Sometimes simple is best and here is a shot that proves it. I was toying with different light setups there other day for my portrait photography here at my studio in Tokyo and I had this massive Profoto octa box set up behind my model / wife. It had a blue gel on and I was using CTO gel on my main light. Then I decided to switch the back light and use the octa with a grid as a backdrop and kept shooting with one light only. We captured some amazing photos, had lots of fun, and so here I share one of them with you. Enjoy!
Ladies nterested in portraiture photography, boudoir, erotic or body art shots, please contact me directly. My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Buy original Chinese and Japanese calligraphy art Finally I had some time to play around in photoshop and create some concept art based on my photo of Tokyo. The whole thing is hand painted in photoshop, except a few of those spacecrafts, which I grabbed from Deviant art page stock images. I took this photo some time ago waiting for the hazy sunset near my place, and as usual I took few more photos just in case. I had a few ideas of creating a similar image, and this is an outcome of my today's doodling in photoshop. Photoshop manipulations and composite digital art usually takes a bit of time, this one was not too bad, I think I finished it in 2.5h Anyways, enjoy and more is coming! My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Buy original Chinese and Japanese calligraphy art Original image
It often happens so that during photo editing in photoshop or lightroom we tend to overdo the editing. Whether it is saturation, contrast or sharpness, after having a second look we see that the photo is overcooked. This is exactly what I did to this portrait shot of my wife, so I went back in to photoshop and fixed it. Then I decided to create ansho0rt tutorial for you guys. If you find it useful make sure to subscribe to my channel for more photoshop tips and tricks. My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Buy original Chinese and Japanese calligraphy art My favorite type of portraiture - shadows, drama, moody lfeel and the mind soaring far. I was testing some light setups today and asked my wife to pose for me, and here is one of the shots that we took. I think we will continue tomorrow so maybe there will be more cool photos to come. I have added my Japanese calligraphy to the photo, which reads 翔心 - i.e. soaring mind. I also added some bokeh (from Japanese word 暈ける, which means to fade or to blur) and lens flare to make it more stage like or even cinematic.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo Buy original Chinese and Japanese calligraphy art Camera + off camera flash + photoshop = a whole lot of fun! Today I was testing various functions on my new camera and so we went out to a nearby park with my wife to shoot a few pictures. For this photo I used a single flash with a rogue flash honey comb grid. I shot the background once without flash and my wife, and then with her sitting on the ground. The rest of magic happened in photoshop. 1.5 hours later I have a levitating sorceress. My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. 0 Comments << Previous In this video tutorial series I will show you how you can easily create a time lapse in photoshop. I will be using Bridge, Adobe Camera RAW, and Photoshop. Tutorial is split int part 1 is about preparing the files for the time lapse, and the second part will explain how to assemble a time-lapse in photoshop. Time lapse photography is great fun, it does require a lot of patience though, and quite a bit of post processing, but thanks to photoshop and other tools, it can be automated to a great degree. If you want to learn how to create a time lapse with ease, then watch my video tutorials. My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo I am often asked how is it humanly possible to do as much as I do. Well, I decided to finally reveal my secret, and document myself during work. As you can see from this genuine and not altered in any way whatsoever photograph, I am an alien species. Whenever my brain activity reaches certain level, my arms split into 4 and then 6, and dormant processors are being activated in my half synthetic body, one for each arm. Consequently, I can do 6x more work as any human being, because each arm can operate and "think" independently. So, do not try to chase after me or catch up, it is humanly impossible. Instead, simply enjoy my creations. Ryuurui out. Beep...disconnecting...end of transmission.
In this video I am showing you my entire workflow of fine art black and white photo conversion in photoshop. This is a sped up video, but even so it is easy to follow and understand all the steps. I am using pen tool for selections and blending 3 different exposures, then I am adjusting colours and contrast, and finally I add two small birds to the photo, so you can see some elements of composite photography. Last steps are a conversion into black and white in Silver Efex Pro and I add a vignette. If you are into black and white photography, I have yet another video tutorial on the subject, with commentaries. My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. Hire a photographer in Tokyo To take a blurry photo is easy, but to take a blurry photo that looks good is much more difficult. The key to a good blur photography is to have thing in focus before you blur them. I know it sounds like a paradox, but blurry and out of focus are two different things. Secondly, you need to have a decent composition, and since everything will be blurred, thus abstract, it has to be a good composition of light and tones. In fact, blur photography is a fantastic way of studying composition and understanding light, and a good way to train your eye to see the world in tones, and not in shapes. After all, it is the light that creates shapes, and without light, everything is black. Below photo is a blurred image of flowers, growing in a concrete pot in one of the parks in my area. I was passing by, flowers were beautifully backlit, so i snapped a few shots, and I quite like this one.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details.
