Weekly Photo Challenge: Object

Let there be light!

The daily prompt of the day at The Daily Post is Object.
I’m adept of Anthropomorphism and love mixing up stuff. Hope you will love the result

Text and illustration added with SketchBookX on Ipad

By Sebastien Grobelny

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: You can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s blog.
• Milky Way : Nice article from PetaPixel on how to pick your lens to shoot the Milky Way
• Into the wild: Wyoming is a beautiful state but Wyoming is a wild state as shown in this timelapse.
• Lighting: The Strobist offers a Ligthing 101 guide. More details can be found here.
• May the Force…: Loved this article on PetaPixel about movie scenes done with Lego including Star Wars and Indiana Jones. One day maybe I will be able to do something similar 😉

By Sebastien Grobelny

Catwoman

After the fun with Bane and Batman it was time for Selena Kyle.
Here’s my final result

I was looking for a dramatic effect and be able to control the light.
Below is the setup I used. It’s the 100mm lens with 2 Canon 550EX flash. The flash with the soft box (white diffuser on the right, closest to the camera) will be called B while the other one one the left will be called A.

I moved A and B and lot and checked the results and adjusted each time. When the light was ok, I discovered that I didn’t like some of the positioning of Selena so I changed it and had to redo the lights. In total I ended up taking 70 pictures in close to an hour. Below are the final 3. The only difference  was on the balance of the flash. With the trigger I can give more or less power to a group of flash.

Flash A and B have equal power.

Flash A has 4 more power than flash B

Flash A has twice the power of flash B

I used the 2-1 setup as the starting point for the edit.
Here are the major steps I applied.

• In Lightroom 5: Adjust the clarity
• In Lightroom 5: With a brush, increase the exposure slightly on the right hand
• In Photoshop CS6 : duplicate the layer and remove the spots and the unwanted details with the healing tool
• In Photoshop CS6 : with the magic wand on the face, selected the burnt areas and used the fill option with content aware set. Then I extended the selection with the feather option and applied a surface blur
• In Photoshop CS6 : Duplicated the layer and applied a surface blur. I then used a layer mask to have this only applied on the chest and changed the opacity to keep a bit of texture
• In Photoshop CS6 : I fixed the articulated split at the belly with another selection and content aware file
• In Photoshop CS6 : I fixed the wrist with taking a part of the arm, copying it, transforming it to cover the wrist and then merge and healing.
• In Photoshop CS6 : I cropped to get tighter to the subject.
• In Photoshop CS6 : Duplicated the layer and used multiply to darken the whole. Then used a mask to reveal the right arm, whip, chest and face.
• In Photoshop CS6 : Flipped the canvas horizontally as I preferred this direction.

Voila. Please let me know what you think of it and if you would have done anything differently.

By Sebastien Grobelny

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: You can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s blog.
• Say it is so: Pixar is rumored to be working on Star Wars on Gizmodo!
• Say it ain’t so: I put yesterday a feed on PhotoStealers and am saddened to see that they have post everyday to report blatant theft and usually poor answers/explanations from the “alleged” thief.
• Pop-Photoshop: Guess that by now you have seen already this video clip where the singer is retouched “live”
• Are you smarter than a 5th grader?: This video answers the question “Can Video Games make you smart?”
• Hobbitown: Beautiful timelapse from the gorgeous New Zealand. Like the poet said, I believe I can fly!

 

By Sebastien Grobelny

Liebster Award: My First Nomination!

Don’t think I have ever been nominated to anything before, so I’d like to thank Jenn from Overcoming the Odds a lot for this!

Here’s the rules for this awesome honor:

1. Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
2. Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
3. Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
4. Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
5. Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.

Here are the 10 questions from Jenn and my answers.

