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Recently I did a golf photoshoot with Josh. The shots turned out very good in my opinion.

Here is a sample of a golf swing series:

Two strobe setup.

Over the next couple of months I have been concentrating on sports related photoshoots. If you are a model and play sports semi  or pro then let me know. You must have your own equipment. Depending on the sport the shoot will either take place in studio or on location.

All interested fitness/sport models please contact me via e-mail.

If you are a photographer or just a regular user that sometimes posts their images on facebook - beware! Facebook has just changed their Terms of Service agreement pretty much now stating that whatever is uploaded they can use for their own purposes. It goes even further!!! If you decide to remove the images, well it’s too late they have the right to retrieve it from archive.

You can read more regarding this issue at “The Conumerist”

During the hockey themed photoshoot we also did a quick runner series. The one shot that I really like was a composite of three images (see below). The initial shot is at 35% opacity the middle at 50% and the left at 100% with a motion blur trail at 8 degrees.

Yesterday I did a photoshoot with Cameron Bursey. The main theme of the shoot was hockey related and overall I’m pretty pleased with how the images are turning out.

In general, especially over the next couple months I will be shifting my focus to shoot more sports themed imagery. Coming up I have a boxing, football, soccer, golf and another hockey shoot lined up.

Here is a preview image from yesterday’s shoot. It was shot at my studio, background was black and it was a two light setup. The main light was to my left at a bout 45 degrees from the model and the second light was to my right 90 parallel to the model set at 1/2 power in comparison to the main light.

Hockey photoshoot - two light setup on black background

When shooting models on white background it is sometimes hard to get a perfect 100% white background especially around the hair. This is a quick method to get the minimum dots out from the background while retaining the fine hairs that are on it.

Original image direct from camera.

1. Use Magic Want to select white space around image.
2. Feather selection
The feather radius will depend on the resolution of your image. Might have to play around with this setting slightly to get it just right. On my 21MP images I use radius of 1.4.

3. Create new layer and fill it with 100% white. (Shift + F5)

4. Deselect (Command + D)
Note: In some cases this might be already looking good, but we want to get rid of those Min dots from in between the hair also.

5. Select the top layer that has the white selection fill we have created in step 3 and with an eraser delete the area around the hair.

6. Now with the top layer selected merge visible layers. (Command + Shift + E)

7. On the top layer just created roughly use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select the area around the hair where the min dots are visible.

Selection of area where white fill background was erased.

8. Go to Levels (Command +L). Select color picker to set white point and select a the darkest area on the white background around the hair.

9. Deselect the selection and using the eraser tool (make sure the hardness is set to 0%) erase within the image where the hard line from the selection appears. Make sure you do not go to close to the white background.

Erasing the hard line left from the selection.

That’s it… the above is a quick method to get rid of the minimum dots around fine hair when shooting on white background.

Final image

I was doing some further testing of the Canon 100mm Macro lens. Overall I really like the lens, but I’d still like to get a bit more magnification. The lens I would really try out is the Canon MP-E 65mm Macro lens. Unfortunately, the only way to try this lens would be to purchase it as even the local stores in Toronto don’t carry it normally in stock.

Here are a few macro shots from today with the Conon 100mm Macro lens:

In the world of not so interesting photography, here are two of my shots that have appeared on two paperback book covers recently. So the images aren’t as exciting as most, but they are there for the world to see on a book cover.

Wikipatterns and Civility in Business and Professional Communication

The first is a book titled “Wikipatterns” by Steward Mader and the second is “Civility in Business and Professional Communication” by Rod L. Troester and Cathy Sargent Mester.

Recently I’ve done a photoshoot for EXO, an Electro / Pop / Funk group out of Ontario. The main purpose of the shoot was for their CD release. The model for the shoot was Jenny.

Here are the members of the group.

Here are a few images that are going to be used on their next CD release:

Front and inside CD cover

CD print and back inside cover

EXO Music in action

On my recent trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic I had the opportunity to shoot some imagery of the resort. The image that sticks out the most is a huge panorama shot composed from over 20 images (shot at 21MP). Each image being shot at 21MP with the Canon 1Ds MKIII created some issues as the file size was enormous and really hard to work with. The final piece is almost 9ft wide (over 100in) in high resolution. Maybe one day I’ll print it out

Punta Cana resort panoramic shot