El Dave Photography

"Meditation brings you wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom."
-Prince Gautama Siddharta

This time of year always makes me stop and reflect on all the things I have and how thankful I am to have them. I am thankful for my family and friends who love me regardless of how childish I can be. I am thankful for the opportunities I have and will continue to have to improve myself. I am thankful for everyone who visits this blog, even if you're stopping by because you saw my photo on Google Image Search.

Gen here is thankful that he is one of the only characters in the Street Fighter series that can switch fighting styles in the middle of a match.

This was taken in the forest preserve across the street in afternoon sunlight. SOTA Toys has done such a great job on these figures and I'm constantly amazed by the poses I can get Gen into. Almost any martial art stance you can think of, these toys can do. The paintjob is great and the variety of extra hands (along with an extra "angry" head) just further expand what you can do with him. Mine came with a pretty wicked mold line around his head, but otherwise, he's one of my favorite figures. Next time I have cash burning a hole in my pocket, the Street Fighter figures are high on that list.

Cleanup in Photoshop was extremely straightforward. Hit Gen with an Auto Levels, then add a Gaussian Blur to smooth out the edges and make the lighting look more natural. One of the things I want to work on is reducing the amount of time I spend in Photoshop, and a big part of that is just taking better pictures to begin with.

Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?

Fool, now you face my EXIF technique!

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture:	f/5
Focal Length:	42 mm
ISO Speed:	400
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:	2008:11:27 11:16:42
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:11:27 11:52:47
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:11:27 11:52:47
Shutter Speed:	522046/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	3888 pixels
Image Height:	2592 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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On Flickr there is a group called Plastic 52, which is a photo project where you choose a toy from your collection and take a photo of it every week for a year. I have already completed the project once with my wide assortment of Iron Man figures, and wanted to try again using my vinyl Uglydoll named Wage. Because I've been falling behind, I'm going to include the project here as a way to keep me on track and go a little bit into how the shot was done.

This picture features Wage (the orange one on the left) and Wedgehead, who is buried in the leaves. My main goal with these Plastic 52 shots is to try and work different creative muscles than I normally use. Somehow, taking shots of burning alleyways with lots of knives and lasers doesn't seem appropriate with Wage.

I wanted to get a cute autumn shot with Wage, and playing in the leaves definitely fits the bill. Working with my beautiful assistant, we set about gathering leaves and covering Wedgehead. The only problem we ran into was that the leaves we had gathered were from the same spot we were taking the shot, so there weren't any leaves in the background. Sure, we could have just put a rake or something in the back, but it just didn't look right.

Processing in Photoshop was thankfully simple. I tweaked the colors a little and added some film grain, and that was it.

With as easy as this shot was, I'm left wondering why I spend so long on my studio shots...

If you can read this, you are EXIF:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	400
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:	2008:11:17 14:01:12
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:11:02 13:55:22
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:11:02 13:55:22
Shutter Speed:	500948/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
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

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As I've mentioned before, I'm terrible at capturing motion in my photos. Not simply because I'm using action figures (which aren't the liveliest of subjects), but because I just couldn't wrap my head around what capturing something in motion actually meant. As part of the homework I gave myself, I started studying sports photography and just what it means to capture that moment. The split second just before an athlete explodes into action or the fraction of a second where they are on the move.

Applying that concept to toys is always going to be problematic. I went into the studio knowing what I wanted, but was unsure how best to get it. Posing Thanos is always a simple, pleasing task because he only has two poses; standing there with his arms down or standing there with his arms raised. Oh sure, there is a wide variety of subtleties to be found there. Move his head to the side, turn his body either towards or away from the camera, raise one arm or the other.

With my pose selected, I tried different backgrounds and lighting. In the end, I settled on a tracing lamp stood on its side, just behind his shoulder. This little lamp comes in handy, due to its small size and diffused light. It has become my "go to" lamp whenever I'm having trouble lighting something. Next time you're in your local art store, ask where the lightboxes and tracing lamps are.

Before I get into how I processed in Photoshop, let's review a little of Thanos's history, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Thanos is born on Titan, a moon of the planet Saturn to Mentor and Sui-San. Due to a genetic quirk, Thanos is born with the Deviant gene and as such resembles the Deviants — the Eternals' cousin race — more than his own people. Although treated fairly by his race, Thanos is mindful of his appearance and becomes distant, only keeping company with his brother Eros (Starfox). Thanos matures to adulthood, and via the use of bionics and mysticism augments his abilities to become the most powerful of the Titanian-born Eternals, and is often referred to as the Mad Titan.

