A.D. Drumm Images, LLC – Landscape, Portrait, and Fine Art Photography in Rochester MN Photography

May 12, 2010

Head shots

Filed under: General photography,Rochester Civic Theatre — Tony Drumm @ 7:27 pm

Father of the Bride head shot

My first volunteering at Rochester Civic Theatre was helping out back stage. But it wasn’t long before I began providing my photography skills. Shooting head shots for the shows was my first mix of theatre and photography. Head shots were taken of the actors before each show and printed up 5×7 to display in the lobby. These might be taken by the director or someone else with a point and shoot camera. When Lynne started volunteering, digital photography was still pretty novel, so the head shots and show photos were shot on film.

When I started doing the head shots, I shot similar compositions to what I’d been seeing, trying to just up the quality a tad. The actors dedicate a lot of time and effort, all unpaid, to bring a show to life. They deserve to have decent photos on display. Over time, this has become more important to me. I began shooting with off camera flash which, of course, makes a huge difference. The images became more photos and less snapshots.

Yet, I could do more without a lot more effort. Just bringing a single umbrella and maybe a little reflector… Yes, now I can start to feel proud of these photos. Some shows have a huge cast, so I can’t spend tons of time, but I can still produce some good looking shots.

I now like to crop in close – Lynne thinks too close! But I want you to see the actor – truly see the actor. Feel something of a connection. Naturally, there are many different folks in a variety of ages and looks. Some faces love the camera like Cait. Some less so, but I try to do my best to present them well. I can empathize, because I hugely prefer my side of the camera. There are few photos of me that I like, and most of those show me using a camera.

The eyes are the windows to the soul, and some people have beautiful eyes. They draw you into the photo. As a photographer, my goal is to focus on those eyes. Given some time, a little emphasis on the eyes will make a stronger portrait. I notice eyes when I press the shutter. It was the first thing I saw even on the LCD display on my camera when I took Ellie’s photo.

Head shot for Gypsy

I was just looking back at some of my older head shots, and I’m so happy I’ve decided to spend a little more effort and use better lighting. These actors deserve the best I can give. I know not all of them love their head shots, but at least we’re not posting snap shots. When you have more than 30 or 35 folks in a cast, time is a bit of a constraint. But it takes only a bit more effort to make images worthy of the subjects, and it’s the least I can do.

April 25, 2010

Avatar look Part Duex

Filed under: General photography — Tony Drumm @ 11:37 am

I decided I had to finish the version I started in Lightroom. I like this one best. You can see what I did in Lightroom in my earlier post. Editing in Photoshop, I morphed some features a bit, did a little work on my eye, and added the text and glowing dots.

I think this shows the difference between Lightroom and Photoshop. LR does a lot of the heavy lifting, allowed me to do all sorts of exposure and color adjustments and even dodge and burn. But if you want to do more – take a photograph to a different level by actually changing the image, you need Photoshop.

April 24, 2010

Avatar look

Filed under: General photography — Tony Drumm @ 12:38 pm

NAPP published a procedure to give someone a look similar to the Avatar posters, which I thought would be fun to try. I went looking for a reasonable photo of myself to play with. Most of those Lynne took have me wearing glasses, which just doesn’t work, and I didn’t want to spend the time removing them in Photoshop. But I found this one, and its resolution was good enough for playing.

I went to work and followed the procedure from NAPP’s Down & Dirty Tricks. It’s pretty straightforward, and worked pretty well. I wish I had smoothed my wrinkles a bit first, and I didn’t bother boosting the lips which, in this photo, are pretty much obscured by the beard. Did any of the Na’vi have a beard? I don’t recall seeing any. The tip leaves you to fend for yourself for the final added text, but no issues there.

Today, I was watching one of Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom Killer Tips. Matt has been exploring many ways to use the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom. With this little blue-guy business still fresh in my head, I began wondering if I couldn’t do nearly the same thing using just Lightroom. The answer is, yes! In fact, it was not very difficult – in some ways easier than in Photoshop.

I still would have needed Photoshop to add the glowing dots and the text, but all-in-all, I like it. Remembering the wrinkles, I toned them down a bit using clarity, and ended up with a blue I prefer over the original. Someday, perhaps I’ll add those final touches. Or not. It was just fun to do.