Hell no. Photography, like every art, has certain rules. Picasso said, "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist". And he could not be more correct. The true art starts when you gain the ability of looking beyond the fingers, beyond what other people can’t see, but when they do they like it and find it appealing. It is the knowledge of art, creativity and imagination that bring those visions to life. Using the language learning example here, once you start thinking in a foreign language, it is when you truly understand it. Now, in art, you need to learn how to think in visions. You need to be able to see what is not there. You see what you make on top of or from what you can see. I remember watching a very interesting interview with a great photo retoucher Natalia Taffarel, who said that one can become the master of photoshop tools, but that does not make him or her the master of using them in an artistic way. You have to unlock yourself. I took this photo in Odaiba yesterday, it is a blend of two exposures, one was zoom-blurred, and the other was sharp. I combined them both, edited them, then applied radial blur, and just masked in the middle.
My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials Buy fine art photo prints at my store on SmugMug. Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details. I can be serious for a reasonable amount of time, but then I can help it and I have to dive back into madness. All my life I was wondering why I do not fit any social frames and rules, and once I realised that art is my calling, everything fell into place. We go against what is normal for a reason, it stimulates our imagination and creativity by locking us inside a bubble of emotional intimacy and aloofness. Not many people can understand artists, which is why most of us lead solitary life. The world we create in our minds is so rich and vivid, that we do not even notice what is going on around us. So here it is, another portrait shot by my wife the other day, which I tuned a bit in photoshop to give it a proper punch. And remember, if someone tells you that you are mad, it is either because they are jealous, or because they are too blind too see the true face of sanity. Stay mad as a hat!
For all of you who wish to advance your photoshop and photo retouching skills, I am announcing photoshop workshops in Tokyo. I will create a special menu tab on my website this week, with all the details. For the time being I am offering only private lessons (one to one), either at your place, mine or via internet (online desktop sharing). You can view my photography and photoshop manipulation portfolio here. If interested please feel free to contact me and book your lessons! Left: original photo, that I took yesterday (model: Asuka), and below is a photo manipulation created in photoshop. Here is part 2 of my in-depth tutorial on how to create realistic HDR photos. In part 1 I mainly used Photomatix and then I made a few simple adjustments in photoshop. Part 2 focuses mainly on my workflow in photoshop, though I also add a few adjustments in lightroom. Part 2 is mainly about contrast and colour adjustments, then manual blending of certain areas of the photo from other exposures, adding a few filters from Topaz Labs and Nik software, and then blending those effects with the photo layers in photoshop. Last part of this video is about perspective correction. Part 1 and 2 together are a full on in-depth HDR photo tutorial, so if you are into HDR photography, I hope you find them helpful. Enjoy! One of my older Japanese body art shots, from a photo shoot back in 2012 wiith a Japanese model Asuka. Text reads: 櫻吹雪, i.e. - snowstorm of sakura petals. I gave this photo a new look, much more moody, dramatic but at the same time intimate and mysterious. High contrast, low key and slight blur on the edges. Girls interested in body art photo shoot please contact me directly (Tokyo area only). You can view some of my other body art photos, as well as boudoir shots on my portfolio on SmugMug, here.
Whenever you lift your camera to your eyes and think of taking a photo you should already know which direction you want to go with it artistically speaking. When I press the shutter, I have a complete vision of the final shot. I usually know exactly what I want to do with it in postproduction, whether it will be an HDR image, or a straight forward editing in photoshop, I can see those final touches in the RAW file before I apply them. Having a vision is crucial in any type of art. Night photography is fantastic for this, as you need to take your time. Use the tripod to slow things even more. Compose, align, feel the scene, read the light, dive in the shadows, and live the scene. This video tutorial discusses my thought flow reasoning behind taking photos, and then the editing process. Incidentally, if you want to watch a detailed tutorial on digital blending, then watch this movie here. All right ladies, if you wish to have beautiful sexy yet delicate and tasteful photos, feel free to contact me for a photo shoot. Whether it is portraiture, sensual portraiture, delicate and feminine boudoir or simply casual portraits or head shots, I can easily adopt my skills and style to your needs. Do not worry if you are not a model, or have no experience, in fact, I prefer it sometimes, as I can capture some very raw and sincere images. Just like when I am studying Japanese calligraphy, the same in portraiture, I am always seeking the person inside you, the real you. I will make you look and feel radiant and gorgeous, so you will have a wonderful memory for years to come. I work mainly in Greater Tokyo, but can travel too, it is just a matter of discussing the details.
