More Coupling

This is another of my favorites from the new photo gallery.

Coupling

Over the last two weeks I have replaced two galleries on my website. This image is from the gallery I added last Sunday, called "coupling".

If you frequent this blog, you have seen other photographs of these models.

This particular photograph was shot with Ilford black and white infrared film, scanned into Photoshop from the negative, then taken through the Orton effect steps I have experimented with on other images in this blog.

All the images in the new gallery were processed the same way.

Processed Cheese

What is the dividing line between art and craft? At what point does a tool or technique interfere with artistic vision instead of enhancing it?

Ordinarily I avoid using the canned Photoshop filters to alter my images out of a sense that the result is cheesy, but nonetheless I found myself experimenting with a few of them on the work from my recent couples shoot.

The images in this week's blog use the "accented edges" filter.

I like the result, or I wouldn't be posting the pictures, but is it photographic art or is it just artistic design? I'm not sure.

The total effect can't be fully appreciated without looking at the enlarged images, so I recommend that you click on the images to see the image in the size I created it.

The filter creates a kind of painterly effect on photographs, as though someone had created them with black and white paint, narrowing the tonality creating the suggestion of three dimensional form by juxtaposing slightly lighter and darker sections of flat color on canvas.

But if one wanted that effect, maybe one should have done it with oil and canvas instead of creating a faux paint effect in Photoshop from a perfectly fine photograph.

Romantic Duo

The images this week are from the same shoot as two weeks ago, however these are initial scans of the film I shot.

Then I went one step further and applied the Orton effect to the images in Photoshop before saving them for a romantic effect.

The film shots are on IR film, but unfortunately not the Kodak IR film I love so much. It seems that Kodak discontinued production of their IR film last December. These photos were taken with the Rollei IR film, which does not have the same dramatic effect.

I also experimented with the Ilford IR film on this shoot. It was even more disappointing. The results were not significantly different than shooting regular black and white.

I have discovered another brand of IR film sold by FreeStyle that I am trying in my next shoot that promises to be more like the Kodak film in that it is much more heat sensitive, and like the Kodak film needs to be loaded in complete darkness and stored immediately in a plastic film canister to protect it from heat/light leaks. I am hoping all this means that it will be equivalent photographically, but we'll see.

I understand that digital is replacing film, but there will always be some things film does that digital cannot duplicate -- like black and white IR photography. It's a niche market that film makers would do well to keep alive, even if they charge more for the film.

Is my dinosaur tail showing?
For extra credit, readers of this blog can try to read the writing on TJ's arm. At one point during the shoot he explained the origin of all his tattoos, but I confess I was too busy adjusting my lighting...

Two Times Two

Something I have done very little of and want to do more of -- duos.

When you've spent most of your time shooting just one guy, learning to shoot two is a little like learning to juggle. Just when you were getting good at tossing around one ball, all of a sudden you've got a second one to worry about. Not only do you need to light, position, compose an image that makes them both look good, you also need to make sure they look like they're into each other.

It's not easy for the models either, because even if you like each other, it's not easy to forget about the guy with the camera standing a few feet away, fiddling with lights and giving you directions.

These are two digital shots from a photo shoot this afternoon of TJ and Miguel, reduced to gray scale and given a slight warm tone.

We shot several rolls of infrared film. I'm anxious to see how they come out. Stay tuned.