It has been a personal project inspired by two of my most idolised photographers, Chase Jarvis and Zack Arias. Chase and Zack have always been advocates for setting yourself personal projects to help develop your creative skills and to extend your portfolio. Chase is also a great believer in sharing your knowledge. This prompted me to create my BTS video which after just over 1 year has been viewed over  21,000 times and I really have to thank one of my favorite bloggers Udi Tirosh who featured the video on his blog diyphotography.net. His website is a great inspiration to make the most of your gear and budget.

Seamless White Background @ Home Tutorial from Scott Bourke on Vimeo.

I have had loads of emails asking for more BTS from the series. So I have decided to put together a timelapse video from my rugby shot. I’m really getting into the timelapse stuff of late.

So thanks to everyone that lent me gear or gave my words of encouragement. Whilst it is my first ever body of work I still plan on adding to it over time so stay tuned for plenty more shots, who knows ping-pong may be on its way.

To finish off here are a few of my recent setup shots you guys seem to crave.

After putting my skateboard shot off for long enough due to the fact I had no idea how to execute my idea, I finally gave it a crack and it came out better than expected. I think this could be one of my best ever Self Sportraits.

After the success of my Tennis Sportrait int he stairwell I decided to give it another go with a few modifications for my AFL shot. These setups take much longer to position the camera angle and lights and even more time to get an image I’m happy with. The shadow has been dropped-in in post.

After a few months of approval and editing the November issues has a BTS of my Golf Self Sportrait from back on Day 40 of the 365 Project.

It was an amazing feeling to see one of my proudest images featured like this. Then amazingly a few weeks later I was approached by a British Graphic Designer(Warm & Fuzzy) who wanted to use one of my images captured on our European trip earlier this year in a tourist brochure. The shot was a subtle HDR landscape I had taken in Wexford Town, Ireland. The colours of the buildings with the contrast of the sky was amazing. As soon as I composed the shot I knew it would be a winner.

It has been a chaotic 2 months but if your a regular here you will notice I have given the site a major overhaul, and hopefully the site displays my images and articles clearer. There are also a few other changes and announcements in the next month so stay tuned.

]]> http://www.thephotojourney.com/2010/11/30/im-published-x-2/feed/ 6 http://www.thephotojourney.com/2010/04/01/happy-easter/ http://www.thephotojourney.com/2010/04/01/happy-easter/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:04:17 +0000 Scott http://www.thephotojourney.com/?p=873 Easter has arrived once again and I have seen some great shots over on flickr marking the occasion. I have been trying to think of the perfect Easter themed strobist shot when I noticed the Easter Raffle being held at my work. It was a massive basket full of chocolate. I had an idea for a shot but I had to win the basket first. So I bought my 3 tickets and on the day of the draw told everyone to come along to morning tea and see me win. I was rather cocky about it all. Sure enough the winning ticket was mine. I double fisted the sky like an F1 driver who had just won the championship. Just goes to show that as long as you believe in something enough you can make it happen.

So I went about drawing up my idea that had developing in my head over the previous week. I wanted to do a not so pleasant family shot. More of a chocolate lover treating the basket like Gollum and his precious ring. It would need some harsh lighting on my face and a deep red gel behind on a wall giving some separation and mood. As you can see in the setup shot below it deviated a little from my initial sketch.

I used my reflective umbrella with a Cactus KF36 @ 1/16 but pointed up so that just feathered light fromthe edges of the umbrella would fall in the basket. Then I positioned a Cactus KF36 with a red gel @ 1/4 on a seat behind the basket. I would straddle this seat for the final shot. After a few test shots things were looking good. I was time to introduce another KF36 @ 1/2 power with my short snooted grid positioned directly above the camera and pointed towards my face. It was secured with a Nasty Clamp which took a few attempts to get positioned correctly as the gridded snoot gives a very narrow light beam. Any wider and it would have ruined my red gel from behind.

So other than the lighting I melted 2 small eggs in a cup and went about pouring it on my face and napkin. Then drank the rest and quickly went about bursting off 30 or so shots before the chocolate had set on my face. I had hidden my remote shutter release behind the basket and set a 2 sec timer. Camera was set at f20 for a dark environment and shutter speed on 200th of a sec for syncing with my remotes. ISO was at 400.

