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The Unknown Photographer
The Unknown Photographer - http://unknownphotographer.net/
For Updated Part of this blog check Let’s Get Cooking http://shar.es/WExGn
you can find a how to guide about this photoshoot here.
So, as I was trying to look like I was doing some “work” I found the home of the Unknown Photographer the other day. An interesting and intriguing website I thought. A short investigation of the project and it had me hooked. When I noticed the little video asking for people to get in touch I did so without a moments hesitation. After all I am unknown and I am a Photographer
So what had me firing of my to register my interest, and interest to what ? Well, let me introduce myself what I do. I am Dave Kai Piper, 28 almost 29, and I take photos and coach other people who take photos too. Photographer and Photography Coach. I come from the UK and shoot with with my own take on Fashion and contemporary Portraits. I love to make complicated things look simple and push simple things to the limits. I love to get people shooting and fire up the creative light we have within all of us. Which, is why I love the concept of the Unknown Photographer, for me it’s about the bigger picture (excuse the pun). I have a saying I like to use: “ Photography is not about photos, it’s about people” and for me this project fully proves that point. It’s about getting people together, it’s about sharing the world, the paths we take in it and the things we have learnt. It’s about real people doing real things, meaning, this is something that can really help. It’s not about super high end glossy photos taken on a super sexy Hasselblad with a world class creative team shooting for Prada, it’s about you in your park taking photos of a duck. It’s about being relevant to the wider photographic community. There is nothing wrong about high end photography, I am guilty of chasing my next cover for a magazine too, but there is more to this world and the Unknown Photographers aims hunt that down. Fabulous ! Fashion to Food, Medium Format to Mobile Phone, there will be something for everyone here and everyone can learn from it. This is a core value I agree with.
As an educator, I know how important the delivery of information can be. It’s vital to know how to engage with people and to understand how to communicate the messages, and even more so, to know what messages to communicate too. It’s important to not give the right information at the wrong time and to not give the wrong information at the , well, to make sure all information is relevant. This is a core idea at Unknown Photographer. Being able to give real world practical advice for people at every level. For example, I would not jump into a telling a new photographer that I use a Quadtone /Duotone conversion method for my Black & White Conversions. I would tell them to to press the BW button and leave it there. Does a new photographer that is learning how to press the shutter button really need to be bogged down in PS for a year, do they just want to get out and shoot ? We can always come back to that later down the line. The main point is that it’s very easy to over-complicate things. Sometimes the best people to learn from are the people around you / at the same level. The Unknown Photographer brings you this, and that is fantastic.
It’s a community thing, its about seeing how other people deal with the same constraints as you. Seeing how people have tackled the same problems, seeing how people have innovated and avoided splashing huge amounts of cash. How good can you be with a cropped sensor and a speedlight ? Do you really need all those lenses ? Do you really need to spend hours per photo in Photoshop ?
Photography is about vision and being visually aware and the only way to do this is to open up and see the word around you, being open to listen. Be ready to be inspired by everyone and everything. It’s a big wide beautiful world that starts on your doorstep. If the Unknown Photographer helps demonstrate this, it has my backing 100%.
Oh, the below photo is from a D90 with a single speed light.
For Updated Part of this blog check Let’s Get Cooking http://shar.es/WExGn
you can find a how to guide about this photoshoot here.
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Tagged 101 photography show, 3 Legged thing., 50mm @ F1.4, andy strachwsky, birmingham, birmingham acadmey, blackrapid, blackrapidtv, camera canon, crop frame, dave kai piper, eric eggly, flash 101, flash exposure, flash photography, full frame, http://unknownphotographer.net/, inspiration, lighting 101, Nikon, Nikon D90, onone, photo 101, photography photography, photography tutorial, photography workshop, photoshop info, Photoshop tutorial, street photography, strobes 101, strobist, strobist 101, strobist tutorial, susan roderick, Tutorial, unknown Photographer, wedding photographer birmingham
It’s all about being inspired !!
It’s all about being inspired !! This blog is really inspired by the vastly talented Camilla Akrans. Camila is the photographer that can lay claim to the photography used by Rhianna for the LOUD album. I love the tones Camilla has used, the bright red hair reminded me of another great album cover. I was inspired to do a Dave Kai Piper inspired mix of the two great shots.
Having the right look or image of paramount importance for the modern artist in the super fast turbulent music world. Just being noticed is hard enough, you have to look good too. Just look at the pop stars of today, the presentation and image can be more important than music created. Lady GaGA is an artist who has clearly fully understood this. Big money is spent on crafting personal images that can be sold and marketed worldwide. As a photographers we are a crucial and powerful cog in the media machine that enables this to happen. Its a tricky thing to get right. How does one begin to shoot a cover photo for someone like pop singer Rhianna. Camilla Akrans is the photographer responsible for Rhianna’s LOUD album. She did, what I think, is utterly fantastic job on the album. Its a great sexy and fashion look, something Camilla does seem to pull of again and again with sumptuous effect. It is clear that hours of careful planning and test shoots would of taken place to create such a project.
