Three-Flash Portrait

Three-Flash Portrait
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I wanted to see if I could create a portrait without any help from Photoshop. I decided to use my ultra-sharp Canon 50mm:1.4 and three flashes. I moved them around a little until I found what I wanted.

I had my camera tethered to my computer, so I could see each shot as I took it. I also adjusted my camera calibration in ACR and set my changes as the new default in Adobe Bridge, so I could see my post-processing as each shot was taken as well.

STROBES:
Canon 580ex connected with off-camera shoe cord 2.
1/32 power, camera right, 2-feet away

Nikon SB-22 triggered by PT-04 eBay slave shoe mount
1/1 power (only available), camera left, 4-feet away

Nikon SB-24 connected by PC cord to PT-04 eBay slave
1/4 power, behind subject, less than 12-inches away

There's also 3-stops of ND filters on my lens to help cut down the power of the SB-22. I didn't want too wide a depth-of-field.

Little Sisters Grow Up Fast

Little Sisters Grow Up Fast
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

My sister Shelby is a little ham. Over Christmas, when she didn't have my camera in her hand taking her own pictures, she was modeling for me.

I made sure to use the same basic setup I had used for my self portraits specifically so I could do this treatment to her photo, although I never told her that. I have a few others (actually, quite a few) that were taken outside, but this is my favorite.

My Sister the Movie Star

My Sister the Movie Star
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Our grandfather calls my sister a "movie star" and in this photo she looks the part. She was kind enough to let me take a nice portrait of her over Christmas, although I don't think she minded that much.

Photoshop:
Her skin is just naturally this soft (wink-wink). I desaturated about 20% and added a viennette to draw more focus to her face.

Strobe:
Canon 580ex into umbrella at 1/1 camera right
Nikon SB-22 at 1/1 camera left and behind subject (this flash has no power control, so I placed it as far away as I could)

Thanks sis

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Just thought I'd let everyone know that my girlfriend got me a photography class at the local community college. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of black and white film work as well as printing my own photos. After that course is done, I may take a summer course in studio photography.

Merry Christmas

I See Color

I See Color
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.
Strobes:
Canon 580ex at camera right with umbrella
Genaric strobe behind subject pointed at wall full power

Self Portrait

Self Portrait
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Strobes:
Canon 580ex at camera right with umbrella or snoot
Genaric strobe behind subject pointed at wall full power

My Roommates

My Roommates
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

My roommates' holiday card.

Strobe:
Canon 580ex in umbrella to camera right.

There was supposed to be another flash at camera left, but it doesn't like to work very often. I would really have liked to use it as a rim light.

Soft focus was added in Photoshop to give a bit of a romantic feeling.

Cowboy Up split toned

Cowboy Up split toned
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

The post processing on this one was done only in Adobe Lightroom. I did a grayscale conversion and a split tone. I brought the exposure up a half stop and adjusted the luminance. I also added slightly darker shadows.

Cowboy Up

Cowboy Up
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

In playing around with a 2-light setup, I wanted to use something in the shot that would make an interesting subject with a rin light ... something with an interesting shape. Hence the hat.

Srobe info:
Canon 580ex to camera right at 6' off the ground. 1/2 power. Snooted. CTO gel.
Prinz Universal Tri-Lite just behind right shoulder pointed toward hat. Full power.

Silver Self Portrait

Silver Self Portrait
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I was playing with the exposure and setting for my Canon 580ex and my new umbrella. Taking the F-stop down increasing the ISO allowed me to use my desk lamp as a side light.

Strobe: Canon 580ex at 1/128 into umbrella at camera right with CTO filter. 40W tungsten bulb in desk lamp at camera left behind subject and about a foot away.

Snowboard Helmet

Snowboard Helmet
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Now that I have an umbrella, I wanted to try some studio-type shots. I had one flash, one piece of white mattboard and nothing to bounce off of (I couldn't find a blank wall to use). My snowboard helmet seemed like a good thing for my tests.

The Canon 580ex strobe is placed just to camera left, about a foot above the subject and about 3 feet in front. The flash was at 1/4 power and pointed into the umbrella.

I used curves in Photoshop to clean up the white backdrop and darken parts of the helmet. Then I placed a gradient map over the plastic of the helmet to remove any color imperfections.

I tried to digitally add a light to the back of the helmet, but it never looked passable. Also, the goggles are a tad overexposed on the left, but it didn't bother me enough for me to fix it.

