Jeff's Page

A couple months ago I attended a screening of "Repo! the Genetic Opera" with my wife and a couple friends.
If you haven't seen this strange, wonderful rock opera.. Do yourself a favor and pick it up on DVD or Bluray.
Anywho.. after the movie, there was a Q & A session with the Director, one of the writers/actors and the lead actress - Alexa Vega..
I had my Camera and my Sigma 70-300 and got quite a few decent shots of all involved and posted them to my Flickr account a day or two later.
Yest… Continue

So as I learn more and more about my retouching, I try to share with everyone my techniques.
I've been working pretty hard at improving the eyes in my portrait and fashion work, as they are usually my focal point in the shot. I've tried a lot of different formulas, but think I have one now that works rather well...
First I mask the iris and duplicate on to a seperare layer..
From there I create 2 more copies and label all three as follows...
1 - eye color adjust
2 - eye screen layer
3 - eye High… Continue

Ok, some of you may already know this.. But I just found it out and find it facinating!!
If you are shooting a shallow DOF, the background will generally blur giving you what is referred to as a "bokeh" effect.
Any bright areas or lights show up in the blur as the same shape as your aperture, which is most cases is round.
If you cut a custom shape into black construction paper no bigger than (1cm) and center it on your lense, all of your bokeh highlights will come out custom shaped!! You have to… Continue

I attended a SnapMup event last night, just to check it out and see what it was all about.
For those that don't know, check out www.snapmup.ning.com for details. It's basically a local event organized by a community of models and photographers where you can network and make new contacts. They set up shooting spaces and provide lighting and some wireless strobes and such for anyone that wants to take advantage. The whole thing is free to attend, but they do accept donations to try and keep the pr… Continue

Ok, so I have recently discovered High Dynamic Range photography and I am hooked! I was perusing around Flickr and looking at the most fantastic images I have ever seen and wondering "how the hell are they doing this??". i kept stumbling across comments and references to HDR and had no clue what it meant. So finally I started digging around google and found this tutorial...
http://stuckincustoms.com/2008/01/30/updated-hdr-tutorial-for-2008/
well I was a little overwhelmed at first, but dying to… Continue

I recently bought an Argus Bean 5.0 Megapixel point and shoot camera at microcenter, but it can be found for under $50 at the local Best Buy. We were going river rafting and I obviously didn't want to risk my DSLR on the water, so I grabbed this little wonder because it is compact and water resistant with a rubber housing. I really didn't expect much from this little bugger when I bought it, just figured I would get some basic shots chronicalling our river trip. I have to say the results, while… Continue

I caught what I think is a pretty good deal on a new zoom lense. It's a Sigma Zoom 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro AF lense.
I looked around and checked out prices and reviews from a bunch of sites. Seems everyone that bought it had soe pretty good things to say about it so I went ahead and took the plunge. This is my first add on puchase, so I'm pretty excited and can't wait to play with the new lense. Hope I get it by the weekend!!

It's was my fiance's b-day on Wed and we are going down to Old Bridge NJ to celebrate on Saturday at a club called "The Breakfast Club". The place is an 80's and 90's retro club complete with a Delorean parked on the dance floor.
I'm charging the camera up and getting ready to take a ton of photos, both @ the club and in and around the town we are staying in.
Wish me luck, and I'll post any decent shots that come from this weekend here when I get back