Becoming a Fine Art Photographer and Master of Monochrome | Vincent Versace

This is the recording of a live broadcast where I chat with fine art photographer Vincent Versace, a Nikon Ambassador and recipient of the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Media Arts and Entertainment. Vincent is a master of monochrome, and we talk about life as a photographer, finding your own style, the art of post-production and more. There's a lot here for anyone interested in fine art photography or black and white work.

links mentioned in the video:

• Vincent’s Website: versacephotography.com

• Vincent on Instagram: @vincent_versace

• Vincent’s Workshops: versacephotography.com/workshops

DON'T FORGET the BACKGROUND ERASER TOOL in Photoshop 💥

The Background Eraser Tool is easy to forget about in Photoshop, but it's incredibly powerful when you're compositing glass objects. In this video I show how it keeps the shape and the highlights of the glass intact as you remove the background, which can be really tricky to do any other way. If you ever composite glass or other transparent objects, it's a tool well worth remembering.

Turning IMAGINATION into REALITY with Photography and Photoshop | Dracorubio

This is the recording of a live broadcast where I chat with photographer and digital artist Roderique Arisiaman, better known as Dracorubio. We talk about his photography, where his ideas and inspiration come from and his retouching process for turning what's in his imagination into a final image. If you're interested in how a concept becomes a finished picture through photography and Photoshop, this is a great look behind the scenes of his work.

links mentioned in the video:

Roderique’s Website: www.dracurobio.com

Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/dracorubio

Instagram: @roderique_arisiaman

From CANCER SURVIVOR to CONSERVATIONIST - A Photographer on a Mission | Imelda Bell

This is the recording of a live broadcast where I chat with photography powerhouse Imelda Bell about surviving cancer and how her photography helped bring hope to many others through her Surviving the Monster portraits project. We also talk about her life mission as a conservationist, and how her photography and writing skills are helping raise awareness and make a difference. It's an inspiring conversation about what photography can do when there's a real purpose behind it.

links mentioned in the video:

• Imelda’s Webiste: imeldabell.co.uk

• Imelda’s Amazon Author Page: ( LINK )

• www.thecrash.co.uk

• rhinorescueuk.org

• The Photoshop Virtual Summit 6: ( LINK )

Taking Photos with my iPhone and taking TIme Out

This past couple of weeks have been quite eventful to say the least and with all that’s happened I’ve found myself even more grateful than ever that I live near the coast.

For me, being able to take some ‘time out’ and slow down whilst looking at and listening to the waves crashing against the shore is medicine … pure and simple, and this past week it was much needed.

Here’s some pictures that I took this past week when I took some ‘time out’ just down the road at Lyme Regis using my iPhone and edited in Lightroom on my iPad.

Each of these pictures I’ve also added to my Lightroom Community Profile Page wheere you can see all of the retoching steps and also download them as a Preset to use on your own images ( LINK )

Handheld 1 second Long. Exposure using the ReeHeld App

Ragnar - Viking Composite using Photoshop

Following on from the earlier article I wrote ( LINK ) showing the Behind the Scenes of a recent Viking Photo Shoot, I’ve now finished the 2nd image so thought I’d share it here for you to see …

This is a composite made using Photoshop and is a combination of several images comprising the original studio photograph of my friend Simon ‘Foxy’ Fowler dressed as the Viking, the Location Shot and several Sea Bird Photographs.

Here’s the studio photograph of Simon …

Here’s the location shot which is a part of the coastline at Three Cliffs Bay, The Gower, South Wales …

To make sure that I got the angle and height correct, when at Three Cliffs Bay, my great friend Anthony Crothers stood in the spot where I would eventually place Simon …

In the studio when photographing Foxy, my camera was on a tripod and at a height where the lens was in line with the top portion of his nearest thigh.

When on location photographing the background / scene, Anthony was stood on a rasied area of ground …

(Note: it looks precarious but actually isn’t … to the front of Anthony on the other side is a flat area that you can comfortably walk on)

… so to get the angle / height to look as though Simon was photographed higher than he actually was, the camera lens was level and aimed just below Anthony’s nearest knee.