model: Eccaia In this tutorial I will show you my full workflow and how I created this image of a night scene in central Tokyo, that I took yesterday. The video shows not only what I do but also why I do it. Digital blending is a very powerful though time consuming technique, then again, if you want to bring your photo editing to another level, the best shortcut is no shortcut at all. Digital blending is a fully manual process, where an HDR photo is created from scratch, by masking and blending a few exposures in photoshop, or any other program that allows it. All of my HDR photos are manually blended to some extent, even if I am using HDR Efex pro 2 or Photomatix to creat the HDR image base. I find that digital blending give the best and most realistic results, though as I said, it can take time and requires patience, even though the technique itself is not that complicated. Final photo in full HD can be viewed here. Summer is at its full and fireworks shows are happening all over the northern hemisphere. In this video I will give you tips on what equipment you need to shoot great fireworks photos, how to set up your camera (ISO, aperture and shutter speed), what techniques you can use to make your fireworks shots look different, and finally I will edit one of my photos in photoshop, and show you my workflow. In fact, the photo that I am editing is a composite phot, meaning, it is made of two different shots. So you get three tutorials in one. Enjoy! Here is another photo of Nicole that I took a few days ago in Tokyo. If you are shooting portraits of models or clients in a rather busy place, and you wish to separate them from the surrounding rush, the best way to do it is to use telephoto lens at a relatively wide aperture (this photo was taken at F3.5 / 100mm). Be careful with going too wide on aperture in cases where the models eyes are not parallel to the front of the lens, as then the narrow plane of depth of field might not be enough to have both eyes in focus (unless you are going for that particular effect, which is also fine). Another thing you can do is to convert the photo to black and white in photoshop or lightroom. 256 shades of grey are much less of a distraction that millions of colours. Lastly, tight framing of the portrait will remove even more unnecessary things from the frame, especially if there are any oddly shaped structures or objects (like lamp posts or trees) directly behind the model's head. Happy shooting!
Portfolio is the business card for any artist. For this reason, I have two separate folios, one for my photography art and the other one for my calligraphy art. Having a portfolio is essential for being able to make money from your art, but even more important is knowing how to keep your folio fresh and up to date. We learn new things all the time, evolve artistically and emotionally, experience new things in life, and all those factors have a direct impact on our artistic style. If your works are not consistent in style, then a potential client will have no clue what he or she can except from you as an artist. In short, they are confused and most likely will turn to your competition. In this video I am showing you how fast the style can change on the examples of my own work. Each type of photography requires different set of skills and artistic sensitivity. For example, street photography asks you to make a connection with the buzz around, to possess a certain level predictability of upcoming events, and even compassion. Architecture photography requires geometrical imagination, or the gift of seeing the world in black and white tones. Wildlife photography will test your patience and even how you can deal with loneliness. Portraiture, on the other hand, will test your personal and psychological skills. A good portrait photographer has to have an outstanding understanding of human nature, and needs to be able to connect with the person he photographs, and reach deep inside, bypassing any social masks and ego. If the portrait has no soul written all over it, you do not have a good shot.
Model: Lin Lynn As a photographer you ought to tell a story and create the mood. It breaks down to being able to communicate with whoever you are photographing, reading the light in the scene and knowing how to use it to your advantage, composition, and post processing. The technical skills and knowledge of the equipment is a must too, naturally. If one of those components is missing, you have not got a shot. Photography is like poetry, you ought to put your vision in a language that will be understandable to others, without stripping it off of its original beauty. Instead of being a photographer, an observer, get involved in the scene, become a part of the environment, and you will be able to capture the subtle moments that are happening around you. Photography is an art, not a craft. If you have no emotional and passionate connection with it, you will not be able to get lost in this magical forest.
Model: Nicole Rayne Here is another shot from a photo session with Nicole Rayne, that we had two days ago in Shibuya in central Tokyo. When I captured this frame I knew exactly what I want to do with it - go dark and fantasy theme. I added semi-translucent wings and my calligraphy artwork that I written especially for this image - 闇(の)天使 (Yami no Tenshi), i.e. dark angel). I also went ahead and did a film-like post processing, adding more orange to the skin tones and some blues to the shadows, making it look a bit more cinematic. Hope you guys like it! Yesterday I was back in Shibuya third day in row this week, but this time with a Scottish model Nicole Rayne, and we hit the street with a fast and furious beauty shot. Fighting against the time, it was just before her flight back to Europe, and the massive storm that was about to unleash its fury on Tokyo, we were dashing about though the boiling hot and packed with people alleys. It was a great fun, and we have a few great shots, and here is one of them. Photographers interested in working with Nicole - you can reach her via her Model Mayhem account. I highly recommend her.
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AuthorPonte Ryuurui (品天龍涙) Archives
August 2020
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