MyCDIA 2010

Working With Models 1 part II

2011-01-15T22:05:00.003-05:00

JOY

ANGER

Wedding Look Book

2010-06-18T17:58:00.003-04:00

This is a wedding Look Book / pricing guide that we had to produce as one of our deliverables.

Wedding Album Spreads

2010-06-18T17:26:00.003-04:00

We also had to put together an 8 page wedding album.

Gabe + Diana Maria

2010-06-10T22:39:00.031-04:00

Mike + Sherri

2010-06-10T20:53:00.047-04:00

Jake + Katie Engagement Shoot

2010-06-10T20:13:00.017-04:00

Wedding Photography with Joe(y)

2010-06-05T13:52:00.001-04:00

For the past 2 weeks Joe(y) Pulone taught us all about the wedding photography business. We shot a mock engagement and wedding on 2 days. The rest of the time we talked about the business and were busy producing a blog, a 4 spread look book and a 10 spread album. Above are my blog pictures of the engagement and wedding shoots.

Photo Illustration

2010-05-24T19:48:00.000-04:00

Once again I'm up to no good in Photoshop. Robert Severi stopped by to show us the fine art of photo illustration. The most important thing about photo illustration is to be sure to use the same lighting and keeping the same perspective when shooting your components. Unfortunately I wasn't too careful when I shot my wife and my foot so the lighting perfect and I also probably should have refined the mask on my wife's hair but you get the idea.

Working with Models I and II

2010-05-21T11:47:00.000-04:00

Before

After

Before

After

For two weeks we worked with shooting models. The first week we shot with Vincent Ricardel. We were put in groups and had to come up with a concept to shoot for. Our group came up with whimsy. At the top is our model which I had her posing in what I think is a whimsical fashion with fruit. The second week we worked with Chris Alvanas on retouching our shots in Photoshop. We were given a day with some models to shoot and then the rest of the time was learning about retouching the shots. Hopefully you can see the difference in my after shots.

Location Portraiture

2010-05-07T11:38:00.004-04:00

Simran our receptionist here at CDIA DC

TA/Equipment Room Manager Mark

Lily and our dog Snoopy at our new home

This week we worked on taking location portraits with Robert Severi. We were given the freedom to shoot in studio or on location as long as the environment tells us something about person.

Working with Speedlights

2010-04-30T11:04:00.000-04:00

Jump Lily, Jump!

Go McKenzie!

McKenzie's scary Bakugan thingy

This week we worked with Sean McCormick (seanmccormickphoto.com) on using flash units aka speedlights. Speedlights are light and extremely portable sources of light. The thing that surprised me about speedlights are the modifiers available for them. We had grids, soft boxes and beauty dishes for the speedlighting class. An advantage of using speedlights is the ability to use a higher shutter speeds to capture high speed action shots. Most speedlights also have the ability to pop multiple times during a long exposure which creates a neat little sequential shot like my second shot.

Interior and Architecture Photography

2010-04-23T20:45:00.000-04:00

Thomas Arledge (www.thomasarledge.com) lead us through interior and architectural photography. The majority of the time was spent on lighting and shooting interiors. It was great to be able to travel to different locations and shoot them. Here are a few shots that I took from our 3 locations.

This is our lounge at DC campus. Had some hot lights coming from the right of the picture.

Brightwood Bistro (www.brightwoodbistro.net) was gracious enough to open up their doors early and let us shoot their interior. I had to use HDR to get this image because of the strong sunlight coming through the windows.

We also had the opportunity to shoot at Courtland Towers (www.dittmarcompany.com/our-communities/courtland-towers), a beautiful luxury apartment complex. I also used HDR because of the windows were much brighter than the interior.

Studio Portraiture

2010-04-16T20:21:00.000-04:00

This week we Michael Cunningham came back to instruct us on studio portraiture. In this module we learned how to light using 4 classic lighting techniques; side, rembrandt, loop and butterfly. We also learned about high key and low key backgrounds, broad and short lighting and lighting ratios. Here are a few examples that I shot.

Mikela with rembrandt lighting.

Zanyansan doing what I call a Japanese pose with a low key background and short lighting.

Wes on a high key background and broad lighting.

