I am using the word “workflow” here as if I have all of this figured out.  That my friends, would be a lie!  Ha!  You would think photographing your own daughter would be easier than photographing someone else’s, but I found it to be equally challenging to say the least. It was challenging for me but a great lesson as a photographer on how to work with…well…difficult clients. 

Above is what I setup in the mancave.  Directly camera right and only slightly out of frame was a Calumet Genesis 400 with a 60″ Westcott umbrella.  Camera left was a Calumet Genesis 400 shot into a 45″ umbrella. I used a few lenses for this and come to think of it, in the shot above I actually had the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 on the camera.  I used it along with the Nikon 24-70mm for the majority of the shots.

So…. The shoot was tough.  Our little girl was just not content and wanted to cry.  I knew that meant I had very little time to do what I wanted.  I figured if I could get a handful number of photos that I was pleased with out of the time then I would be very happy.  So with my wife’s wonderful assistance (meaning, this would not have happened if she was not there to help) we fired away.  For this little write-up, I had only planned on covering one shot and the processing that went into it.  So let’s start with the image:

Not too bad but there were a lot of things here that I wanted different.  First, she is not looking at me.  I am clearly not as interesting as strobes and umbrellas.  Something I have come to grips with as a father.  Also, while I like the lighting, I still want it softer.  I dig the blanket but want that pure white as well, drawing all attention to my snugglebug in the center.

First, I made all of the adjustments I could make in Lightroom.  I always start making adjustments there and more times than not, I can usually do what I want there.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Photoshop and rely on it quite heavily, but the more I get stuff right in camera, and the more I can finalize within Lightroom, the more efficient I become.

I had a couple more images to work with of her and actually liked her hand in her mouth.  Call it a personal preference.  I had the image (shown above on the left) where she was looking at the camera, but her feet are out of frame so that was no good.  So I opened both in Photoshop and copied her eyes from the image on the left and placed them on the image on the right. The other two steps were to first run Nik Color Efex and cross process the images, which gave it the colors that I wanted.  I then masked out the blanket so none of its pattern was left.  I could dodge out the subtle off-white color left from the cross processing filter but I was not really going after a totally white back, just something without the pattern.

“Required Reading” | 52.8

Any sensible person knows that you need to stay up on your zombie knowledge in order to survive the coming apocalypse of darkness.  I hope that these recent additions to my current collection will help further guide me to the right steps to take when the dead walk the earth.

OK, so this is a little late this week.  Sue me.  I was busy.

My sister gave me a super idea for one of these shots but it requires a lot of setup, so I will have to work on getting the items together to pull it off.  It will also be a lot of Photoshop work and since time was limited this week, I went in a different direction.

The setup was relatively simple, yet I was again frustrated with not getting the shot the way I wanted in camera.  I had a Calumet Genesis 400 high above the camera, shot into a 60” Westcott umbrella which was collapsed.  I had another Calumet Genesis 400, shot bare, positioned directly behind me for rim lighting.  I positioned an SB-800 with green gel in front of me facing the book interior.  The camera was on a tripod and set with a timer, lights fired with CyberSyncs.  My camera settings were ISO 200, f/16, and 1/250th.