Jeff's (almost) daily posts

[jeffchen]

Jeff, you are very magnanimous (used this word 2nd time today as someone told me Ive used it wrongly . Nyway, I think most of us appreciate what you've done so far and thank you for that.

Since you mentioned about photoshop the other time, I have this prob. evrytime I edit my photos, it'll end up very contrasty and too saturated. I mean, is there a 'formula' or something or how wld you do it to give the best exposure and feel to a picture without making it look fake. I guess its more to experience than textbook 'formula'. I'm looking forward for your workshop if you're organising one.

Nyway, love your photos and Ive added you on flickr too. Hope I don't sound like a too much of a 'bootlicker' but I do appreciate your work. Thks again!

Hey shahrie, im afraid i don't understand your photo issues till i see them.
but there are always curves and hue/saturation to deal with over saturation of colors

 

[kurniled]

I've just read your thread found it very interesting and would like join your workshop if you've organize it one

 

[Shahrie]

Hey shahrie, im afraid i don't understand your photo issues till i see them.
but there are always curves and hue/saturation to deal with over saturation of colors

Hi Jeff. Thks for taking your time to reply. Ok, for learnng sake, Ive posted below my PP work. I thought Ive done good but after looking at the photos below for quite sometime, I find it too contrasty and too saturated. I mean, I just dont know when to stop processing it. Most of my photos are like tht and some are even worse. It look kinda fake to me. Maybe other CSer could give some pointers too.

Ive used 'surface blur', 'level', 'curve' and 'saturation'. (Is it too much of a PP? :bsmilie.
Thks for your time.

 

[VainKid]

This is so useful... Bookmark'd

 

[VainKid]

Hi Jeff I wanna learn more of product shooting of glass bottles and labels. I'm a newb and was drag by my company people to do some product shoot for leaflet because I was caught reading Clubsnap LOL!!!

I do not owned any ext flash but will get it soon, my venue of shoot is lit with orangey halogen thus all my attempt fail despite toying with white balance. Built in flash caused reflection and shadow which is horrible, I tried very hard to touch up my pict with photoshop and struggle
for hours for 1 picture because I'm a newb haiz...

Your advice is greatly appreciated

 

[daredevil123]

Hi Jeff I wanna learn more of product shooting of glass bottles and labels. I'm a newb and was drag by my company people to do some product shoot for leaflet because I was caught reading Clubsnap LOL!!!

I do not owned any ext flash but will get it soon, my venue of shoot is lit with orangey halogen thus all my attempt fail despite toying with white balance. Built in flash caused reflection and shadow which is horrible, I tried very hard to touch up my pict with photoshop and struggle
for hours for 1 picture because I'm a newb haiz...

Your advice is greatly appreciated

Let me try to help you with this and not bother Jeff too much...

If your ambient light is orangy, gel your flashs/lights with CTO, and set your white balance to tungsten, and it should come out nicely. Remember when shooting glass products, you risk getting tons of reflections on the product itself. It will be good to use a light tent, and zip the tent up totally leaving just a hole big enough to squeeze your lens through.

 

[VainKid]

Hi DD bro, what is the CTO thingy ? Where do I get the light tent n CTO from and is it expensive? Thanks

 

[daredevil123]

Hi DD bro, what is the CTO thingy ? Where do I get the light tent n CTO from and is it expensive? Thanks

CTO (color temperature orange) is a color gel (or transparency) that you place over your lights. This is an example HERE.

Light tents are not expensive, and you can get them in mass sales. I got mine for 30+ or 40+, I cannot remember already.

 

[VainKid]

Thanks man cheers

 

[jeffchen]

Hi Jeff. Thks for taking your time to reply. Ok, for learnng sake, Ive posted below my PP work. I thought Ive done good but after looking at the photos below for quite sometime, I find it too contrasty and too saturated. I mean, I just dont know when to stop processing it. Most of my photos are like tht and some are even worse. It look kinda fake to me. Maybe other CSer could give some pointers too.

Ive used 'surface blur', 'level', 'curve' and 'saturation'. (Is it too much of a PP? :bsmilie.
Thks for your time.

ok sharie,

so i worked a bit with your picture, now your problem is a problem of inexperience la.
you just have to shoot more and DI more to know when you are blowing out the pixels,
and when you have over smoothen the skin.

now step by step
first duplicate bg layer (DI basic) : use healing tool to heal out the big spots.
just heal out the spots dont go "smearing " the surrounding skin, we want the texture to be intact.
USING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS. (to selectively up the contrast)
#2 : use curves to up the GENERAL exposure to a good one, (on your original pic the skin was a little greyish due to under exposure, up it untill u see some "blood" in the skin.

# 3 : use another curves and up the exposure sumMore then invert the mask.
use a soft brush and brush out some highlights on the nose ,eyes , collar and cheeks

#4: curves adj layer 3 down the exposure a bit then invert the mask.
brush out the shadows around the shadow areas.

lastly on a personal level i liked her abit warmer, so i added adj layer photo filter warm.

the whole DI process took about 7 minutes.

Thoughts:

now its ok to use surface blur to smoothen problem skin , but set it such that you have edge definition. but blur skin.

now the problem with using surface blur is that u loose texture, there is another technique to put back texture in. ASK ME!

hope this helps!

