2 Scary Men

[megan]

2 shots from the weekend - two local up-and-coming boxers.
(Both images are ©2006 Megan Green, All Rights Reserved. Hands off. Don't copy 'em, don't use 'em. Just had to type it - I know that the majority of people here looking respect that!)

[walterick]

Cool! It's nice to see some color work from ya!

So I take it these aren't Holga shots. Which camera did you use? What was your lighting? And were these taken in the *new* Chateau de Megan?

[megan]

1. I DID shoot Holga! I'll have those later this week. These are not Holga shots, though.
2. I used my camera that I named Rosemary's Baby. Olympus EVOLT300 ::spits::
3. Yes - this was the first shoot in my new studio! It was GREAT!!! I had room to shoot, room to extend the background, room to move around, and room to shoot a full-length photo of each boxer without getting the edges of the background in the image, or my bed or bookshelf! It's great having a whole room dedicated solely to photography.

::bliss::

[megan]

PS - forgot to answer the lighting question. I'm still saving up for "real" lights, so these were halogen work lamps from Home Depot. I know I could do a better job with softer lights from B&H - I'll get them eventually!

[walterick]

Aw, you're making me want my own studio now!

1. Cool! I look forward to those.
2. LOL. You do amazing digital work, Meg, but I can tell it is not your favorite creative medium
3. Awesome! I can't wait to crash your futon! So what did you use for lighting here? And I really dig the tones.

[walterick]

Oh, okay gotcha. Why don't they have a color cast? Did you do that afterward or did you use the camera's white balance?

btw I've used the same lights for portraiture I didn't have digital, so I shot black and white to keep the color cast out. And to soften them, I draped a sheet of plastic sold in the paint dept at home depot over the front. Just be careful you don't melt the plastic on the lights and catch them on fire

[megan]

Amazingly, The ONLY thing I did in Photoshop was to use the heal tool to fix the tape on one of the gloves, and change the resolution. No cropping, no color balance, no levels, nothing. ::shrugs:: That's why I got an Oympus. We just work well together. I didn't even use a custom white balance. Then again, I had 2 lamps trained on the subject and one filling up the back to get rid of shadows. Could it be possible that a yellow cast is less noticable on their darker skin?

[Asylum Steve]

Why don't they have a color cast? Did you do that afterward or did you use the camera's white balance?

Beautiful shots, Megan, and yes Rick, they DO have a very warm tone to them (that's from the color cast). You'd notice it a lot more if you could compare it with neutral and cool color cast shots.

I can't really find anything to critique, except maybe I'd have the bg a little more out of focus. Not crazy about that pattern being so sharp...

[megan]

Thanks! I agree about the background and that's one thing I need to read the manual about - getting a shallower depth of field so that the background is less sharp. I've been having problems "getting" manual with this camera, I don't seem to be doing it right so I end up frustrated and just put it on autopilot. I also should have made sure to get the complete waistband in the shot of Pete so you could read his nickname. Fortunately, I've got many other shots where it is visible - but as far as boxing shots go, that aspect is very important. That, and I had some movement issues on a few of the shots - I think I need to set the ISO at 200 and/or use a tripod. I feel so restricted with tripods, though, so I'll probably just shoot at 200.