El Dave Photography

Today I wanted to give a little behind the scenes peek at how my shots are set up. Typically, I use one of two setups, depending on what I am trying to accomplish. The first is the lightbox, which I have talked about before, but can be seen again below:


The second, and the one I tend to use most often, is the kitchen stovetop. Whenever I need minimal lighting or need to start a fire or use the smoke machine, I have to use the stove, due to it having a single lamp, being fireproof, and having the vent fan so the smoke doesn't get out of hand. Plus, having the sink nearby means that if things get out of hand and I end up burning the building down, I have water nearby.

As for today's setup, it's probably easier to just show you


EXIF to the wall.

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.4 sec (2/5)
Aperture:	f/5
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:07:26 12:17:10
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Manual
Date and Time (Original):	2008:07:26 11:37:09
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:07:26 11:37:09
Shutter Speed:	86634/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	3210.946 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	3230.241 dpi
Exposure Mode:	Manual
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	1880 pixels
Image Height:	2816 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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Taken from the anime Patlabor, the Griffon was a secret military project. Since I fell asleep during the movie and have never actually seen the show, I can't really tell you more about it. If the show is half as cool as this figure, I'd love to check it out!

My inspiration is still really low, but tonight I was determined to work through it, even if it meant my untimely demise. Probably from choking on a small piece of plastic from a toy that refused to cooperate for the camera and, in my rage, shoved into my frothing mouth to be obliterated.

Little known fact: All photographers froth at the mouth.

After 40+ exposures, this is the best I could get. What I wanted was to super impose Griffon on a city (like I did with Black Ox. Not sure why I didn't blog that one) and have him reaching down towards you. When that didn't work out, I tried another pose, then another. Finally, in desperation, I turned him how he is in the picture.

Processing in Photoshop involved making him look as "painterly" as possible without going in and digitally painting over the photo. Lots of contrast tweaks, color overlays, and a glowing robo eye. All in all, I'm really happy with how it turned out, even if I'm not happy with how much trouble it was.

And that digitally painting over the photo? Yeah, I definitely want to try that. Just need to learn how to paint first...

Your weapon is EXIF.

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	5 sec (5)
Aperture:	f/5
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	1/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:07:22 22:22:52
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:07:22 22:13:39
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:07:22 22:13:39
Shutter Speed:	-142170/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	3210.946 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	3230.241 dpi
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2816 pixels
Image Height:	1880 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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Guess who has photographer's block?

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