April 21, 2010

Rochester World Festival Cultural Program

Filed under: General photography,Rochester — Tony Drumm @ 5:33 pm

The Rochester International Association held their 35th World Festival Cultural Program on April 9. Lynne had been asked to join a group singing We Are the World, and she was asked if I’d be willing to come and videotape the program. Sure! I managed to grab a few still shots while the video was rolling, but I can’t just leave the video on a wide shot. If I’m going to shoot video, I need to devote my attention to it. So, the Caledonian Pipe Band above was one of the few acts I shot as a still.

Of course, you can capture a still shot from the video, although it isn’t going to in any way compare to what my 5D will do! Here’s a shot I grabbed to use for the DVD menu and on the label.

I left it cropped wide to show the flags. But it’s an incredibly cute shot, I think, in spite of being low-res. I did manage to shoot a handful of stills of the Rochester Area Singers, the group including Lynne. Here is one of those shots with Lynne front and just-left-of center!

For anyone interested, I have DVDs of the event for sale for $10 plus tax. A bargain, believe me! Use the Contact Tony page to let me know if you’re interested. Hopefully, it’s working okay now (see the previous post)!

April 19, 2010

Attending a wedding and content-aware fill

Filed under: General photography — Tony Drumm @ 5:17 pm

I attended the wedding of the son of friends on Saturday – as a guest, not the photo guy. But I took my camera. Since there was an official photographer, I tried to stay out of her way and mainly took shots of neighbors and former neighbors. I took some video of the first dance on the Canon 5D MkII, and did grab a few shots of the bride and her dad and groom and his mom dancing.

I can’t really attend something like this without thinking about shots, light, angles, where I would be. Oh – there’s a great shot waiting to be taken. I was pleased to see the photographer in the action taking those shots. Her eye must be similar to mine. I’ve been to weddings where I’ve been surprised the photographer was no where to be seen when I thought shots were waiting to be taken.

The shot above of the bride and her dad was one I liked. However, one thing that is always there in reception shots, looming in the background, is the ubiquitous EXIT sign. I can’t tell you how much I hate those. I try to avoid them when possible, but in this case, they were abundant, and I was trying to stay out of the photographer’s line of site (not always successfully, I’m afraid).

I’ve mentioned Photoshop CS5’s new content-aware fill feature. I’ve tried it in various situations with mixed results. Sometimes it does pretty well and sometimes I’ve had to finish with the conventional tools. But this is a great example, I think, of the tool working well. This is the before shot.

You can see these exit signs are also emergency lights. Huge, big shadows, ugly as sin. I actually tried to clone this away, and it was not easy. Getting the luminance and shade just right was tough. Let’s try content-aware fill. I did a rough selection around the monstrosity, shift-backspace, enter. Done. Wow! Yes, sometimes it just works and works well.

April 17, 2010

Americana Showcase

Filed under: General photography,Rochester Civic Theatre — Tony Drumm @ 9:36 am

Americana Showcase (click for more photos)

 Thursday evening, RCT had one of their live music events labelled Americana Showcase. These feature Brandon Sampson, a local singer-songwriter, who brings in other artists seemingly from all over the country. Lynne was up in the Twin Cities for the day, so I decided to head down to the theatre for some great music.

As I like to do, I brought along a camera. Now, I shoot tons of photos in the theatre under stage lighting, but I’m usually shooting staged shots with an empty house. I can move about freely, I can ask the actors to hold still, move closer (almost never ask them to move apart!), etc. Shooting a live event is different, especially when I’m not there as the event photographer. When I am the designated photographer, I feel justified in moving about. I try to be discrete, but still, I have a job to do.

As just an audience member, I really don’t want to be a distraction. Folks have paid to watch the musicians and listen to great music, not to watch me bandy about. I already feel a bit of a nuisance with the click-clack of the mirror and shutter. Lighting is harsh, generally lower than I’d like. In other words, it’s a bit of a challenge!

It was fun, though, trying to be somewhat discrete and working with some low shutter speeds to express the motion of hands on guitars or a banjo or fiddle. The music was fabulous and the audience appreciative. There is something about a small setting for live music. It’s a bit of a contrast with seeing Garth Brooks in the Target Center, or the Beach Boys at the state fair. Or Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in Vets Memorial in Columbus. Maybe I’m dating myself…

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress