing just some of what is possible with other products it makes for a very exciting future for everyone. With the Creative Cloud giving people access to every single piece of software in the suite plus those for touch devices and more, these high end products are now going to be accessible to a heck of alot more people which in the long term means seeing alot more creativity…and that can only be a good thing

It was great also to meet up with Digital Artist Steve Caplin who’s series of books How to Cheat in Photoshop was one of my very first and of course catching up and hanging out with Digital Artist Olaf Giermann from Germany, was always going to be fun.

All in all a wonderful day which was a real honour to be present at.

So what about you? With all this talk of CS6 and the Creative Cloud what are your thoughts? Have you been using the Photoshop CS6 Beta?

What about the Creative Cloud? Personally I think Adobe have hit the ball out of the park here especially with the pricing but what about you…what do you think? If you’ve not upgraded for a while would this be an option you’d consider?

Right that’s all from me so I’ll make a move but in the mean time I’d love to hear your thoughts so please feel free to make use of the comments section below,
Enjoy

•     •     •

How’s things? Hope you had a great weekend.

Me?…Well we had a Workshop on Saturday, my website was moved (painlessly) and I’ve been Mind Mapping

Photography & Photoshop Workshop
Thanks to everyone who came along to Saturday’s workshop. We had another sell out with a great bunch of folks, two superb models and two themes that went down a treat; an English Gent modelled by Stuart Warren and a Boxer looking like he’d picked a fight with Mike Tyson (and lost) modelled by my Buddy (and bloomin’ good sport) Dave Clayton

I’ll be posting some BTS (Behind the Scenes) pictures and video in the next few days as well as a couple of my own shots but in the mean time here’s the gang in the studio…

And of course the workshop was followed by some socialising aka chatting, eating and drinking … A Great Day!!!

Erik Bernskiold: Web Designer, Consultant, Software Educator
I really must say a HUGE thanks to my buddy and technical whizz Erik Bernskiold who has managed to help me save what little hair I have left by taking the stress out of moving my website/blog. For some time now I’ve been meaning to move this site off shared hosting and onto a server having experienced technical challenges (the polite version). Anyway Erik assured me all would be fine and geez was he right!

Definitely recommend you check out Erik’s site and take a note of his contact details for all things web related. [Link]

iThoughts
One last thing for all you iPhone & iPad users. I’ve been turned onto the iThoughts App which is superb for mind mapping, ideas, planning projects and such like. Real easy to use and great to look at. Not the cheapest App there is (£6.99) but now I have it I’m using it loads.

Definitely worth checking out!
iThoughts on iTunes [Link]

Right that’s all from me so have a great day whatever you’re up to and I’ll catch you tomorrow if not before over on Facebook and Twitter,

Enjoy

•     •     •

Ok so today I’m pretty psyched to have been told that yesterday I was featured in an article in the New York Times.

A couple of weeks back Scott Kelby posted on his Google+ page about a technique I’d written called the Invisible Black Backdrop. In it I explain how to take portrait shots in virtually any location, and using minimal kit and a few very simple steps make it look as though they were taken in a studio.

Since originally writing the post, it’s wonderful to have received so much positive feedback from folks who themselves have given the technique a try and achieved great results; completely unexpected though was to have had a call from the New York Times wanting to feature it…

I’ll be calling a favour from my buddy, superb portrait photographer Rick Wenner who lives over in New York to send over a couple of the printed copies (hey Rick ) but you can check out the online version here [Link]

Enjoy

>Here too is a link to the original Invisible Black Backdrop technique post [Link]

• • •

The other day I was reading a book called ‘Book Yourself Solid‘ by Michael Port; a superb book which does a great job of explaining all kinds of Marketing techniques.

In one of the chapters Michael Port talks about how with us all being individuals we’ll never please everyone in what we do and how we do it; he also goes on to cover how we can deal with it.

Now, the subject of ‘Style’ is one that’s often talked about and indeed it’s something I’ve covered quite a few times and have discussed with those who have been Guests here on the blog. How do I get a style? What style should I have? These kinds of questions come up all the time, and I’m sure they always will but there was one little story in the book that got me thinking…

The Story of the Old Man, a Boy and a Donkey

An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked beside him. As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people who remarked, “What a shame! He makes that little boy walk.” They then decided they would both walk.

Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So they both rode the donkey.

Now they passed some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal, and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass goodbye.

None of us can and will please everybody and as Photographers/Artists this is something we need to keep in mind…if not just for our own well being.

•Remember: You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Catch you tomorrow

•     •     •

Lots going on this week plus I’m planning some new Personal Project shoots, a Brighton Photo Walk and maybe some more Photoshop CS6 tutorials but more on that later

For now though I thought I’d kick the week off with a few Bits n’ Bobs:

Scott Kelby’s Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It Seminar: April 28th, London
Only 2 weeks to go until what is sure to be an incredible day when fresh from Photoshop World, Scott Kelby brings this World Famous / Sell Out Seminar to London!

