February 25, 2012 – A year of portraits – Ashley Rose

02.25.12 Ashley Rose

This is my great niece Ashley Rose. Last week I had a portrait of her son to be, Damion, for my portrait of the day and this time I chose her for my subject. She’s a hard working mom to be that attends college here in Madisonville, Ky and works at Kroger while doing so. She’s a very loving and strong woman and I’m proud to call her mine!

I captured this portrait in the living room of her grandmother’s house as she was setting on the couch reading a book. I really liked the strong back-light that was coming in from behind her which gave this high-key portrait look. I wanted the portrait to have a soft portrait look to it and after some minor exposure adjustments in Photoshop CS5 I used the Topaz Adjust Film Collection called Retro Style I combined along with the Soft Focus I filter for this final effect.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Exposure: Matrix Metering, 1/60, f/4, ISO of 4,000
File Type: Nikon RAW

February 24, 2012 – A year of portraits – Jim Pearson

02.24.12 Jim Pearson

I shot this self portrait using the iPhone Hipstamatic camera using the James M Lens and the Rock BW-11 film. I wanted something radical for this self portrait so I shot several images using some radical cropping in the camera to capture this shot.

I did most of the post processing of the image using Photoshop CS5 after I loaded the image to my computer from the iPhone. I did some burning in on the highlights to tone them down and also on the mid tones and shadows to darken them as well. For the final image I played around with the image using the Topaz B&W Effects plugin until I got a look that I liked and added the warm tone.

Technical Details:
Camera: Hipstamatic for the iPhone 4
Lens: Built-In Camera lens
Exposure: The iPhone doesn’t record shutter speed or aperture information
Apps Used: Hipstamatic and Photoshop CS5

February 23, 2012 – A year of portraits – Paula Pace

02.23.12 Paula Pace

Paula Pace has been a waitress at the Dixie Pan Restaurant in Nortonville, Ky for more than 20 years and as you can see she’s fond of ear piercings. Always cheerful and mindful of the people that come in and out of her life on a daily basis. If you stop by for a meal pick her station and you won’t be disappointed… breakfast is my favorite.

Today’s portrait was done mostly using the iPhone for shooting and processing. Post processing was done using the Snapseed app and the Crossprocess app combined and then I boosted the saturation up slightly using Photoshop CS5.

Technical Details:
Camera: Built in iPhone 4
Lens: Built-In Camera lens
Exposure: The iPhone doesn’t record shutter speed or aperture information
Apps Used: Snapseed, Crossprocess and Photoshop CS5