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[Transformation Tuesday]

I feel like I’m becoming rather repetitive lately with my weekly TT’s. I feel like I wanted to give an in depth look into one of my most elaborate images I’ve created to date. Surprisingly, it wasn’t really all *too* hard to do. More trial and error than anything, but I love the finished product! This particular shot was something I definitely visualized before I had even shot it. When using photo stitching/Brenizer Method/etc., you MUST have a clear vision in your mind of what you want the image to portray with it’s composition.

This particular shot was done using a tripod to assure stability. I was using the Canon 5D Mark II & the 85mm 1.8 lens @ f 1.8, ISO 160, 1/400s. In order to achieve this technique, EACH image must match with focus, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, everything. That’s the only way it works. I took a series of shots (12 total, I believe) and made sure to capture tons of room all around her. Really embracing the surroundings we had. A lot to take it, but very much worth it!

Another key point when utilizing this method is to be sure that the images are edited the same throughout. My usual process is to bulk edit the photos in Camera RAW, going over all my  usual basics. I then open all of the files into photoshop go to File > Automate > Photomerge >”Add Open Files” (In some scenarios, I have to resize the images to about 2000px wide because it can be quite a hefty file to load when you’re merging 10+ RAW files) This process can take anywhere from 1-5 minutes, depending on the amount of photos you’re stitching together. Once the image is complete, you’ll get something that looks like it has literally been puzzle pieced together. From here, it’s your decision on how you’d like to crop and compose the image. It’s completely up to you and how much room you have to work with in the image. Additional cloning may be required in small spots.

As you can see, the initial composited image had the row of boxes only to the left of my model. It felt uneven and I needed symmetry. In order to get the boxes on the other side, I literally copy & pasted the image, rotated horizontally, and patiently erased all the areas around the boxes I did not want in the image. I’d have to say, this was the “hardest” part, which was more tedious than anything! I then moved onto a few custom curve adjustment  layers to finish it off!

Hope this better covers the process of what I’ve been babbling about over the past several weeks! As always, leave any questions you may have for me in the comment section!

Brittni - Wow..

Kaye Murphy - You are such an amazing woman! This is an epic photo and you are so good to help others try and achieve something like this. I am literally running to the store to pick up a tripod ahaha. Keep it up Stephanie.

anda maciel - Awesome!!! :)

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[Transformation Tuesday]

I feel like I must first start off my smacking my wrist for making this second post so late! I had in saved in my drafts & never published it on Tuesday! Pardon my scatterbrain. It’s been acting up an awful lot lately! I am very excited to share this before & after with you guys. One of my most recent favorites from my collaborations with The End Photography last week during my stay in Lexington, Kentucky! This was the last of our three shoots together & honestly – it came together VERY last minute. With a lot of my favorite shoots, things always seem to come together very quickly and unexpectedly. I guess that’s just the best part, thinking on your toes! We had a gorgeous model, Joy, who does a fantastic job with make-up, but we decided that she’d be the perfect fit in front of the camera! Props to Heather for putting this entire theme, outfit, hair & make up inspiration all together. She inspires me so much! I wish I had those magical “planning” powers.

This particular shot amazes me for a few reasons. One being that it’s about 30 degrees at the time and this girl is making me feel like it’s a Spring day by looking at her outfit/expression! Secondly, the light in this photo is something I’m super proud of. With an extremely overcast day and not much daylight left, we did this as one of our final segments of the shoot. The light feels so warm & fills up the scene perfectly. Compared to the majority of the rest of the shoot (seen here) which I do love, but they all have a darker presence to them. Finally, these patches of green ivy were just to die for! Who see’s this much green during February?

