We've Moved!!!

After much consideration I've decided to pack up my things and move across the street...to a new wordpress blog. I took a look at the layout and it seems like there is so much more I can do with it. So, if you are following me on this blog please come on over to the new diggs at www.briankaldorf.wordpress.com and tell me what you think. Tell your friends, tell your relatives, heck tell the guy standing at the corner waitin for the bus.
This is Brian signing off!

Goings On...

Boy, I just realized that I haven't posted anything new here in quite some time, how naughty of me :) Well, since the last time I blogged there has been some exciting prospects looming on the horizon ranging from my own art show to moving to San Diego to work for renowned sports photographer Tim Tadder! Let's begin with the first point; I submitted some of my work to a local clothing store here in Pittsburgh. They were looking for some custom artwork to populate their store and I figured I didn't have much to lose so I dropped a piece off (incidently, it was the image I used of the Good vs. Evil show with the wonderful Carley Lenz). Within a 24hr period they had called me back in to see what else I had available. I ended up displaying 5 of my prints on commission, with the ability to sell prints if anybody was interested. Not too bad! For those of you interested, stop down at the Ross Park Mall- the store is called "Get Inked" and all of my stuff is in the back gallery available for purchase.
I've also been a busy bee talking with sports photographer Tim Tadder. Tim was looking for a retoucher for his San Diego office so he put an ad out on Flickr. Again, I figured what do I have to lose and I shot him off a quick email to see what he thought. His initial response was if I would be willing to relocate! Crazy I know! Well, after much thought, I decided not to pursue this simply because the move would be to great given time away from my family and monetary issues. Oh well, moving on...
I am going to be featured in the April edition of Debris Magazine. Debris is a publication that showcases artwork in all mediums. I got an email from the editor stating that they were really into my look and wanted me to be the feature photographer for April. Now I just have to get everything together in time!

Website Update

For a while now, I haven't been all that thrilled with the look of my website. Not that there was anything wrong with it, I just thought it looked a bit vanilla. My problem was that I wanted to add a bit of pizazz while still maintaining the clean look of the whole thing. So, with the bit of down time that I have, I decided to give it a go. I added a new splash page and changed the about section to more accurately portray what it is I do. Come take a look at www.briankaldorf.com, I hope the changes are positive ones, send me any feedback you may have!

Inspiration Station- Merry Christmas!

In this month's installment we are going to take a look at the creation of a specialized image designed for the use of a promotional mailer. Since it's Christmas time, I wanted something that would be fun and quirky and still match the feel of the holiday season. But where to look for inspiration?
INSPIRATION-
I love, love, love the classic holiday movie "A Christmas Story". Something about Ralphie's plight to obtain the coveted Red Rider Beebee gun tugs at my heartstrings every year. My only problem was how do I relay the feel of this movie visually into my own style and personality. The answer came while strolling through a local department store last month. As I was pondering whether or not to even do a mailer, I noticed an all too familiar lamp towards the back of the display. It was the infamous "leg" lamp ! My mind feverishly worked up a visual that would both pay homage to this delightly tacky symbol of one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made, as well as maintaining a consistent visual presence with my clients. I thought a humorous approach would be best, leaving a lasting impression (hopefully) with the viewer. How to do this? Include myself of course (being that I am one of the most ridiculous looking people that I know!)

CASTING-
As I just mentioned, casting was pretty much taken care of. All I needed was the perfect foil to my character so it wouldn't look like I was just a creepy guy staring at an illuminated leg! I enlisted the help of my wife, who was all to willing to make me look all the more foolish. We set the shoot date, bought the props, and set off for the studio.
PRODUCTION-
Not a whole lot of production for this one. I put a slab of formica countertop that we had at the studio on two sawhorses and that pretty much created my work surface for the shoot. I placed the lamp in the middle and blacked out the background with felt to control any ambient light. The hardest part was making sure that I was in the right portion of the frame given the composition and angle. In order to do this, it was essential that I have immediate visual feedback of where I was. I ended up shooting tethered into my powerbook laptop, with the images popping up instantenously through lightroom. The camera was set to timer mode and within 15 minutes I had the compostion and angle nailed down.

