The Brooklyn Juggler and Batman at Fete Paradiso

If you remember well, we already saw that Bane was at the Fete Paradiso and wanted candy, but did you know that Batman was there the same day? He rudely interrupted Kyle Petersen aka The Brooklyn Juggler. My guess is that he thought that the Juggler was another villain from the Riddler family.

By Sebastien Grobelny

Bane Wants Candy

I’m looking to do more composites in the future and I thought that the below picture was an interesting starting point as there is some kind of an empty space on the right side.

I wondered who she could face and thought that Bane was a good opposite.

Here’s the Bane I used for the composite.

Here’s the final result.

I think Bane could have been bigger but I think it could have made him less human. My main goal today was to do a quick selection and integration and I learned some actions I will most likely reuse. After all my last “composite” was this one. My biggest issue though was the difference of focus (she’s softer than he his) but I didn’t manage to find an easy solution. I guess that the best is to plan for the composite in advance.

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

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

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!

Photoblog Challenges : Results #11

This week on Photoblogchallenges, the winners are Spectrum for Best of 43 (14 Oct – 20 Oct), Rue Du Lavoir for Theme 43 : Begins with “H” and Twiggy for Technique 21 : Free Lensing. Congratulations!

Celine and I are permanent guest judges and since the middle of the year we switched the roles a little. She has to pick one favorite from the winning pictures and I have to pick several “non-winners”.

Each week I will try to shed some light on some of my choices.

• For Best of 43 (14 Oct – 20 Oct): I loved the expression in Spectrum‘s and Deja‘s pictures and am glad they are among the winners. I picked Fotochuk for a powerful black and white, Pictografio for a great moody shot with a nice contrast and Xerraire for a delicate shot of a beautiful bird.

• For Theme 43 – Begins with “H”: I love Batman and am really happy to see he’s the greatest hero and the winner of this challenge. I liked the Heron from Tede, the Hogweed from Ellebelle, the Hare from Day One but I settled in the end for the Hawk of Joel Schilling

• For Technique 21 – Free Lensing: If have a soft spot for heroes and action figures among others. That’s why I naturally picked up the action figure from Shaker.

My pick of the week is Joel Schilling for is sharp view of the hawk for Theme 43 – Begins with “H”. I love a good bird picture!

By Sebastien Grobelny