1. If one movie could describe your life – what is it? What are the elements of this movie that remind you of yourself? I don’t think that there is today a movie that would describe my life and if there was I’m pretty sure it would be a very ordinary movie. I wish it was a blend of Dance with the Wolves for the loner discovering the beauty of the unknown, Fight Club for the split between what I see and what happens and Blade Runner as I want to see myself as a “Badass”.
2. What are your biggest pet peeves and how do you react when faced with them? I have some issues with people that are never on time for meetings. It is a courtesy for everyone involved. If I’m faced with such people and am the leader I will adjust my starting time with their usual delay 😉
3. What is your favorite day of the year and why? What do you do on that day that makes it special? The 17th of October as it is my wife’s birthday. I’m very lucky to be with her and I try to make her day special by going to fancy restaurants, gifts and a written letter usually.
4. What is your biggest dream you are still striving for? I would love to spend more time with the wife and travel more. It may be cliche but with all the places we want to visit, it may be easier to take a sabbatical and a do trip around the world.
5. If you could travel back in time – what era would you want to live in or experience? Why? I always wonder with these questions if we retain our knowledge we have today. Can you imagine if you could travel to Middle Age with all your science? You may look like a warlock or witch because you know how to make a match or understand electricity or predict an eclipse. I would love the European Renaissance (if I was among the nobles) to meet the famous artists. If I had to pick one time, I may choose the Rush to the West and bring along some kevlar with me. I would love the idea to discover a land and make it mine.
6. Who is it that inspires you the most – famous, or close, anybody – and what is your message for them? Celine, my wife. I love you and owe you more than I will be able to repay you.
7. What would you do if you came face to face with a person you’ve always wanted to meet – living or passed? Who is that person and what would you say? I’m going to exclude dead people and fictional ones as there is 0% chance they will stumble upon that post and invite me to meet them. I’ve already met with Morgan Spurlock thanks to Lyly from Choup and Lyly and it was an incredible experience. I think I’d love to meet the Dalai Lama, ask him if I can take a portrait and the meaning of life.
8. Describe your motivations in blogging and how they have changed – if at all. Long ago I was blogging with Celine to keep a trace of our roadtrips around the USA. Nowadays I blog with photography in mind. I’d like my pictures to be seen (and why not sold) and some of interesting links to be seen by more people. I realized after 8 Long Exposures or so that I was basically only writing for myself, so I changed my posting and only post when I feel like.
9. Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert? What makes you so? I am an introvert and I don’t think anyone could tell you otherwise. I love empty landscapes, silence and could spend days at home with the wife and cats without anyone else.
10. What’s your favorite weather condition? I prefer cold to warm weather as I think it’s easier to adjust to cold. I like a little rain as it keeps me quiet and thinking but I prefer snow above all. I don’t like it when it snows as the snowflakes and wind don’t make for a good combination in NYC, but I do like when the white snow is there. It’s pure and peaceful but you know it won’t last.

Here are my 10 nominees, hoping that they have not been tagged already. I tried to use WordPress as much as I could. I just realized that most of the people I follow have way more than 200 followers so I will have to remove that condition unfortunately. I wanted to share what I read and people that were active. I do apologize for the ones I left out of this list. I hope I will be able to correct this in the future.

1. Celine Ruffino’s Blog : My lovely wife with her amazing pictures.
2. Greg Urbano : A photography blog that I discovered recently
3. Feet From Shore: Yael is a spanish photographer that lives on the West Coast. I really like her pictures and her texts are inspiring
4. Morgane Byloos Photography: Great pictures and a lot of challenges to participate to.
5. Dina’s City Wildlife: Lots of nature shots and birds.
6. NikitaVdV: Nikita shots often big cats and does great commercial work in my opinion. Wish her the best.
7. Jmn Artsy: I discovered Janina with Celine while running PhotoblogChallenges. She has usually strong point of views.
8. SFoxWriting’s blog: Steven is from London and very active on his blog. It can range from pictures to poems to articles to polls. I read it daily
9. Louise Fryer Photography: I love her moody shots.
10. I showed you: I started the list with my wife and I’m going to end it up with my dear friend Christine.