My new compositing workflow

Returning to some compositing has seen me now approach them in a different way especially when it comes to potentially time consuming cutouts such as hair anf fur.

My new workflow sees me leaving this part to the very end and getting great results in literally a fraction of the time …

This is something that I’ll definitely be going through in my Combining Old and New : Mastering Selections and Cut Outs in 2024 class in the upcoming ( FREE ) Photoshop Virtual Summit 6 …

If you’d like to see a larger version of both images created from this photo shoot, I’ve now added them into my PORTRAITS PORTFOLIO ( LINK )

Thanks for looking in,
Glyn

WHAT IT TAKES to become a BOOK COVER PHOTOGRAPHER with Dave Wall

This is the recording of a live broadcast where I chat with book cover photographer Dave Wall. With over 1,000 book covers to his name, Dave is one of the most sought-after crime and thriller book cover photographers in the world, and we talk about what it takes to do what he does, his process, stock photography and a whole lot more. If you've ever looked at a book cover and wondered how the picture came about, this gives a real insight into that world.

links mentioned in the video:

• Dave Wall Website: ( LINK )

• Dave Wall on Instagram: @davewallphoto

• Arcangel: ( LINK )

The MOOD Podcast

Recently I was invited to be a Guest on The MOOD Podcst and to chat with host Matt Jacob about all things my Photography, Content Creation, Presenting, YouTube, Social Media and all things in-between.

I had a blast!

Chatting with Matt felt like we’d known each other for years.

He asked me so many questions I’ve never been asked before and we got deeper and deeper, if not a litle contraversial at times.

The episode is now available to listen on all podcast platforms and also to watch over on YouTube

LINK

I was invited to be a guest on The Mood Podcast to chat with host Matt Jacob about my photography, content creation, presenting, YouTube, social media and everything in between. Chatting with Matt felt like we'd known each other for years; he asked me so many questions I'd never been asked before, and the conversation got deeper and deeper, if not a little controversial at times. A big part of it is about growing a YouTube channel from scratch and what really goes into building a following.

From HOMELESS to HELPING - A Photographer's Life Journey with Christopher Hall

This is the recording of a live broadcast where I chat with photographer Christopher James Hall as he takes us through his life, from being homeless and living on the streets of High Wycombe to becoming an award-winning photographer. Christopher is also the founder of the Christopher James Hall Foundation, which raises awareness and empowers individuals through the transformative power of photography. It's a remarkable story, and a powerful reminder of what photography can do for people.

links mentioned in the video:

• Christopher James Hall Foundation: ( LINK )

• Christopher James Hall Website: ( LINK )

• The MOOD Podcast: ( LINK )

• How to Print Course: ( LINK )

Christopher’s slideshow / promo video:

Returning to Composites: Ragnar Viking Portrait

It’s been a good few years since I did any compositing but recently I’ve been getting the urge to get back to it again. I don’t know if it’s because of all the updates that have come into Photoshop over the past few years or what, but something is drawing me back to start working in this area again … and I’m really excited about it.

So rather than just start creating random images, I’ve taken my own advice and decided on a project that brings together my photography, retouching and something outside of that world that I have a genuine interest and fascination with … and that’s Vikings. I’m a BIG fan of the Vikings Drama Series on Amazon Prime with incredible characters like Ragnar Lothbruk and Ivor the Boneless.

So not being one to hang around I started gathering ideas for the first pictures I wanted to work on and so for this I made use of technology that wasn’t available a few years ago when I was last doing composites … Adobe Firelfy AI and the ‘Text to Image’ technology.

This is such an incredibly useful piece of technology for coming up with concepts by simply writing your idea.