LIGHTING-
Lighting wasn't even that big a deal for this one in terms of complexity. I wanted a really warm, glowy, Christmasy feel to the whole thing, so I relied mainly on the illumination from the lamp itself. The exposure ended up being somewhere around .8 sec, so I was able to hold still long enough to light up my face. To add some separation from the background I used a speedotron strobe with a small bowl reflector about 4' up and aimed down, with a yellow gel to simulate the incandescent light. The light itself added a nice rimming effect and would aid me later for compositing. I shot myself, my wife, the lamp, and the background all separately. This allowed me to light each component appropriately and alloted for more creative control. My wife I lit very similar to myself. When I photographed the background plate, I used whatever ambient was in the room minus 1 stop exposure. This gave me enough detail in the scene without completely destroying the christmas lights. It also added to the overall falloff of light from the lamp.

POSING-
The posing was pretty critical in that I was trying to portray a humorous setting. I photographed myself until I got something that I was happy with both in the pose and in the expression. My wife took a bit longer in that she normally isn't in front of the lens and isn't , ahem, all that fond of being there :). After a few attempts and many laughs we finally got something that I thought would work out really well. She was a really great sport about the whole thing and I thank her for that!

POSTPRODUCTION-
Once I had all the components photographed, it was time to start compositing them in Photoshop. I use Photoshop CS3 and as a generall rule I like to work nondestructively as much as possible. What I mean by that is I make duplicate layers of everything and any changes that are made are easily reverted by going back to the original layer. For this type of work, selections need to be critically accurate in order to get that believability factor. I find the best way to do that is to use the pen tool and draw out each individual path on a separate path layer. For example, I made separate pen paths for the light, myself, and my wife. This way if I need to move something or shade something, I just call up the needed path and change it into a feathered selection. Believe me, it makes my life so much easier doing it this way rather than relying on individual selections. Once all the elements were in place, it was time to start matching up the lighting levels. Since I was particular about the lighting in the first place, there wasn't a whole lot of adjustment that was needed. A few curve layers to blend in the foreground to the background was about it. After this it was just a matter of some blending modes mixed with some select sharpening and we were set.

RECEPTION-
I had the final image sent out to be printed as a postcard with the intention of sending them out to current and future clients. My hope is that it will generate some buzz about my photography and keep my name fresh in everybody's mind. As of right now, the response has been minimal but good. My wife sent one to her sister and she called the next day to let me know that she didn't even realize that it was Julie and I in the picture! She thought it was wonderful and very well done, which is the conclusion I'm hoping everybody comes to as well. Check back after the New Year, I will post more responses as they come in.

Merry Christmas everybody!!

Good times

Having a good time on vacation, all is right in my little world!

baby cam

So I'm planning a trip to somewhere much warmer than Pittsburgh and I decided it was time to buy a decent point and shoot camera. I bought a point and shoot for my wife the last time we went on vacation and I found the resulting images to be less than stellar (more due to the limitations of the camera than anything else). I knew I didn't want to lug around my big ol 5D + lens+flash to all the theme parks, so I decided to get something that would still allow me to shoot in Raw and manual modes, just so I wasn't missing all the functionality.
I ended up with a used Canon G9, mainly because it had all the bells and whistles I was looking for and it was small enough to stow in my pocket. It came yesterday and I've been playing with it all day today. So far, I must say I am pleasantly surprised by the image quality. In manual mode, shooting in Raw, between iso 80-400 I can get a decent image with not a lot of noise-even going as low as 2 stops below the exposure and pulling it back in through my Raw editor. So far so good, I'll share some of the images from the vacation when I get back.

Red Five I'm going in...

So I was making my daily rounds on the blogsphere this morning and I came across this little gem over at Chase Jarvis. Apparently the people at Red Camera have blown the proverbial lid off of the DSLR kettle. Take about evolution of the species! I wonder how many photographers will make the jump though at that price point. As Han Solo said, " Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good DSLR, er, blaster at your side, kid".

