Seminar: Storytelling and Compositing

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a seminar taught by Brooke Shaden.  I always love going to these seminars to pick up on tips and tricks, especially from successful artists (as Brooke Shaden is successfully making a living off of her art - that's a lot of street cred she has with me.)  I wasn't aware of her work much before the seminar was brought to my attention, but her imagery really strikes a chord with me; and I think my work might develop along similar lines.

The topic was storytelling and compositing - the art of taking multiple photos and blending them together to create a new whole.  Personally I'm still deciding what level of Photoshop I feel OK with before I don't want to call the end work a "photograph" verses a "digital painting".  Still, can't argue that when one hasn't got a budget of thousands to get sets and props, a judicious use of Photoshop to get the image you want has its place.  And I really love the term "self portrait artist", because I often end up using myself as a model in my photos - so, I'm going to have to start using that term for my photography!

This is the image I walked away with at the end of the day.  We had done another group shot with a model with a levitation shot, but due to the size of the class I wasn't really able to get a good angle and shots to work with.  This one actually IS a composite of 3 different images, although if I had more setup time I know I could have gotten it in 1 or 2.  There's nothing about it (such as including thing in motion, supports that really needed to be erased, etc) that couldn't have been done with one shot...well, maybe some support.  But we had 30 free minutes to ourselves and a bunch of props in this gorgeous old library room and I was inspired to do a mysterious wrapped figure, like a library gargoyle!  A patron gargoyle of learning, as it were.

One of the most important techniques of the day was taking a blank setup shot, or plate, of the setting without any of the models or action.  This works to your advantage down the line, particularly in a levitation shot where you will be masking out a visible means of support, but it is good practice to do for any shot you know you will composite. And of course, this works best when all your shots will be take from the same angle/height/lighting conditions, so for this kind of work a tripod is necessary and a remote control trigger very handy. 

I have 3 basic layers of the shot - I do love layer masks as just about the best thing ever in Photoshop. 

 Here's the 3 shots I started with.  One is the background, and I admit I didn't do this in the best way - in the end I liked a slightly different framing of the background, so you see all the subsequent images of the figure had to be scaled down to fit in the new frame.  Not a big deal, but if I'd gotten it right I would have saved myself some post processing work.  The second was chosen for the upper body.  The shelf I sat on was actually quite narrow, so I was in danger of tipping completely forward and falling off.  I wouldn't have been able to lean forward without Wayne' support.  The third shot was of the lower body with no support - I had Wayne draw back for just a few seconds while the shot was snapped.

thanks for the support, wayne!

I liked this shot quite a bit for something I only had a short amount of time to work on.  In retrospect, the image would have been more evocative with more story (perhaps another figure to interact with the gargoyle?)  But I do love red, and drapery.

And here's a quick shot of the demo of how to do a levitation shot.  It was pretty neat - I've started messing around with them a little bit, so stay tuned for more. :)

A Quiet Night for Tea

While I was making that cheongsam the other week I watched "In the Mood for Love", a movie I had heard about for a long time but never got around to actually seeing.  It seemed fitting, as the supernaturally beautiful Maggie Cheung walks seductively around in a series of simply amazing cheongsams and backgrounds.  I absolutely loved the cinematography of this movie and it inspired me to do a little photoshoot with the dress I had just made.  I wasn't intending to mimic an exact scene of the movie, but just a bit of the same feeling. 

Putting the shot together:

I did a lighting test with a single desk lamp instead to study how the light might fall in the photo.  You can see it ended up being similar but not too much like the lighting I used in the end photograph.  Single light source, but it's reflected fairly well off the light table surface and I'm sitting pretty close to it.  I liked the  feel of that light, but knew I would end up with a different table lamp that fit the scene a bit better.  I liked how the light simply trailed off around the edges of the photo due to the single light source and wanted to replicate that - with two light sources visible in the end photo.

 Here's what my final setup looked like.  Kind of ghetto when you take a step back and see that this is just the far side of my bedroom (which by the way, is quite large so there's room for this kind of thing).  Cost breakdown, and set contents.

1) background - a curtain panel with fun texture from Goodwill - $5
2) Hanging lamp shade from Daiso: $1.50
    2a) already had hanging cord lamp, but did see them for sale for about $15.
3) tiger poster  from Daiso, $1.50
4) desk lamp - the bulb light is filtered though a piece of white paper I put inside the glass shade. already owned
5) teapot, tea cup, table, chair, already owned
6) fake wall trim - found some crown moulding pieces in my garage, so free.  I think you could get some cheap pieces for hm, $10 at home depot?
7) Background stand: $40 off ebay.  This isn't something I think anyone who really wants to claim they are being uber cheap would get, but I was ready to buy and own one.  It's a lightweight one, probably not for holding up heavy backdrops.
8) duct tape - $6. Wow this stuff is amazing.

So there it is!  I shot the thing in low light, and slow shutter speed so I was holding myself pretty still.  As you can tell, I'm quite a fan of the way light wraps itself softly around objects when you have a nice long exposure.  This was a very fun little shoot, I will definitely be doing more in the future.