So using the Generate Image function in Photoshop I wrote …

Viking with beard and plaited hair and holding an axe stood on cliff looking down onto the sea

… and this is just some of the results that were created …

Now with images of what ideas I had in my head it was so much easier to first of all message my friend Simon Fowler aka Foxy and send him a picture of what I wanted to create of him as a Viking.

Then it was time to source the appropriate clothing for Foxy to wear, and for that I headed to Marigold Costumes in Cardiff and arranged to meet Simon and another friend Anthony Crothers there.

I’ve used Marigold Costumes a few times in the past for other photo shoots as there’s such a huge choice of costumes, and sure enough within no time we’d sorted out what was needed …

With clothing sorted it was then just a few days until the gang were all together in the studio for the photo shoot.

Here’s a look at the set up for the first image which is the one where the Viking will be looking down from the cliffs onto the sea below …

Doing this using the LED Constant Lights made it so much easier for everyone to see what was being captured … before it wss captured. It also made setting up so incredibly easy.

kit used:

• Westcott L120-B Bi-Color COB LED

• Westcott Rapid Box Switch 3x4 Softbox

To the front of Foxy I used the light and soft box combination below …

• Westcott L60-B Bi-Color LED

• Westcott Rapid Box Switch 1x4 Softbox

This was used to mimic the light / highlights coming from the sun.

Now when it comes to composting, I was always someone that liked to get the backgrounds first and then photograph the model / subject. I did this because having the background first meant I then had a light style and direction to mimic in the studio.

However I knew where I was going to photograph the background location … Hartand Quay in North Devon.

This is a location I have been to many times and know really well. It’s perfect for the picture I had in mind. I also had a good idea of where the sun would be located at a certain time of day which is why I positioned the light as I did to the front of Foxy.

I did check using the PhotoPills App though just to be sure …

And here’s one of the ‘out of camera’ shots, which as you can see shows that I also photographed Foxy against a grey background.

The reason for this is two-fold; firstly it contrasts against Foxy so makes it easier to cut him out later in Photoshop. Secondly, because it enables me to capture the real cast shadows, and being grey gives me the option of using a blend mode later in Photoshop to retain them and have them appear in the final composite rather than me paint them in …

The background / scene

As for the background I intend to add the photograph of Foxy into, I headed over to Hartland Quay over this past weekend with my friend Brian Dukes.

Conditions ended up being perfect with the clouds and incoming tide, and in addition to getting the shots I wanted, it made for a great day hanging out with a close friend in a fabulous location …

back to the studio

Anyway, back to the studio, there was one more shot I wanted and that was with Foxy stood facing directly towards the camera. I had an idea of creating a movie poster type of picture.

the set up

For this picture I changed the set up having rim lighting on either side of Foxy and a single light infront …

I really should get another 1x4 Softbox to use for the rim lighting, but as it happened, just using the 3x4 softbox and positioning it facing directly across the back of Foxy and him slightly forward worked out just fine. The other 1x4 I positioned on the opposite side, again facing directly across the back of Foxy.

The light directly to the front of Foxy was another Westcott L60-B Bi Color LED and this one was in a Westcott Rapid Box Switch Medium Octa (36”).

With it being on a C-Stand and on a boom, it was easy to get the camera on the tripod directly below so the light was on camera axis.

Here’s the out of camera photograph …

And below is the final edit.

Genuinely loved working on this adding textures, shadows on the background, dodging and burning, lighting effects, colour grading and creating the text from scratch along with the glow from the fire below and the sparks.

It was so much fun seeing how the updates can help with what I’m doing such as using Adobe Express for the fire and sparks and also Generative Fill AI to change the look of the axe head. Loved it!

So that’s my new Viking Series officially started and I cannot wait to get working on the other picture from this photoshoot.

Needless to say I’ll share it once finished. I’ll also look at creating some tutorial walk-throughs going through all of the retouching for both.

It sure feels good to be back doing this kind of work 😃 and as always a BIG thank you to my ever supportive friends … Ian Munro, Foxy, Anthony Crothers, Gerwyn Williams and Brian Dukes.