Bitter at being an outsider, Thanos becomes fascinated with nihilism, embarking on his quest to "please" death, and begins by conducting a nuclear bombardment of Titan that kills millions of his race. Thanos' mother is thought to have died during the bombardment, but years later it is discovered that he kidnaps and then dissects her. He later travels to Earth, and prior to landing his vessel destroys a nearby car to prevent anyone from becoming aware of his existence. Unknown to Thanos, two of the family members in the vehicle survive — the father's spirit is preserved by the Titanian cosmic entity Chronos and is given a new form as Drax the Destroyer while the daughter is found by Thanos' father Mentor and is raised to become the heroine Moondragon.

Taking Thanos into Photoshop, I used a radial blur to bring the lamp light out and spill over the figure. Because of the low F-stop setting, Thanos's head and face were not in focus, so the radial blur gave the illusion of movement. Now, instead of just being out of focus, your eyes follow the lines of the light, which point straight out of the image and into your face, while his hand seems to be swinging in from the other side. All that was left was to do a little cleanup of some of the light that spilled where I didn't want it, and then add the color to his eyes.

Basically, I'm very happy with this one.

Wielder of the reality-altering EXIF Gems

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	15 sec (15)
Aperture:	f/20
Focal Length:	49 mm
ISO Speed:	100
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:	2008:11:06 20:22:34
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:11:06 21:05:43
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:11:06 21:05:43
Shutter Speed:	-256041/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
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

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Big learning experience today. I discovered quite a bit about Mr. Bobby "Iceman" Drake that I didn't know, found out what an "Omega-Level Mutant" is, and finally embraced the use of noise in my photography. Not noise like acoustics, but noise like, well we'll get to that in a bit.

First of all, the obligatory biography courtesy of Wikipedia:

Iceman possesses the power to radically decrease the temperature of ambient water vapor in his immediate environment, thereby freezing it into ice. In this manner he is able to quickly form a great variety of ice structures, including projectiles, shields, ladders, baseball bats, etc. He often makes ice slides which form rapidly beneath and behind his feet, pushing him along the slick surface at high speeds. Originally, Iceman's own body temperature would lower dramatically when his powers were active, reaching -105°F within a few tenths of a second (now his body usually converts to organic ice). Iceman is immune to sub-zero temperatures; he is also able to perceive the thermal energy level of objects around him. Because cold is the absence of heat, Iceman does not actually 'emanate' cold; rather, he decreases thermal energy. As mentioned by writer Mike Carey, Iceman is an "an Omega level mutant . . . [and] has powers that can influence the ecosystem of the entire world."

As a long-time fan of the X-Men, I've read my fair share of comic books about super-powered mutants. While Iceman was always a character I had a fondness for, I have to confess to not knowing much about him. Basically, if it wasn't Colossus or Nightcrawler, I didn't really care. After spending a little time playing with this little Iceman figure, I am definitely interested in reading more about him.

The toy itself, like all of Hasbro's Superhero Squad line is adorable. I feel like the crazy overbearing aunt and just want to pinch their little cheeks! Is that weird? That seems weird.

All I'm saying is, I like the toys.

This photo of Iceman was taken on Election Night '08, hanging out with friends and waiting for the election results to come in. This figure was standing on a computer desk, casually backlit by a nearby lamp, and just begging to be shot. Because I did not have my tripod, I lowered the ISO, which is something I usually resist doing. Grain, or Noise, is something I don't normally like in my photos. Other people use it to great effect, but I've never been so fortunate. This time, however, due to whatever combination of factors, the bokeh'd background is noisy, but the figure itself is pretty smooth.

Processing in Photoshop consisted of adjusting the levels and contrast to highlight his translucency, then adding the bloom effect that I add to everything, and then really cranking up the contrast with an Urban Acid-like tweak that I'm really happy about.

Tall, frosty glass of EXIF:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.2 sec (1/5)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	400
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:	2008:11:05 17:20:26
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:11:04 22:12:23
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:11:04 22:12:23
Shutter Speed:	152170/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
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

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Out of all the fighting games I've played (and there have been many), the Soulcalibur series is far and away my favorite. Sure, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken will always have a special place in my heart, but they'll never replace Soulcalibur.

A little background on the series, courtesy of Wikipedia:
The mystical sword of the legends, the "Soul Edge", ended in the hands of the dread pirate Cervantes of Spain. For the next 25 years he stayed dormant on the remnants of a Spanish port town, taking the souls of those who reached him during their search of the sword. His reign of terror was soon to start, but the joined efforts of a divine warrior (Sophitia) and an underground ninja (Taki) stopped him, breaking one of the twin Soul Edge blades in the process. As it was about to tear itself apart, a young knight (Siegfried) approached the port town. The moment he took the hilt of the cursed blade, Soul Edge released a bright column of light into the sky. This was known as the "Evil Seed", bound to bring calamity and death across its path.

Three years after those events, Soul Edge uses Siegfried as its host, and now Siegfried is Nightmare, a knight wearing azure armor. Europe plunges into a vortex of slaughters as he and his followers claim souls to strengthen the blade in its weakened state. Unknown to them, a group of young warriors met on their journey to stop Soul Edge, and with them three sacred weapons join once again.

This shot features the characters Astaroth and Voldo. I wanted to try and capture the atmosphere that is such a huge part of Soulcaliur and that meant light. I had to make the shot immersive. Just setting the figures in front of the backdrop would not be enough, they had to be part of the scene.

The background was graciously provided by mugley through a Creative Commons license.

In Photoshop, I did my usual gaussian blurs to soften the edges and smooth out the light, then did a slight radial blur on the background. What this did was to cause the light in the back to spill over onto the characters. Voldo, standing in the open, has much more light than Astaroth who is shadowed by the statue behind him. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's the best I can do at the moment. It looks like I have a date with a few more digital art books before I can create the images I want. Until then, I'll just keep taking pictures and trying new things.

A tale of swords and EXIF...eternally retold

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	30 sec (30)
Aperture:	f/25
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	240 dpi
Y-Resolution:	240 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:10:20 14:29:08
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:10:20 13:57:32
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:10:20 13:57:32
Shutter Speed:	-4906891/1000000
Maximum Lens Aperture:	265625/100000
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	3888 pixels
Image Height:	2632 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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I love it when I go looking for one toy, but find another that I enjoy just as much. That's how I ended up with the B2 Super Battle Droid today. I've been checking the local Targets for the Galactus Mighty Mugg, and when I checked the Target closest to home (which is in a mall and almost never has anything good), I not only found Mugglactus, but I thought I'd also push my luck and see if any Droidekas were left from the Clone Wars series. No Droidekas, but this Super Battle Droid caught my eye.

Let's be honest, the original design for these droids was pretty awful. Horribly proportioned, they just didn't look like anything I'd ever want to own. But that has all changed, baby! They slimmed the torso and widened the hips just enough so that it doesn't look like the first strong wind will destroy the entire batallion, and the addition of the little light on the torso is somehow endearing, even if it throws off his symmetry.

Now it's time for a little history about the B2 Droid, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Super battle droids are upgraded battle droids used by the Techno Union, as portrayed in Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and the animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars. They were first unleashed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Battle of Geonosis, the closing battle of Attack of the Clones. One of the main design flaws of the standard battle droid was its reliance on a Droid Control Ship to provide a signal; if the ship was to be disabled, the battle droids would become utterly useless. The super battle droid, or SBD, does not rely on such a signal and thus has a greater capacity for independence, as well as much more aggressive combat intelligence. In the Battle of Geonosis, Super Battle Droids were observed mowing down several of the 'useless' standard battle droids in order to get a clearer shot at the enemy (as seen in Attack of the Clones). Their frames are also larger and more heavily armored. Wrist blasters are mounted on their arms, but they are capable of using certain external weapons, though their large 'hands' make it difficult for them to use other weapons. Due to the high cost of manufacturing a new droid, the super battle droid uses some of the same parts as the standard battle droid, most notably they have a compressed battle droid head, with no neck joint.

For the setup, I initially had him posed much more aggressively. Basically, well, like this.

When I went to process those shots, I always lost the details of his face and I was just left with this big robot-shaped shadow. So that was out, but I noticed how the light fell over his arms and legs, highlighting all the cool details. I wanted to bring out that aspect, but still have him look impressive, which led to the pose we have here. Much more quiet than guns blazing, but more menacing I think.

Processing in Photoshop consisted of a radial blur to get the backlight to overlap the figure better, then adding the red chest light. Because so many of my shots are... brown or orange (I prefer the term golden), I shifted the hue over to the blue end and added a vignette to bring it all together.