Inspiration station- November

I recently was reading a blog posting from a fellow photographer friend of mine in which he was talking about student photographers staying motivated. Having been out of school now for the past six months, staying motivated and shooting new material can often times be problematic. When your in school or when you have a steady gig, there are assignments to be done, deadlines to be met, and peers to bounce your ideas off of. Out in the real world these situations are not as forth coming and it's easy to start falling into bad habits. To combat this, I've decided to focus on one creative self assignment a month. This will become a monthly post entitled "Inspiration Station" and we will go over everything from concept to casting, production to processing, and everything in between. My hope is to show you how I work, why I do what I do, and how that work is perceived. Everybody ready? OK then, on with the show!

INSPIRATION-
For my first post in this endeavour we will discuss a photoshoot I completed over the weekend. The inspiration for the shoot came from two places: the first being from a series of books that my wife has been reading (the Twilight series for all of those who are interested) and from a posting on a model website from a model wanting to shoot a vampire themed photograph. I ended up reading the Twilight series and it produced a strong visual narrative for me to work from. I visualized a dark, edgy world where everything was cold and moody. I wanted the photograph to portray a sense of danger but at the same time I wanted it to have a neo punk style to it a well.

CASTING-
Once I had the intial visual picture in my head I contacted the model who posted the original inquiry (the fabulous Lori D) to see if she was interested in my personal style and the vision I had for the final product. I think it's essential to have everybody on the same page when your trying to produce a stylized production; this way everybody knows what the expectations are and they strive to put their best foot forward in meeting that goal. Lori's ideas for the shoot fell pretty much in line with what I was thinking. She added the concept of a second model playing the role of the victim to add another dimension to the production. Since Lori has such a unique look, we needed a male model to compliment both her and the overall production. I came up with a list of potential models who I thought could fit the profile, ranging from a conservative look to the more extreme end of the spectrum. I showed Lori the list and we both agreed on two of the models who's looks, age, and location fit in with our production parameters. We ended up going with Sean based on availability and interest in the project.

PRODUCTION-
With the casting out of the way we moved on to production. First up was location. Originally we thought shooting it on a decrepit broken down brick wall would work (in fact I went out and photographed a background plate for just such a thing) but upon thinking about later I decided that keeping the background simple and clean lent more to the edginess of the look. We ended up just photographing it on a plain grey wall in my studio ,with a splash of colored light (I will speak more on that later). Once the location was set we needed to decide on the wardrobe. We both love the work of local fashion designer Ali Pace and we thought her look would be appropriate for this shoot. We relayed to Ali the look and feel of what we were after and Ali ran with it. When I saw the final costume I knew Ali had nailed it on the head. Lori added to the look with some realistic looking vampire fangs, crosses, and other accouterments. Sean's outfit was simple in contrast, we really wanted to keep his look clean and uncluttered so I decided he would just wear a solid dark color shirt and pants.












LIGHTING-
In order to achieve the mood of the photograph, the lighting had to be definitive. It was very important to keep it controlled and be very selective as to where and how it was falling on the subjects. I decided to use a 22" beauty dish with a 20 degree grid over top both models and angled slightly to fall on their faces. This would give their faces just enough light to suggest that they were standing under a streetlight or some other light source. With a few simple posing directions I could get Lori's face to be half in shadow which lent authenticity to the feel. After that, I added another light head at a higher power setting behind both Sean and Lori with a 20 degree grid and a light blue gel. This give a wonderful rim light that highlighted both Sean's hair and Lori's cheek, adding separation from the dark background. This light also splashed a narrow beam down the side of the wall which added to the look. All that was left was to give the overall scene a bit of fill light from a third light head (this head was set at very low power with a set of barn doors to control the spill).




POSING-
Once the lighting was set, I directed Lori to lean against the wall with Sean leaning in on her. Often times when you are working with multiple models at the same time, there can be a comfort factor in terms of personal space that you need to work into gradually. Since Sean and Lori had never even met before, let alone worked together, we started slowly and eventually decreased the distance between the two of them. Both models were very professional and worked well together. They took direction well, were aware of their poses and environment, and added their own unique style to the look. There were quite a few good poses to choose from!

