The Power of Six

December 13, 2014 -

I spent some time this morning photoshopping a photo of my daughter Ember from last month's shoot near the Everglades. I wanted to turn Ember's photo into a movie poster. One of Ember's favorite book series is the Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore. Her favorite character is Number Six, the main character in the second book of the series. The first book, "I am Number Four", was a popular movie, but no news on if "The Power of Six" will ever be in theaters.

Six, also know as Maren Elizabeth, is a teenager and probably the best of the Garde at battle technique and military strategy. Her powers or "legacies" include invisibility, elemental manipulation, accelerated healing, and telekinesis. On screen Six was portrayed by Australian actress Teresa Palmer, but in the book series the character Six has long black hair and olive skin.

The original photo of Ember was taken before sunset using my Canon T3i and a gold reflector. I added a gradient, a fill overlay layer, and various text on separate layers in different styles and spacings. Later, I added a photo layer of glowing embers and a few sun bursts.

This was my first time creating a movie poster style image in Photoshop and I'm very happy with the results!

Red, Black, and Valeryia

December 1, 2014 –

On my second trip to Stellar Photography Studios, Cesar Montada arranged for a standard portrait session with model Valeryia. Several different looks and backdrops where used during the shoot.

Valeryia is a very experienced model and great at posing. I loved the way she used her hands and arms, continuously changing things up with her looks. Valeryia used props well, especially the black hat we gave her. She was very easy to shoot and needed little to no direction. I mostly just followed her lead and kept clicking!

Cesar again did a wonderful job setting up the lighting against white, red, and green backgrounds. I think the 3 softbox setup for the red background was the most interesting. If you look closely you’ll see the reflections or “catch lights” in Valeryia’s eyes.

For this I used my new Canon 6D and 24-105mm f/4 lens. I always bring my 85mm and 50mm but for some reason usually stick to the 24-105mm. Most often I shoot zoomed to 105mm and step back a bit to help compress the image. I captured several wonderful photos and did very little editing. For modest editing I use a combination of Canon’s Digital Photography Professional and Photoshop 4.