The Gossip

This was a fun shoot. I did a loosely "back to school" themed shoot on Saturday, with the intended output being a series of diptychs and composites, not so much individual images. This pairing worked right away, the images were shot close together and with intent, especially the one on the right.

Lighting for both shots consisted of a beauty dish as key light, an umbrella for background and fill, and two gridded accents (one on her, one on the background).

Other than removing dust, I didn't adjust anything on these... it's good (not required) to get things right in-camera.

In a Strange Land

I really dig this image... I tend to go for warm, sepia tones, but this cooler tone really works for this image. The tone was added in CS3's B&W adjustment layer. I added the border to compensate for Flickr's white background, but I think it adds something to the image too. The vignetting was the final touch that pulled it together for me. My only wish is for a wider lens... this would've been fantastic with a 16mm or even 10mm.

One Light

As is routinely pointed out on the Strobist blog, you can do an awful lot with one light. This shot was taken with a single studio strobe and a shoot-through umbrella, very close to the subjects (myself and my son). The umbrella is barely out of view.

This is also a testament to what can be done with Aperture... I had configured the light just for me for a headshot and so had it much closer. My boy hopped up and wanted a picture so I just pushed the light back until it was out of the frame... this resulted in a very underexposed frame. With Aperture's RAW fine tuning, I was able to decrease its "boost" and reduce contrast, thus making the massive increase in exposure less harsh.

This was finished in Photoshop CS3, with the B&W conversion and minor retouching in the shadow noise.