A new umbrella

I started thinking las week that this photography stuff is pretty fun, and I'd like to continue doing it. Good thing, too, because the camera cost a lot. I've also thought that in addition to selling prints of my pics, I may be able to supplement my income as a photog for hire, a la senior portraits and engagement photos. I want to get better at my portraits, so I'll continue to practice, but I did buy a studio umbrella for those oh-so-soft-light pictures. With winter here, my guinea pigs ... er ... models ... Cody and Elyse will be too busy skiing to sit still for photos, so I'll just have to find someone else to shoot.

I hope to have my first umbrella shots up next week, so keep an eye out.

Halloween

Me as Zorro
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I didn't take my camera out, but I had a few frames grabbed of my costume, which, as I hope you can tell, was Zorro.

Cody in the Sand

Cody in the Sand
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

The flip-flops with the tie just crack me up.

New model work

I Want You
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Elyse was happy with the last set of photos I did with her, so she wanted some more. This is her and her boyfriend Cody, who is also a professional skier. I spent about two hours with them at the beach and got some pretty good shots. This one was toward the end of the shoot. Elyse had grabbed Cody's tie and it looked great (she may have just been adjusting it for him). I had her grab the tie and pull him in closer.

More with Elyse

Elyse
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This was a candid moment I caught of Elyse. She was adjusting her hair and I just kept shooting. I had to do a lot of work with the skin tones once I converted it to black and white, and the background had to be darkened a bit.

I'm not sure if this is my favorite picture from our photoshoot, but it is my favorite pose.

A real photographer

Elyse
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I met Elyse through a co-worker and was asked if I would mind taking some head shots for her. She's a pro-skier and needs some pictures to give to prospective sponsors. I've never worked with a model before, but Elyse was nice and patient for me.

We ventured to downtown Santa Cruz where the clock tower gave me an interesting backdrop.

Boom

Boom
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I decided to take a photo from The Roots concert I hadn't posted yet and play with some tweeks. Here I blurred the background, changed the color and popped the foreground with a warming filter.

Say Hey (before and after)

Say Hey
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This photo had lots of work done to it. I made a four-tone blur map and added a lens blur to the image. I then used Selective Color to separate the tones better. There's a layer that darkens the edges and one that adds a cooling filter while masking out the ares that I used on my blur map. I wasn't going for a realistic look to this one. I tried to make it seem off, just a bit.

Candlesticks always make a nice gift

Candlesticks always make a nice gift
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Bull Durham fans will get it.

Looming Bridge with Palms

Looming Bridge with Palms
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

A nice afternoon under the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

Say Hey

Say Hey
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This photo had lots of work done to it. I made a four-tone blur map and added a lens blur to the image. I then used Selective Color to separate the tones better. There's a layer that darkens the edges and one that adds a cooling filter while masking out the ares that I used on my blur map. I wasn't going for a realistic look to this one. I tried to make it seem off, just a bit.

AT&T Park

AT&T Park
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I wish this day had turned out better but the Giants lost to the Dodgers and let L.A. clinch a playoff berth. God I hate the Dodgers.

Bush on Tap

Bush on Tap
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

A spectator watches the 95th annual Bay to Breakers on Sunday, May 21, 2006, dressed as President George W. Bush while drinking a beer.

Roads of Perspective

Roads of Perspective
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This is a shot that I hadn't liked until I started to "fix it."

See the original here.

I fixed the distortion and cloned out the water bottle. I used a gradient map and channel mixer to convert to black and white.

I find it very interesting how well received this shot is. Really, the original shot was just uploaded to get a few more of my photos online. I never liked it or thought it was very good. I really only "fixed" it because I was bored. I still look at this photo and see how much I didn't like the original. I'm very glad that a lot of you do, in fact, like it.

Boats on the Wharf

Boats on the Wharf
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This is an oldy, but goody. It's from the first time I took my camera outside to take pictures. It's a photo I want to go back to, maybe at dawn, and try to get a better, or different, exposure.

Ordering prints

I've priced my prints, but I am still working on setting up a shopping cart. Head over to the order page to see the price list.

San Francisco

I went to the Giants game this weekend (I hate the Dodgers) and will hopefully have some of those photos posted here in the next few days. By the way, I hate the Dodgers.

Lights for peace, lights of war

Lights for peace, lights of war
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Here's another of the "Night Lights" photos. this one has more of a "movie poster" feel to me, only without the type. Imagine the movie voice guy saying "In a world without light, one city refuses to be in the dark ..."

Things should be better now

I think there may be a few lingering Internet Explorer problems, but I rebuilt the site from scratch and hopefully fixed most of them. Let me know what you think.

I know, I know

The blog will be back to looking good soon. This is just a temporary look until I fix the site issues.

