An extraordinary model

Pictures from shoot at studio
Model/s: Jana
Make-Up: Ebony
Photographer: Henrik

Equipment : Canon
Focal Length : 24-70 F2.8L 70-200 F2.8L
Aperture : F11 - F13
ISO : 100
Shutter speed : 1/160

I would like to start off by thanking all involved.
Thank you Thank you and Thank you.

now to parts that count What has happened to the Blog?
We have been working on the website so sorry Blog is really not getting regular updates
www.htfotography.co.za is where one can see some of our galleries etc.

As for the picures. I was reading a book and in the book ( yes I can Read) it said that to really make a wow picture one should use a good looking model. And its a sound piece of advice. That sound piece of advice does not really extend to the other pitfalls surrounding that piece of advice.
OK so you book a good looking model. Great only problem is the model probably went out partying the night before oh and did I mention she probably has boyfriend/girlfriend issues and a whole lot of other issues and maybe even some more in closet stuff etc. that he/she has to tell someone , that someone is normally you, and this has to be done before we can even get makeup near her or on her. OK OK I admit models are not the most reliable of creatures but every once in a while you get a model that looks great comes pretty well prepared and wants to make great photos. I have been fortunate to work with a few of these models and from a photographers point of view it is a whole lot easier to get great pictures when you work with them. The model that arrives on time and ready will get better photos at the end of the day because the photographer can now concentrate on getting good shots and not worrying about saying something that will cause tears etc. On this shoot another model was supposed to be there but she did not pitch. Jana was on time and prepared etc. When she heard that the other model was not going to be there the attitude was great more time to spend being photographed. As it turned out the extra time spent with her gave me some really great extra looks. Ebony did the makeup on this shoot and Im real happy how the whole thing came out.

Jana was a fantastic model and really easy an fun to work with. She clowned around and we all had fun when a model is at ease the best shots are captured. Even though we shot some sinister looking stuff there is a glint of something in the eyes and that seems to make all the difference in the shots.

The photography side was simple has Zack Arais has a wonderful tutorial on seamless white background check it out. www.zarias.com
I used the tutorials and a bit of experimenting to get the photos to way I wanted them.

As for post just a little bit of correcting here and there added a lighting effect for one and a bit of vignetting across the board. Black and whites where converted using the red channel mostly. The reason being the red filter makes the skin tones look better and lighter in black and white.

And there you have it folks some good solid photos.

The Halloween Serial , The Goul and the Ghost (Part 2 & 3)

Pictures from shoot at HT Fotography Studio
Model/s: Alan and Eve you can guess who is who.
Make-Up: Ebony
Photographer: Henrik

Equipment : Canon 40D & 24-70 f2.8
Focal Length : 45mm
Aperture : F7.1
ISO : 100
Shutter speed : 160
























Equipment : Canon 40D & 24-70 f2.8
Focal Length : 42mm
Aperture : F11
ISO : 100
Shutter speed : 160























These Photos are my next installment to my Halloween series. Part 2 and 3
So I have been in the UK for a while and boy did it seem to go very fast. I can tell you that as fast as it seemed to arrive getting the bags ready and all that, the faster the time seemed to go. And now I'm back in sunny South Africa. The blog was not updated due to not having a monitor I was sure of and the various tools that are needed to post process these little monsters. And when I was siting in front of a monitor that was good I was just backing up the photos I had taken that day. There are soooooo many photos - Damn that 6.5 frames per second. In my cameras defense there is a moron who keeps holding the shutter release button down so anyway. The reason I do this is I live in the hope I will get a sharp frame or two in the batch. I can tell you it works for me. I learnt a lot from my little travel experience like what equipment to take and what not to. Before I left SA for my world tour (I wish unless world is UK and Denmark) I phoned up my friend Alan and the call was something like this. H-"Hi Alan how you?" A-"Good" H-"Alan would you like to look like a Ghoul next Saturday?" A-"hmm Cool" H-" 9am good for you?" A- "Yea see you then"
I got to say that it was about the most easy bunch of convincing I ever had to do. I sort of thought he was not going to be there because perhaps he thought it was a joke. Sure enough though he was there.
Ebony was also there to do make-up That was a bit more of a task to get her there. Ebony is on board with me 110% on this project and with out her there would be no Halloween serial. Here is the challenge. Ebony has many talents and uses just about all of them. I mean to just give you an idea she designs dresses and makes them, she does tattoo designs and the tattoo artists put them on skin, she is the lead singer on a metal band called Theater Runs Red that is doing well at the moment and travels South Africa playing gigs, she also does theatrical make-up and fashion make-up and does body painting and wedding make-up. There are so many other things she does I cant even remember half of them. Needless to says she is very very busy. So for my schedule and hers to align I can tell you its difficult so if I can get a gap in her schedule I move mine.

On to the shoot. The setup was very similar to the last one (jack-o-lantern) and with the exception of a few strobe height adjustments Ghoul and Ghost were the same. The reason for this is that the look Im going for is controlled by the light. Im trying to create a similarity between the characters so the dramatic look needs to stay constant. Basically I think it has.

The shoot is simple the background is a black cloth simple as that. The light (as in one) is a single strobe on the left shot through a large softbox. It is in close and reasonably low power. I was after a dramatic look. I also want the feel of the characters to look sort of like coming out of the darkness about to murder. So no distracting nothings in the background and a bit of emphasis on the murder weapon. The part of the photoshoot feel gives that dramatic look is to get the background black and the light dramatic that's all there is to it. The rest is taken care of by Ebony and Post Processing. Since I feel Post Processing is a cheat I like that Ebony get me about 90% there. The rest is Create layers blur the top layer and used blending to get the desired effect. As you change the blending modes the program views the picture in different ways like screen is as though a light is being shone behind the picture you are viewing. They all have there uses and reasons to be used. The only real thing I did is a bit of blend and brought out those weapons with a layer mask. I feel that if the picture is taken correctly Post processing should take no longer than a few minutes. Some people love spending time time and more time burning dodging layer after layer. Me I battle to use all that. I love getting it right on camera and thinking how little Post Processing i will have to do. While I was shooting the neighbours were interested I what I was doing The look on their faces I would have loved to capture. They looked as though they were the would be victims with jaws dropped and a scared look on there faces. Who ever said photographers were fraidy cats? Just look what we have to work with menacing look people that look like they want to kill you and they got weapons at the ready. All in all a successful day was had by all so much so that Alan even left his make-up on the scare his nephews and nieces.