POSTPRODUCTION-
Once the shoot was completed, I loaded up the images into my digital asset management software of choice, lightroom. I work with Canon products (a Canon 5d to be exact) which produce a wonderfully detailed image. I shoot only in RAW which produces a file size around 10 mb. Originally I intended to shoot tethered to a Powerbook G4 laptop but the logistics of the shoot coupled with the transfer speed of the files really made this option less than ideal. I ended up shooting to CF cards and then uploading them to my desktop machine, which is a dual quad-core mac pro. Since I shoot RAW I have the luxury of setting the white balance to whatever I choose. For this particular project I wanted to have a colder, darker feeling so I manually adjusted the color temperature in lightroom until I got something that I was happy with- somewhere around 3900. This was a good start, but I wanted it even a bit bluer so I boosted the saturation and luminance sliders for the blue channel. This worked out much better and kept the overall feel cool. From here I imported the image into photoshop where I did my usual post processing techniques of various filtering and layer styles. I increased the luminosity of Lori's eye and added in a partial fang from another frame to complete the look.

RECEPTION-
Everyone involved in the project has loved the final product so far. Once the initial image was completed, it went up on various social networking and model sites such as model mayhem, flickr, and my own website www.briankaldorf.com. The overall response has been positive- I have had a couple people ask about the lighting setup and a few people say they love the overall feel of the work.

Hope you enjoyed this dissection of my photograph- if you have any questions, just drop me a line!

Happy Halloween, BUHAHAHAHAH!!!!

So the wife had a business trip up to state college the other day and me being the bored easily creative type that I am, decided that I would try my hand at 3d pumpkin carving. Overall the effect is pretty convincing and the final product isn't too bad! Have a happy halloween everybody!!

Silent Bob Speaks!

Well I finally got back home from a job in Michigan last Wednesday and what should be waiting in my email inbox but a job assignment to photograph a celebrity! Now, keep in mind that I don't normally get all starry eyed for the famous (I have on occasion worked on jobs that included famous sports figures) but this was a bit different. As many of you may or may not know, I am a huge Kevin Smith fan; I listen to his weekly podcast (entitled SMODcast), I read his daily bulletin board, basically I devour all Kevin Smith related material. As luck would have it, they were doing a premiere here in Pittsburgh for his latest movie "Zack and Miri make a Porno" and the Pittsburgh City Paper needed a picture of the Director, Kevin Smith, to run with an article about the premiere. After re-reading the email several times and then picking my jaw up off the floor I started making phone calls to the appropriate people to make this thing happen. The people at the Pittsburgh Film Office could not have been nicer and told me to come down to the theater around 8:15 p.m. and they would let me in to photograph Kevin. So that evening came and I made sure I was there early just in case anything went haywire. Apparently there was some sort of traffic issue (I know, who would of thought, traffic issues in Pittsburgh) and Kevin was running a bit late. Not a problem, I was able to find a single seat in the back row of the theater and I caught the last half hour of the movie. I can't remember laughing that hard in a long time! Finally the movie ended and it was time for the Q&A to start. By then I had secured a place right down in front to make sure I had a good angle. Well, no sooner do I get situated does the man himself come strolling down the aisle, in his trademark silent bob coat! The crowd went nuts and I started snapping away. The theater was practically a cave in terms of lighting. I had my poor metz flash working overtime by the time the night was over. I found Kevin to be quite the engaging and self deprecating speaker. He talked about everything from the inspiration behind the movie to upcoming projects to his favorite places to eat in Pittsburgh (which happened to be Gallifty's and Primani's). After the Q&A he made some time to sign autographs outside of the theater for fans who couldn't get in. All in all, he couldn't have been a nicer guy, and he didn't seem to mind me snapping away like some kind of crazed paparrazzi reject. So, for those of you keeping score:
1. I got to meet famed movie director Kevin Smith
2. I got to see the last half hour of his latest movie "Zack and Miri make a porno" before it hits theaters.
3. I got paid to do all of this.

Yep, life is pretty good!

Rainbow Power!!!

