"Think of it, Batman. To never again walk on a summer's day with the hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh yes, I'd kill for that!"
Mr. Freeze's biography, courtesy of the Batman Wiki:
When Victor Fries was a child he made a hobby of freezing animals to death. Worried by this behavior, his parents sent him to a strict boarding school where Victor felt outcast and became depressed. However, when he met and befriended a young woman named Nora, the two fell in love and later married. But their happiness was short-lived: Nora was diagnosed with a fatal disease (known as MacGregor's Syndrome in Batman and Robin ), and Fries, sickened with sorrow, attempted to save her using cryogenic technology. However, the experiment went terribly wrong and Fries' equipment malfunctioned, consuming him and his lab in an explosion of ice.
Victor somehow survived, but now his body could only survive at sub-zero temperatures, and Nora's condition was now even more serious. In an effort to continue his wife's treatment, he constructed a suit which would now protect him in his altered state. Calling himself Mr. Zero, he began to rob several banks to earn money. He was eventually thwarted by Batman and Robin, but struggled on.
After faking his death, Gotham City believed he was dead. During this time, Fries rearranged his costume and returned, calling himself Mr. Freeze. To this day he continues to fight Batman and Robin.
Mr. Freeze was produced in 2004 by Mattel, so he may be hard to come by.
Yes, yes I know. This is an almost carbon copy of this Mr. Freeze shot. All I can say is, I know a good idea when I see one. When Chicago gets any amount of snow, the plows come out. What do they do with said snow? Pile it into ever larger mounds that take months to completely melt. What do I do with said snow? Pile my action figures in and take pictures.
Setup is exactly the same as the previous photo. Simply find a good place for the figure to stand, and then angle the lens upwards so he looks larger.
In Photoshop, all I had to do was desaturate the Cyan pallet, because his skin is almost radioactive in its intensity. Seriously, it's bad when your skin is more blue than the sky. With all the money and diamonds Mr. Freeze has stolen you'd think he could buy some sleeves?
Blah, blah frosty chill of your EXIF:
| Camera: | Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi |
| Exposure: | 1/4000 sec |
| Aperture: | f/3.5 |
| Focal Length: | 18 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 800 |
| Exposure Bias: | 0 EV |
| Flash: | Off |
| File Size: | 5.2 MB |
| File Type: | JPEG |
| MIME Type: | image/jpeg |
| Image Width: | 2592 |
| Image Height: | 3888 |
| Encoding Process: | Baseline DCT, Huffman coding |
| Bits Per Sample: | 8 |
| Color Components: | 3 |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop 7.0 |
| Date and Time (Modified): | 2009:02:11 05:49:15 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-sited |
| Exposure Program: | Aperture-priority AE |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2009:01:23 09:27:05 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2009:01:23 09:27:05 |
| Metering Mode: | Multi-segment |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 4433.295325 dpi |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 4453.608247 dpi |
| Custom Rendered: | Normal |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto |
| White Balance: | Manual |
| Scene Capture Type: | Standard |
| Compression: | JPEG (old-style) |
| Global Angle: | 30 |
| Global Altitude: | 30 |
| Copyright Flag: | False |
| Photoshop Quality: | 12 |
| Photoshop Format: | Standard |
| Progressive Scans: | 3 Scans |
| XMPToolkit: | XMP toolkit 2.8.2-33, framework 1.5 |
| About: | uuid:bc1c1625-f830-11dd-b133-9675696e24fe |
| Color Transform: | YCbCr |
Be good,
-Dave
|
Today was my first chance to get out and take pictures where the temperature was above freezing, so who should I grab... Pyro perhaps? Azrael with his fire swords?
No, I reach for Mr. Freeze and plunk him down in the snow and ice.
Mr. Freeze, real name Dr. Victor Fries (pronounced as Victor "Frees" or "Freeze"), is a DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Batman. Created by Bob Kane, he first appeared in Batman #121 (February 1959).