Adobe will also be there and with the imminent release of Photoshop CS6 who knows what news they’ll be sharing, so with that PLUS other surprises this really is a day you won’t want to miss!

Your Last Chance….Ever!
This is the last ever ‘Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It‘ Seminar so once London has been and gone that’s it…no more, so don’t miss out…book your ticket TODAY!

For more information and to book your seat click here [Link]
See you there

Tether Tools
I’m really excited to have teamed up with the folks over at TetherTools; makers of the best camera to computer tethering equipment and accessories there is…

Shooting tethered is something I do all the time in the studio and am looking to do more of when I’m on location and using TetherTools’ range of kit from tables for my MacBook Pro to accessories that stop the cable being yanked (as it is all too often) out of my camera, is going to make the whole process seamless.

Huge thanks to Tether Tools who have also set up a Special Offer code for all folks who attend my workshops, sign up to webinars and other such events…cool huh

April Newsletter
Issue #2 (April) of my Free Newsletter will be going out to in the next week and in this issue there’ll be new Workshop and Online Workshop/Webinar dates, Photoshop CS6 Tips and Tutorials, News, Best of the Blog, Dates for the Diary, Special Offers and more so keep an eye on your mailbox

If you haven’t already, then be sure to sign up for the newsletter here [Link] or by clicking on the link in the sidebar on the right hand side, and everyone who signs up will receive a link and passcode to an exclusive Newsletter-Only Photoshop Tutorial Video.

Facebook
If you use Facebook then it would be great to have you join me over on my official page: www.facebookglyn.com

This is where I spend 99% of my time posting nowadays and where I’ll share pictures, videos and all manner of stuff that doesn’t get posted anywhere else and you can keep in touch by clicking the ‘Like’ button at the top of page; which I like to think as more of a ‘keep in touch’ button

Right, that’s all for now so if you have any questions, comments or maybe even suggestions then please feel free to make use of the comments section below but in the mean time, whatever you’re up to have a good one and I’ll see you back here soon.

Enjoy

•     •     • 

Now ideally I would have liked to photograph Tom against a grey seamless but as this started out as an ‘on location shoot’ I hadn’t intended to do any composite images, and to be honest it wasn’t necessary. You see I knew that I didn’t want to add a solid wall or something like that behind him so I wouldn’t be using the Soft Light or Overlay Blend Modes to drop the background in. For this picture I knew I’d have to cut Tom out so all I needed to find was a plain(ish) wall to photograph him against.

Choosing the right kind of background to shoot someone against and later cut them out is pretty easy; you just need to make sure of a few of things:

• It’s not the same colour as what you’re subject is wearing
• It’s not got any fancy pattern/texture on it
• It’s not in direct sunlight

Making sure that the background isn’t the same colour as what you’re subject’s wearing and also that the background doesn’t have fancy pattern/texture on it is purely to help with the cutting out later. Making sure the background isn’t in direct sunlight is because when it comes to putting composite images together, you want to be the one dictating how and where the light hits your subject…does that make sense?

Anyway here’s a look at the wall that we ended up using which was just inside one of Tom’s barns:

As for the kit, I was using an Elinchrom Quadra with both heads attached to the one battery pack. The rear/side light was a Lastolite Hot Rod Strip Box; great pieces of kit that were originally designed for Speedlights but now you can get adaptors to use them with a variety of other lighting kits. The front/fill light was an Elinchrom Medium softbox…nothing fancy

I wasn’t 100% sure what kind of background I was going to put in behind Tom for the final picture so I ended up strolling around his farm taking shots of all kinds of things; didn’t end up using them but they’ll come in great for pictures in the future I’m sure.

The background I eventually opted for was from a few shots I took when my wife and I popped out for a stroll just down from where we live. Now I’m not a big user of HDR but the background is actually 3 bracketed shots all combined using Photomatix and pretty much using the default settings. As for the sky I added that in afterwards and that was just made up of a few shots, again that I took out on the walk. Incidentally I’m always taking photographs of the sky when I’m out and about to build up a library that I can turn to later.

Tip: If you’re photographing the sky to build up a library to use later in composites, try to take photographs aiming out towards the horizon as opposed to pointing your camera directly above you. Clouds will appear smaller the further away they get so if you photograph them directly above you, they just won’t look right. Sure that can be fixed in Photoshop but by just taking your sky photos out toward the horizon saves you having to do that later…does that make sense? Maybe I should record a short video showing what I mean?

Once I had all the images, it was then a case of putting it all together in Photoshop, and as I wanted this to have a kind of cartoony/fun feel to it I ended up increasing the size of Tom’s head just a little, giving him a bit of smile and then adding the cartoon effect:

And that’s Tom the Farmer. You can check out a larger version over on my 500px page here [Link]

I did take a few more shots of Tom around the farm; one of which was the one I included in the recent post on the Invisible Black Backdrop [Link], so if you have any questions or comments then please as always feel free to make use of the comments section below,

Enjoy

•     •     •

Keep up with Glyn ‘Day to Day’ and get more from ‘Behind the Scenes’…
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