Space Cat Mural

A few weeks ago a girl I knew from high school contacted me about doing a mural for a children's clinic, Valley Medical Center.  Her service organization was arranging to have volunteers come paint murals in the exam rooms, to make them more cheerful for the kids coming through.  I've never actually painted a mural before - I mean, I've painted my house walls a single, flat color, and a long time ago I did some paintings on bigger canvases for school.  Since them though it's mostly been just a few watercolors here and there.  I was a little bit intimidated at the thought of designing a whole mural, but I guess this was the perfect opportunity to go big or go home.  And, when faced with an army of volunteers to lead, random paint, and brushes there really is nothing to but just to go at it.

Of course, this was another opportunity to have Space Cat appear.  (And other animals that kids would normally have as pets.  Gotta say the kitties are the easiest to draw.)  I am always a sucker for retro-futurism and cute animals. After doing this, I really think I need to write a story or two about my little Space Cat and his adventures!

Here's what the mural looked like in the end; one shorter wall panel and one long one. It's a bit cropped down but amazingly, taking 3 shots with my iphone (too lazy right now to take it off the memory card of my other camera) and photomerged in Photoshop worked quite well for a panorama!

Inque Photoshoot

Inque Photoshoot
Model and Stylist: AJ Wu
Photographer: Doris Cheung

Last month I had the chance to do a photo shoot with AJ, who had just completed a new costume.  Both of us are big fans of Batman Beyond, and she had cosplayed the character Inque for a "Spies and Mercenaries" themed party.  She wanted a few pics of her costume, although she told me it was not one she had spent serious time on.  (Um. Really?! You can't tell it's a "throwaway" costume.) 

I've been wanting to test out shooting on a reflective surface for awhile and figured this would be the perfect time for a little experimentation.  At the moment I didn't have the resources to rent out a studio, strobe lights, and a floor made of black plexiglass (gives a GREAT reflection), so we had to settle for ghetto-macgyvering something together in my bedroom.  We ended up using natural light with some borrowed Canon EX-500 flash, sheets for the background, and a 4'x4' piece of mylar.  It worked worked out pretty well to capture some of what makes Inque so cool as a villain - the ability to melt herself into a black inky killer/thief.

What do you think? Personally, I think AJ is maybe a little TOO good at costuming because I was getting seriously freaked out editing her photos.  Doesn't she look scary?!

Of course even villains have their mellow moments.  They can't be in a murderous rage all the time, you know.

Favorite photos from the shoot here.  We ended up having to do many poses lying down and curled up to get the best effect out of the mylar.  Since it is so soft, it doesn't give a perfect reflection, and I only had a small piece to work with.  If I'd had a full studio lighting set and done maybe 12' x 12' on the ground we could have done more dynamic action and full body poses.  However, for a shoot that was on the very ghetto side in terms of materials, I'm very happy with the results.  A little goes a long way!

Next up: A little bit about how I set up the shoot.

Human Figure class

I had the chance to attend a workshop on photographing the human nude about a week ago, and I'm so glad I was able to go.  I may have studied photography in school but since I didn't go the route of professional photographer I need to remember to constantly make the effort to improve my skills. 
 I haven't done much of human figure/nude photography before, it's quite intimidating to have a naked person stand in front of you, waiting for you to give direction.  Luckily most of the models at the workshop had the experience I didn't; one was a dancer, one looked like she had done plenty of modeling before, and one who just was having so much fun with the whole process it made my job easier.  In the end, I thought the dancer was almost too easy to shoot because all of her poses were beautiful, and reduced the challenge.


I have to say, a room full of nude female models sure brought out the dirty old man in many participants of the workshop.  There was at least one rather rude gentleman (I use the term loosely) who bossed the rest of us and kind of ordered the models around.  The rudest of all was the equipment salesman at the workshop (from the sponsoring company.)  He had brought lenses for people to try, and was so kind as to "help" me with the equipment (in that "Let me help you there, little lady" way), insulted my camera as an antique, and let me know the perfect lens to use in case I wanted to you know, zoom in on a nipple.  The cherry on top was when he  proceeded to make a few remarks when the model was on the ground reclining, and I also lay on the ground to shoot her from a low angle - about how we were both now rolling around on the ground.  Uh-huh...and you're a professional salesman?


Using studio lights is always a treat for me these days, as I don't have access (or pay for access) to a regular studio.  After this weekend though, I'm thinking quite seriously about investing in a kit of my own, because it's just so much fun to use!  And I have a garage now, so some limited room to actually just use them at home.  On the whole I had a great time at the workshop - I learned a bit and came away with lots of inspiration, which is exactly what I wanted!


For the full portfolio, click the photo above, or follow this link - and remember, this was NUDE human figure so don't click if you're not ok with it!

http://www.stanford.edu/~cheungd/HumanFigure/

Portfolio starting to go up!

Hi everyone! 

