Practicing Photoshop #2

Photoshop is one of the most important program/tool in fashion photography.
Even that the model, clothes, location, light etc . . . is perfect we still do photoshop, and since I started to work with people who are looking for unnatural results (by unnatural I mean, different colour than the actual image) I started experimenting in photoshop.

Here is one of the photographs I worked on, in photoshop. I hope its better than the last one . . . This has taken me two hours or so.

I know my colour manipulation skills are incredibly bad, but as my father once told me "practice makes perfect" and I hope to reach there soon. . .

Exposure: f5.6 at 1/25sec ISO 200

Team:
Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
2nd Photographer: Erhan Ozturk
Stylist: Anastasia Taneeva
Model: Bodo
Editing - Retouching: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)

Current Project

Sorry guys it has been some time that I haven't write anything. (as if anyone checks my blog weekly)

The reason for that was I am currently working on my dissertation and Final Major Project and on top of that I am soon opening my own Photography Studio in London, I'll give the studio details when it is open.

Lets get to my current project which is called Final Major Project, but I've renamed it to "The Other Self"
I'll be focusing on triptych photography in this project and aiming on demonstrating the multiple personality disorder and the metamorphosis of the individuals personality.
So far I've done some tests and I've written the methodology of the project and as soon as stylist and makeup artists present me their ideas I'll start the production of the project.

Here is a sneak-peak of what the Makeup artist Laura Kate Rzemieniecka has in mind for one of the character in the project.

Isn't that drawing amazing?

In a month I'll start shooting.

Update below.
Ps: I forgot to mention I'll be shooting this project with 4x5 Large Format and use Kodak Portra.

Practicing Photoshop #1

Photoshop is one of the most important program/tool in fashion photography.
Even that the model, clothes, location, light etc . . . is perfect we still do photoshop, and since I started to work with people who are looking for unnatural results (by un natural I mean, different colour than the actual image) I started experimenting in photoshop.

Here is one of the photographs I worked on, in photoshop. I made roughly 7 of them and only this didn't give me cancer while I was looking at it. As they say 7th is the charm ???

I know my colour manipulation skills are incredibly bad, but as my father once told me "practice makes perfect" and I hope to reach there soon. . .

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
Stylist: Klementine King
Makeup and Hair: Alice Howlett
Model: Claudia D.

D800 vs 5D MkIII (Crisislab)

So I posted the first part of this review months ago.
Now that I've seen all 2 parts, I just wanted to make a full post.
This guy is hilarious and he is testing + comparing both the cameras in a way I like. In my opinion more people in youtube should test, review, or compare products like this.
Anyways comparing crisislab comparison videos to other youtubers who are doing similar suff, all I will say is Crisislab videos are better and they know what they are doing.

Check out the videos on their website, they are funny and informative.
Here is a link to their website.  http://www.crisislab.com/

Shoot me like "Terry" - 5

After I helped my friend and colleague Olgac with Lighting, I snapped a photo of the lovely Model Madalina.

Also I noticed that some people are telling my my current style is moving towards the i-d magazine.

Camera: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm 

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
Stylist: Marina de Magalhaes
Makeup Artist: Violet Zeng
Model: Madalina @Premier

Sinar 4x5 LargeFormat

Ever thought there is more in to photography then 35mm . . . Nikon Canon Digital cameras & Mamiya Hasselbald Medium Format cameras? 

Well I had my first Large Format experience last year, that day I sad to my self "This is awesome" but since I was in tight schedule I could not shoot my projects on Large Format.

Last week in my University we had a Large format workshop, although the work shop was all about Large format and shooing film in colour and B&W, we didn't use any traditional film. Instead of the Film we loaded up the cameras with 5x4 photographic paper and expose our images to that.

Since we were only 3 students who actually attended the class out of 35 students( Which should have been divided to 3 groups) we had one whole day workshop (3 students and 5 Large format cameras) which was really fun.

I've shot on photographic paper in Large format, thus it was a interesting thing to test on for me.

I found out that, shooting directly to photographic paper was resulting in really Contrasty black and white photos where we lose a lot of detail from blacks and grey tones, so my Tutor suggested that I should test on pre-exposing the paper in darkroom by using a projector.

 Here are the results  . . .
Note: Since to ASA of the photographic paper is extremely low like ASA3 i had to expose both the photographs about 4 seconds.

(This one above is Photographic paper with out pre-exposing)

(This one above is pre-exposed photographic paper)

Models.com

I am proud.

Roughly a week ago my friend Olag contacted me to about a shoot we have done. During the shoot I've snapped a photo of the model with *Shoot me like "Terry"* style to document it.