Freeze is a scientist who must wear a cryogenic suit in order to survive, and bases his crimes around a "cold" or "ice" theme, complete with a "cold gun" that freezes its targets solid. In the most common variation of his origin story, he is a former cryogenics expert who suffered an industrial accident while attempting to treat his terminally ill wife, Nora.
This could not have been easier. All I had to do was place Mr. Freeze in one of the big piles of snow around our parking lot, angle the camera up to get what little sunlight we have and snap.
Photoshop was equally simple. A quick Auto Levels and Desaturate by -50 and he's done!
With as easy as this was, I kind of feel like I'm cheating.
My name is EXIF. Learn it well. For it's the chilling sound of your doom.
| Camera: | Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi |
| Exposure: | 1/4000 sec |
| Aperture: | f/4 |
| Focal Length: | 30 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 800 |
| Exposure Bias: | 0/3 EV |
| Flash: | Flash did not fire |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop 7.0 |
| Date and Time: | 2009:01:23 08:48:01 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-Sited |
| Exposure Program: | Aperture priority |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2009:01:23 09:25:08 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2009:01:23 09:25:08 |
| Shutter Speed: | 784190/65536 |
| Metering Mode: | Pattern |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 4433.295 dpi |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 4453.608 dpi |
| White Balance: | Manual |
| Compression: | JPEG |
| Image Width: | 3888 pixels |
| Image Height: | 2592 pixels |
Be good,
-Dave
|
2:05 PM by
El Dave
, under
bane,
dc
I have a weakness for the old Pulp-Era heroes: grizzled men who grab hold of the world with both hands and never let go. Bane was created as a modern version of Doc Savage, and I couldn't be happier with him. Though he's often used as the "heavy" in a story, Bane is fiercely intelligent and a cunning strategist. He's the only villain to not only take Batman, but force Bruce Wayne to pass the mantle on to another person. With a luchador-esque mask. Rock!
Shooting him was just a simple setup and click with him just standing in front of the backdrop. Color correction in Photoshop made him more interesting by combining a sepia overlay with the cool blues of the original photo and tweaking the contrast for drama. Really simple, but I am pretty happy about it.
We can't stop here, this is EXIF country!
| Camera: | Fujifilm FinePixS2Pro |
| Exposure: | 0.333 sec (1/3) |
| Aperture: | f/1.8 |
| Focal Length: | 50 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 100 |
| Exposure Bias: | 0/100 EV |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Date and Time: | 2008:01:02 16:00:49 |
| Tag::TIFF::0x882A: | -6, -6 |
| Exposure Program: | Normal |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2008:01:02 15:58:57 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2008:01:02 15:58:57 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1584963/1000000 |
| Brightness: | -166/100 |
| Metering Mode: | Center Weighted Average |
| Light Source: | Daylight |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Sensing Method: | One-chip colour area sensor |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto bracket |
| White Balance: | Manual |
| Focal Length In 35mm Film: | 75 |
| Saturation: | High saturation |
| Compression: | JPEG |
| Image Width: | 1480 pixels |
| Image Height: | 2022 pixels |
Be good,
-Dave
|
I've shot Azrael pretty regularly since I found him. So much so that I'm afraid I go to the "Azrael Well" too often, and that's one of the things I don't like about myself, creatively speaking. I find some technique I like and I do it until it becomes habitual, then I get bored and stop. It happened with painting wargaming miniatures and I'm determined to not let it happen with my photography.
That said, however, this photo sums up the tricks I rely on for interesting toy shots, namely smoke and fire. If one fails, the other invariably picks up the visual slack. First, I tried the old "coming out of the smoke" trick, but the flashlights I use to illuminate Azrael's wrist blades created light beams in the smoke that looked really strange. Then I tried the old "coming out of the fire" trick, which looked even more strange because here this guy is, strolling out of an inferno with his wrist swords on fire, but they seem to provide a suspiciously small amount of illumination.
So I did what any budding photographer would do, I created a smaller fire in front and used it to frame the bottom of the shot. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have preferred the front flames to be roughly waist-high (on Azrael, not up to my waist), but that's hindsight for you. Everything looks easy once it's too late to change it.