 

[jeffchen]

Hi Jeff I wanna learn more of product shooting of glass bottles and labels. I'm a newb and was drag by my company people to do some product shoot for leaflet because I was caught reading Clubsnap LOL!!!

I do not owned any ext flash but will get it soon, my venue of shoot is lit with orangey halogen thus all my attempt fail despite toying with white balance. Built in flash caused reflection and shadow which is horrible, I tried very hard to touch up my pict with photoshop and struggle
for hours for 1 picture because I'm a newb haiz...

Your advice is greatly appreciated

Hey vainkid!

MY very first lesson with my boss was to learn how to shoot wine glass, in both black background, and white back ground!!

its all about using black cards for white background and edge lights for black backgrounds..
i've never used a light tent b4 so, i am not a good person to ask about!

 

[VainKid]

Hey Jeff I don't really get ur terms well. I'm sorry

 

[Shahrie]

ok sharie,

so i worked a bit with your picture, now your problem is a problem of inexperience la.
you just have to shoot more and DI more to know when you are blowing out the pixels,
and when you have over smoothen the skin.

now step by step
first duplicate bg layer (DI basic) : use healing tool to heal out the big spots.
just heal out the spots dont go "smearing " the surrounding skin, we want the texture to be intact.
USING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS. (to selectively up the contrast)
#2 : use curves to up the GENERAL exposure to a good one, (on your original pic the skin was a little greyish due to under exposure, up it untill u see some "blood" in the skin.

# 3 : use another curves and up the exposure sumMore then invert the mask.
use a soft brush and brush out some highlights on the nose ,eyes , collar and cheeks

#4: curves adj layer 3 down the exposure a bit then invert the mask.
brush out the shadows around the shadow areas.

lastly on a personal level i liked her abit warmer, so i added adj layer photo filter warm.

the whole DI process took about 7 minutes.

Thoughts:

now its ok to use surface blur to smoothen problem skin , but set it such that you have edge definition. but blur skin.

now the problem with using surface blur is that u loose texture, there is another technique to put back texture in. ASK ME!

hope this helps!

Invaluable! Thks Jeff for taking your time to explain in details. Really really appreciate it. Just made my day, even though had a sucky day at my day job today. Thks!!

 

[daredevil123]

Hey Jeff I don't really get ur terms well. I'm sorry

When you shoot a glass behind a white background, you want the outlines to be black. When you want a black background, you want the edges to be lighted.

This is the technique mentioned by Jeff.

http://www.albanystudios.co.nz/glass%20outlines%20in%20b%20and%20w%20explained.pdf

 

[VainKid]

Thanks guys... Cheers

 

[jeffchen]

hey guys!

I'M Really Glad that my little thread here have helped some of you out with your photography problems, with that i want let you know i am holding a workshop
the details are over here
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6317972#post6317972

but also alot of interested people are telling me its clashing with CS LIVE

so i want an opinion from you guys... should we shift our first workshop to the next weekend?

 

[kenny888]

i support that bro!

hey guys!

I'M Really Glad that my little thread here have helped some of you out with your photography problems, with that i want let you know i am holding a workshop
the details are over here
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6317972#post6317972

but also alot of interested people are telling me its clashing with CS LIVE

so i want an opinion from you guys... should we shift our first workshop to the next weekend?

 

[jeffchen]

hello clubsnap!
its been a while since i updated this thread.


its been a hectic few weeks.

just a week ago, my assistant had his first test shoot with a model , and you can imagine he was nervous as hell.
he had an idea of what to shoot, but he just couldnt figure out how to light it.

so i asked him, do you have a reference picture?
he said now, so i asked him to get one closest to his idea.

with the reference picture he had a much clearer idea of how to light and pose the shot.

so on the shoot itself, i was noticing , Hey how come the studio is so quiet.

and i realised, that he was so focused and nervous about the shoot , his face was all pursed up and he was only concentrating on shooting and making the shot.

and i realised the model was as lost as he was.


so i pulled him to a corner and told him, he has to loosen up.
smile more , talk to the model, joke with her.


i was guilty of that in my first 2 years of shooting too.

i forgot that when shooting a model, be it fashion or portraiture, we are in essence telling a story.
You are the director and story teller and the model is the actress.
we have to communicate to the model what we feel and want out of her.

its a complicated role of director/motivational speaker/ friend.

the photography process doesnt only start when u pick up the camera,
it starts with an idea, and even the moment u meet the model, we have to connect and level with her.

people have different approaches with photographing a model, and i see myself more of a motivator and a friend to the model, often talking to the model and joking with her, while given good clear instructions.


constant communication of clear instructions and ideas will result in a very enjoyable and fruitful shoot for both parties.

thats my 2 cents today

Jeff Chen

 

[musicpls]

Hi Jeff,

Reporting to Jeff call for workshop image, here's one of the image that I process from the wonderful workshop. Took me about 15 mins to PP this

As a noob in fashion shoot, I did learnt quite a number of stuffs from Jeff, thanks!

 

[musicpls]

This one took only 20 secs to pp... adjust raw, cropped and border. Love the simple workflow!