Post Processing was rather light on. I boosted the contrast with a basic curves adjustment and added a little more darkening to the edges of the frame. Little bit of dodging and burning to the chocolates.

Anna wasn’t so keen on the final image, actually she had seen all 30 shots and was disturbed by my eyes in each of them She said I looked like Gollum or a Zombie which was exactly the look I was going for so I guess its a winner.

]]> http://www.thephotojourney.com/2010/04/01/happy-easter/feed/ 0 http://www.thephotojourney.com/2010/02/26/jedi-lightsaber-video-tutorial/ http://www.thephotojourney.com/2010/02/26/jedi-lightsaber-video-tutorial/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:55:02 +0000 Scott http://www.thephotojourney.com/?p=836 I have been getting lots of comments on my recent Star Wars Strobist Themed week about how I do my lightsabers. So today I want to share with you my technique.

Its been a great week. I recommend setting a weekly theme every now and then as it really makes the weeks shots so much more enjoyable and you can sort of plan ahead.

I hope to do more tutorial like this in the future to supplement my Project 365. Please leave me a comment about the video and drop me a line with any links to images you make using this tutorial. I’d love to see the results.

I setup my garage with my multipurpose ladder draped in Christmas lights and I clamped on a black sheet to hide the lights reflection on the garage door.

I tried my 50mm f1.8 lens but found it didn’t give me enough sharp focus on my face and still blow out the back Christmas lights. So I tried my 17-85mm, but wide angle lenses don’t work well at all with the bokeh hood. It just makes a star biscuit cutter shape on all the images. So out came my 70-200mm f2.8. This lens being a telephoto allows me to easily throw out focus on background highlights.

Once I got some decent bokeh results with this lens it was time to introduce my reflective umbrella slightly closed up to light up my face. I chose the reflective umbrella so I had more control over the lights direction. I didn’t want  light spilling onto my backdrop. I used my new Cactus KF36 @ 1/16th power. triggered by Cactus V2s remotes.

My brother came over for dinner so I asked him something I never expected to ever ask him “Can you punch me in the head please?” He happily lent a hand or is that a fist. It took us a couple of timer shots but it worked out relatively well.

As far as post processing goes all edits were made in Photoshop CS4. I applied sharpening and contrast boosts. And after following a video on creating blood I added bruising marks to my eye and nose. Here is a link to that video.

Now I will be working on my mostly black brief and cardboard cutout glasses portrait shot. I will be certain to blog about all of the briefs so please stay tuned. I’d love to hear what you think of my entries.

I’m also a massive fan of Zack Arias. Zack is very much all about pushing yourself and making sure you enjoy doing what we do. What better may to make homage to his ideals then to make the photo project a white background shoot. Zack has some amazing seamless white shots on his site and has even got a tutorial on how to setup yourself with one. Something I will do one day.

So I had the inspiration and hell I love football or soccer as some people call it and the European season kicked off this weekend and the Australian league kicked off last week. I asked myself what will this season hold? There it was, my project theme.

I own a fair collection of football jerseys so it was time to play football superstar dress ups. The above shot was my way of pondering what this season will hold? As you can see in the setup image I shot everything with just 1 Canon 430ex flash at full power positioned behind me aimed at my white wall in the garage. As I have a white roof and opposite wall the light bounces all around the garage like a massive light tent. There is my fill light and everything.

Its a similar setup in my garage like the Mountain Bike shoot last month that actually won me an international photo comp over at DIYPhotography.net.

So I wanted to capture the types of emotions and moments the season will hold. I needed to show winners, losers, and flair or style. I may do another shoot capturing things like religation/promotion battles at the end of the season.

Many of you may disagree with my teams but hey that’s why its a question, What will the season hold?

]]> http://www.thephotojourney.com/2009/08/17/photo-project-what-will-the-season-hold/feed/ 3 http://www.thephotojourney.com/2009/07/17/viva-le-tour-diyphotography-net/ http://www.thephotojourney.com/2009/07/17/viva-le-tour-diyphotography-net/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:57:18 +0000 Scott http://www.thephotojourney.com/?p=472 Well one of my favorite blogs DIYPhotography.net has just launched a competition series about setting yourself up a cheap but professional studio at home. DIYPhotography.net has been bringing interesting projects to us hacks for years now and Udi has decided its time for us to make a background and take a photo that will remind us the photographer of the things we love.

