Some new ‘experiments’. Just for fun.
Several photographers have asked me how I do these. There is no one easy answer because there are about 100 different ways you can create these shots. No, ‘click here and bam!’, simple trick. What I can tell you is that they are all done exclusively using Lightroom 2, they are *not* designed using develop presets, and each image takes approximately 10 minutes to design, depending on how ornery it’s being. I only pick shots that I know will work well for the process- ideally those with a solid color background that is a color that doesn’t occur anywhere on the dog, a shot that will look great with high contrast. This takes being able to ‘see’ what the image will look like as a completed design before doing any editing. Without being able to visualize the completed image before starting I just waste my time working on image after image after image.
Once I find the perfect shots to work with, I just play with sliders and make changes until it looks cool, adding lots of black and contrast, keeping the color in the image and adjusting select colors. It’s all about experimenting, tweaking, adjusting, learning. I’m pretty sure that every image I’ve done this with has completely different editing settings, because the ‘raw material’ of the original image for each shot is different, and those differences determine the outcome. Oh, and the high-key images were all taken in my old studio using only natural light and were easy to make high-key as they were almost there already.
Beautiful images (as usual).
I am always excited to see what you post. So inspirational!
Very cool!! Care to share how it’s done?
Wow, those are terrific? Did you create those in Photoshop from non-studio pix? I LOVE the photos of the black dogs, and Fergie looks adorable! : )
Jamie….You’re too cool for school
Awesome pics
I actually gasped when I clicked on your blog today because these photos are that good. I was especially struck by the black ones where strands of hair and the color and white of their eyes pop. But the white ones are fabulous, as well. The one with the sun glasses is perfection.
YOU ARE AMAZING!!
i love the reflection in the sunglasses…totally should go somewhere by your desk!
The black ones are awesome. I would think that would be hard to pull off, but they are amazing!
The black background photos are AMAZING. The ones of your dog on white are great, too.
Love all these! The fergie ones are my faves.
…i LIKE!
Yeah I love Berkley in the first image!! Beautiful!
oh Berks… such an adorable puppy pic!
These are great. I’m leaning toward # 3 as a favorite but it’s really hard to say since I like them all!
I LOVE the third and fourth images. All are great, but the third and fourth are amazing! Great work.
yum, yum, double-yum. I have 3 favorite design elements in life and they are: Color, Line, Contrast. With contrast like this who needs color? Not me. These are totally great…. like looking at an old black and white film where they just knew what they were doing!
Used these as my example of high-key and low-key on DPReview.com – hope you don’t mind! : )