creative ideas. awesome media. great marketing. wait, no money.
Thanks for everyone that came to the class last night! Here’s the screen shots I took:
These were from adding textures, lighting a bulb without electricity and sunshine coloring.
Here are most of my photos on flickr if you need ideas or want to see some of the examples from last night.
Thanks!!
We had our photo light painting safari last night and it was AWESOME! One of the photos I took reminded me of one of my favorite photographers, Gregory Crewdson. Here’s my photo:
Here’s one of Gregory’s that is a bit similar:
Here’s my favorite of his, and it’s his book cover for Twilight (not to be confused with the vampire fad)
I love his use of light, but more so, I love how he builds these crazy elaborate sets. At some point, I hope to meet the owner of one of these abandoned houses and get permission to ‘stage’ a shoot.
If you like abstract photos, staged photos and light painting, here’s a few things to google…
See you tonight at the photoshop class!
photography / photoshop class
Location: PTCC
Friday, July 16th, 5:30-7:30pm
**ADMISSION**
Bring some non-perishable food items for donation to the food pantry. 
I’ve had many questions about photography and cameras, so here’s your chance to learn a little more about general photography and details of your camera. We will cover the basics and also some creative skill sets.
-SLR camera functions, aperture, shutter speeds and white balance
-difference between point and shoot cameras and SLR’s
-getting good shots with ANY camera, including your phone
-seeing the world though a lens
-light painting basics
-shooting for WYSIWYG or Photoshop editing
Most of this class will be about photography, and just a little bit on the Photoshop end. There will be 2 photo shoots then a follow up Photoshop class. these classes are informal, so bring your camera, bring your questions and bring your friends.
I made my first video with a Nikon D5000 DSLR. My friend (and video genius) Jerod has been giving me pointers, and over the years of working with him, I have learned much. He talks about using Photoshop graphics in his videos and how you can use all of the same blending modes. He uses FinalCut, I’m using Premiere. Here’s the graphic I used to get the textured effect. I added it on top of the video and changed the blending mode to ‘overlay’.
I had a blast making this video! Its only purpose was to learn more about video making. Ambient noise and the music was more challenging for me than the video parts. I did find some stock music, but I need to learn more about blending it in properly. :)
This is my first video, footage taken with my DSLR (Nikon D5000) and edited with Premiere CS5. I still have a lot to learn, but I sure had fun making it. And thanks to Elizabeth and Steph for putting up with me!
My light painting endeavors have stepped up a notch. I made a new set of paint brushes. No, I didn’t pull out chunks of my hair and attach it to wooden sticks, I’m talking about light painting brushes. Never heard of light painting? Here’s how it works…
If you have an SLR (digital or film), place it on a tripod and set the camera on manual. Set the aperture on F8 (works well for most simple light painting, although you might have to adjust) and the shutter on the ‘bulb’ setting. If you can get a cable release for you camera, most of them have a lock feature that will keep the shutter open until you close it, that way you don’t need to be at the camera holding the button down the whole time. Hold the shutter button down and have people ‘paint’ with the flashlights. Oh, and this process must be done in the dark or in extreme low light. Anything that has light on it will show up in your photo.
Now that you have the details on the camera end, let me tell you about the art tools. Your flashlights are your brushes and color gels are your paint. You can do this without the color gels, but I like using them, well, because I love color. This photo is of my new set. 
I had a set of color gels leftover from my pre-photoshop days. These are the same as theater light gels. Cokin makes the photography set and a company called Roscolux makes some as well. For the new flashlights, which I made to take down to Casa Hogar Elim for the kids to play with, I used duct tape to attach the gels and color coded them with the duct tape.
The black cards on the left have a set of colors I made from gels and photo mat boards. They have velcro on the back so I can attach them to a flashlight easily. And no, you don’t have to get that fancy with it. You can just hold a gel over the light. Simple. I do a lot of this so I have an entire suitcase of flashlights, from pen lights all the way up to my Cyclops.
Cyclops is a very large flashlight… 15 million candlepower. The light bulb in it is a car headlamp, if that gives you a reference point. I have some color gels that fit over Cyclops. This ‘brush’ comes in handy for light painting buildings or any really large spaces. Cyclops is rechargeable and cost about $40 at Costco. You can also get some nice 1-2 million candlepower lights at any retail store.
Some other types of lights that work well are pen lights for drawing, LED lights are good, but make sure to get the very bright ones. I prefer the warm light color of the incandescent type bulbs versus the new LED’s. Not as energy efficient, but if you’re picky about the warm tones…
Okay, let me show you some examples of light painting. I did a series for an art gallery showing a while back. The show was called ‘excessable’. It was photos of how we have so much excess in our culture and the entire series was light painted.
These were all painted with several different types of flashlights, each exposure lasting anywhere between 3 and 10 minutes.
Here’s a photo from light painting with the kids at Casa Hogar.
You can also do light painting using black and white. This is from a film camera, my Nikon 6006 with Illford B&W film. You can also get the ghost images with the light painting by painting a person or object, then moving it and painting the space where it was.
This is one of those art things you have to experiment with a lot to get a feel for what your final images will look like. It is a lot of fun though!
Info on my breakout session:
Social media is a reality and necessary for business and churches alike, but one size does not fit all. In this breakout session:
If you have questions you would like answered or social media topics you would like to discuss, please tweet to @embracechaos. #mincom10
Here are a few visual photoshop edits. Enjoy! Another PS class coming soon…
I usually post my photos on flickr.com once I get them edited. (yes, I’m a Photoshop junkie) Here’s the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30795470@N07/sets/72157622345554191/
Here’s some action pics of the people that went:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30795470@N07/sets/72157622344862743/
The next outing will be in October. Thx! Jody
Okay, Elizabeth came up with the name for this. I love it! Photo safari is a good description of what we do.
Here’s a few tips on preparing for your safari:
Dress comfortably. Hours of shooting could be difficult in nice clothing. Wear something you can rip or get dirty and not worry about it. Also, jeans are good to cover your legs in tall weeds and grass. You can roll them up for the muddy areas.
Wear the right shoes. Sometimes we walk through some crazy stuff like broken glass, mud, abandoned house debris, tall grass and weeds, etc… Laced up shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty works great. Doesn’t hurt to bring an extra pair.
Bring a baggie. Plastic baggies are great for those whom love altered art. Sometime we find old newspapers or little trash trinkets. I have a scrap of vintage wallpaper and a letter from the 70′s. Cool stuff, but covered in dirt. Some hand wipes isn’t a bad idea either.
Camera equipment. Bring whatever you have. If you have a small point and shoot or an SLR with lots of lenses, bring it! We usually keep most of the stuff in the car, but camera backpacks are also nice. And yes, iPhone cameras are welcome too! Don’t forget to charge your batteries and have plenty of free space on your media cards.
Tripod. You don’t have to bring one, but these will really help in the low light areas. I can share mine. :)
Light reflector. Again, not necessary, but nice to have. I have two of them and you can borrow one if you like. White paper also works well in a pinch!
Props. This is clearly not a necessity, but sometimes fun. I sometimes bring one of my old rotary dial phones or my skelemingo just for fun. If you like staged photos, this is fun, although we are NEVER hurting for cool stuff to shoot in these places.
Wow! This is like packing for a trip, right? Hope everyone can make it Sunday! Just for the record, any places we choose to go do this are places we found on a map. This is an adventure for all!
Post any questions you may have. Hopefully I didn’t forget anything. :) Jody
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