**This weeks Transformation Tuesday Video can be found by clicking on the above image!**

Not everyone has time to spend a day, leave the house though and drive aimlessly throughout a new part of town, just because. Whether it be that you have kids, gas prices are too high, anything – you name it. It’s hard to give us that time we need to spend on finding fun & unique locations. What if I could tell you that majority of this could be done from home? All while in the midst of eating your favorite midnight snack, sitting in your jammies on the computer!

Where do you start? I can pretty much narrow my personal scouting processing into three easy segments:

• FLICKR – www.flickr.com
• GOOGLE MAPS - www.maps.google.com
• GET OUT THERE & DRIVE!

 FLICKR

You may or may not already have an account, but if not, I suggest making one immediately, even for the sole purpose of this task! This part of the process is very hit or miss. I will go ahead and tell you that from the beginning. Sometimes I will hit the jackpot by using this technique & sometimes it fails miserably. Majority of the time, this is going to be my first step of the process. I begin by typing into the search bar the town/city I am looking to “scout” around. For example: Frankfort IL, Chicago Industrial, Joliet IL, etc. Narrowing it down to simply the city & state usually does pretty well for me. If it’s a bigger city, you’ll get more images. Sometimes up to 20+ pages of results, most of the time though I’ll get just a handful of pages.

From this point, browse around. Majority of the folks who “give away” where these locations are, are usually just people who enjoy snapping photos of these random locations. It may be a barn, old building, factory, alley way, etc. It could also range to be anything else related upon whatever you searched for. What you NEED to keep an eye out for is to see if they have included a map of the area or possible address in the description. See below for an example of one of my images:

Majority of the images you will search through will NOT give any inkling to where the location actually is. There are some that do though! This is when you can create a batch of images as your “favorites” on Flickr to always go back & search through.

GOOGLE MAPS/STREET VIEW

This brings me to the next step of the process & probably one of my most favorite parts! In some scenarios, I may just skip using Flickr and head straight into using Google Maps if I have a specific area in mind I want to “scout”. In most scenarios though, I take the addresses I found on Flickr and then search them in Google Maps to assure that it is a real location, what it is surrounded by, what direction it faces, etc. A lot of questions come into play with this! Sometimes with street view, you can see what the parking near by looks like, if the area seems “iffy” & sometimes can spot out other locations near by. How does one do this?

Street view, when enabled, can pretty much be your best friend! I call it “driving from home”. Not every street will give you this option, but majority will! What you can do is take the little “orange/yellow man” and drag him onto the road. The road will be highlighted in blue if you are able to utilize street view. From this point you are able to see the fronts of the buildings & get a much better aspect on the area. Surely it’s not the highest quality, BUT you can get a lot accomplished.

Be sure to take screen shots of everything you like so you can then save them into a folder of locations for you to have on hand. This is great for you to keep tabs on addresses for not only yourself, but your clients as well. I am a very visual person and like to try and show my clients where we will be shooting so that they may in turn be inspired & understand the setting a bit more. Also helps bring up the excitement!  Seen below is how I’ve organized some of my recent findings on Google Maps. Easily found 30+ locations within 2 hours!

GET OUT THERE & EXPLORE!

While I know many of us don’t have the time, it really is the best & most crucial part of location scouting – actually going out there and seeing what these locations look like in person. First and foremost is ALWAYS going to be safety. Safety for myself when going scouting (always have a friend!!) and safety for my clients. As amazing as a location might be, do NOT put yourselves in danger in any manner. I’m not going to say that every location I use is peachy keen, but they are also not places that I feel threatened at. Use your best judgement!

Next key point is to always try to scout at the time of day you will usually shoot at. This allows you to see what the light looks like. You could have the best location, but the light could be terrible! Be sure to see if there are spots that you can utilize different types of lighting (open shade, backlighting, etc.) which will offer you different options!

Another key point you want to be sure of is variety! Sometimes, one simple wall won’t cut it. How much variety do you want out of a location? I personally like to use two main locations TOPS. I love locations that offer a ton of variety, or that possibly have other great spots within walking distance/a short drive. Once you’ve scoped out your desired spot, take some time to just drive around. Keep making left turns till you get lost (obviously with GPS at hand!) and you’d be surprised what you can find. Take a different way home & allow yourself a little extra time to explore on the way to run your errands.