New site design and issues

I decided to redesign my Web site because, come February, I will have a photo spread in Santa Cruz magazine that will direct people here. Some of you may have noticed that the text is off a little. This is because you are using Microsoft's default browser Internet Explorer. I haven't used Explorer in years, so I never bothered to check how this redesign looks in that browser. I recomend Mozilla's Firefox over Explorer anyway. So, I'm sorry for the inconvenience and I hope to have this issue resolved in the next few weeks. But go ahead and give Firefox a try, you'll probably like it.

Night Lights 3999

Night Lights 3999
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

From scia.org: Five hundred, 15,000,000 candle power spotlights lit the night along three miles of the Santa Cruz, CA coastline. The "Night-Light" creators hope to bring together community to illuminate the message of peace. Artist and SCICA Co-Director Kirby Scudder along with hundreds of volunteers from the community turned on the 500 lights at 9 p.m. for one hour in the communal celebration of peace.

These spotlights -- weighing 14 pounds each and totaling 7000 pounds -- were placed every 30 feet winding their way down West Cliff Drive and ended at Pacific Avenue. The project involved 200 volunteers manning the lights.

Me: The lights were actually not that bright. As you can see from my images, they lit the sky, but the beams were not that powerful. I tried to make sure to get the beams exposed correctly, but not at the expense of over-exposing the image. Also, focusing was very tough, so some of the images may be soft.

Final Moment

Final Moment
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

The Cement Ship at Seabright State Beach in Aptos as the sun goes down.

Cruz Henge

Cruz Henge
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This image will appear in the February issue of Santa Cruz Magazine.

Commission Name: In The Tides of Time / En las Mareas del Tiempo 1994-5.

Details: Irish blue limestone / text. (22'x15' x 10').

Information: A site-specific sculpture for the Municipal Wharf in the City of Santa Cruz, California. The work consists of four shell forms or "seed boats" and a large round fruit form. These five elements are arranged about an imposing arch. This arch or gateway is aligned with the opening of Monterey bay to the greater Pacific Ocean. On the inside of the gateway's posts a poem by the artist is inscribed in both English and Spanish. "In the tides of time we have found safe harbour, here on this western shore where the waves ebb and flow, restlerssly, and the seasons, in their old harvest hulls, have borne us ripe cargoes of plenty, with enough fruit for all".


Camera: Nikon 6006
Film: Fujia Velvia
Speed: 50
Type: Slide
Lens: 35 mm
Shutter: 30 seconds
Aperture: f3.3
Date: Jan. 12, 2006

Flash: 1 strobe popped at camera right, 45 degrees from lens and about 10 feet back from subject.

Black Thought

Black Thought
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This is Black Thought from The Roots and in case you have never heard of The Roots, slap yourself and then go get an album. Better yet, see them live. You will not find a better live hip-hop group.

Self Portrait 2

Self Portrait 2
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

It's easiest to just photograph myself to test things out.

For the studio lights lovers. There is a cheap flash behind me and to camera left that is snooted to avoid highliting my shirt. My 580ex is on the camera with a lightsphere on it (ETTL -3 stops) and a snoot around the sphere so it hits just the face and neck.

It's post-processed in Photoshop. I desaturated the reds and used curves to adjust the contrast. I duped the background and used surface blur to soften the skin. The opacity is lowered to 40% and the shadows and eyes are masked out. There's another curves layer to brighten just the eyes.

There are a lot of light set-up mistakes, most notably the side light is too high. Hey, this is why I practice on myself.

Poppi before and after

Poppi before and after
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

The before and after for this picture of my dad.

Poppi in color

Poppi in color
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This is the same photo as the black and white I posted earlier, but it is in color and processed through Photoshop. I tried to isolate the colors so I could get a better separation. I duplicated the background and changed the blending mode to soft light. Then a channel mixer adjustment was made linked to the background copy. Clicking monochrome, I adjusted each channel's contrast independantly of each other. I used the selective color layer to reduce the color cast and adjust the skin tones.

I'll post another before and after soon.

Chevy's View (before and after)

Chevy's View (before and after)
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This is the Chevy's View photo before and after post processing. The finished photo is 3 exposures combined for an HDR, here I posted the +0 exposure on top. For the final, I combined the 3 exposures, desaturated the colors and threw a brown color layer aver the whole thing with a soft light blending mode.

My biggest problem with post work is the fact that I remember what the scene looked like and I try to stay too close to that. When I toss that out, I tend to get better results.

Poppi

Poppi
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

My father

Thinking it Over

Thinking it Over
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I stole this idea from another photo on Flickr (sorry, but I didn't jot down the name) and I thought I'd give it a quick try. Pretty simple to do with a tripod and timer. The difference in exposure from one side to the other is not a result of Photoshop but the result of half-open blinds behind the camera. This was just a test anyway. (By the way, this is me ... and me.)