Here are the 10 questions I wish I could get an answer to.

1. Did you make any resolution for the new year? If so can you share some with us?
2. If your secret identity were to never be revealed, would you be a hero or a villain? Why? (bonus question what would be your Hero/Villain name?)
3. Are you close or distant to your family? Do you wish it was different?
4. What is your favorite time of the day? Why?
5. Coke or Pepsi?
6. Cats or Dogs?
7. What is your most cherished memory?
8. Do you wish upon a star? If yes what do you usually wish for?
9. What is the place in the world you’d like to go to (or back to)? Why?
10. What is the question you wish I had asked? How would you have answered it?

Hope you will answer back to this nomination!

By Sebastien Grobelny

Bane

Finally unpacked my great gifts I received for my birthday and Christmas. I had a lot of fun with my Bane action figure. I was just looking for something quick and see if I could make Bane somewhat menacing. Soon he should meet the Dark Knight!

By Sebastien Grobelny

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: PhotoblogChallenges is no more but you can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s new blog.
• Hopper:  Fascinating interview on PetaPixel with Richard Tuschman. I love the moody pieces and the really subtle use of dioramas.
• Bullet time: Adam Magyar explained how he achieved his mesmerizing work on PetaPixel. It made me think of bullet time and dollying in movies travelling
• “Have a beard, will travel” : That could be the tagline for Kolbie Kirk’s bearded timeline.
• 2014 : Quick timelapse to live or relive the crazyness of New Year’s eve in Time Square

 

By Sebastien Grobelny

The Dark Knight

The daily prompt of the day at The Daily Post is Heroic. I ask you, who is a better Hero than The Dark Knight?

For my birthday I received from Claire and Jerome a beautiful Catwoman and from the lovely wife, a Bane set. Can’t wait to “play” with it!

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: PhotoblogChallenges is no more but you can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s new blog.
• Small: with this video you will realize that we don’t account for much
• Skynet: Slightly unsettling this video shows a human player in the middle of a game fully created by a computer.
• Sick: The title of this video is “Does being cold make you sick?“. Nothing to add, except that Celine taught me this long time ago 😉
• Big Cats: Ever wondered what it was like to cuddle with lions? If so, quickly look at this post on PetaPixel
• Speaking of big cats: Here’s is the selection from @500px of the best 2013 cats pictures. Pixie from Celine should be here don’t you think?
• Commercial: In the same family, here are the best commercial work for 2013 according to 500px
• Copyright: A must read on Petapixel with a lot of drama around composites, stock photos and copyrights.
• Kyle Thompson: Can’t believe the creativity in these selfies by Kyle.

Bouncing cat tag from the NY High Line

By Sebastien Grobelny

Welcome 2014!

First and foremost, I wanted to wish you, dear reader, an Happy New Year. May your wish come true and your endeavors be successful. May you and your loved ones stay healthy.

Celine and I came back  in one piece from our long trip around France (3684km in 4 driving days). We are sick but very happy to have made the journey and discovered the families and the past of each other. We came back as one of the last flights before the snow storm shut down the airports. We scrambled a bit with the luggage: we came in with just one big suitcase slightly under 20kg but came back with close to 46kg due to all various gifts we got. Among the photography gifts in no particular order:

• Celine’s mother printed and framed 4 of our pictures. This one and this one from Celine and this one and this one from me. Thank you Adeline, can’t wait to hang these!
• For my birthday, Celine offered me the 1.4x extender. Can’t wait to try it!
• My father’s old equipment. The sound of the mechanics is astounding, I can’t wait to put a roll in it.
• Arts and photography books for all year long 😉

I wish the best to Celine for this new year and highly believe in her. I hope you will find your way love! I’m glad and proud of your choice of letting PhotoblogChallenges go and hope people will flock to your new site! I hope you will get more time to expand your photographic horizon and do stuff you love.

By Sebastien Grobelny