bark » learning

Category Archives: learning

Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.

Oops!

June 27, 2008 – 10:18 am

So a few weeks ago I posted something about a future mentorship program. I set up an email address just for this program and had it set to forward to my gmail.

Apparently that didn’t work.

After a few emails from some folks telling me that they had signed up, it dawned on me.

The emails never forwarded.

So I logged in to my regular mail client and I am totally overwhelmed at the amount of people that emailed me. And I have not responded to any of them. So to all of you out there that that expressed interest, I am so sorry I have not responded yet. I am going to go through them all this weekend and when I’m up and running, I will let you all know.

I did a small personal project while on the ferry yesterday evening and I will share that soon, but here is a fun one!

[Every stall was filled, 5 on each side, so I had to shoot quickly! FYI … The shutter on a 5D is NOT quiet!!]

By Erin | Comments (5)

3 + 1

June 23, 2008 – 8:31 am

I wanted to share a few thoughts for my fellow photographers out there about what is going through my head when I shoot.

. . . . . .

KEEP IT REAL
My goal in my photography is to try to capture the essence of whatever I am shooting. A dog and their owner, a fresh newborn and their parents, or even the kids in the neighborhood. Real moments are what I am after.

KEEP IT SIMPLE
Too many elements in one image can be distracting. If possible, I like to use one key element and get rid of the rest, allowing the subject to shine. Too many ideas or concepts in one image make it hard for the viewer to understand what you are trying to say.

KEEP IT SHARP
There are some cases where a photographer’s personal vision for art supercedes the need for perfect focus (and I love these), but don’t underestimate the power of an incredibly sharp photo. It allows the viewer to easily take in your image. Nailing your focus is something that takes concentration and practice.

LIGHT OVER LOCATION
You can have the most perfect location in the world, but if it doesn’t have great light, it probably isn’t going to work well. I look for light first and location second. This was a lightbulb moment for me last year when I attended The Antiworkshop. My group was in an alley and we were looking for really cool ideas and backdrops for our bride. Chenin, a workshop leader, was quick to point out what we were all missing… a gorgeous pocket of sunlight shining right down into the middle of the alley. If you weren’t looking for it, you probably would have discarded that spot in the alley because of all the clutter. But with some creative positioning, it turns into a really lovely image.

Happy Shooting!

By Erin | Comments (14)

Perfectly Imperfect

June 17, 2008 – 8:40 am

Embrace Imperfection

In your life
In your partner
In your work
In your children
In your photography

More often than not, I have found more people are moved by the imperfections of life than the perfections.

Images I could have deleted but chose not to.

By Erin | Comments (5)

Mentor Me

June 9, 2008 – 9:02 pm

One of the things that I stress the most, and wish that I had when I was starting out, was a dedicated mentor.

I get many emails from photographers just starting out and while I do try to answer them to the best of my ability, there is so much more that I feel needs to go into an answer.

In the works is a very special mentorship program dedicated to helping other photographers get to where they want to be.

If you are interested in the program and would like to be notified when it is launched, send an email to info@erinvey.com and include the following information:

Name
Location
Website (if applicable, not required)

As of right now I don’t have any plans to announce the details to the general public. Only those that express serious interest will be given additional information when it is available.

By Erin | Comments (2)

Before + After

May 15, 2008 – 12:41 pm

Retouching is a skill that I have refined over the years. There is no easy answer to perfecting your retouching skills in Photoshop. It takes time, practice, dedication, willingness to learn, and did I mention practice?

I generally have a vision of what an image might become from the moment I click the shutter. That vision can not always be realized straight out of the camera. The trick is to recognize the potential where it is needed as well as understand when to leave an image alone. Restraint is a dominating word while I edit.

Trends will come and go in the industry, textures are hot right now, but they just don’t work for the majority of my images. 10 years from now I want my images to remain classic, allowing the subject to speak for itself.

That being said, I believe every image requires a minimal amount of retouching. So I thought today I would show you a bunch of before + after’s, noting what I did to get the image to where I feel it needs to be. I also wanted to post these because it shows that although we may have the same camera, we aren’t going to necessarily end up with the same shot.

Left: RAW File | Right: RAW File + Adjusted Exposure, Blacks, and Contrast

I am happy with the final image from its adjusted RAW format. On the final image, I just applied sharpening.

Left: RAW File | Right: RAW File + Adjusted Exposure, Blacks, and Contrast

For the final image, I took out the lamp post on the right and applied sharpening.

Left: RAW File | Right: RAW File + Adjusted Exposure, Blacks, and Contrast

Final Image, I decided to take out the ball at the bottom because there wasn’t enough of it in the image to make it worth keeping. Sharpened as well.

RAW File

RAW Adjusted File

For the final image, I really wanted a dreamy look. So I decided to take it one step further and applied an action from the Totally Rad Action Mix called Technicolor Dreamworld.

Here is a great example of a shot that I totally underexposed. I just didn’t have any light coming in behind me because my house was there. But the potential was there so I decided to work with it to see what I could do. The floppy lips were just too much to delete!

RAW Adjusted File | Since I am working in CS3, I was able to easily use the Fill slider to add some detail into her nose.

Final Image still really needed some work. I used the Quick Mask Took (my fave) to select her nose, created a duplicate layer, and then brought out the shadows. I added a bit more contrast by using curves. Then I added a slight cross processed tone, because I just like it that way. Sharpened. Ending up with the most smooshable lips ever!