I'm very excited to say that I've started uploading my photography work into an online portfolio (finally).  Check out the Fine Art Photography and the Sewing Projects tabs at the top of the page for the first few galleries.  Let me know what you think!  The formatting options are somewhat limited in blogger, but I was SUPER EXCITED to be able to include additional pages right into my blog.  It's very friendly for those web page developmentally impaired. :)

Part and parcel of this was digging up the dvds that had a lot of my old photos.  Lesson learned? MULTIPLE, back up storage in different formats.  Eventually CDs and DVDs don't read and hard drives will just fail (they all WILL, just a matter of time.)  One of my projects existed only in print form anymore...but thankfully now digitized and uploaded to multiple online storage options.  

Having a few web galleries up also encourages the creation of more!  So true about nothing being created in a vacuum (creativity, anyhow, not sure about big bang cosmos physics-wise); it's all about seeing what other people are doing and putting what you do out there for people to comment and critique on.  

Shake it like a....

I've never been one for Photoshop filters, considering them a cop out unless used with great subtlety and sparingly.  It must be the photo snob in me who thinks, "That's cheating!"  But I just downloaded some fun iPhone apps that make your photos looks like old school Polaroids and I must admit I do like the results, a lot!

On a side note, I was never one to use Polaroids in artistic endeavors, except as test shots for large format cameras.  Still, it's sad that they no longer make them.  The sticky goo left on your fingers with that fresh chemical smell still makes me nostalgic (and, I apologize to future children in cases these toxins have seeped into my body.)

I downloaded ShakeItPhoto ($.99) , Polomoid ($1.99), and PhotoFilters (free).  Photofilters is just the color filters included in the Polomoid app.

Polomoid is kind of annoying, because it takes your photos and seems to force a landscape orientation, ending in some weird cropping.  But I do like the filters that make your photos look as if they'd been sitting in the sun, or the chemicals have started to go funny.  I had better luck using  ShakeItPhoto to come up with a composition I liked and then the free Photofilters to tweak the colors a bit.  Any of these apps may be applied to a picture you are about to take or stored on your iphone, and you have the option to keep a copy of the original photo.

Also, ShakeItPhoto lets you shake your iphone whilte the photo "develops"  to simulate the action made immortal by Outkast's "Hey Ya!"

What is it about the Polaroid look that is so fun?  I think partially it is the framing element.  Pictures automatically look just so much more finished, official, formal, what have you, with a frame.  It makes it sort of more precious (in terms of being cute, not valuable.)  For instance, I took these three so-so pictures which I didn't feel much about and after some app action, I kinda like them a lot more.  They look more special...or maybe what I needed all along was more contrast, color pop. 

I wonder if future generations will also get the nostalgic feeling people of my (and older) generations do?  Or does anything old give off that nostalgia? Hm.  In any case, I am personally a sucker for the funky colors of old chemicals, or the cross-processed look.

I tried the look on some of my "artsy" photographs - that is, NOT snapshots, and things I had set up, lit, posed very carefully and I don't like how these two have turned out.  Maybe it's because I already cropped and framed them, or just that I had spent a lot of time getting them to look just so.  Or, this look isn't for everything...but if I can get this to be decent quality I would consider printing out some of the other "snapshots" to a larger format for home decoration, instead of just decorating my facebook or computer hard drives.

Anyhow, fun new toys, so you can expect a few fake old photographs to pop up in future posts. :)

Public places, lonely spaces

Last weekend I took a crack-of-dawn flight up to Canada to visit some family. In a favor that trumps all favors, my lovely roommate dropped me off at the airport about 4:45 am (meaning we got up at 3:30 after staying up really late watching Bring It On – probably a foolish idea). 4:45 am is an interesting time to see an airport.

I’ve always had a fascination with being at a place normally bustling with people during the deserted off hours. I think it started with school playgrounds during the middle of summer, my parents’ ice cream store after closing, even your own home in the wee hours of the night. It’s like seeing someone you know only from work on the weekends in a T shirt and shorts playing football in the park with their kids (or your teacher at the grocery store – what, you have a LIFE outside of how I know you? What is this third dimension you have?)

The airport is particularly interesting to me since it for the sole purpose of moving people from one place to another. When I think of an airport I think about excitement, joy - because I'm always trave

ling on vacation or really happy to be home. When it's empty you realize that all the feelings you have associated with a place were brought there only by you to fill that space. What does it do when no one is around?

For me it's somewhere between beautiful, sad, and eerie - seeing a secret face. When you're the only other person there it's rather intimate.

There’s another Doris Cheung out there from Vancouver who already did a whole series of photographers about places like airports with know people so I’ll refrain from making a dramatic, symbolic statement with an art exhibit and just leave you with these. I think 3 am would be an even better time, and if I only had a tripod…

This one is my favorite...taken when rushing to my proper terminal! It seems awfully symbolic to me but I will leave it to you all to find whatever meaning you like. :) I think the lighting could go moodier, but that's just me - although there's something about the slow shutter speed-drenched with light look that draws me too since I know it's pitch black outside!

For a full album view of the pictures I took, the link is here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cheungd/SFO2009#

And in a case of life imitating art, I found out that the West End of Vancouver (Stanley Park, I think?) looks just like that famous Seurat painting that is always getting parodied, Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte:

I just need a few people with umbrellas and that's it!