Lastly, always document your findings! Sometimes, I completely forget some of the spots I have found. Take a few snaps with your camera, iPhone, etc. Just have some visual references which help not only you, but your clients!

So as you can see, location scouting can be a TON of fun. I know it may not be at the top of your list, but it is definitely something you should take into consideration. Your clients will love the fact that you take this much pride into finding just the right spot for them! I hope this has helped you guys. This may already have been your go-to process, while some of you may have never even tried it. Either way, I hope it’s helped in some way!

]]> http://stephaniepanaphotography.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=767 7 http://stephaniepanaphotography.com/blog/?p=758 http://stephaniepanaphotography.com/blog/?p=758#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:38:21 +0000 stephaniepana http://stephaniepanaphotography.com/blog/?p=758

I decided to take things up a notch this week with a VIDEO post! Unfortunately, my blog doesn’t allow me to post the video directly into the entry, so be sure to click on the image above to watch the transformation! As mentioned in this video, here are the links to the “Brenizer Method” which will explain the process a bit more. It’s precisely where I learned how as well!

http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/category/brenizer-method/

http://blog.buiphotos.com/2009/07/the-brenizer-method-explained-with-directions/

There are TONS more out there that you can find with a simple Google Search of “Brenizer Method” Also for any further questions, please leave a comment here or email me at stephaniepana@gmail.com

Thanks All!

Majority of my images will look very muted/gray when I do some of my backlit shots. Before even shooting though, I do make sure to bump my white balance to either “Shade” or “Cloudy” to add a little extra warmth. From this point, allow yourself to take a TON of shots. As we all know, focus/exposure issues are the number one problem with this style of shooting. Most of the time, you can hardly see your meter on camera & your camera find close to no contrast for it to focus on. Then we get the infamous teeter totter of our lens moving back and forth trying to find something to focus on. I was lucky enough that this shot wasn’t too particularly hazy that I was able to find a decent amount of contrast on her face to focus on it. That’s not always the case!

Below you will see my first image which was completely SOOC. Settings are as follows:

Canon 5D Mark II + 85mm 1.8 lens @ f/1.8, ISO 200, 1/2500s

From this point, my process is always the same as I always describe. I first open the image into Adobe Camera Raw, and take my focus to not only contrast, but a bit of brightness/exposure & a tiny bit of clarity. I also believe I warmed the image up just a hair as well with a custom white balance! Not too much is done within ACR, just giving it a good base. The image now enters into Photoshop & as always, I try to see my photograph in pieces. I work with each segment: the background, her face & other details which may need more/less contrast & such. Majority of this edit was just a few simple S-Curves & utilizing some of my RGB channels to play with some fun tones. The selective color layer was something very subtle, but was used to tone down the magenta/red to her face near the end of my edit. Easy as that! Below you can see a breakdown of all the different adjustments I created.

ANOTHER delayed TT! Sorry guys!! This particular shot did not come out quite as I wanted it to on camera, BUT I knew that was going to happen before I even took it. I wanted this image to have an extra haze/fogginess to it, so I literally blew onto my lens to create the natural fog & snapped several shots till I got what I wanted. That’s going to be the first image you see above (Plus some contrast/clarity on ACR).

I knew this image needed to POP & life back brought into it. It was definitely on the right track. I initally had intended on keeping it much hazier, but the more I edited it, it felt better with more contrast. I literally worked this image like a puzzle piece. Focusing on her face, arms, head piece and background. Each seemed to be lit so differently that I needed to “blend” them all together. Darken some spots & lighten some up. With a mixture of custom adjustment layers utilizing curves, levels & selective coloring – I was able to create the final image you see above! Here is a breakdown of all of the layers I created for this piece. More than I usually do!

FANS & FRIENDS!

After months of quiet planning, I’m excited to finally announce that I will be co-hosting a Workshop with the ever-talented Heather Rous of The End Photography. We’ll be taking Chicago by storm in October 2012 to offer an educational experience with content ranging from an On-Location Shoot, to Post-Processing Techniques, to Facebook Culture and Marketing.

More details coming soon!

Feel free to contact Stephanie Pana (stephaniepana@gmail.com)
or The End Photography (heather@theendphotography.com)
for more information or to inquire about reserving your spot.

