Michael Herb Photography
Day 311/365 - When I grow up!
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Today I awoke to the oh so familiar feeling of "the morning after drinking". My head was pounding, my eyes hurt to open and despite the copious amounts of water I drank before bed and anytime I woke throughout the night, I was still dehydrated. I knew full well that my poor liver, stomach and intestines were still dealing with the onslaught of amazing tasting Guinness. First thing I did when waking was grab my computer and see just how bad my blog was. For being stupid drunk I was actually able to articulate pretty well. Of course there were the occasional mistakes, but hell, I make those while sober. For having my head cocked to one side while typing using the backspace more than the keys, I did a damn good job.
So today we spent most of the day recovering. My headache somehow manifested into a sinus headache and that sucked worse than the hangover. I felt as if some little green man was trying to push my eyes out of my skull from the inside. He has no respect for his landlord! At about 4pm I finally came out of it and decided it was time to start my day. First order of business… Checking messages, emails and whatnot. when I started my computer I received 13 new work related emails, 4 voicemails and two missed calls. I love when people decided today is the day they call me. The day I decided to take off! Tomorrow will be catch up day.
So, if I didn't work today what did I do? Shawn wanted to get his line ticket for his reserved copy of COD MW3 so we decided to carpool and do everything all in one trip. We first headed to the park to try a new technique I've been wanting to try. Its called Bokehrama. In stead of a panorama its a matrix of photos taken and stitched together to accentuate shallow depth of field. Unfortunately it needs to be done when there is more light. Sunrise, sunset and night won't work. I'll attempt the technique another time. We then headed to Walmart and GameStop. The line was about 70 people long just for door tickets for the midnight release. A ticket to save your spot in line to get into the door took us 1.5 hours to get. You must have already reserved the game before midnight to ensure a copy… There going fast. The line was full of all types of characters. From the 12 - 14 year old kids who severely whoop my ass in the game all the way to 60 year old people most likely getting it for a kid or grandkid. Anyway you look at it… it will be one hell of a cluster fuck tonight when millions of people get online all at once. Sony's servers will most likely be so bogged down we all will lag!
I've promised Joyce I will not spend the next week straight playing the game. She leaves next monday for Nevada for a month and a half. I won't be meeting her there until the day after christmas. In which time I will end this crazy adventure in a strange place. I don't yet know what the final picture will be but I'll tell you one thing…. It has to be epic!!
So tonights shot came from pretty much nowhere. I thought it would be cool to have a little me interacting with Rylan's toys. I also wanted a person in the shot full size for reference. Who better than Joyce and her expressive faces. Shot in two parts. I was shot against a white backdrop with identical lighting as I'd be using for the main shot of Joyce. I knew the backlight would be much higher than my little self so I jacked it pretty high up. The main light was a boomed beauty dish at an equal hight to the back light. About 8 or 9 feet up. After I was shot it was on to the main shot. Joyce laid down with Rylan's toys, something she later would blame the need for a shower on. Even though we were heading out shortly after finishing this blog she would still have to get clean. I had set the lights up identical to the shot of me and we started shooting. At first I had her hold a power ranger figurine in her hand. This would give both me and her reference to how she would be holding the mini me. After we got the handling part down I had her put the figure down and fake it. Half way through Gidget the cutest Yorkie ever and verified camera hog walks into frame, sits down right by Joyce's face and looks at the camera. This is a dog were talking about! She is hilarious when she does this. After Joyce acknowledged her, she turned to joyce and with her 2 foot tongue, licked Joyce's face. Now, joyce is down on the "nasty" ground and a dog just licked her across her face. A shower would most definitely be in order now.
We finished off and went to preview the shots. I couldn't believe my eyes… the shot of me was blurry! I rarely get a blurry shot and would of been mortified if this was shot on location! Luckily it was shot just 20 yards away, in my living room. We quickly set back up and snapped a sharp shot of the tiny me reacting to a tiny airplane hurling at my face.
Post Production was quick and straight forward. Making and shrinking myself down to the right size was first. Followed by shadowing the areas around Joyce's fingers to help sell the effect. I even went as far as to put a shadow on the floor where I would be. Its not even that visible but knowing its there makes me feel better. I heavily dodged and burned the image to give it that extra 3D look. To finish off the shot I adjusted the exposure on the background. I didn't have enough space to limit the light spill on the background. This is where Photoshop comes in handy. I simply added a Exposure adjustment layer, darkened to my liking and then masked away the areas that I didn't want effects. After all that it still needed something. Ah, motion blur! I masked out a copy of Joyce's arm and applied a motion blur on it. I then adjusted the pivot point of the layer to right at her elbow and rotated it ever so slightly. I reduced the opacity and took a step back… it was done! a quick signature and that was a wrap to day 311
Now its off to the Big COD MW3 Launch party to get Day 312 down early!
Lighting:
Same for both shots
AB800 Med Gridded Softbox 2:00 3/4 power
AB800 Beauty Dish Boomed overhead at 6:00 1/4 power
Triggered Via Cyber Syncs and Commander.
