Photo Idea Index Read online

  Here, the model has been dressed in a lab coat and a pair of goggles. She's holding a pseudo-scientific listening device made from a steamer tray, a mop handle, an old tape recorder, a set of headphones and some black phone cords. Why all this trouble for a photo? Well, because I'd been wanting to shoot a portrait that included these electrical towers ever since I first saw them — all I needed was a character and some props that looked like they belonged in the same scene as the imposing metal structures.

  The colors in the photo on the opposite page were tinted with a PHOTO FILTER adjustment layer (set to “sepia”). This same adjustment layer was used to strengthen the photo's contrast by setting the layer's pull-down menu to “hard light.” The contrast within the clouds was enhanced using a masked CURVES layer. The two photos on this page were converted to monochrome using BLACK AND WHITE adjustment layers. A CURVES adjustment layer was used to raise the level of contrast in these two images significantly.

  A young model, an old door and a few digital effects have been used to create the three reality-bending scenes on this spread. The model was photographed standing with her hand on the door, and their forms were selected using Photoshop's LASSO tool. This selection was pasted over other images. Images were also copied into the opening of each door. All of the photos were blurred slightly, converted to monochrome, tinted and given a dose of digital noise to lend an antiquated look to the collages.

  I bought this old framed door from a place near my home called The ReStore. It's a large outlet that offers recycled and rescued items from demolished homes and buildings. I make regular visits to The ReStore in search of affordable and one-of-a-kind props. Many cities have their own version of The ReStore. How about where you live?

  On this page, lucha libre (Spanish for “free wrestling”) masks are used to add flavor to an otherwise standard portrait of a man wearing a hat and a snapshot of a driver talking on his cell phone. The opposite page features a pair of Santas wearing lucha libre masks as they square off for a round of fisticuffs. How about adding a heroic mask like one of these to your stash of ready-to-go costume props? It just might come to the rescue the next time you want to infuse an ordinary photo with hints of an extraordinary story.

  The same costumed person was photographed wearing two different masks for the image on this page. His form was removed from each scene's background using the LASSO tool. The photos were combined against a white backdrop, converted to grayscale and treated with Photoshop's PIXELATE > COLOR HALFTONE effect. The composite image was then converted to CMYK, and solid panels of color were added above the characters' costumes. The final presentation of the image calls to mind the look of a coarsely printed vintage boxing poster.

  12

  Calculating Conveyances

  Introducing this chapter's cast of characters: a chair, a lamp, the corner of a room and a girl. This basic ensemble (along with a handful of props and alternative backdrops) is used to demonstrate how easily — and how greatly — a scene's look and message can be affected by toying with and shuffling the roles of both its human and nonhuman participants.

  Act one of this series of photos involves looking for simple variations of a basic portrait. From there, things get steadily more complex, colorful, conceptual and, finally, cosmic. Some of the demonstrations involve few or no digital aids; others rely heavily on Photoshop layers, treatments and special effects.

  Take a quick glance at the images featured in this chapter. Pretty amazing, isn't it, the range of outcomes that can be achieved using such a basic ensemble of human and nonhuman subjects. And this, as they say, is only the tip of the creative iceberg. How about expanding upon the ideas presented here using a few home furnishings of your own? These items could come from your living room, or they could be acquired at a secondhand store or a garage sale.

  A note about the “room” seen in several of this chapter's images: It's not actually a room — it's just the corner of a garage that has been given a coat of red paint and a layer of cheap vinyl floor tiles. The entire setup took just a few hours to create, occupies less than 7 feet of each wall and takes up just enough floor space to fill the camera's view. Interested in shooting some stylized interior scenes such as these? Got a corner of a garage, storage space or utility room that you're willing to transform for the sake of art?

  With full appreciation of the fact that one person's “normal” might be another person's “abnormal,” and that there are varying degrees of both normal and abnormal, please note that these two words are used in their most generic form to describe the actions of this chapter's model and the appearance of her surroundings. That said, feel free to apply your own definitions of normal and abnormal to the concepts described through this section's images and words.

  Surprising as it may seem, a person can be only photographed in one of four ways: as a normal person posing normally, as a normal person posing abnormally, as an abnormal person posing normally, and as an abnormal person posing abnormally. It may be helpful to remember this simple way of viewing your options the next time you're considering ways of capturing a portrait (and be sure to embrace — rather than be overwhelmed by — the infinite room for expression and variation within these four categories).

  The four basic ways of capturing a person's image were demonstrated in simple terms on the previous spread. Things are made a little more complex — and possibly more entertaining and interesting — on this spread and the five that follow. Props have been added here and there, the model has been encouraged to behave with greater zaniness, light has been used in alternative ways for some of the scenes, the furnishings have been taken outside for a few shots and digital effects have been used to alter several images.