Integrating Photoshop into the Creative Studio

2010-04-09T19:29:00.000-04:00

This week we worked on the module Integrating Photoshop into the Creative Studio with Tina Williams (www.tinaphoto.com). Throughout the module we focused on lighting and shooting different parts of an image and then bringing them all together in Photoshop. The key to doing this properly is to make sure nothing but the light moves. Any movement of the set or camera will make it awfully difficult to align the image in Photoshop. This is an example book/CD catalog shoot we did.

First we shot with the light directly on the book.

Here I'm raking the light to get the sparkles on the Santa book to show up.

Took out the front CD to get rid of the reflection/shadow it was casting on the back CD.

Put it all together in Photoshop and voila!

We also did a similar exercise with bags of chips. For our final assignment we placed an object into a scene and tried to make it look real.

Shooting w/ Sonny

2010-04-03T15:09:00.000-04:00

Instructor Sonny Senser offered anyone, who was interested, to join him at 6:30am at the Tidal Basin to shoot the cherry blossoms. Here are some of the shots I took with him.

Product and Stills

2010-04-02T14:21:00.002-04:00

For this Products and Stills class we had Miami based photographer Sonny Senser (www.sonnyphoto.com) as an instructor. In this class we learned how to control lighting to photograph metallic items, glass and items in mixed lighting. Sonny is a great instructor, he encouraged us to explore everything in the studio and he even brought out the medium format Mamiya for us to take a few shots.

My metallic item shoot.

Shooting a glass for white lines.

Shooting for black lines on glass.

My mixed lighting product shot.

Bod, courtesy of Wes.

Something I did for fun.

Panoramic Photomerge

2010-04-02T11:20:00.006-04:00

In Photoshop you can create panoramic images by stitching several sequential images together. Here you can see six sequential shots that I took of the Kennedy Center along the Potomac.Through Lightroom I selected the six images and merged them together in Photoshop. Photoshop automatically puts them together and blends the lines together . Below is the merged image.

By cropping the image you get a nice panoramic shot.

Photoshop 3 - HDR

2010-03-22T16:19:00.006-04:00

Today we were introduced to HDR in our Photoshop 3 module. HDR, High Dynamic Range, is a process where you take 3 of the same shots at different exposures and merge them into a single shot. Although I didn't have any single shots at different exposures, I created a pseudo HDR image by making virtual copies of one image at different exposures in Lightroom and then I merged them into Photomatix, the HDR software we are using. Below is an example of HDR.

At exposure -2.00

At exposure 0.00

At exposure +2.00

The HDR image.

Photoshop 2 Deliverable

2010-03-19T16:07:00.001-04:00

Today we had to turn in an image demonstrating our use of Photoshop techniques that we learned this week. Using the image I worked on earlier this week, I decided to composite a few more images using various masking techniques, clipped adjustment layers and an overlay blend for the sidewalk. Below you can see the image that I started out with and the final transformation.

Before

After

Spring is here!

2010-03-18T13:00:00.001-04:00

Temperatures are near 70 degrees today. It's a beautiful day for 4 photography and 1 graphic design student to have lunch on a bench near the canals of Georgetown.

Photoshop and the White House

2010-03-16T16:38:00.005-04:00

This week we are working on the Photoshop 2 module. We practiced selecting and masking images that we took today. I kind of meshed a few of my images together into one shot. Like my shoutout to the CDIA Boston campus?

Composition and Desigin

2010-03-12T14:32:00.010-05:00

This week we had Design and Composition with Robert Severi (www.robertseveri.com). Throughout the week we shot everything from circles and squares, bathrooms and street scenes. For our final deliverable assignment we had to shoot 15 images on a list of 9 themes; Tell Me a Story (3 shots), Eye of the Beholder (1 shot), Look Ma, No Eyes1 (1 shot), Faceless Portrait (1 shot), Through a Glass, Darkly (1 shot), Stakeout (1 shot), A Shot Per Day, WET (1 shot), How Ironic! (1 shot), This is How I Feel (1 shot). Here are a few of my shots for the final assignment.

Eye of the Beholder

Look Ma, No Eyes!
(I squated down and put the camera down between my legs and near the floor.)

Faceless Portrait

Through a Glass, Darkly

Stakeout

How Ironic!

Everyday I averaged about 500 shots. It was great being able to have Robert Severi break down my shots and tell me why things worked or didn't work in terms of design and composition.