The entire shoot was actually based upon the idea of having my model, Priscilla, represent the first comings of Spring. With everything still very barren and muted in the background, I wanted to simply remember those first bits of color that come alive. This idea came about as I was literally staring out my window seeing the Daffodils come up from the ground. The only spot of color to be found! In order to portray this, I needed my model to be in an abundance of color, but not too overwhelming. I needed it to feel natural. So I find myself in Michael’s and rounded up some moss, butterflies, lavender & a wooden “halo/reef”. I felt like these colors went really well together and felt somewhat natural as colors you would see in a natural outdoor setting. Then, to top it off, Priscilla has the most gorgeous red hair which really took it up a notch!

The shoot itself was a fairly quick one. With just about an hour of light left, we departed to a nearby forest preserve 2 minutes from my house. Took our things and went to town. Being that my light was very diffused by this point, I was able to do a lot of shots with my model facing towards the light to create a soft ambiance of light amongst her face. This particular shot was one of the last of the night…

Settings are as follows (Canon 5D Mark II, 50mm 1.4 @ 1.4, ISO 200, 1/1000s)

I get asked quite often if I use reflectors/flash or do a tremendous amount of photoshopping to achieve the lighting on my models. I only own a reflector in which I never use (sadly!) so all of my images are always lit with complete natural light + a wide aperture on my lens and properly using my manual settings. Though, sometimes I will admit, I don’t always “nail it” in camera. Always, always allow yourself to get as much IN camera as you can. It helps so much!

If there is one thing I could change about this image is the way I placed her in relation to my light source. I feel like I needed just a bit more light on her right side of her face. Regardless, I was stoked on this set & this image in particular! Being that the first image was very flat, I knew during this entire set, I wanted the colors amongst my model to be bright & bold vs. the dull/muted colors of the background. First image you see above is completely SOOC, second image is completely finished after post. Below you can see the steps I took to get there! As always, before the image enters Photoshop, I do use ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) to edit my RAW files by simply adjusting the white balance (added warmth), contrast and a tiny bit of clarity.

From this point, my image enters Photoshop and I take my attention directly to the skin. We had a professional MUA for this shoot so the skin retouching was very minimal – I loved it! I just evened out skin tones for the most part and used the patch tool in couple minimal areas. Now, I just needed to focus on the image itself. As always, I see my photographs in segments. I worked on using curves, selective coloring & a bit of Hue/Saturation on this image to bring it to it’s final standing. Overall, I am super pleased! It came together just as I have envisioned it in my mind!

In celebration of my two year anniversary of kicking off ‘Stephanie Pana Photography’,
I would love to offer you guys a discount for today (March 17th) and today ONLY!

$50 off ANY session fees! (This includes Mentor Sessions!)

Rules & Regulations:

+ Session inquiries MUST be booked on Saturday, March 17th until Midnight (Central Time) to qualify.
+ The session itself can be scheduled anytime between now & August 31st, 2012.
+ This cannot be used on a session you’ve already previously booked, or in addition to any other promotions.
+ There is a $20.00 Non-refundable Security Deposit required to book your session. You have 48 hours to pay this in order to secure your date (Payment via PayPal). If this fee is not paid, the date is not booked.
+ For more questions & inquiries, please feel free to email (stephaniepana@gmail.com) or call (708-420-0608)

Above image was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a 50mm 1.4 lens @ f /2.2, ISO 100, 1/125s. There was a bedroom window behind me with lots of sunshine pouring in. I had the baby on the bean bag about 4-5 feet away from the window in the shade to assure a nice soft, diffused light amongst her. As you can see in the SOOC photo, there is a heavy amount of redness on the baby’s skin due to scratching. I wanted the image as a whole to feel a bit more soft, airy & light. In order to fix this, I first took a few moments to utilize some very simple Camera RAW tools which made a huge difference immediately. I messed a bit with white balance, upping the exposure, contrast and finally going into the selective coloring and taking the red saturation down a bit.

From here, I then took the image into Photoshop & focused my attention to smoothing out and evening her skin tones out. I simply used the patch tool on major areas that needed attention. I then took a small brush at a low opacity of about 23%, selected a color similar to her skin, created a new layer and brushed over her skin as a whole. I then took that new layer and lowered the entire opacity down to about 75%. I then just wanted to add a little extra boost to the image, so I created a custom curve layer on top to finish it off!

RAW edits & custom curve layer can be seen below.