  What about adding props to your primary setup to enliven things? Be sure to consider both normal and abnormal ways in which your subject could interact with these props (as well as with the room's original furnishings).

  Digital effects have given these images conceptual and contextual makeovers. The furnishings and model in the near photo were selected from other images using the LASSO tool. The elements were then resized and distributed over a photo of an empty room. The watery scene, adjacent, was created by layering an underwater photo of the girl — along with cut-and-pasted fish — over a photo of the room and its furnishings (treated with the DISTORT > WAVE filter). The composite image was tinted with a SOLID COLOR adjustment layer.

  The four ghostly figures in this scene were added using the same multi-exposure image-building technique described at the bottom. The difference here is that these added figures were placed on semitransparent layers above the base image. A layer of digital noise was added to the photo using Photoshop's NOISE > ADD NOISE filter. The scene was tinted with a SOLID COLOR adjustment layer with its pull-down menu set to “color.”

  These two scenes have been illuminated by painting them with light (a process described near the top). The photo on this page was lit by having the model sit very still on the chair while I roamed the darkened room — shining the flashlight on selected parts of the scene — during the shot's fifteen-second exposure (I made sure not to hold still in one spot long enough for the camera to record my presence in the room).

  The model provided her own illumination for this scene. During this image's fifteen-second exposure, the model waved the flashlight in the air and occasionally stopped and shone it on her face for a few seconds. Take advantage of your camera's LCD when taking pictures in this way. Check out the results of each photo and make adjustments to both your camera's settings and the hands-on illuminating technique of whomever it is who's working the flashlight.

  On this spread and the next, the setup has been thrown out the window. Completely and, more or less, literally. Gone are the red walls and the vinyl flooring. Gone, also, is the tripod that was used to maintain the camera's view of the prior scenes. The images on this spread were shot with a handheld digital SLR (fitted with a 12–24mm wide-angle lens) in a series of context-bending outdoor environ
ments.

  A pickup truck and an assistant were needed to pull off this series of photos (taken on a cold and rainy October morning in the Pacific Northwest). I had pre-scouted these shooting locations earlier in the week, and when we arrived at each, my assistant and I lifted the furnishings off the truck, set things up and recorded a few test images (using my assistant as the subject). This allowed our young model to stay warm and dry in the truck until she was needed for the real thing.

  Here, the chair has been hoisted onto a large seaside rock beneath a dramatic sky of roiling clouds. The wide-angle lens did a nice job of taking in a panoramic view of the scene. Knowing that I might want to feature this shot as a full-spread image (and therefore not want the model to land in the “gutter” between the two pages), I was careful to frame the photo with the subject pushed well to the side of the frame. This placement also left plenty of room for an unobstructed view of the setting's lovely backdrop.

  Scenes like this really mess with any notions of a “normal” context. And when context is twisted into configurations that are equal parts amusing and confusing, its ability to attract notice and generate intrigue are magnified.

  The chair, lamp and model in this spread's near image have been transported to a variety of far-flung environments using Photoshop's LASSO tool, a bit of cut-and-paste and the incorporation of several different filters and special effects.

  As different as these images appear from this chapter's first series of photos, they really aren't at all that far removed from their earlier cousins. Each of these photos began as the same ordinary photo of the room, furnishings and model. The LASSO tool was used to separately select each wall and the floor so that other images could be pasted into these selections. Special effects were applied to the newly pasted photos, as well as to the items appearing on the image's base layer.

  13

  Anti-Gravity

  One of the great things about being an animal — as opposed to a plant — is that we have no roots to prevent us from occasionally floating clear of the earth's surface. Unlike birds, however, we can't stay aloft for long (not without fabricated wings of some sort, anyway), and this is where the camera comes in handy. Photographs of airborne humans convey a reality that could otherwise only exist in our imagination: the suspension of gravity through the suspension of disbelief.

  The next time you're out taking pictures of someone, and are running short of ideas of what to have her do in front of the camera, consider the various ways in which you could ask her to defy gravity and hold a pose in midair — even if it's only for 1/2000 of a second.

  Usually, when a photo like the one seen here has been snapped, the action has taken place so quickly the photographer has no idea what sort of image has been captured until the results have been inspected on the camera's LCD. The on-the-spot ability of digital cameras to let the photographer know how a photoshoot is going is one of the great perks of shooting digitally.

  Deep, slanting light from the setting sun provides dramatic illumination for the dual geysers that follow this pair of feet skyward. Photographers often refer to the hour before sunset — and the hour before sunrise — as magic (or golden) hours. (A professional once joked to me that this is why so many great photographers go hungry — because they are so often outdoors taking pictures during these hours instead of enjoying breakfast st or dinner.)

  The camera was placed on a tripod and the model was asked to jump and spin from a predetermined spot for this series of photos. The camera's shutter speed was set at an action-freezing 1/2000 of a second — an exposure so brief it created difficulties when it came to taking in enough of the dim evening light to record an image. To compensate for the low-light conditions, the lens' aperture was opened as wide as possible and the camera's ISO setting was raised to 800.