Day 311/365 - When I grow up!
Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Blog
Today I awoke to the oh so familiar feeling of "the morning after drinking". My head was pounding, my eyes hurt to open and despite the copious amounts of water I drank before bed and anytime I woke throughout the night, I was still dehydrated. I knew full well that my poor liver, stomach and intestines were still dealing with the onslaught of amazing tasting Guinness. First thing I did when waking was grab my computer and see just how bad my blog was. For being stupid drunk I was actually able to articulate pretty well. Of course there were the occasional mistakes, but hell, I make those while sober. For having my head cocked to one side while typing using the backspace more than the keys, I did a damn good job.
So today we spent most of the day recovering. My headache somehow manifested into a sinus headache and that sucked worse than the hangover. I felt as if some little green man was trying to push my eyes out of my skull from the inside. He has no respect for his landlord! At about 4pm I finally came out of it and decided it was time to start my day. First order of business… Checking messages, emails and whatnot. when I started my computer I received 13 new work related emails, 4 voicemails and two missed calls. I love when people decided today is the day they call me. The day I decided to take off! Tomorrow will be catch up day.
So, if I didn't work today what did I do? Shawn wanted to get his line ticket for his reserved copy of COD MW3 so we decided to carpool and do everything all in one trip. We first headed to the park to try a new technique I've been wanting to try. Its called Bokehrama. In stead of a panorama its a matrix of photos taken and stitched together to accentuate shallow depth of field. Unfortunately it needs to be done when there is more light. Sunrise, sunset and night won't work. I'll attempt the technique another time. We then headed to Walmart and GameStop. The line was about 70 people long just for door tickets for the midnight release. A ticket to save your spot in line to get into the door took us 1.5 hours to get. You must have already reserved the game before midnight to ensure a copy… There going fast. The line was full of all types of characters. From the 12 - 14 year old kids who severely whoop my ass in the game all the way to 60 year old people most likely getting it for a kid or grandkid. Anyway you look at it… it will be one hell of a cluster fuck tonight when millions of people get online all at once. Sony's servers will most likely be so bogged down we all will lag!
I've promised Joyce I will not spend the next week straight playing the game. She leaves next monday for Nevada for a month and a half. I won't be meeting her there until the day after christmas. In which time I will end this crazy adventure in a strange place. I don't yet know what the final picture will be but I'll tell you one thing…. It has to be epic!!
So tonights shot came from pretty much nowhere. I thought it would be cool to have a little me interacting with Rylan's toys. I also wanted a person in the shot full size for reference. Who better than Joyce and her expressive faces. Shot in two parts. I was shot against a white backdrop with identical lighting as I'd be using for the main shot of Joyce. I knew the backlight would be much higher than my little self so I jacked it pretty high up. The main light was a boomed beauty dish at an equal hight to the back light. About 8 or 9 feet up. After I was shot it was on to the main shot. Joyce laid down with Rylan's toys, something she later would blame the need for a shower on. Even though we were heading out shortly after finishing this blog she would still have to get clean. I had set the lights up identical to the shot of me and we started shooting. At first I had her hold a power ranger figurine in her hand. This would give both me and her reference to how she would be holding the mini me. After we got the handling part down I had her put the figure down and fake it. Half way through Gidget the cutest Yorkie ever and verified camera hog walks into frame, sits down right by Joyce's face and looks at the camera. This is a dog were talking about! She is hilarious when she does this. After Joyce acknowledged her, she turned to joyce and with her 2 foot tongue, licked Joyce's face. Now, joyce is down on the "nasty" ground and a dog just licked her across her face. A shower would most definitely be in order now.
We finished off and went to preview the shots. I couldn't believe my eyes… the shot of me was blurry! I rarely get a blurry shot and would of been mortified if this was shot on location! Luckily it was shot just 20 yards away, in my living room. We quickly set back up and snapped a sharp shot of the tiny me reacting to a tiny airplane hurling at my face.
Post Production was quick and straight forward. Making and shrinking myself down to the right size was first. Followed by shadowing the areas around Joyce's fingers to help sell the effect. I even went as far as to put a shadow on the floor where I would be. Its not even that visible but knowing its there makes me feel better. I heavily dodged and burned the image to give it that extra 3D look. To finish off the shot I adjusted the exposure on the background. I didn't have enough space to limit the light spill on the background. This is where Photoshop comes in handy. I simply added a Exposure adjustment layer, darkened to my liking and then masked away the areas that I didn't want effects. After all that it still needed something. Ah, motion blur! I masked out a copy of Joyce's arm and applied a motion blur on it. I then adjusted the pivot point of the layer to right at her elbow and rotated it ever so slightly. I reduced the opacity and took a step back… it was done! a quick signature and that was a wrap to day 311
Now its off to the Big COD MW3 Launch party to get Day 312 down early!
Lighting:
Same for both shots
AB800 Med Gridded Softbox 2:00 3/4 power
AB800 Beauty Dish Boomed overhead at 6:00 1/4 power
Triggered Via Cyber Syncs and Commander.