Hold <- then -> and press 'A' for EXIF Data:
| Camera: | Fujifilm FinePixS2Pro |
| Exposure: | 0.5 sec (1/2) |
| Aperture: | f/1.8 |
| Focal Length: | 50 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 100 |
| Exposure Bias: | 1 EV |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Date and Time: | 2007:12:21 13:33:56 |
| Tag::TIFF::0x882A: | -6, -6 |
| Exposure Program: | Normal |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2007:12:21 13:32:05 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2007:12:21 13:32:05 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/1 |
| Brightness: | -116/100 |
| Metering Mode: | Center Weighted Average |
| Light Source: | Daylight |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Sensing Method: | One-chip colour area sensor |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto bracket |
| White Balance: | Manual |
| Focal Length In 35mm Film: | 75 |
| Saturation: | High saturation |
| Compression: | JPEG |
| Image Width: | 2024 pixels |
| Image Height: | 3024 pixels |
Be good,
-Dave
|
If you haven't done so yet, please go pick up Mark Millar's Superman: Red Son. You'll be doing yourself a favor, regardless of whether or not you like Superman!
With Superman, I wanted to try and recreate a more painted look, a combination of soviet-era propaganda and the glaring face of 1984's Big Brother. I like to think I managed the painted style, but I don't know about the propaganda angle. Maybe I'll have to re-edit the thing to include a party slogan at the bottom. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it!
EXIF data is as follows:
| Camera: | Fujifilm FinePixS2Pro |
| Exposure: | 0.5 sec (1/2) |
| Aperture: | f/1.8 |
| Focal Length: | 50 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 100 |
| Exposure Bias: | 1 EV |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Date and Time: | 2007:12:20 11:31:15 |
| Tag::TIFF::0x882A: | -6, -6 |
| Exposure Program: | Normal |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2007:12:20 11:16:47 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2007:12:20 11:16:47 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/1 |
| Brightness: | -116/100 |
| Metering Mode: | Center Weighted Average |
| Light Source: | Daylight |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Sensing Method: | One-chip colour area sensor |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto bracket |
| White Balance: | Manual |
| Focal Length In 35mm Film: | 75 |
| Saturation: | High saturation |
| Compression: | JPEG |
| Image Width: | 812 pixels |
| Image Height: | 812 pixels |
Be good,
-Dave
|
5:24 AM by
El Dave
, under
dc,
omac
I keep trying to move away from relying on the smoke machine, because, for some reason, I see it as a crutch for me. It makes it so simple to have really engaging shots with lots of action and motion without much effort! Because of this, I've been trying to mix up my photos with some using the smoke machine and some not using it, and I have to admit that I am almost universally unhappy with anything that doesn't have smoke or fog in it.
Such was the case with OMAC. It wasn't until I decided to sleep on it before making a decision that I realized that I really was happy with this one and should stop whining ;-)
The setup was: OMAC on the stove with the stove-top bulb on. I used a black light for the glow and a laser pointer for his eye glow. Crop him down, crop out his bent sword hand, overlay the circuitry pattern and clean up the colors, Save As..., Flickr, Blog. Nothing to it!
EXIF Data begins...now:
| Camera: | Fujifilm FinePixS2Pro |
| Exposure: | 0.05 sec (1/20) |
| Aperture: | f/2.4 |
| Focal Length: | 50 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 100 |
| Exposure Bias: | -1 EV |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Date and Time: | 2007:12:17 20:24:58 |
| Tag::TIFF::0x882A: | -6, -6 |
| Exposure Program: | Normal |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2007:12:17 20:10:39 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2007:12:17 20:10:39 |
| Shutter Speed: | 4321928/1000000 |
| Brightness: | 133/100 |
| Metering Mode: | Center Weighted Average |
| Light Source: | Daylight |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 630 dpc |
| Sensing Method: | One-chip colour area sensor |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto bracket |
| White Balance: | Manual |
| Focal Length In 35mm Film: | 75 |
| Saturation: | High saturation |
| Compression: | JPEG |
| Image Width: | 1464 pixels |
| Image Height: | 2024 pixels |
Be good,
-Dave
|
