Floral and Scenic Photography for Students – Part 3:
Floral and Scenic Photography for Students -Part 3
All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
Regarding Floral and Scenic Photography for Students, Some of my male students roll their eyes when I suggest shooting floral, including natural light as well as lighted still life and light painted floral arrangements. However they quickly realized how complicated it can get when we get into lighting and light painting arrangements. Chloe and I hung this orchid cluster from a cross bar and painted it with a flash light over about a 10 second exposure and then we masked in the spot lit areas in Photoshop.
Chloe Orchids Master fine art photography austin
Eleana and I drove to the Austin Botanical Gardens to photograph water lilies in natural light. The sun was just low enough to cast the edge of shadows to give this lily a bit of POP. In photoshop we duplicated the base layer and changed the blend mode to soft light. We duplicated it again and change the blend mode to multiply. Then we selected the flower, reversed the selection and masked in a water and lily pad background from a different shot.
Elena’s Lily master floral photography in natural light
AFTER EDITING Elena’s Lily master floral photography in natural light
The reason I like roses and orchids so much is because the petals are translucent, so they let light through them. This make them prime candidates for back lighting. This rose that Morgan and I photographed, is a great example. There is no front light. It was lit only from behind. You can see the flashlight Morgan was holding behind the rose in the first shot.
Morgan back lighting orange rose floral photography Austin
After editing Morgan back lighting orange rose floral photography Austin
I introduce my students to the different rules of composition early on. In this Gerber Daisey photograph, we used one single flash with a soft box on the right. Morgan did a great job of cropping the images so that the flowers fell perfectly into the 45 degree rule.
Gerber daisy one light cropped to 45 degree rule of composition
Nolan and I also photographed some blue orchids. This image is a combination of 3 different front spot lighted areas and two backlit areas. He did a great job of honoring the rule of thirds when he did his final crop.
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
After Editing Blue Orchid spot lighting for floral portrait
And one more Orchid arrangement with Krishan. He also did front and back lighting and masked in spot lit areas to create his master image.
Purple Orchids by Krishan for masking
Purple Orchids by Krishan for masking
Purple Orchids by Krishan for masking
Purple orchid final after editing
Nolan and I attempted to emulate the still life floral style of Paulette Tavormina. I shopped at Central Market for the props, and my wife Samantha Stevens carved out some time from her Austin based job coaching day and built this gorgeous arrangement. Actually there is very little editing in this final image, just a couple of spot lit area on the right that the key light on the left could not reach.
Samantha Stevens building still life Floral arrangement for photograph
Floral still life photograph after editing
One of my favorite locations for introducing my students to landscape and scenic photography is the Pennybacker Bridge over Lake Austin. It is iconic, and the students always have something special to print up and take home with them. With Elena and Jake, the lesson involved learning how to evaluate a panoramic scene, leveling the camera to shoot 5 or 6 bracketed exposures and overlaping each shot so that Photoshop would be able to merge them all together into one scene. Here is what they came up with. Elena was delighted when friend of mine offered to pay her $100 for a 30 inch print of her panorama.
Elena’s panoramic scene of the Pennybacker Bridge in Austin Texas Floral and Scenic Photography
Jake’s panoramic scene of the Pennybacker Bridge in Austin Texas Floral and Scenic Photography
Morgan and I photographed a City-scape of Austin. You can tell that this was a few years ago – 2014 to be precise because the Frost Bank Building is featured and visible. Today, it is hard to find an angle where you can see any of that building.
Frost Bank building Austin cityscape circa 2014 Floral and Scenic Photography
Part 2: Portrait Photography: All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
Part 2: Portrait Photography
All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
I like to start my training off with Abstract which was covered in the last blog post. I do this because the subject matter is not talking back to us. I tell my students that Portrait and Wedding photography are a totally different beasts. Portrait is especially gruelling because the subject is looking dead at the camera (often), meaning staring at you the photographer, and waiting for you to finish this grueling experience of having to get their photograph taken. The more the subject is sweating, the more you sweat. More often than not, we as photographers are required to entertain the subject while navigating the controls on our camera (that we cannot see clearly because our sweat is dripping on the viewfinder) and praying to God that our wireless triggers and lighting will not suddenly stop communicating with each other (which they do). Portrait photography is indeed stressful for those reasons.
Krishan wanted to photograph an exotic car. My friend offered up his Bentley and we set up to do some spot lighting around the car which we would then composite each lit area together later in Photoshop.
spot Lighting Bentley with Austin architectural photographer Johnny Stevens
But I thought, HEY – why not add in an element of stress and pay a pretty model to pose by the car? That would be good training for a student!
Summer posing with Bentley
Summer pose 2 with Bentley
And the final edited image after we composted all the spot lighting on the house and the car and replaced the house windows with an ambient shot.
Final composition of Exotic Car Portrait with model Summer
For my Mentee Elena, we headed downtown and scouted for a spot to shoot a portrait of Lauren. Deep in an ally with homeless guys, was the back entrance to a bar on 6th street. I loved the graffitti. Elena and I switched positions holding the umbrella with a strobe.
Lauren set up with Elena holding the light
Lauren Portrait finalKrishan want
Elena needed a senior portrait done so I made her set up this scene on Barton Creek and then pose on a rock.
Elena self portrait
My friend Lane volunteered to be our subject for Nolan’s portrait exercise. Fortunately, Lane Orsak needed a new portrait to promote his new book called Dylan’s Divide and he had some new artwork he just completed. And even more fortunately, Lane’s portrait turned out to be one of my favorite ever. Nolan and I spot lighted the background and composited those behind an image of Lane which we lighted with one big soft light on camera right, and a kicker light on camera left.
Lane Orsak Portrait final
I took Morgan with me to a commercial shoot of Austin artist Truman Marquez’s Gallery. We photographed two models separately and composited them both into the final image.
Art Gallery portrait
Portrait Photography Austin
Portrait Photography Austin
Morgan also helped me arrange and execute a more complicated Portrait that I photographed for the purposes of entering for judging with the Professional Photographers of America. We hired 3 models and rented the outfits from Lucy in Disquise here in Austin. Rocky the lab was free.
Samantha helping set up the Gangster Scene
“Stalemate” Gangster photograph final
And also for Krishan we set up a backdrop and hired a model to do some 3 point lighting set ups, including main light, bounced fill light, and kicker light.
Skylar Portrait set up
Skylar Portrait final
Part 1: Abstract Photography for Students, All of my Mentees from Westlake High School
- At April 02, 2020
- By Johnny Stevens
- In Aerial photography, architecutral, austin architectural photographer, Austin photographer, camera control, commercial photography, dichotomy, Drone photography, editing, Fine Art, lifestyle photography, light painting, lighting, Photography education, Photography Mentor, portrait, portrait photography, professional, real estate, real estate photography, shutter speed, speedlights, spot lighting, student housing, student lifestyle, Tilt shift, tilt-shift lens, video, videography
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Part 1: Abstract Photography for Students
All of my Mentees from Westlake High School.
Abstract Photography for Students is a challenge. I thought it was time to assemble all of the educational photographic projects I have done with my senior students of the Independent Study Program at Westlake High School over the last 8 years. I was surprised when I went back into my photography archives to see some of the projects that I have forgotten about. I am doing this in 5 Posts so the reader does not get overwhelmed. This first post is about our Abstract Photography exercises. So here we go.
When I agree to teach a student, I tell them that my approach to teaching is to expose them to as many different genres of photography as possible, so they can learn how to leverage the settings on their cameras, read natural light, learn how to control flash and strobe light, how to work with humans who hate to have their photos taken, and evaluate the environment for challenges.
The photography genres I like to introduce them to are:
- Abstract Photography
- Portrait Photography
- Still Life and Landscape Photography
- Architectural Photography
ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY:
My first student 8 years ago was Elena. With her I learned how difficult shooting rising smoke is. We learned that having a flash at 90 degrees to a smoking piece of incense was better than having two flashes, one in each side. The contrast within the smoke was better and made it easier to identify an interesting moment within the otherwise chaotic billowing smoke. Then we edit the image mostly by eliminating surrounding smoke that did not lend itself to the formation we identified. More often that not (and this goes for painting too) we tend to identify with abstract formations that remind of some variation of human forms. Here are Elena’s images:
I had forgotten about this image, and today it is one of my favorite. It is whimsical and requires some time to process its intricacies.
Elena’s Abstract Smoke by Austin fine art photographer Johnny Stevens
This one I called Wisp of Elena. It clearly has some alien life forms that attract the eye….
Elena’s Abstract Smoke #2 Alien formation by Austin abstract photographer Johnny Stevens
My mentee Nolan shot this smoke image. Very often the way smoke rises and curls, it tends to show formations of vertebrae and human bones.
Nolan smoke abstract photography austin
And this one from my mentee Morgan;
Morgan abstract smoke photography by Austin photographer Johnny Stevens
For Jake’s Abstract Smoke Photography exercise, he created 2 edited versions from this first raw file.
Jake’s original raw file of smoke rising
Final edit of abstract smoke rising photograph
Final edit 2 of abstract smoke rising photograph
My mentee Krishan and I tested our reflexes at shooting water drops in a glass.
Krishan’s composition of 4 drops of water
After an hour of gruelling timing to pull the trigger at the right time we learned that we could not get the effect we were looking for which is achieved by buying a Pluto Valve Drop Regulator. It releases drops timed exactly with the shutter of the camera, but more importantly it releases 2 consecutive drops so that the upward splash of the first drop smashes into the one coming down and creates a beautiful mushroom effect. As seen in these two examples:
water drop 1 by fstoppers
waterdrop 2 by 500 px blog
To introduce my students to compositing in Photoshop, I will often give them the task of taking a series of images and composite parts of them into a master image. In this case I gave Nolan these images from my Mannequin folder of images to create a composite:
Mannequin for abstract photoshop compositing lesson Johnny Stevens Austin Photographer
Final composite by Nolan
Emulating the still life photographic style of Paulette Tavormina
Emulating the still life photographic style of Paulette Tavormina
One of my Westlake students for whom I am a photography mentor for the Independent Study Program at Westlake High School wanted to shoot a still life. I have always admired the work of Paulette Tavormina. Her fine art photography rises above the crowd of fine art photographers. Here is an example of her work.
Paulette Tavormina Roses+and+Figs_2013
My student, Jake and I moved some furniture around in my living room and built a black backdrop to cut out the ambient light. We lit the scene from several different angles with a Westcot mini strip light and painted in the lit areas in Photoshop.
Set up for Floral Fine Art photography austin Johnny Stevens
Set up for Floral Fine Art photography austin Johnny Stevens
Here is what we ended up with.
Floral still life Fine Art photography Austin Johnny Stevens
Converting the Living room for a Studio Portrait
Converting the Living room for a Studio Portrait makes you think about setting up a permanent studio somewhere. I did this for my Westlake High School mentee, Krishan so he could learn the basics of portrait photography. Our set up was a 3 point lighting setup – a main light, back light and a bounce card for the fill light. Skylar was our model from San Marcos.
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
Portrait photographer austin texas home studio
