puppet warp

Sometimes you as a photographer get it all wrong. A beautifull model all of a sudden does not look that beautifull anymore. It's not the fault of the model, it's yours, you made her look fat. watch the poses and watch the light and you'll probably end up with a nice picture.

But when you get it all wrong, fix it. I used to go into photoshop and start using the liquify tool, although it is a great tool, it does sometimes to much. It does not only fix the problematic part it also mess's up body parts or props which are closeby.

During one of my evening scrolls over the internet I found this interesting tool which gives you much more control when modifying body parts. It is called puppet warp. Since I can't show you, I 'll describe it 'steno' style.

Use the pen tool to make a rough selection around the problematic part (It's ok to make a large selection)
After finishing the path, make it into a selection (CTRL - ENTER)
Make a copy in a new layer of the selection (CTRL - SHIFT - C and CTRL - V )
Convert the new layer into a smart object.
Make a puppet warp of the smart object(Edit -> puppet warp)
Add anker points - click on the grid (anker points are points which will not move when dragging the grid)
Start dragging the grid points and watch what happens.

It takes some playing around with the tool, before you get the hang of it. But once you do, you will never go back to liquify again. Have fun.

Places

One of the biggest challenges when photographing outdoors in Belgium is finding a nice location. The second biggest challenge is to remember those locations. Therefore I have decided to keep track of these locations in this little post.

In this way not only I will not forget about them, but you all can profit of the list, if only I had followers :)

Locations:

Brussels:
Botanische tuinen (if you go on a quiet moment, you will be left alone)
Terkameren abdij (nice garden , have not been there don't know if you can get in trouble taking model shots overthere)
Hallerbos (On the outskirts of Brussels, this forest is worthwhile visiting when the hyacints are flourishing, end of april)
Vilvoorde: nieuwe voetgangersbrug over de E19

Antwerp:
MAS (Museum aan de stroom, This modern building offers lots of possibilities, outside, inside and on top of it)
Hangar 26 (when you are shooting at MAS, just look for Hangar 26, the backside of the building offers some interesting shoot oportunities)

Limburg:
C mine genk (Interesting location, because of the glass roof and old mining machines)

Ines and Mette

The second post. The concept has not changed yet, summer holidays are comming up, hopefully I'll find some time to figure some stuff out. For now it's the same concept, different picture though.

1.the picture (as shot / post-processed)


EXIF: 50mm f4.0 1/250 ISO 100

2. The location setup


Thanks to Kevin Kertz

For this shot I went outdoors, yep this is not my studio :) I love working outdoors on those rare occasions that the weather is good in Belgium. When working outdoors, I rely heavily on the sun. The only accessory that I use is my simple 5 in 1 reflection screen (nope not a California sunbounce).

The sun was high in the sky (I prefer to have it a little bit more down to earth). But the sun added a nice hair light effect and it was just deep enough to reflect the light on the dresses of the girls.

3. Post-processing

We are still in silent movie mode, but hopefully you guys will get it, just by looking at it. Enjoy.

And the link

Sebastiana-Alexandra

My first real post, I'm still thinking about the best concept to share this information. This is what I have come up with so far. I'm sure it will grow on me over time.

1.the picture (as shot / post-processed)


EXIF: f4.0 1/125 ISO 100

2. The studio setup



For this shot a beauty disk was used as the main light at f4.0. Sebastiana was standing in front of a white backdrop which was illuminated by two strobes at f5.6. Two gobos have been put in place to shield off the light comming from the strobes and backdrop reflection.

By the way the "lighting setup" drawing was made using the PSD provided by Kevin Kertz, thanks a lot for sharing.

3. Post-processing

At the moment I am still searching for a nice way to show the post-processing step. For now, you will have to do with this flash movie created with Jing a nice little 'free' tool.

Unfortunatly the tool does not support adding notes, since my English pronunciation is rather poor and my voice would probably put you to sleep, you will have to look at the mouse pointer and try to figure out what is going on :) It's like looking at a silent movie, but less funny.

Hope you enjoy it,

I just put the link to the flash file here, don't seem to be able to embed and resize the flash file so it fits nicely in this blog post. Sorry ... I'll try to do better next time :) (any help will be appreciated)

Welcome

Share to learn, learn to share. that says it pretty much all. I'm not much of a writer, narrator or blogger. I'm not even a very good photographer, but i'm willing to share the few things I know. So check back every once in a while or even better folow me.

If you want to share some insights, tips or advise, please feel free to comment, I hope to learn just as much perhaps even more than you folks do.