Bumpy Road Ahead

Bumpy Road Ahead
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Just goofing around with a long exposure. This was balanced on the dash of the car.

Leaf in color

Leaf in color
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I decided to post the color version as well so you can compare it with the duotone.

Leaf

Leaf
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I was feeling a bit melencholy this day, so I grabed my camera in an effort to feel better. I shot some trash and a few flowers, but in front of my apartment door, there was this leaf on the walkway. I shot it and starting thinking of the post work I could do on it. Suddenly, I felt better, but the photo still reflects the mood I was in when I shot it.

Beat Man

Beat Man
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This is Charlie, whom I work with. He's this really cool dude that makes different styles of African drums by hand and just gives them to his friends. The drums themselves are beautiful works of art, as is he. Thanks Charlie.

Chevy's View

Chevy's View
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

As I was working on this photo, the thought of taking some of the wonderful color out came to me. The paint and rust on this truck is fantastic, but I thought I'd try something different for me. Normally, I over-saturate everything because I like boldness and contrast. In this photo, I took out 75% of the original color, then re-saturated it about 30%. The final touch was to add a warm color cast by using the soft light blending mode at about 40%. I may still post the full-color version, but let me know what you think about this.

Wolfe Ranch

Wolfe Ranch
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

The Wolfe Ranch is located in Arches National Park, at the beginning of the hiking trail to Delicate Arch. The Ranch was settled in the late 1800's by John Wesley Wolfe and his son. John moved west from Ohio looking for a drier climate, due to a nagging leg injury he received in the Civil War. John choose a tract of 100 acres of land along Salt Wash for its water and grassland - enough for a few cattle.

Old Chevy

Old Chevy
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I took this at Julie's parents' house in Colorado. It's her truck that someday she may fix up.

Morning Glory

Morning Glory
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

My first true HDR from multiple exposures. I was finally able to make it look as good or better than it did the morning I shot this.

Tsunami Bomb

Tsunami Bomb
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This, along with all of my Boardwalk shots from this day, were supposed to be night shots. The photos I did get, like this one, were meant only for composition practice. The thing is, the Boardwalk closed at 8 p.m. (it usually closes at 11 in the summer), so I was not able to get the shots I wanted.

The sun was facing the front of the Tsunami ride as it set and the result is the lights of the ride, which were off, were lit by the sun.

What looks to be a bad crop on my part is really done on purpose. The Ferris Wheel has a light directly in front of it which prevents a lot of good angles from being used. Shame on you Boardwalk people for putting a light there and forcing a bad crop on my photo.

Curve

Curve
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I love happy accidents. I don't even remember taking this shot, but I was pretty glad I did when I got home. This is the Log Ride at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I had just taken a random picture of this while waiting for the sun to go down a little more.

This image is cropped down from the full frame, which looks like your typical bad ride shot. I like not being able to tell what it is. I also adjusted the white balance drastically to give an almost tritone quality.

Park Closed

Park Closed
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This, along with all of my Boardwalk shots from this day, were supposed to be night shots. The photos I did get, like this one, were meant only for composition practice. The thing is, the Boardwalk closed at 8 p.m. (it usually closes at 11 in the summer), so I was not able to get the shots I wanted.

This shot of the Giant Dipper roller coaster was taken as I was being hearded out of the park. If the park didn't close down at 8, I never would have seen this shot. I'mm surprised it is as sharp as it is since I was walking and shooting at the same time.

Three Corners

Three Corners
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This is the corner of Water Street, Front Street and Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. I was taking shots of Holy Cross church and wandered over to the mission to see if I could get a shot there. Instead, I found a field that overlooked downtown with one small problem ... there was a chain-linked fence that blocked the best angles. This shot was achieved by putting my tripod on a tree stump and shooting over the fence and around a tree.

Clock Tower

Clock Tower
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

My intent was to get a picture of the clock tower in Santa Cruz, but the trees were blocking it from the only angle I could get it. Still, I'm pretty happy with this as I think the trees add something, though I'm not sure what.

Holy Hues

Holy Hues
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I was on the hunt for some sodium vapor lights and their green hue, but those are few and far between in Santa Cruz. This is Holy Cross church and it is not lit by sodium vapors either -- the true light here is nearly measured for daylight. But I still wanted that sodium vapor glow, so I faked it.

I did a poor-boy's HDR by using a layer blending mode, then tweeked the curves and "ta-da," instant sodium vapor lights.

Wailin Banjo

IMG_0128
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Part of what I love about Santa Cruz is the fact on any given day, you can find a whole crew of characters playing music downtown. These guys where really good and the banjo player had the best expressions on his face.