After I edited the photo, I sent it to her as a sign of appreciation and wished her best in her career.
2 and a half month later she appeared in Models.com with my photo in her portfolio.

Here is the link below.

http://models.com/newfaces/dailyduo/23657

Here is the photo.

What I find most interesting is that, even that this is the very same photo that I've sent her (well in bit bigger size than this) the photo which was uploaded in the website (models.com) do not show the same colours, so we can see the the different colour profiles different websites.

This is another reason why I dont like online portfolios, because you are limited with in the colour profile of the website and also the colour settings of the person viewing the photograph.

Also my congratulations to Maria D.

Holidays in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 GO

In 5 hours or so, I'll be on my way to Istanbul. There I'll re-apply for visa and while waiting for visa I'll go to the coast and sail the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea. 

During this time I'll not be able to write on this blog. So if you are a frequent (I doubt any one actually reads anything here) this is my notice  to you :D. 

However I'll be doing lots of Free Diving and Scuba Diving and this time I am taking my GoPro Hero2 camera with me to show what I see when I dive. 

Here is a pic of me swimming in open sea. 

Shoot me like "Terry" - 4

So the main idea of Shoot me like "Terry" themed photos are to show the models personality and their own poses when they are not art directed. All I tell to model is "Be your self" and "do what ever you want"

Here is the 4th part of shoot me like "Terry".
If I keep shooting at this rate (snap a photo of the model I'm shooting or doing the light for) by the end of 2013 I'll have enough photos to make a little book.

After I help my friend and colleague Olgac with lighting, I snapped some photos of the lovely model Claudia.

1st Photo being She was being serious.

2nd Photo I told her to relax and be her self. 

Camera: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
Stylist: "Coming soon"
Makeup and Hair: Alice Howlett
Model: Claudia D.

Upgrading to Nikon D800

The Camera that I'll be getting soon.

I've been using my D700 for 2 years now and I know that this is not a very long time (in my opinion). Why? because I checked the Shutter count on my camera to see how much I used it, and so far in last 2 years I've only shot roughly 30.000 photos.

30.000 photos . . . I believe it is not a big number for 2 year time of shooting.
What have I done with my D700 so far? Well I only shoot Fashion and academic work with it, I haven't shoot any family, friends, travel, CATS, DOGS etc . . .
I believe if the D700 would meet my satisfaction I'd not be chancing it, and I know for sure that I'd be using the D700 more often if it satisfied my needs, but when ever I had to print HUGE images I shot in Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with Kodak Portra 160ASA of course.

Why Upgrade to D800?


1. For More Megapixels and Resolution

Why? If I was only shooting family, travel, Cat, Dog, babies, travel and all the other boring stuff or if my clients would print small size photos like 10"x8" then I'd stick with D700, but The fact is I only shoot fashion and fashion related stuff also the smallest size I print is 13" x 19". I know D700 can print 13"x19" if I Resize the photo, however the original file size from the camera with out resizing the photo is 9"x14" This can be enlarged easily 4 times greater than the original size how ever if I crop the image it becomes a hassle to enlarge. D800 on the other has the original file in 24.8"x16.5" with out enlarging on Photoshop, this gets the cropping and resizing way easier than it was.

2. For Video Function

Yes . . . Video you heard it right. With moving image taking an important role in fashion industry, having a Full Frame (35mm) DSLR which can record 1080p or 720p video and use different lenses is going to be a really big Plus to me, not to mention with the Dual card slots I can record video on SD card and Stills to Compact Flash Card.

3. ISO 

To start with I am not an ISO freak and I never shoot at low light, I know flash photography really well, and with flashes and a tripod I can get the combination of flash and ambient light easily. So I don't need high ISO at all. D700 could only go to ISO 200 and D800 can go ISO 100 that is 1 stop difference, which can help me on DoF. (how it can help me with DoF? simple if the flash meter is telling me that I am getting 1/125sec at f8 with 200ISO I'll get f5.6 at 100 ISO)

4. Performance on Portrait 

I am not a Camera geek, but I want accuracy in colours on the photos. And the tests that DxOmark shows that D800's sensor is the 3rd best so far, and first 2 places are Phase One digitalbacks for medium format cameras. Not to mention my Teacher at Perry Curties (fashion photographer and cofounder of 125mag) is a Phase One user who got him self a D800 and mention to me that D800 is a great camera. I know that Perry doesn't like 35mm that much but if he said it is a great camera there must be something great about it.


5. Price

For an amazing camera it has an amazing great price, in UKit sells something between 2500 to 2600 pound, a great deal if you ask me. Not to mention in USA it will be cheaper than it is on UK.


