The Mad Pianist

The final image:

And here's what I started with:

You can see my Christmas Tree poking out from the side, the sheet music isn't evenly spread and the back walls are lit haha. So I had to do some work to correct for my bad prep. I also did the color work in two steps. First I added a sepia filter to the photo and desaturated it. Then I added a tonal contrast to myself to make it more edgy.

Film Noir Look

 And the original after some adjustments in lightroom:

Normally I never use plugins in photoshop, but for this photo I used Nik Color Efex. I used it a couple different times, first was to smooth the skin. Second, to add a tonal contrast only to the background. And Lastly to add a glamour glow to the model. At the same time I did some light painting(50% gray soft light layer with mask) to brighten areas like the eyes. And for the black and white I used the film negative filter. Gotta say, I'm really happy with how it came out!

Haunted by the Past

A favorite picture of mine I did with my good friend Francis again. Composed of these two pictures and a picture of just the wall

I love posting before and afters because it really shows that the sky is the limit with what you can do with programs like photoshop and after effects. I'm not saying that great amounts of time isn't involved too, like the rotoscoping for this photo took a long time, but you really can recreate your dreams. I think a big thing for photographers is to have a final image clearly in mind. My best photos came from ideas that I had clearly laid out in my mind.

And just like my picture "Left Alone" the fog was made from atmosphere footage from Action Movie Essentials 2 at videocopilot.com. The greenfog look was inspired by spongebob haha

Left Alone

I've finished my latest photoshoot and got some great greenscreen photos. A big thanks to my model Joyce and my MUA Chelsea. Here's one of the photos: Left Alone

And here's a cropped version of the original

I had a very particular look for this image in mind. I wanted a gray background and a TON of fog surrounding her lower half. I used the atmosphere footage from videocopilot.net's action movie essential 2. After layering about 20 stills from the footage haha, I got a look that fit what I had in mind. Then several level adjustments to the model to get dark hair with a ghostly skin tone, and an adjustment layer of contrast and diffusion and wah-lah. More pictures to come from this shoot!

Mr. Sci Fi Hero

Presenting Francis:

And as the usual tradition goes, heres the original with minor cc in lightroom:

So yes, I wish I could've gotten natural flares like that from my headlights, but sadly that was impossible. Even with my headlights, I just got a ghastly glow. So I opted to used video software adobe after effects and the plug in optical flares to do the lens flares. For the record, adding lens flares has got to be one of the coolest most fun edits you can do on a photo haha

For the physical lighting, we were in a parking garage with terrible overhead lights which I removed in post(along with a pillar). So I set up one flash at full power through an umbrella just slightly to camera right. My second flash was to far camera left bare and at half power. That gave most of the shadows and the awesome highlight!

And for kicks, here's one of me:

Cries Lost in a Pool

Here is the final image that I am quite proud of:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32073706@N05/5918580217/in/photostream

And.. dun dun dun dun... here's the original:

So alot of things going on here to say the least. First off, I edited it in Adobe After Effects for video editing, because that's what I was most comfortable with at the time. The water, which took ALOT of minor tweaking was a 3D layer of fractal noise, scaled and tinted black and blue, and with a slight blur. I really think the reflection on the water helps sell it, although it's pretty obvious its cg water.

I did the makeup/running mascara in AE also, which was to protest from the model Chelsea who was alot the MU artist for this shoot. It was a mix of the burn tool and color overlays to get the look I wanted. I also probably added a turbulent displace to try to get some organic curves. I also added a touch of blue to her eyes and some glossiness to her hair.

Lastly I did some color grading and blasted the contrast beyond normally acceptable limits haha and added a bluish tint with a curves adjustment. And wa-lah.

Hope you guys like it.

Lost in the Thicket

Here's a photo I did a year ago, but uploaded to my relatively new flickr account:

model: chelsea

This was a really neat photo to do! First off, it was shot in front of a (poorly lit) greenscreen, as seen below:

I had alot of different possible looks for this picture, and I sorta stumbled upon the last look by accident. I grabbed some photos of bare trees like this:

So I overlayed those on, one in the foreground and one in the background. Meanwhile applying a crushed black and white look to the model, matching the trees. One person I talked to suggested the branches could've been done with a burn tool, which while probably hard to get an organic look, is a substitute. So all-in-all a really simple method for a pretty cool pic

Inspirational Composite Artist: Rian Flynn

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rianflynn/

This is one of the flickr pages I always go to for inspiration on my photoshop creations. He's stationed out of San Francisco where he does many workshops for upcoming photographers. My only complaint is that all of his shots make use of really expensive lighting, but this guy knows what he's doing and his pictures reflect it.