Initially, I wanted to do this shot as a Brenizer, but my attempts did not work (lack in focus on my part). I did make sure to take a few shots outside of the ones I wanted to use for the Brenizer. Thankfully I did, because this is one of my favorites from the entire set! Settings are as follows:

Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II + 85mm 1.8 @ f/1.8, ISO 640, 1/250s 

As much as I loved the warm feeling of the photo, I wanted to bring it down a bit. It also felt very flat and didn’t have enough depth within the image. With some adjustments to white balance, contrast, clarity and a few other miscellaneous settings in Camera RAW, I was on my way to what I wanted out of the image. Once the image entered into Photoshop, I immediately wanted to add more boost with contrast and really bring in the focus directly to my model. With a few adjustment layers focusing on custom curves, selective coloring & then a boost of vibrancy – I was able to get a finished product which matched what I envisioned in my mind.

Jamie Rubeis - Goodness Stephanie….I just adore your work!!! Your before image is amazing as is, but your processing is perfection! Beautiful.

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[Transformation Tuesday]

Sorry for missing out on last week’s TT. Be on the look out for another post today to make up for it! I recently just came back from a very eventful 10 days in Kentucky. For those that don’t know, my wonderful friend Heather of The End Photography threw together three fantastic shoots for us to collaborate on during my stay. This shoot with Isabella was our first shoot together and I cannot tell you how much fun it was. A little back story on this shoot, we had about a 90% chance of rain…all day. We were relentless and decided to give it a go. This girl was such a trooper dealing with the mist, the drizzle and then full on rain! I couldn’t be more pleased with the end results!

I decided I really wanted to experiment a bit more with photo expansion & the Brenizer Method during this shoot, but attempting different compositions & such. Up until now, I had only really focused on centered compositions and I needed to give myself  a new challenge. This particular composition was created with eight different images, stitched together in Photoshop. For more information on this technique, be sure to check out Google for some great reads & tutorials! As you can see below, the transformation I got in the image from putting together 8 different frames vs. one single frame is just incredible! Adds a whole new vibe to the image overall.

Once the image had come together the way I’d like to, I did the usual custom layer adjustments with both curves & selective coloring. I ended up using very similar adjustments throughout each image from this set to keep everything fairly cohesive. In this particular shot, I was looking to bring a cooler/darker vibe to the photo. The dreary weather we had that day automatically helped bring this vision to life, but a few simple adjustments in Photoshop took it to the next level.

Gina - Well what shows me that you are an amazing photographer is that the photo comes out of the camera so perfectly! I mean it really is so great yet! I would never think that it wasn’t edited. Great work!

Callie - I’m dying to try the Brenizer method! Wonderful job!

Rebecca - Fantastic! Must try this one day – I love how it completely adds another dimension to the photograph – and really helps to tell the overall story. Still a great shot without the tops of the trees or the sky – but with it – it goes from great to absolutely brilliant!! Well done

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[Before & After: Kourtney]

Image was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II + 50mm 1.4 @ f/1.8, ISO 125, 1/500s.

As promised! A full description of my process of this photo from this afternoon’s shoot with Kourtney. May I first start off by saying how incredibly blown away I have been by the massive support you guys constantly give me. I sometimes can’t even come up with the right words or any words at all to describe the feeling I have. I owe you guys so much for brining me to where I am today!

In return, I promised to give an in depth look into my post processing. This particular image was one of my favorites from this afternoon. It was initially supposed to be a bit wider in my mind and I wanted to do a square crop. Instead, this came about and I love it even more so.  This shot was taken using the Brenizer Method which I haven’t shut up about since I tried it. Practice makes perfect though! Below you will see the four images I used to create the full image.

Once the image came together, I had to do just a tiny bit of extra cloning in some areas to fill in the spaces. I then took my focus directly to her skin. Didn’t need to do too much other than the patch tool & clone stamp. I also did a very subtle B&D at a low opacity of about 4% to define a few areas on her face, hair & hat.

My next segment was a variety of curve adjustments & layer masks. Very simple. I’ve gotten a bit more comfortable understanding curves and what they do. This image has a mixture of curve layers which can be seen above. These vary per image and are never the same. It’s just a matter of messing around with them and seeing what fits best. Layer masks help to take out certain parts of the image in which you don’t want that effect on. These subtle effects will make a world of difference. Take some time to familiarize yourself with layer adjustments & learn what makes you LOVE those actions we’ve all grown to use. Not against them, just want to take some time to appreciate the fact that I can take my time and create the image I really envisioned in my mind.

Believe me when I say, you are ALL capable of doing these things. I’m still learning, constantly. I took a personal oath to try new things this year and have been really pleased with the growth I’m seeing. I’m not perfect, but practicing is the only way we’re ever going to get there. Right?!

Feel free to leave questions, comments, etc about any other details!

Ashley Walters - This is so inspiring!! I LOVE this!! You do such an amazing job!!

Cate - Love. Send this to Ryan Brenizer on FB, he would love to see his method in action. :-) well done lady!!

Kristine - Excuse my ignorance, but what is B&D? I always find your work very inspirational! Thank you.

stephaniepana - Not ignorant! Just means “burn & dodge” :) Thanks for your kind words!

kallie ball - just found this via pinterest. LOVE YOUR WORK :)

Brittney - Stephanie, you are beyond amazing. Love, love, love your photography. :-)

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[Finding Growth Within Your Work]

It took me awhile to finally feel comfortable to even come close to writing about this topic. For the longest time, I struggled with finding myself in my work. I always compared and felt that if my images didn’t look spot on like someone else’s they weren’t good enough. One day, I decided to slowly let go of that feeling and ever since then, I’ve seen a huge growth in my confidence as an artist. Not so much that I think I’m the best I can be, because I KNOW there is so much left to learn, but I have seen myself transform as an artist and it’s so refreshing to know all the hard work IS paying off.

Michelle Moore recently said it best, “There’s no need to be anyone else – because you are the only one best at being YOU! Focus on your strengths, be yourself and you’re bound to succeed!” This lady is spot ON. I know it’s extremely hard to not compare yourself to others. We live in a world that we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, but if you can slowly break through that barrier – the results are endless! Let yourself make those mistakes, learn from them and move on to even bigger and better things.

I’ve been in a reminiscing mood lately and decided to try and give one of my favorite photos from last year a new face lift! Initially when I took this photo back last April 2011, I didn’t take too much thought into the many distractions in the image. I was content with just running a simple action over the photo and nothing more. While I loved the photo, I knew it had so much more potential! Below is my “before & after” of almost a year of growth as an artist…

First image is from April 2011

Second image is from a week ago!

A HUGE difference. I’ve learned so many techniques and have taught myself to see things differently than I used to. It constantly reminds me to always look back and show yourself how much you’ve grown. Who cares about being the best? There is NO such thing. As long as you love what you do, leave yourself open to learning, your opportunities will be endless. Promise yourself you’ll always have fun with your art.

I want everyone to do this, if they can. Go find an image from about a year ago, bring up the RAW/Original file, and try to recreate it with a brand new eye. You’d be surprised how much you’ll see a difference! Feel free to post it here on my blog, send me an email (stephaniepana@gmail.com) or leave a post on my wall. I would love to see how much YOU have grown. I know you all have. Maybe you didn’t realize it. Just remember that you are getting better with every photo you take! Keep those heads up and keep doing what you LOVE. That comes above anything.

“ALWAYS be proud of who you are and how far you’ve come. I know it’s hard to not compare yourself to others, but getting over that barrier is such a huge step. It’s been a long process for me to get here, but I am finally proud of ME as an artist. I may not be the best, but that’s not my ultimate goal. I know I always have fun with what I do and I am comfortable in my “artistic skin”. I know I’ll constantly find new strengths and growth along the way. I’m officially declaring it – I’m in love with photography.”

Jean Loper - Thank you so much for sharing this!!!!! It’s very encouraging.

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