All in all, not a groundbreaking photo, but something I can still feel good about.

I feel a disturbance in the EXIF:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	1 sec (1)
Aperture:	f/8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	240 dpi
Y-Resolution:	240 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:10:14 21:43:33
Exposure Program:	Manual
Date and Time (Original):	2008:10:14 21:29:33
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:10:14 21:29:33
Shutter Speed:	0/1
Maximum Lens Aperture:	265625/100000
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
Exposure Mode:	Manual
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	3732 pixels
Image Height:	2460 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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When it comes to Wargaming, I tend to go one of two ways. I gravitate towards the religious extremists (see: Protectorate of Menoth) or as far from the standard army as possible (see: Tyranids). The Necrons are an interesting combination of the two concepts, as they are alien robots serving ancient gods who only desire to see the universe burn. They gave up their mortal bodies to serve their timeless masters, trapped forever in metal tombs that just happen to be their bodies.

I'm starting to think this photoblog should instead be where I start psychoanalyzing myself.

From Wikipedia:
...the Necrons and their masters have finally awoken to reclaim the galaxy, and begin, once again, to herd the living as their cattle. Finally, after so long, the galaxy is ready for the return of the Star Gods of the Necrons. The deadly power of the invincible Eldar Empire is long gone and their race is scattered, the unstoppable might and momentum of the Emperor's Great Crusade has had 10,000 years to grind to a bloody and brutal stalemate against the inimical forces of the galaxy, and the Orkoid races have long since lost whatever cohesion they may ever have had. All who might have opposed the C'tan are either gone or humbled, the galaxy is a swirling maelstrom of regional and factional conflict and the lives of its trillions upon trillions of inhabitants are ripe for the picking. The deathly silent ranks of the Necrons stalk forth across their tomb worlds once again, to reassert their masters' rule and inspire fear in the living.

Today's shot was done on the stovetop with the Destroyer lit by a single tealight candle. The backdrop was a cathedral wall piece made by Armorcast and poorly painted by myself. I'm starting to prefer miniature photography to actually playing the games, because I don't have to finish painting anything!

In Photosh-, I mean GIMP, I added the gaussian blurs and painted in the eyes. Other than that, it was extremely straightforward.

I still want to game.

Necron Lord with EXIF Orb

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	30 sec (30)
Aperture:	f/18
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Date and Time:	2008:10:04 20:02:31
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:10:04 19:19:11
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:10:04 19:19:11
Shutter Speed:	-321577/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	4453.608 dpi
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Type:	Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Owner Name:	(
Camera Serial Number:	1220842575
Custom Functions:	24, 0, 256, 512, 768, 1024, 1280, 1536, 1792, 2048, 2304, 2560
Model ID:	2147484214
Tag::Canon::0x0013:	0, 159, 7, 112
Lens Type:	EF50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro
Internal Serial Number:	H1858035
Tag::Canon::0x0098:	0, 0, 0, 0
Tag::Canon::0x00AA:	10, 1182, 1024, 1024, 189
Color Space:	1
Tag::Canon::0x4008:	129, 129, 129
Tag::Canon::0x4009:	0, 0, 0
Image Width:	3888 pixels
Image Height:	2592 pixels
Macro Mode:	Normal
Image Quality:	Fine
Continuous Drive:	Single
Focus Mode:	Manual Focus
Canon Image Size:	Large
Easy Mode:	Manual
Contrast:	Normal
Saturation:	Normal
Metering Mode:	Evaluative
Focus Range:	Not Known
Canon Exposure Mode:	Aperture-Priority AE
Lens Type:	Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro or Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX or 28mm f/1.8
Lens:	50mm
Max Aperture:	85
Min Aperture:	320
Flash Activity:	Flash did not fire
Photo Effect:	Off
Color Tone:	0
Focal Type:	Fixed
Scaled Focal Length:	50
Focal Plane Size:	907 x 605
Flash Guide Number:	100
ISO:	100
Measured LV:	65440
Target Aperture:	5.6568542494924
Target Exposure Time:	0
White Balance:	Tungsten
F Number:	18
Camera Type:	EOS Low-end
Auto Rotate:	None
Image Width:	3888
Image Height:	2592
Image Width (As shot):	3504
Image Height (As shot):	2336
Shutter Count:	61521
Color Temperature:	5200°K
Picture Style:	Standard
Sensor Width:	3948 (52-3939 used)
Sensor Height:	2622 (23-2614 used)

Be good,
-Dave

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