Think Rocky. Or The Godfather. Or Die Hard. Or Star Wars…(none of these I have ever seen by the way)…
Like all of the above, the start of a series is always met with fear and trepidation for it’s author. Will it be successful? Will it be well received? Will it be a flop – think “straight to video”…
What does this have to do with anything? Well, welcome to my new series called, “How I Got The Shot.” I am a nosy –err, curious person. I like to be in everyone’s business and all. So, when I frequent various blogs, I always wonder, how did so and so get that picture? What are the camera settings? What was the lighting condition? What happens in the post processing? What did the photographer have for lunch that day. You know, questions we all have. So, at least a few times a month, I will post one of my images and tell you, well, how I got the shot, from beginning to end.
I hope that this helps some people. And if it doesn’t, please feel free to let me know so I don’t subject any of my readers to unnecessary misery – you know like the makers of Grease 2 or Batman and Robin who just couldn’t leave a perfectly good movie ALONE.
So, here we go: the first in the series, “How I Got The Shot.”
The Picture:
The Pose:
A big THANK YOU to Kristin Rogers for teaching me how to get this shot. You literally have to straddle the model. Here’s a picture of me getting one of the shots in the series taken by Matthew Saville. Oh and no, you don’t have to wear a gown to get the shot, but that’s how I roll!.
The Procedure:
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 24-105mm L series
Mode: Manual
f/stop: 4.0
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 4000 (It was about 5:15pm)
White Balance: Auto
Picture Style – Custom User Defined 1
The Post Process:
Here is the image, SOOC (Straight out of the camera). Remember, no judging!
There are a few post processing tools I cannot live without:
1. Adobe Bridge – which organizes and sorts my photos for me.
2. Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
3. Totally Rad Actions and TRA the Revenge
(ACTIONS: For those that don’t know what actions are, it’s a list of step by step instructions for Photo Shop that can be done with a click of one button.)
So, here’s what I did:
1. Totally Rad Actions v.1 – Pro Retouch with Eye Bump at about 30%
2. TRA the Revenge’s Clarie-ify at about 75%
3. Resize Image to 600×900 (web friendly size)
4. TRA the Revenge’s Slice Like a Ninja at about 50%
5. MCP Watermark action
6. Upload to my blog and voila! All done.
So, if you found this post useful (or not), feel free to leave some blog lovin’ in the comments section. And if you ever see one of my images and you’re DYING to know “How I Got The Shot,” please EMAIL ME and let me know.
Happy Shooting!