What I am not looking at?


1. Frame rate

I really don't care about frame rate, in fact even 2 frames per second is fast enough for me. All I shoot is fashion and when I say fashion I am excluding catwalk (that is event). Since I "create the moment" not catch and capture it I am not looking for a camera that can take a movie with stills.

2. High Bloody ISO

I really Really REALLY don't care if my camera can go to ISO 1324834543906045692. I know the highest I'll go is 1600ISO and I'll only do that to capture behind the scenes on fashion shoot, even for must behind the scenes I use a SB600 + small softbox.

3. File Size 

I really don't understand why People are crying about their file size, they are like" OH my D800 files are so huge I can only take 150 photos and my memory card is maxed out" seriously, I can only take 10 photos with my Mamiya RZ67 Anyways most of the time The camera will be tethered and when it is not I'm not a Trigger happy photographer 150 photos are enough for me to get one fashion shoot done. Also don't forget the 20 years ago sports, fashion, wedding, event, concert, and every thing was shot on film, and I bet they didn't need to shoot 2000 images to get 20 good usable photos.


Well this is most of the reasons
I'll add more if I remember something that I didn't mention.

Shoot me like "Terry" - 3

Here is the 3rd part of shoot me like "Terry".

After I help my friend and colleague Olgac with lighting, I snapped some photos of the lovely model Maria.

A stand alone Portrait. 

Great face and eyes and those cheekbones are incredible. 

Looking back at Last year

I've  been looking at my old work, which I've shoot last year.

I found a pic of Ariana, she it now Working with Oxygen Models I decided to re-edit the photo. Out of boredom and Just for the practice reasons. 

Camera:Nikon D700 + 70-200mm VRII

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
Stylist: Anastasia Taneeva
Makeup: Rempi
Model: Ariana

Lighting Info: (I don't usually share this) 
2 Kinoflo almost infront of her and 1 Honeycomb flash from behind as seen.
Combination of Continues and Strobe light.

By the way when I said Ariana now working with Oxygen Models I mean she wasn't working with them back in the time when I photographed her. This became some what a issue couple of month ago when my friend sent a PDF of my work to them and asking for a "New Face" model. They were keep telling her that Ariana was Oxygen Model which wan't mentioned in PDF, but Logically speaking she wasn't a Oxygen model dunting the time I was working with her. 

Behind the Scenes - Expressions Project

Here are some photos that I snapped while I was shooting the 5 week long expression project. 

Gina Harrison looking at me and my ancient Minolta X700. I was saying Who needs insagram when you have Analog Camera, Processing/Dark Room + Skills . . . and a film scanner which is not calibrated or something because the film comes out all fase color. 

One of my favorite Makeup artist & Friend Laura Kate Rzemienicka. Putting makeup to her self to test or we are going to Hyde Park to suntan ?

Alice Bizarre, All confident with her work. . . She says "Trust me I am Alice Bizarre" In Alice We Trust. 

Laura Kate Photoshopping, I believe if you watch some one do photoshop for 11 hours you can pickup a thing or two. Here is the proof :)

Angry Strobist is Angry . . .

Weeks ago I found a blog that Copies photos form Flickr group page and then posts them on a blog named StobistPlus.

When I saw that I asked in the Stobist discussion board, is it real or fake or how many strobist blogs are there?
The Post got the attention of some people and the manin guy Strobist (David Hobby).

I took screen shots of my post and his reply.

Wow if I could hear sound of his post I'd say the post is loud and angry. 

In my opinion David has the right to be angry about this blog, imagine that you do something great, build a internet community about photography and off camera flash then one guy comes and not only copies the idea but also thousands of posts and photos. 

Almost everything in internet can be copied, downloaded, or duplicated so my advice to you (to the readers if you exist or read) don't upload print size images and commercial work every where online. 

Shoot me Like "Terry" - 2

Something new that I've started. Spoke like Yoda I have . . . 

Camera: Nikon D700 + 24-70

After many people asked me to shoot them like "Terry" I come up with an idea . . . to shoot them like terry DUH . . ..
Well now when ever I am shooting, assisting, or some how included in a production of fashion shoot or fashion film I'll ask the model if I can shoot her like the way I want which is out of the topic.
In here my Friend and colleague Olgac Bozalp asked me to do lighting for his shoot and then I snapped this with my own light little setup. (1x SB900 + small softbox)

I asked the lovely model Jude to be her self infront of the camera and go crazy if she wants to, I didn't want to direct her in to a pose she might not like I just wanted to photograph the clear beauty.

The shoot me like "Terry" concepts are only for blog and documentary reasons. (maybe more in future, who knows what the future holds huh?)