He has disabled sharing of his photos, but check out these links to his pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rianflynn/5758914355/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rianflynn/4923872263/in/photostream

Late Night BBQ

Here the photo I did in my hometown for a reflection photo competition:

The photo is a photoshopped composite of these two photos:

and

It wasn't my first choice to photoshop it, I ran down to the location right after it rained, but being a hot summer night, it was all pointless haha. So improvising, I took the two photos. The hard part was putting in the puddle, which I'm still not satisfied with. Its a black layer with a fractal noise overlayed. I also dropped in a red light in the final composite.

Here's another look to the image with some more color grading:

Isolated Composite

Here's the final on a composite I did at the same time as my dream composite:

The photo can be seen better on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32073706@N05/

And for anyone interested, here's the original:

 

The hardest part was matching the angles of the floor with a camera, but after that repeating the floor texture and dropping in the light was a breeze. I will admit that I got lazy at rotoscoping out the rose though haha. I will still count this as a work in progress, but I feel I am very close to getting the look I had in mind!

Dream Composite

Hello, here's my latest photo, a dream composite I did of my girlfriend. Shot on the tokina 11-16mm. For this photo, it was key to see the end product as I was taking the clean plates.

And here's the original, there was one flash through an umbrella to immediate camera right and a bare flash farther to camera right at the other bed post.

I did all the post work in Adobe After Effects, not photoshop. That way, I could make use of a particle system with sprites to create the grass for the field.

Cokin ND Filter P-Series Test

Just got the ND filter kit for the P-series holder by Cokin. Here are some really quick tests I did as I'd like to jump right in to some car photography when my adapter ring comes in. All shots were on the Tokina 11-16.

Taken without a filter. Actually not too bad, the sun is on the far side so the sky isn't too blown out.

With the Cokin 121 L 1 stop (light)

Cokin 121M - 2-stop (Medium)

 

Cokin 121S - 3-stop (Soft) and not positioned the best. Also, not much a difference for this sky from 2-3 stops.

 Now... where are some clouds to test this out on

One of my Favorite Photographers

Featuring the page of Flick's Phamster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/-phamster-/

This guy is amazing for two reasons.
1. He is amazing because his photos are brilliant.
2. He is amazing because he tells you his complete light setup and camera info for every single one of his pictures along with the story of each.

Photography is this guys life and he's succeeded with some of the best engagement photos and creative shoots I've seen. So much inspiration!

Soccer-esque Photos

One of the more riskier photo shoots I've done haha. The sprinklers turned on at the field and we had to sprint out of there with all the gear in hand.

The lighting was rather fun and interesting. We had a bare flash to camera left and behind the player, fully zoomed in and at full power. It's responsible for giving the circular light on the field and the strong shadow on the ball. The second flash is on camera right on half power and shot through an umbrella to light up the player.

In conclusion, just a little fun to diversify my portfolio haha

Garage Car Shoot

Did this with two flashes, one green to camera right and one bare to camera left. Since I shot this RAW, i was able to push the white balance towards blue. Also, the flash wasn't synced perfectly, giving the dark edge on the bottom, total mistake but I love it.

Water Droplet Photography

One of my favorites from my new water droplet shots. All the shots can be seen on my facebook page: Nick T Photography.

Contrary to common belief, this shot does not require a macro lens if your on a budget like most students are. I did it on my 50mm. The plate that held the water was visible in the original image on the corners, but a simple small crop hid that nicely without affecting the resolution terribly.

For the flashes, I did a cross light set up. One light was behind the plate to camera left and the other in front of the plate to camera right. They were positioned only a couple inches higher than the plate.

Facebook

Here is a link to my facebook page for photography: Nick T Photography
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nick-T-Photography/110044472420777

About Me

Hi Guys, my name is Nick T. I'm a student photographer attending UCLA next fall. I absolutely love photography, and that definitely ties in with the purpose of this page. My goal is to post work of fellow student photographers to build a community. I will also post work of mine own for both inspiration and criticism(motivation in the sense of ideas, I know that my work is not always professional haha). I will also write reviews on photography equipment and link professional photographers that have inspired me.

Thank you!
Nick T