PBPhoto

My friend Kevin has a blog http://kevinkeigley.wordpress.com/.

He apparently has a problem with creepy dolls.  Not sure what that means but I still love him.  So anyway he was asking for submissions of said creepy dolls so this is what I came up with.  Just in time for Halloween.  Note that I have his blog up in the computer screen in the background.

The lighting is a snooted 285HV for the key light and a bare, red-gelled 540EZ behind and below for the red accent.

I am really liking LR2 and all of the presets that are available for it on the web.  These shots started as decent photographs with cool lighting IMHO.  But the colors are just too stinkin' accurate!  What?  It occurred to me as I was looking at various effects to apply to these shots that I spent a lot of money for a camera that has incredible resolution, low noise, and represents colors accurately.  Now I am undoing all of that.  What does that mean?! 

It reminds me of the tube vs. solid state debate in music circles.  I have to admit that I used to be a solid state guy until I played my '74 Strat through a Fender tube amp.  It just does sound better.  I know as an engineer these days that it has to do with the harmonic content of the signals as you overdrive the devices.  Odd harmonics from tubes and even harmonics from solid state.  But that's a debate for a different time.

Anyway, I suppose that all that matters is the end creation.  Use whatever tools and techniques necessary to produce the outcome that you have visualized.

So the lighting is this: I have a home-made foamcore snoot on my 285HV @ 1/4 power for the key light, and for accent, my 540EZ, bare @ 1/32 power.

I found this great preset called "Matt's Polo/Ralph Lauren" available HERE.  I really like the desaturation and also the tone that is added. 

So this is the box that I work on every day (have been working on it for 11 years).  In preparation for some trade shows I was asked to photograph it for use on banners etc.  This came out well I thought.  There are a few things going on with the lighting here. 

First I used the Canon 540EZ, gelled red, and shot through a craft stencil for the background pattern.  Then I used my Vivitar 285HV with a snoot on it for the main light that falls on a diagonal across the front of the system.  The snoot was really small.  You can see that the light falls off very quickly as you get away from that top right to bottom left diagonal. 

At this point the top of the box was still very dark so I brought in the old Sunpak 411.  With no modifiers, I just used it to add some definition to the top. 

I used my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens.  My favorite.  I brought it back from the dead last week.  It came apart when we went to Harbour Branch.  I did some research on the net and found a few people had posted step-by-step instruction on disassembling it.  So with the help of my friend Phil at work, we found that the metal ring inside the top lip of the barrel had twisted and unlocked.  Clicked that back in place and all was well again.  Thankfully.  Because I want to use that next week at the wedding that I am going to shoot.

Be blessed.