Photographer: Bruce (Me)
Stylist: Marilia Chamon
Hair & Makeup artist: Cuneyt Ozketen
Model: Jude

Dior ADDICT

In my opinion selling fragrance over images or moving image isn't easy job. Why isn't that easy, well how can one sell a smell with out making the audience smelling it?

So what they aim in here is to sell the life style of the subject/girl presented in the Ad. 

Let's look closer to the moving image/"video" . . . 

Count of characters and how many of them are make and how many of them are female ? 

-Well there is only one female character who appears to be the main character and many male characters.

Does the main character uses the product presented in the ad? 

Yes she uses the product. 

If yes what changes happen once she uses the product? 

The form and speed of entire video changes, putting her in the centre of the attention of all men. Suddenly it is like the world turns around her, and she is who she is, young, beautiful, flirty and  bit rebellious girl. 

Is she going after one men? or flirting with only one men? No All she does is spays the parfume and dances her way in to a bar/cafe and changes music, shows a bit of her ASS while dancing and all the men are dancing with her. 

Long story short, Dior aims to sell the life of this beautiful model, a life with out any sadness/problems, a life with  lots of attention of men, a life that you are the center of it. 

Of course this add doesn't make you go out and buy the product right after watching but it makes the audience curious. Curious of how this fragrance smell because boys want her and girls want to be her well (not everyone because this ad targets certain audience in age and class/lifestyle) 

Ps. I love the part where she has a cat on hear head, nice use of kitty meme. (this also shows that the audience of this ad is younger generations 16-26 maybe?)

Style Hunting - Hat, Shades, Bag, Shoes

Yep you heard it right STYLE HUNTING is back in the menu. 
It has been so long I haven't get out there and look for stylish people.
When I saw this gentlemen I wasn't planning to find stylish people and photographing them but who cares about planning about style hunting it just happens and you spot some one and say thats it he/she is the one.
All I had with me was Minolta X-700 + 50mm 1.7 attached to it with Fuji C-200 film loaded, I said "hhmm this should do . . . Now should I ask him to take his photo or snap it from the angle I like and run like a Gorilla?" and I snapped from the angle I like then looked around me  and see people staring at me and then I stared back at them.

YES the film is POORLY SCANNED what do you expect from my holiday film scanner (made for travelling) 

I like that he is actually wearing something different than blue, gray, and black because here in London the weather is so boring it make the peoples cloths boring, it might look like that day was nice but in fact it rained 1 hour after I took that photo. 

SnapFocus

Kickstarter Project to Revolutionize Filmmaking from MidasMount on Vimeo.


Wow this thing looks useful but look at it, that thing looks like a transformer.
One thing for sure that it will make all the other products for focusing look like a toy.

With this product I think we will see lots of cinematic YouTube videos.

Shoot me like "Terry"

Going Bonkers

After Full day of beauty shoot we (makeup artist, model and I) decided to Drink and Smoke Sisha, During that time I had a Camera and a Flash + Small softbox.
Model asked me to take photos like "Terry" I sad OK but I lit it different way and yet get similar photos. This is the outcome . . .

Influence: Alcohol + FreeTime + Youth 

Totally random art-direction, in this diptych we didn't think of any story, influence, inspiration, or anything else but yet one can always look up on the photographs and make up a story.

Camera: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70

Photographer: Bruce (Me)

Makeup artist: Laura Kate Rzemienicka
Model: Dasha

SB900 Vs. SB910 - Which one is better for me

Before I write anything I'd like to state that I will not compare these 2 flashes on which one overheats faster than the other. If you want to see that just write SB900 Vs SB910 on youtube, tons videos should come up about that. 

This is a long post if you are interested please click on "read more" below.

Wild American Eagle Models

I could not stop laughing when I watched this video. 

Takes the wildlife and fashion photography to another level. 

If Angels CRY

Fashion Photography Beauty Test Shoot

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
Makeup Artist: Laura Kate Rzemieniecka
Model: Stephanie
Assistant: Anup K Pandey

Camera: Mamiya RZ67 ProII + 127mm 

Film: Kodak Portra 160 ISO 

This photo was taken with Mamiya RZ67 ProII to compare with the digital for testing the differences/similarities.

Fashion and Memes ? ? ?

Can such things like Memes change or influence Fashion OR can Fashion influence memes ?


Lets start with Nick Knight

As we all know that Nick Knight did a photoshoot for Instagram.
Well for those who don't know what is Instagram well I can say one thing, you are lucky. Its basically this hipster photo program for Iphone the ultimate hipster phone. The photoshoot was influenced over the internet Memes thus the instagram was a perfect tool for this shoot.
And here are some of the photos he took.