  When a ball is tossed, there is a perceptible moment at the height of its trajectory when it is momentarily suspended between the upward force of momentum and the downward pull of gravity. The same thing happens when a person jumps. With a little practice, it becomes surprisingly easy to click the camera's shutter button right at this ever-so-slightly extended moment of suspended animation.

  I stood well downhill of the model while taking this picture with a 70–200mm telephoto lens. The vantage point proved to be a good one for a couple reasons: Shooting from this point of view exaggerated the apparent height of the model's leaps while placing her in an attractive compositional gap between the buildings in the background.

  An image from the photoshoot featured has been used to create this armada of leaping clones. The model and his cape were selected from their original photo using Photoshop's MAGIC WAND and LASSO tools. Once this was completed, the edge of the traced area was feathered slightly so that it would meld nicely when pasted against the orange backdrop of a new document. The selection was then cloned, resized and repositioned numerous times to create the composition seen here.

  Each of the photos on this page has been flipped either sideways or upside down. When dealing with images of a subject who is toying with the effects of gravity, consider toying with the orientation of the image as well.

  How about taking a friend to a trampoline and recording some pictures? (If you decide to join your subject on a bouncy trampoline, and want to sit down to record shots from a low perspective — as I did for the upper photo on this page — keep in mind that you'll have to deal with Newton's Third Law of Motion: Every time your model's feet touch down, you and your camera will be tossed upward.) If you don't have access to a trampoline, how about giving your energetic pal access to a bouncy mattress?

  Don't be too quick to toss your overexposed, underexposed or blurred images into the cyber garbage can. “Imperfect” images like the ones on this page might be able to convey impressions of action more convincingly than their technically correct counterparts. When processing (so-called) flawed images, consider amplifying their shortcomings rather than trying to hide them (by raising the brightness of an overexposed image, for example, or deepening the shadows in an underexposed photo).

  If you haven't been on a swing set in a while, consider visiting one. And bring a friend. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Day or night. Seriously. (And whatever you do, don't forget to bring a camera.)

  This set of in-motion images was taken after sundown. The camera's shutter speed was set at a blur-producing 1/6 of a second. Given this slow shutter speed, the camera had to be secured to a tripod to avoid blurring the rest of the scene as well (a look that's not always bad — it's just not what I had in mind for these photos). A low vantage point was selected for these shots since it added to the impression of height in the model's leaps.

  Recording images like these in low light allows you to choose a shutter speed that's slow enough to blur your subject's movements without causing the overall scene to overexpose. Use your LCD to review images as you go. Make adjustments to the camera's shutter, aperture and ISO settings until you get the results you're after. Not too fluent with these three controls? All the more reason to give a photo like this one a try since it clearly demonstrates the connection between these all-important camera settings.

  How about showing something other than your model defying gravity? Here, the model stands earthbound while the coffee in his cup shoots skyward. These two photos were recorded by having the model toss a few ounces of java into the air just as the camera snapped a flash photo. It's not easy to get a shot like this to come out on the first — or even the twentieth — attempt. If you want to try this one on your own, plan on bringing plenty of expendable coffee with you to the photoshoot.

  We were at a playground shooting the photos on the opposite page when I noticed a swing set nearby. I decided to have the model sit cross-legged on one of the swings for one last anti-gravity photo. Converting the down-to-earth original to a reality-defying image was simple: All I had to do was remove the swing's seat and chains using Photoshop's CLONE STAMP tool. The shadow beneath the model was enhanced using the BURN tool.
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  This image is actually a combination of five. Each photo was snapped as the subject jumped into the air from a different position. The camera was fixed to a tripod so its view of the scene would remain constant. The images were stacked in Photoshop. The LASSO tool was used to define the area around the figure in each layer. This selection was then used to add a mask, which allowed the figures in underlying layers to show. The same shooting and processing technique was used to create the multi-person images.

  This is a fun one. From a low perspective, set your camera on a tripod and have your model stand toward one side of the shot's edge. Now ask your model to jump. Take a picture as the your model is airborne. Next, have the model take a step toward the center of the frame where you'll record another airborne photo. Repeat this procedure all the way across the viewfinder's field of view, and then back to the starting point. Now review your images in quick succession on the camera's LCD. You've made an anti-gravity movie!

  14

  Sport and Play

  The next time you're heading out with a friend or family member to get some exercise or take part in a sport, how about bringing a camera along and snapping some action shots (or inaction shots, as when the subject is taking a breather)? Photo opportunities seem to be especially abundant in the context of sport and play. So much so that it might be a good idea to keep a pocket digital camera on the same shelf as your athletic bag, tennis racquet, kite or frisbee.