I have used Camilla’s wonderful work to inspire a shoot of my own. But, as always wanted my own spin on the idea. I wanted to show you my take on the purple duotone / cross processed look that Camilla has used to perfection on her cover shoot. Marilyn Manson had a very popular album called Mechanical Animals, it has this wonderful androgynous look, together with the red hair. These were my visual ques. The very beautiful Victoria Coutts from Gingersnap Models stepped in for me. The wonderful Chloe-Jasmine Whichello added the perfect make up.
We had our model, our inspiration, we just needed the photo!
CLICK HERE FOR A FULL PDF GUIDE on how the photo was shot and edited.
Tagged 3 Legged thing., 50mm @ F1.4, A pretty model, Adobe Lightroom, adobe photoshop, album art work, album music cover, androgynous, blue eyeshadow, blue lips, Camilla Akrans, Chloe-Jasmine Whichello, cross processed, dave kai piper, Dave Piper - Latest Work, eddie, eddit, edit, Edits, Fashion, fashion look, fashion shoot, Frio, Gingersnap Models, how to guid, loud, marylin manson, Mechanical Animals, Music Photography, Nikon D90, Orbis Flash, personal images, Photographers, Photography, photoshoot, Photoshop, photoshop info, Photoshop tutorial, photoshot, purple duotone, red hair, Rhianna, sexy and fashion look, Tutorial, Victoria Coutts, wedding photographer birmingham
Simple HDR Tutorial
As promised here is another simple way to use Photoshop for the stuff it was designed for.
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A HDR photo of Claverdon church
HDR Tutorial
Afternoon,
- Open Photos Using Bridge – Save some time!
I was out on another wedding last weekend, we was at a stunning little Church in Claverdon. I thought it might be a great subject to use as for a HDR photo. But before we start, i know there are lots of software packages that can produce HDR work, but i am just going to use Photoshop.
Where to start ? With most editing work you can pick and choose the effects post shoot, but with a good HDR photo you need to plan a little bit. you need a set of photos (RAW or Jpg) that are of the same view, see sample photo. If you need to use a tripod, that’s cool. The aim is to get a light (over exposed) version, a normal version and a darker (under) photo. your range of photos should cover and show examples of all the details that you are aiming to capture in your HDR photo, why, I hear you ask. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, you are going to make a photo from a set of photos, its going to be a combination of all the elements in the photos combined to show a larger range of colours than one photo could show on its own. So, pick your photos in Bridge using CTRL to highlight the photos you want to use and lets build.
Go up to the menus and find the open in Photoshop menu, then find the merge to HDR button. see the photo if you need help. The next box you will see will be Photoshop asking some questions about which photos you want used, the Bit depth you require and where you want the white balance set. Leave the bit depth at 8 for now or unless you want 16 or 32 bits. Then set the white balance where is seems to set the photo sample next to it at the nicest level to see all the detail. The next step is really simple. Just wait for Photoshop to do all the hard work. If you are new to working in any other bit rate than 8, you should be aware that Photoshop will react different, For example, you can not use all the filters on a 32bit file. Have a read up before jumping in.
- HDR Merge Tools
After Photoshop and built your photo from the elements of all the 3 that you started with you should have a box pop up on your screen. This is the HDR Conversion tool box. In here you have all the normal levels and sliders that you would expect to see. The tool box is giving you the choice in how you wish to convert your photo, have a play with the settings here. I use the Local Adaptation method as my common conversion. Use the Radius and Threshold sliders to see how they effect the output then have a look at the curve and histogram at the bottom. See how the output is changed and find a nice looking combination for your photo and click to set those settings. Let photo shop convert your photo.
You should now be left with a ok looking HDR photo, this time its only 8 bit, but try again with 16 and 32 to see how that effects the look of the photo. But before you do that, we should finish this photo. As always, whenever I can, make your self duplicate layer and hide it, then make another and set a nice blur on your new layer. I like the Lens Blur with some nice soft settings, but feel free to pick what ever blur you like unless its somthing silly like motion blur. Set your blur and then pick Colour Dodge mode for that layer.
Select you magic wand, we need to bring back that detail that we lost when setting the screen mode, in my photo I just want to bring the sky back, so I have selected the layer below my blured layer (even though that is the layer i am going to remove bits from) and used the sharper image to set my selection around the walls and trees, use the Refine edge tools to get a really good mask. When happy, flip back to your colour dodged blur layer using the same selection you set and remove the bits over the sky, or what ever you are trying to let show though.
- Mask and remove bits you dont want
The next few steps are very simple and invole the Dodge, burn and Sponge tools. Go in and really show off some of those highlighted areas, use the Eraser to smarten up and bits of the layers that the mask did not get to, and you should have a photo which looks pretty much finished. On my photo, I have converted merged the layers together with CTRL+ALT+E, set them as a Smart Object then added some Lens filters while playing with some colour settings.
Enjoy, As always, Please send me some samples of edits you have made!
Mail them to Dave@davepiper.org.uk
- HDR Tutorial EDITED
- HDR Tutorial Standad photo
