Category Archives: Photography

One tire, two styles.

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I had an entire week without internet recently and was forced to do something other than my ordinary routine of browsing the web. Simultaneously, I had access to a spare tire sitting around in my living room. I used the opportunity to put together a couple of images that you can see below.

The first photo is meant to be a commercial representation of the tire showcasing the logo. The lighting was fairly simple: One Alien Bee 800 strobe providing the main light from behind and to the right of the camera. I also positioned my speedlight directly to the left of the tire as a spot-light on the lettering.

The reasoning behind the lighting seemed somewhat obvious to me as soon as I had a mental image of what I wanted it to look like. I knew that the strobe would create enough light to be used as the main and would create soft shadows, especially with a small lightbox attached. The speedlight, hitting the rubber directly, would generate some nice highlights to emphasize the logo. After seeing what my initial setup produced, I simply made small adjustments to lighting power and location. Part of the reason that it seemed simple was the material I was shooting. The rubber of the tire has very little texture on the tread but a lot of texture along the side. Hard light coming from the speedlight combined with the textured text created very nice contrast. Finally, the black and slightly reflective traits of the material told me that positioning of the lights would be important – part of this comes from knowing the different types of reflections and how to use your light to take advantage of them.

I want to note the white space at the top. This space is free to be used as I wish. It can remain white or I could place some other content there to help me portray a particular message. One idea is to include a scene of a Nascar pit crew, or just a race track or stands. It delivers the message of speed, performance, and professional quality. How well this can be done will depend on the photographer (or illustrator).

The second image is of the same tire but from a different perspective and with an even more simple lighting setup. The idea behind this was for something more artistic and conceptual. I have recently really enjoyed photography of flowers in black and white and this was my attempt to use a similar style on a very different subject.

What I like most about this photo is the detail of the tire’s surface. This isn’t just limited to the treads but also includes the texture of the rubber itself. I mentioned earlier how the flat part of the tire does not have much texture so I tried specifically to get as much of it as possible. I didn’t use the Alien Bee strobe and instead made exclusive use of the speedlight which I handled without a tripod. I simply hand-held it, lighting the different areas of the tire. I then created a composite of two different photos.

Hard Work Never Killed Anyone

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As I am still learning to do photo touch-up, it always seems like there must be an easier way to do everything. Of course there are user-created actions that you can download and use blindly, probably with good results, but there are also tons of undiscovered features right in Photoshop itself.

However, sometimes there isn’t an easier method. After all, editing photos without losing the authenticity of the original image is immensely complicated. The software developers at Adobe can only do so much to streamline the process for you. There are times where you really just need to go in knee-deep and pixel hunt.

Below is a comparison of the same image before and after editing. Obviously there are no major stylistic changes. The difference is almost entirely in the removal of certain objects that I didn’t want. This includes two trees on the right and several spots in the sand. Unfortunately for me, there is no quick fix to this kind of work (at least not that I know of) and I was forced to make many, many tiny adjustments over a long session. On the bright side, the work was relatively simple. Much of this was done with either the healing, stamp, and spot healing tools in addition to the use of masking layers.

Now that I have a clean capture of the architecture, I am free to make other, less arduous adjustments to the image. I am sure that there are ways to make this kind of editing easier – such as increasing contrast to see more clearly while zoomed in – and I hope to find said techniques before the next session of late-night stamping.

Outro

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My internship in the still-life studio ended last week. It culminated in a presentation of my work – and of the work from the other three interns – as well as a critique of said work. We also shortly discussed our experience there and what we may expect out of the future. It was bittersweet but I promised myself that I will do whatever I need to in order to return as an assistant. I will surely miss being there, even if it was only two days out of the week.

Below is one of the images I presented. I was assigned to create a cover and inside spread/lead-in to a copy of Men’s Journal with a topic to use as a guide for what to shoot. My topic was “The Adventure Issue”. Part of the assignment was to study the publication we were given to learn what kind of photography falls in line with their style. Our task was similar to the mental process that almost any photographer should go through when creating a compelling series of images: to tell a story that will grab the readers attention but while simultaneously focusing on the needs of the client.

Passport to Ride

This shot took roughly 2.5 hours to shoot. It required only one light (beauty dish w/ grid from coming from the top towards the bag and two white cards for filling in some shadows. It was at a fairly sharp angle and was no more the 4 feet above the subject and 2 feet away. Using only one light made it extremely easy to work (especially since I had been working by myself). Adjusts were made quickly and visualizing the image before and after the adjustments was rather simple. I used the grid to make the image more dramatic and to give the light a more noticeable sense of direction.

The materials you see are all my own that I personally use, including the passport. The table-top is a rather small rectangle of concrete with the yellow stripe painted on. The leaves, dirt, and rocks were all found in the studio (in the cupboard where props are kept, not just laying around). I also smashed a glass battle with much needed motivation coming from the studio manager. (“Smash it!!”)

The post editing work was far more complicated than the actual shooting. My rush to finish photographing, as one should expect, led to mistakes – mistakes that I then was forced to deal with in post. Generally, the amount of work needed to fix a problem in post is far greater than the effort of fixing the same issue before exporting and turning the camera off. I won’t go into details but one should always try to keep the very basic in mind as they will usually keep you from making huge fuck-ups. An assistant will make this a lot easier. Having even further help on the set (coming from any of the stylists or art directors) will lend even more assistance to ensure a perfectly rounded product before it ever even hits a computer screen.