This Post is long so if you are interested click to see the rest on the link below

Film in Fashion Photography - Mamiya RZ67

As you all know I am a student (For now), and with the student budget I can't afford to buy my dream camera PhaseOne 645 IQ180.
Because I don't have the medium format + Digital back camera that doesn't mean I can't have a Medium format camera.
Old cameras now are a lot cheeper than they were back in their time thats why couple of months ago I bought my very own Mamiya RZ67 ProII.

However as I mentioned before digital is only very recent development in Photography.
Digital photography used in fashion photography since early 2000's
1990's were mostly Film and before that was Film and Film alone.

If you look at todays results and comparison in film and digital one can easily see Film can still easily compete with Digital.

However there are some drawbacks in film that makes the current Commercial/Fashion photographers go for digital and the biggest one of that is Film Slows the Workflow. 
There are still some really good photographers like Annie Leibovitz, Patrick Demarchelier, Ara Guler, Bill Cunningham and many more using film.

I am not going to sit and write about which one is better which one is the best. As a person who shoots film and digital I can say that I like them both and I'll use both of them as long as I can.

Since I shoot film in fashion as well as digital, I'd like to share what I go through while I am shooting film. 

Some people might know I am sometimes greedy on certain things when I know the real cost and thats the reason I don't give my negatives to develop to developing/processing Labs.
I process and scan the negatives my self and sometimes I find that faster since I use dip and dunk tanks to process negatives (dip and dunk tanks can take 9 medium format or 12 35mm film in one go).

However here is what happens when I shoot film.

Shoot  Day > Process negatives > Dry Negatives > Cut Negatives > File + Label > Scan > Photoshop > Print

And here is what happens when I shoot Digital. 

Shoot day (tethered  camera to laptop) > Photoshop > Print

But seing the result of the film makes you appreciate that you shot film. 

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)

Makeup artist: Alice Bizarre

Model: Gina Harrison

Camera: Mamiya RZ67P ProII + Mamiya Sekor Z 127mm 

Film: New Kodak Portra 160 

Scanned with Hasselbald Flextight 1 scanner 

Pink

Fashion Photography - Beauty Shoot - Pink 

Camera: Nikon D700 + 24-70mm 

Photographer: Bruce (ME)
Hair & Makeup: Alice Bizarre
Model: Gina

BEHIND THE MAKEUP

Behind every great Makeup there is a great Makeup artist. 

Watch on 720p or 1080p on youtube

OR enjoy on Vimeo

Video Shot on Nikon D7000

Not bad for a camera which doesn't even have sync  socket. 

Frustrated (test)

Fashion Photography - Beauty shoot
Here is a photo that I'll be printing large soon (7hours from this post time)

Camera: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
Hair and Makeup: Alice Bizarre
Model: Dasha

Killer RED

Fashion photography - Test Beauty shoot 

Brace your self beauty shoots are coming. 

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: Nikkor 70-200 VR II 

Photographer: Bugra ERGIL (Bruce)
Makeup artist: Laura Kate Rzemienicka
Model: Ekaterina
Assistant: Anup K Pandey

On this photo I'll actually explain it how I lit it.

2 strobes (SB900 units)
1 softbox - Key light Above her (light meter reading is f11)
1 octobox - Fill light infront of her looking from up to down 45° (light meter reading is f8)
+ silver reflector on her lap

Chimping - Is photojournalism dying ?

Will the photojournalism become uncommon like blacksmith or chimney sweeps? 

This video should be viewed by any PHOTOGRAPHER (Fashion photographer, photojournalist, commercial photographer, wedding photographer, sports, event, entusiast  etc. . . )

Out of every photographer, the ones that I respect the most are photojournalists, not the photojournalists that work for the tabloids which I mean by celebrity and stupid news stuff such as "monkey running from zoo and driving a car" to take the front page or "some celebrity drinking and driving" but those photojournalist that take the photos of war, those journalist that show the world how much people suffering.

In my opinion that is one of the professions that should not change. Other people taking photographs for news are fine for me but those actual photojournalists has to be there because they are willing to push the limits to get the photographs.

Fashion Photography - Beauty Shoot

Snak peek of my current project. 

Photographer: Bugra Ergil (Bruce)
Makeup artist: Laura Kate Rzemienicka
Model: Stephanie
Assistant: Anup K Pandey

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: Nikkor 70-200 VR II

Here is a Photo, of the project I always Wanted to do.
Out of every type of photography beauty photography is my favorite, then comes Diptych and after that is the editorial.

There are four more shoots scheduled ahead that means four different models and 8 different looks.