So I have had this idea for a long time of doing a photoshoot where it would be raining smiley face balls onto a willing participent while she is under the protection of a very colorful rainbow umbrella. After the initial sketch and production notes were drawn up, I called my trusty assistant Lauren and the wonderful clothing designer Alli Pace to see if they were down with the idea. Both were enthusiastic and were ready to rock n roll. We wanted to cast for a colorful, vibrant looking model that would jive well with the theme. I decided on Miss Jenna from Ohio because her look was unique and I thought she would add that extra special "sumthin" to the overall production. As luck would have it she was available and we set up the shoot for a beautiful day in September. It was a simple two light setup with the camera angle being low to capture Jenna's expression. What I hadn't anticipated was how the bouncy balls would look in the final edit. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get them to look just right. In the end I ended up scrapping the smiley faces in lieu of a digital rainbow and some illustrated "rainbow brite" power! I really digg the illustrative aspects of this photo, it's something different that I think I would like to push towards in the future. Tell me whatcha think!

interesting article

A few weeks ago I had talked a little bit about the cost of doing business and what not. A friend of mine just sent me a link to a wonderful article about the state of editorial photography and the costs associated with it in the digital age. I find the numbers quite astonishing in that since 1984 editorial rates have risen a scant 14% while equipment costs and inflation have risen 1000% and 80% respectively. Am I the only one who thinks this is insane!? 1000% increase in the equipment we utilize to do our business and yet the rates stay virtually unchanged!? I feel like that guy in zoolander who says "Are all you people taking crazy pills?!"
It is so important right now to utilize the strengths of your photography and the the value that they present. Too many people are out there shooting for free or for publication that it is destroying the market right out from under us. People like me are having that much harder of a time getting started because someone else will do it for less. It's a sad state but its one that can be amended.

Christmas in August

Yay, they finally came! The week before I went on vacation I made a last minute order of a new (to me at least) speedotron power pack and a few strobe heads. So far I must say that I am pleased with the results and I'm hoping to add one more light to the setup. I think I will keep my AB's for location work and use this new setup strictly for studio work. I also had the great fortune of meeting Kimberly Reed, a local wedding photographer here in Pittsburgh. She was looking to get rid of a 70-200 2.8L lens. As luck would have it I had a 50 1.2 L that she was after, so we had an even swap. Sometimes things just have a way of working out!

So what did you do on your summer vacation?

So after a week long vacation to Baltimore and D.C. I am finally back home. The wife and I had a wonderful time taking in the sites and seeing some old friends. We started out the trip in Harrisburg, Pa. for a wedding of an old highschool friend of ours. It was good to see her so happy and to hear how things were going for her. As an added bonus, the wedding was taking place in Harrisburg which is where we used to live. During a break in the action we took a quick side trip to one of our favorite eating establishments, the Soda Jerk, and a short jaunt over to Hershey's Chocolate World. I know, I know, it sounds cheesy but we had a good time. While we were eating lunch at the Soda Jerk, this strange looking little car pulled up. Here it's an old electric car from the 70's that the owner liked to tool around town with, very interesting!
After the wedding we headed off to Baltimore to visit with some relatives. It was nice not having an agenda, most of the week I just sat around and read a book (the twilight series, which I must see is a decent read!) Towards the end of the week we took a trip into D.C. and went to the new Air and Space Museum hanger. The place was packed floor to ceiling with all sorts of flying contraptions, it was quite awe inspiring. Anyways, we had a good time and now it's back to the grind!

Going to the chapel!

So last weekend I had the wonderful pleasure of photographing a wonderful couple (Joe and Amy) at a wonderful country club. Everything went off without a hitch, with the exception of it being hotter than blazes and the wedding was outdoors. Not a problem, we persevered and came away with some fantastic and fun looking photographs. It makes such a difference when the people you're photographing buy into the vision you are trying to achieve. In this instance, because the Joe and Amy are fun an energetic themselves, I thought it would be appropriate to get them doing some off the wall kinda things. They went right along with it and came up with some ideas of their own that fit into the whole motif. In fact, one of the best images we got (pictured above) was their idea! I had a good time and I'm looking forward to their reaction towards the finished product.

