Damaris

[Photomart]

Damaris was cooling off in the Guadalupe River


I slowed the shutter down to make the water blur a bit

[Bodyscapes]

As always, great images Marty.
I was wondering what camera/lens combo do you usually use?

Her eyes are pin sharp - do you do any post to them?

Thanks again,

[Photomart]

All my Guadalupe River images (www.martysphotography.com/HAAB2) were shot with my Nikon D300, Nikkor 28070 f2.8 lens (with circular polariser) ... plus ny SB-800 flash for fill and catchlights (no tripod).

On the shot of Damaris you mention, I got luck ... I slowed down my shutter to 1/25 so I could blur the water and told her to ly very still (despite the very cold rushing water that almost washed away her bikini bottoms) The only post production corrections I did to the shot was to add contrast and shift the color of the brownish water to a more pleasing blue color ... then finish it off with an unsharpen mask.

[jestersncourt]

Originally Posted by Photomart

(despite the very cold rushing water that almost washed away her bikini bottoms)

Where are those pictures??

[Hdvannjr]

Marty, I am familiar with your photography from G1 and I have reviewed your web site. Very impressive to say the least. Question: I'm assuming that when you say Nikkor 28070 f2.8, that is synonymous with Nikkor 28-70 f2.8. Is that correct? And do you find a considerable difference in blurring the background/isolating your subject with the f2.8 lens -vs- a f3.5 or f4.0 ?
Finally, I am intrigued by your post processing technique that you have described here. Might you indulge an admiring wanna be with an unprocessed version of one of the above photos for comparison?
David

[Photomart]

Ok. Below is the original, straight out of my camera and the processed image.

My technique? It varies from image to image, but here's what I did --

I created a "Selection" of Damaris, then inverted it to select just the water, then used "Image-Adjustments-Replace Color" to select the brown water and turn it blue (I repeated it several times to get all the shades of the water to the correct shades of blue). Then I loaded the selection of Damaris again and bumped up the contrast. I used the Clone tool to clean up her face a bit. As a final step, I applied a subtle vignette using Levels to give it a deeper blue look. Image was then flattened and unsharpenes at 100-3-0 setting. Voila!

Oh ... and yes, right after taking this shot, she rolled over onto her back and her bikini bottoms filled up with water and slid to around her knees ... while I was repositioning myself on a rock. :-(

[Bodyscapes]

Thanks Marty. I always appreciate your shoot details.

When you use your SB800 for fill light, are you using it on manual mode and adjusting the power output?

I have done this before - setting the output to 1/64.

[atlantashooter]

SWEET

[Jagdoc]

Beautiful work, and thanks for the very clear workflow explanation.

Vic

[Photomart]

Originally Posted by Bodyscapes

When you use your SB800 for fill light, are you using it on manual mode and adjusting the power output?

I always use my SB-800 on manual mode so I can control the amount of fill light ... too little fill light and the faces are dark and lifeless ... too much and it looks like a snapshot. Besides, I find that using my speedlight on manual mode is a great way to keep my light skills sharp for that day when I get to use my studio stobes outside.