Its been a month of late nights for me watching the Tour De France. So I wanted to pay tribute to the great race. Bike in the pictures is actually my brothers GT single speed that we are looking after currently. Its not a light bike I would like to add.

Canon 40D,17-85mm, ISO 800, 17mm, f5, 1/200th

For the above shot I basically used my garage as a massive light tent. Its actually much easier then it at first looks.

After a nice new coat of white paint to the brick wall we were ready to go. The wall will now allow me to make it a brillient white or what ever colour I gel my flash for.

To get the whole wall and roof illuminated I setup my Canon 430ex and set it to full power for the bike shots, and 1/4 power for my profile shots. I had it resting about 2 foot up on my esky as i don’t yet have a light stand let alone an umbrella. (Its my birthday in like 5 days so that will be rectified soon).

Attached was my DIY Yogurt Diffuser. I went for this as it will spread the light in all directions like a gary fong. However this mod is alot cheaper and tastes better too. If I had just used the flash without the mod only the back wall would get a proper covering of light. Flash was fired with my Cactus remotes. All shots were on a 10sec timer. Trust me 10 seconds flys when you are trying to pop-a-mono.

The below shot was the portrait version of the leading photo on this post. Not sure which one I like the most.

Canon 40D,17-85mm, ISO 800, 17mm, f5, 1/200th

Below are 2 shots taken with my nifty fifty. I didn’t need as much illumination as by background was much smaller. Flash was set yo around 1/4 power.

Canon 40D,50mm, ISO 800, 50mm, f3.2, 1/250th

Canon 40D,50mm, ISO 800, 50mm, f3.2, 1/250th

After a few edits in Lightroom 2.0 and adjusting to the white space like removing a few objects in the side of the frame I recon its come out ok for a first attempt. Next time I think I would snoot a 2nd lighton my tyre tread.

Next upgrades to the studio setup will be some sort of white flooring and a curved board where the wall meets the floor. Then I can do head to feet shots.  I can also do a shoot longways down the garage once I clean it up a little more.

Viva Le Tour & DIYPhotography.net.

I wanted to have a photo that displayed the camera as the core subject and me as merely the driver. So a nice amount of DOF was required. The lens choice was easy, as for a greater DOF I needed a larger aperture setting. So out came my Canon 50mm f1.8 II.

As you can see from the photo I was using my Cactus wireless remote to fire my Vivitar 285 flash with my small homemade snoot with grid (I’ll blog about this soon). It was to the camera’s right and about as high as a toilet. Why the interesting height well that’s where it was sitting. I had angled the flash towards the back right-hand corner of the small room. By bouncing the flash off the wall and roof the light will spill over the camera and not leave a massive flare in the mirror. You will notice plenty of people on Facebook and Myspace have self portraits with massive flares in the mirror. This is from on camera flash. It looks crap.

So the lighting was sorted. It was time to throw the camera in to Manual and set the Vivitar 285 to 1/16th power the lowest setting possible. I set the camera to a shutter speed of 250 and the aperture at f1.8.

I positioned myself outside of the bathroom perfectly head on to the small 40cm wide mirror, but I had the camera body inside the bathroom.

For the Autofocus points I selected the centre focus point only. This made the camera the focal point not me. If I wanted to set myself as the focal point I would have selected the left corner focal point.

As you can see in this photo the door frame is intersecting my hand so its no good. Its actually not a bad photo otherwise. I needed to shift myself left. Now I had positioned myself correctly and just needed the correct relaxed look on my face.

Because the photo was taken in a mirror I needed to flip the image in Photoshop. I also gave boosted the sharpness and saturated certain colours like the blue in my shirt. Using the burn tool I tried to patch up the brightness on my arm. I still have a lot to learn about post processing but hey its a start.

Next time I do the shoot I would probably check my background wall, as the framed photo kind of annoys me. Also the brightness on my arm is something I would be carefull of. Otherwise I’m very happy for a first time attempt.