The cost of staying in Business

It seems I get the same type of e-mail every couple of weeks from families, brides, and models asking what my rates are. I kindly tell them what to expect in terms of both finished product and money and 9 times out of 10 I never hear from them again. On this one occasion recently, however, I had some one ask me if they thought that my rate was too steep for what they wanted. I thought about it for awhile, and I came to the conclusion that I wasn't effectively conveying the value of both my time, my investment, and my talent. It's difficult to overcome the mindset that "all you do is click a button and the picture happens" in the digital age to people who aren't all that familiar with the process. What a lot of people fail to realize is that its taken a multitude of lighting tests, compositional knowledge, color theory classes, technical know-how on how to get the most out of an exposure, etc., etc. Not to mention the monetary investment in all of the necessary equipment to be able to produce the image in the first place. Add to this your time in scout location, preproduction, post production, color management, scheduling, correspondence, and time spent learning new techniques in order to make even more interesting and creative images, and you have a sizable chunk of your time and money out the door. But how do you convey all of this info to a potential client without sounding pretentious? I like to explain it as such: with my potential at creating your image, you will have a unique finished product that will utilize all of my knowledge, creativity, and technical ability. As such, in order for me to stay ahead of the curve with these traits, I need to be able to purchase new equipment, learn new techniques, etc.- hence the reason for my rates. I think if people can attach a tangible value to your photography, the battle is already half way there in your favor.

Making new Memories at Kennywood

So a couple of weeks ago I had the rare opportunity to not only work with the fabulous Ali Pace of Down with Fashion, but we also were able to do a location shoot at Kennywood, a local amusement park here in Pittsburgh. We got rolling at 8:00 in the morning to avoid any potential run-ins with incoming park guests (poor Ali, the model, and the makeup artist all got there start at 6:00 a.m.!) and the whole thing went off without a hitch. We photographed around the Merry-go-round and the kids kingdom area. The model, Chelsea, was a real pro which led to some great pictures! We were in and out of there inside of two hours, just as the days crowd was filing in.
When your dealing with an outdoor location shoot like this, its always important to try and control the available light as much as you can. In this particular instance, it was still early enough to kinda plan my angles because the sun wasn't too high in the sky yet. I had my assistant Lauren provide diffusion when we needed it to let the strobes do there job. Much thanks to Ali, Adrianna, Chelsea,Lauren and Jeff from Kennywood for making this all happen. Take a look at the pics and short video, let me

know what you think!

Just another day at the office...

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think "boy, do I love my job." Thursday was a great example of that. I got an email earlier in the week from a photographer in Missouri who was coming into town to photograph a baseball player. He was looking for an assistant for the day and as luck would have it I was available. They were going to be filming Joba Chamberlain, one of the pitchers for the New York Yankees, for a sports apparel commercial. When I got to the location there was a film crew already setting up and some curious passersby. Our job was to photograph still images of Joba in between takes for the commercial. The whole experience gave me an insight into the world of the celebrity. It seemed every minute of this young man's life was spoken for in some way or another. We had him from roughly 10:30 till 3:00 and in that time he filmed various segments for the commercial, posed for still photographs both for us and the crew, signed autographs, and met with a group of preteen admirers. The amazing thing to me was that he did all of this with such poise and togetherness, it was really something to take notice of. After we finished the film crew, the photographer, and I went to eat and digest the days experience. Everyone was in agreement that the shoot went off without a hitch and things probably couldn't have gone any better. I had a great day by meeting new people in the industry, having a minor brush with celebrity, and learning while getting paid to do so.
All in all, not a bad day of work!

Moving on...

Well its been a heck of a week. Last Friday I finally graduated from college with my bachelor's degree in photography. It had been a long time coming and I was glad to finally get it over with. As luck would have it, I ended up winning the best of show award along with the dean's merit commendation. It was both a wonderful honor to receive and a humbling experience.
Since then my life has been a nonstop train ride of incoming work oddly enough. Running down the itinerary of this past week, I did two food shoots for publication, 2 editorial locations for a city night guide, a group portrait of a party promotions company, a test shoot for a local clothing company, an assisting job with an architectural photographer, and an editorial fashion shoot for a wonderful local clothing designer. I guess my point with all of this info is that you as a photographer need to constantly be on the look out for that next opportunity. Probably 80% of the above mentioned jobs were booked well before this week, knowing that I would have a lot of free time post graduation. It's important to keep yourself motivated and moving on to that next step in your career!

Band Photography

I thought I would throw up a new video of a recent shoot I did with the band Hyperion. They were a bunch of great guys and we got some great images!
See you next week!