CDIA Showcase - Photo Illustration

2010-03-10T19:39:00.004-05:00

Tonight Robert Severi gave a talk on photo illustration. Through the use of photographs and Photoshop, one is able to create an image that can be real or surreal. A key point to photo illustration is taking lots of pictures for components and making sure each component can be individually adjusted. Robert showed us a few photo illustrations which he created with previous CDIA classes as well as his own creations. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to photo illustration is coming up with ideas. Robert draws inspiration from artists like Salvador Dali, childhood memories and his imagination to create images. Great examples of photo illustration can be seen on Robert's website www.robertseveri.com.

Robert Severi behind the computer.

Fine Art Printing for Photographers

2010-03-05T09:38:00.007-05:00

This week we worked on fine art printing with David Sharpe (www.davidsharpe.com) as our instructor. For this module we selected up to six images that we've taken to process for a 13 x 19 luster or matte paper print made on an Epson 4800 printer. We did all our proof printing using 5 x 9 enhanced matte paper and Epson 3800 printers. The process to find the optimal print was very involved. For every change we made we had to make a print and compare it with the previous print and decide whether or not to make more adjustments. I averaged about 20 proof prints before I got an optimal print.

David Sharpe reviewing proofs.

The Epson 3800 printers we used for proof printing.

A series of proofs showing a change in brightness.

The 4 color prints are my 13 x 19 prints.

Photoshop I

2010-02-26T13:03:00.007-05:00

Photoshop is an amazingly powerful tool to any photographer. After a week with Robert instructing our class, I feel like I can do almost anything with images and yet we've only scratched the surface of what Photoshop can do. Here are a few images that I've put together this week in Photoshop.

This photo of Mikela, James and Alex was taken in my Intro to Light class. The lighting is coming from above using an umbrella.

I lightened up the original image, touched up any major blemishes on the faces and added a background image of the sun rising that I took on my trip to NYC.

Here is another shot of James that I took during my Intro to Lighting class.

I decided to replace James' face with a mannequin's, gave him John's glasses and eyes and put in a background shot of Georgetown.

Photoshop is truly amazing!

CDIA Showcase - Developing a Style and Portfolio

2010-02-24T20:35:00.003-05:00

Tonight's CDIA showcase featured three photographers specializing in different areas of photography and a photo editor. Vincent Ricardel, a portrait photographer, Morgan Howarth, architectural, Sean McCormick, a travel photographer and Lauren Stockbower, a photo editor, sat on a panel to discuss style and portfolio development. Chris Alvanas, the director of photography here at the DC campus, moderated the discussion.

We started out by discussing digital portfolios versus printed book portfolios. With the advent of digital photography, it is easy to have an online portfolio. However, a photo online may not necessarily translate to a good printed photo. Many clients will still want to see a printed book of your work to be sure that your photos are high quality before they hire you for a job.

After discussing portfolios we moved on to the topic of style. Each panelist stressed that it is important to be consistent with your style so you don't alienate and confuse people reviewing your work. While you may strive for a certain style, ultimately it can be influenced by clients, equipment and situations that you encounter.

Having access to working professional photographers is a great asset to the students here at CDIA. The experience and knowledge that they shared is truly insightful.

From left to right; Chris Alvanas, Morgan Howarth, Vincent Ricardel, Sean McCormick, and Lauren Stockbower.

The crowd

Intro to Photoshop

2010-02-22T16:41:00.005-05:00

This week we will be working with Adobe Photoshop CS4 with Robert Rathe (www.robertrathe.com) as our instructor. Photoshop is a powerful image editor which allows us to get the best results possible. Today we played with some basic tools and learned about masking. We were given an image of an old man to practice masking. Masking is a way of adjusting a specific area of an image.

This is the original image we were given to play with.

In layers you can see the areas I masked and what type of adjustments were applied.

This is what I came up with for today.

Wedding Shoot - Other FT Class

2010-02-19T10:32:00.005-05:00

While on break today I got to see the other FT class shooting part of their assignment for Wedding Photography. They had 6 couples to shoot. First, they started off in the studio where the brides and grooms were getting their hair and makeup done. Afterward, they went to a location to shoot more shots. Later they came back in the studio for reception shots. We volunteered to fill in as background people when they came back for the reception shoot.

Paparazi!

Looking good!

Here are some of the models.

Smile!

There was even cake! I had a few slices, it was delicious.

The final shot.

The Bag Shot

2010-02-18T16:07:00.006-05:00

Today we had our "Bag Shot" assignment. Below is a description of the assignment.

Each member of each studio working group will take turns art directing, assisting and shooting a "Bag Shot", based on the following scenario.

Someone has dropped some type of bag. The contents of the bag have spilled out onto a surface. Based on the bag, the contents, the surface and the lighting, you will tell us something about the person who dropped the bag, or the circumstances under which the bag was dropped. Please keep in mind that a studio photographer has total control over (and responsibility for) every detail in the frame. We suggest that you imagine the character or the situation first, then plan and assemble the props and background materials you will need to create you visual narrative. You are restricted to the use of a single light source only.

Our group initially thought about doing a girl who was totally wasted in the restroom and has all her items from her bag strewn out across the floor.

I decided to go for a simpler shot of a girl putting on makeup.

After a hard day of thinking as to how to shoot the assignment, I finally settled on shooting a photographer tripping over a light stand in the studio. TA Dave was a great sport in filling in as the unfortunate photographer. Tomorrow we process our photos and share with the class.

Working with Strobe Lighting

2010-02-17T16:20:00.009-05:00

Day 2 of Introduction to Lighting. Today we learned about flash/strobe lighting and things to modify the lights like soft boxes, umbrellas and grates. The strobe lights that we use have power packs which we can use to adjust the power and control the amount of light emitted by the strobe. The power packs we have can fire up to 3 strobes. We attached PocketWizards to the hotshoe of our cameras to trigger the strobe lights.

Dave and Erik explaining how to use the power pack and strobe lights.

On to modifiers! Umbrellas, softboxes and grates oh my!

James and Mikela taken with a softbox.

I took this with the umbrella above Mikhaela, James and Alejandra.

James and his future wife just using a strobe and reflector.

Learning to control light is essential to becoming a great photographer. Tomorrow we have to shoot a group assignment called the "Dropped Bag." We can only use one light to shoot an image where a bag is dropped and the contents have spilled out on the floor. From the contents and the surface of the floor we should be able to tell a story of who's bag it is and why it was dropped. It'll be interesting to see what the groups come up with.

Intro to Light - Day 1

2010-02-17T08:39:00.012-05:00

After a week off from classes because of the snow, I was eager to start classes again. Today we started Introduction to Light with Michael Cunningham. We talked about the difference about ambient/available light and continuous/hot light and how to use a light meter to measure the amount of light falling on a subject. We then went to a area with lots of windows to shoot in available light. While shooting in ambient/available light, Michael showed us how to use reflectors to bounce light back into a subject to give it more light. After taking turns shooting our classmates we went into the studio to shoot with continuous/hot light. There were several stations setup where we could shoot various objects and students.

Michael and Erik demonstrating how to use a light meter.

Hot/Continuous Light

Various modifiers for hot lights.

Michael and David demonstrating the use of reflectors in ambient light.

John shot with ambient light.

Classmate James sitting in for a portrait shot.

John holding the reflector to bounce light to light up the other side of James's face.

CDIA Commercial Shoot

2010-02-15T11:37:00.014-05:00

There were no classes today at CDIA because of President's Day. However, Gaston Lacombe, a CDIA alum, was shooting a CDIA commercial on campus. I joined to watch them as they prepared for the shoot. Eventually I got used as one of the photographers with TA David Phillipich, and FT student Caroline Spacee.

I believe the commercial is supposed to start off in a video game and then it pans out to see a kid playing the video game and then it pans out to see photographers taking pictures of the kid playing the video game and then it pans out to see a video editor editing video of the photographers taking pictures of the kid playing the video game. Get it? The commercial is supposed to show off all the departments here at CDIA.

Erik Eucke taking light measurements.

The video gamer taking instructions from Gaston. Guru Chris Alvanas observing.

Taking some shots with the gamer facing the camera.

Taking shots with the gamer sitting and facing the camera. TA David Phillipich helping out with the reflector.

TA David Phillipich doing what he does best with the camera.

FT student Caroline Space with a color checker card.

Put David and Caroline together and you have magic!

I eventually got shot holding a light meter and then together with David and Caroline. Being on the set was a lot of fun and also a lot of work. It's amazing what is needed to achieve perfect lighting and composition. Everyone was very good natured and very open to other people's creative opinions. I can't wait to see the final product.

Classes Cancelled for the Week

2010-02-10T20:15:00.002-05:00

This dastardly weather has managed to cancel classes for the rest of the week. I really miss my class and instructors. Can't wait for next week. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything crucial yet.

Blizzard Part II

2010-02-10T09:46:00.003-05:00

Another 8 - 10 inches expected today. The winds are fierce and the snow is just as fierce. There is no stop to this weather and the weather has stopped everything else.

Classes Cancelled 2010-02-10

2010-02-09T20:09:00.002-05:00

Classes are cancelled again as we are experiencing Snowmagedon Part II. Another 10+ inches. I don't expect to be back in school till next week. Till then I guess I'll just have to be content with shooting stuff around my apartment.

Day Off @ Brookside Garden

2010-02-09T17:13:00.014-05:00

Today me and my friend Terry visited Brookside Garden in Silver Spring. We both had the day off. The Park was pretty much abandoned except for a few employees digging the place out. As we wandered around the park looking for stuff to shoot, a park employee informed us that the park is closed and that we should not be in there. Here are a few pictures I managed to take before we left them to their digging and plowing. Nothing really special. I wished I had Lightroom to post process these pics. It's amazing what a little Lightroom love can do!

Classes Cancelled 2010-02-09

2010-02-08T21:10:00.004-05:00

School is closed again and we're expecting another 10-20 inches on top of the 20+ inches we already got. I'm doubtful that we'll have class at all this week. :(

Day Off Because of Snow

2010-02-08T21:05:00.002-05:00

Because of all the snow, classes are cancelled. I took this opportunity to travel to the Strathmore Mansion this morning to take some pictures. The Strathmore Mansion is usually filled with sledders flying down the long hills whenever there is a snow day. However, there was nobody around this morning. All I could find was this lonely bare tree with a set of lonely tracks. How sad.

Classes Cancelled 2010-02-08

2010-02-07T19:11:00.005-05:00

Darn, no classes for tomorrow.

Big Dig, Small Pot

2010-02-07T08:46:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I dug out my car with this pot. It took over 3 hours but my ride is free. Now I have to dig out my wife's car. I'm really interested in seeing what the Monday morning commute to CDIA will be like.

Creative Process Workshop (CPW)

2010-02-05T12:05:00.008-05:00

Viewing photographs in the Lightroom gallery

Tina Williams and Chris Alvanas

After learning about sensor cleaning we had a Creative Process Workshop (CPW). CPW is a time for the classes to get together and view and critique each others work with a panel of instructors. There are currently 2 full time photography classes here at the DC campus. Our instructor panel consisted of Tina Williams, who was teaching the other class photo illustration, and Chris Alvanas, who taught my Camera Workflow 2 class.

It's great to be able to see what other people have done and how they did it. I think feedback is one of the greatest ways to improve your work and also a way to help other people improve. I'm looking forward to more of these workshops to help me grow as a photographer.

Sensor Cleaning

2010-02-05T10:46:00.004-05:00

Today we went over how to clean the camera chamber and sensor. Sensor cleaning is pretty risky business because once you wreck it there's no reversing the damage but if you're getting dust specs in your images you have to clean it. In order to clean the sensor you have to lock up the mirror to expose it and swab it with a pec pad. Sounds easy but it scares the heck out of me.

Showcase: Gigapan

2010-02-05T08:11:00.004-05:00

Last night Jim Webb (www.snacksize.com), a web desgin instructor here at the DC campus, presented a showcase on the Gigapan device (www.gigapan.org). The Gigapan is a device that you mount to a tripod and allows you to take multiple shots and then stitch them into a large panoramic picture. The results are very impressive. You can zoom in very close to any spot on a picture and see very fine details. The cool thing is that we will have access to the Gigapan for our use here at CDIA.

Visit gigapan.org to see pictures made using this device.

More Tricks with Lightroom 2

2010-02-03T14:27:00.005-05:00

Today we learned about a few more tools to "tweak" our pictures. After adjusting white balance, exposure and color, we used the brush tool to mask areas where we wanted to have specific changes happen. Then we used a gradient tool to make a gradual change through the image. Here is a shot that I tweaked with what I learned today.

Before

After

I used the brush tool to mask the box and then desaturated the color of the box. Then I applied a gradient exposure vertically across the picture.

Basic Editing in Lightroom

2010-02-02T16:11:00.009-05:00

After reviewing some basic functions in Lightroom this morning, we imported our shadows and reflections pictures that we took yesterday. We shared our 2 best shots with the class. These are what I consider my best 2 shots.

After lunch we went out to shoot some color pictures. With the color pictures that we shot, we imported them into Lightroom and learned how "tweak" them. Here is an example of a picture that I shot and then "tweaked".

Before

After

Camera Workflow 2

2010-02-01T19:43:00.006-05:00

After a week of learning all our camera functions with Michael Cunningham, we were introduced to Adobe Lightroom 2 in the module Camera Workflow 2. Chris Alvanas, the director of the photography program in Washington, DC, is our instructor this week.

Lightroom 2 is an Adobe program that photographers use to manage their photographs. Today we were introduced to the interface and learned to do set up a few things like metadata, keywords and a other few preferences. Lightroom is an especially powerful program for managing and indexing your photographs.

Through Lightroom we were able to display all the data that is embedded in the RAW files. Embedded data includes things like, camera and lens uses, lens settings, camera settings, flash use or not, time, date and it just goes on!

After lunch we went out to shoot our next assignment, shadows and reflections. Tomorrow we will practice importing them from our memory cards on to our portable hard drives through Lightroom. Here are a couple of shots that I took.

Week 1 Done!

2010-01-29T13:21:00.005-05:00

Throughout the week we continued to learn how to use all the camera functions in order to complete a 10 item list to shoot and our 50 faces project. The 10 item list included shooting the same subject at various ISO, shutter speeds and apertures. The 50 faces project was left entirely up to us. I decided to shoot shoes.

At the end of the week the instructor and TA's evaluated and critiqued our work and we had to choose our 2 best images to share with the class. Above are my 2 best shots. The top one is a shot of the sky with a row of Georgetown shops at the bottom which I captured in Program mode. The second shot is from my 50 faces project where I shot the 50 faces of shoes. I call this one "Old Leather Face." Next week we'll start Camera Work Flow 2.

It was great having Michael Cunningham as an instructor. He gave us a wealth of knowledge on techniques and the industry.

Next week we'll start Camera Work Flow 2 with Chris Alvanas.

Basics of Photography

2010-01-26T19:03:00.010-05:00

Today was a very busy day. Michael started out our day with the quote "In the absence of light there can be no photograph"... As photographers we need a strong foundation of light and how to control it. We talked about elements that affect our photography; exposure, aperture, shutter speed and white balance.

We learned how to use the meters in our cameras to measure light exposure and how to make adjustments get the correct exposure. We talked about Depth of Field (DOF), ISO settings, aperture priority, shutter speed priority and program modes. Then came the fun part, taking our cameras out and shooting various objects at different settings. We were given the freedom to roam outside the classroom to capitalize on our creativity.

Below are my shots in the equipment room at different white balance settings.

Towards the end of class we were given a list of ten tasks to accomplish by the end of the week. I really have my work cut out for me.

Day 1, The Introduction

2010-01-26T08:06:00.000-05:00

January 25, 2010

Today is my first day at CDIA. Finally! Our classroom was full of all types of people from all walks of life. We had recent high school graduates, people from the world of finance, people who are passionate about photography and wanted to explore it on a deeper level. People from as far as Thailand came just to attend this class in Washington, DC. It's interesting to note that last year only 3 students were in the full time photography program. This year there are 2 classes of about 18 students in each class. What an increase!

We were introduced to our instructor for Camera Workflow 1, noted photographer, Michael Cunningham (www.mcphotog.com) and our TA's Erik and Dave. Throughout the morning we talked about class procedures, equipment, photography today. In the afternoon we were introduced to the Mac computers and did a few basic procedures like formatting our portable drives and setting them up for our workflow. We also played around with Adobe Lightroom and setup a few preferences.

Throughout the day the Michael, Erik and Dave were quite adamant about being open and encouraged us to ask questions, to take advantage of all the people at CDIA. This open, creative, nurturing environment is one of the things I love about being here at CDIA. Can't wait till tomorrow.