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.

For these shots I decided I needed to come up with a way of blowing the ground white as well at the wall. Something I had not previously done. I have adapted my technique from that of Zack Arias who has been shooting portraits on seamless white for years. He has used a technique of positioning the subject on tile board that is sort of glossy to give some grounding to his subject by providing a reflection. It is a great medium for blowing white and it is also very cheap. I picked up 2 sheets of white melamine mdf (1200 x 900) for $14.50AUD each at my local hardware shop. I think you can get it in larger sizes also.

Here is the setup I used for the latest Bike shots. I have 2 Cactus KF36 strobes pointed at the back wall both set as 1/4 power. They are also both an equal distance from the back wall to give an even coverage of light. The wall will now become the 4th light source as it reflects light back at the camera and onto the floor.

The bike must be positioned further from the wall than the 2 cactus stobes so that no light from the strobes directly hits the bikes frame. You may need to flag your strobes like I have on the right hand strobe.

Another Cactus KF36 is used to expose the bike with the use of a shoot through umbrella. This will give a nice wrapping light to the bikes components. This would probably be best positioned directly behind the camera. The lower to the ground your camera is the better the reflection you will get from the mdf boards.

For the close up component shots, like gears and derailleurs, keep your camera settings the same and zoom in or move yourself closer to the components. The lights will work the same as long as you don’t directly stand in the path of the umbrella.

When it comes to the post processing it is much the same as I explain in my video blog post about white seamless shots. Simply up your exposure so that more areas are blown out white and then bring back some of the detail in the bike by increasing the blacks. Then run a curves adjustment layer and do a sharpen to the image. In the end I decided to delete the reflection the mdf boards gave me on the entire bike shots as they didn’t fit in with the eventual advertisements my brother will use the shots for.

If you have any further questions or want me to do a post processing video on the bikes let me know. I’m more than happy to do tutorials on anything you guys want. Just drop me a line on the contact page.

Our friends Jayne and Simon are expecting the birth of their first child this Friday, September 11th 2009.  And before its a little too late we headed out for a maternity shoot.  Not only was it my first maternity shoot but it was also my first non family shoot and well my first ever outdoor strobist attempt.

Zack Arias has challenged us to Serve someone with our cameras, in such a way that we as photographers will break free from our self criticism of “ I’m not good enough yet.”

So after a little research online at flickr looking at maternity photos and sending links to Jayne to gauge the style she was after, I needed a location. My wife and I had spent the previous weekend scoping out general landscape photography locations at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mount Cootha. Turns out its also a great free and very diverse location for such a shoot.

I decided to go with a 1 light setup. A Vivitar 285 with a 43 inch shoot through umbrella setup on my monopod. Anna my wife helped out as a voice activated light-stand and more importantly she continued to encourage me throughout the whole process. I doubt I could have pulled it all off without her support.

We had 6 distinct locations selected at the gardens and we started in the Japanese Gardens. It had great natural light that I wanted to make good use of first. To tell you the truth I was absolutely terrified and didn’t know where to start. once we reached the gardens. Where should I sit them? Should they sit? What angle will I shoot from? How do I make them feel comfortable? So I just sat them on some open grass and just began shooting. I just asked them to sit and talk and ignore me. About 30 frames latter my brain clicked, I was checking my backgrounds, composing frames with the rule of 3rds in mind, making sure they didn’t have trees or other objects jutting out their heads. The months of reading about what to look out for while shooting just became 2nd nature. Then I found myself conversing with them encouraging them and hopefully making them feel comfortable. I guess its just like Joe McNally says “The Moment it Clicks”. That book has been a great resource of mine since August. Well recommended no matter what your level of ability.

Here is a small slide-show of shots from the afternoon. I ended up presenting them with just over 100 processed image. All post processing done in Adobe Lightroom and a few minor edits in Photoshop.

Stay tuned for a blog on my voice activated light-stand monopod rig.

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.

Mark is a freelance sports photographer based in Phoenix, AZ. I’ve been following his blog since the 2008 Olympic games in which Mark captured some amazing Olympic moments and showed us just how diverse his sports photography skills are. His work can be seen on ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and loads of other sites.

He is one of very few sports photographers that shares how he sets up remotes and he doesn’t mind showing you his not so great shots, like when some stupid redneck fan gets in his way of a play.

© Mark J Rebilas

Trey Ratcliff – Stuck in Customs – http://www.stuckincustoms.com

Trey is the king of HDR Images. His blog is updated with a new striking image everyday or there about. He has traveled all over the world putting his HDR spin on some amazing world icons and even a few spins on different cultures.

He has written one of the most in depth tutorials on the technique of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography available on the internet. He teaches you how to use HDR in such suttle ways to enhance the image but not destroy it with halo effects and unreal colours.

© Trey Ratcliff

Dan Newton – Liquid in Plastic – http://www.liquidinplastic.com

Dan is one of the best star trail photographers I have come across on the internet. Like Dan I too became a fan of star trail photography when I got my first science text book in year 7. It happened to have a star trail over an astronomers observatory on the front cover.  Like Trey has his tutorial, Dan has an equally great tutorial on star trail photography.

Not only does Dan share his tips on star trails but he also gives great setup shots and details on his other still life shoots.

© Dan Newton

David Hobby – Strobist – http://www.strobist.blogspot.com

Strobsit is one of the most famous photography blogs in the world. David has shown the world the power of small off camera lighting. His Lighting 101 posts developed amateur on camera flash photographers into off camera pro’s and he followed this up with Boot Camp and Lighting 102. He steps you through how to get that flash off camera and even better how to do it on the cheap side by using old soup containers as diffusers and so forth.

© H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Zack Arias – http://www.zarias.com

Want the honest truth about photography? Well Zack will tell you, and who knows his wife meg may well help along the way.

Zack is  a full time editorial photographer and he will tell it to you as it is. He recently release his DVD titled OneLight Workshop and it looks to be a very well put together production.

One feature of Zack’s blog that i really did is his critiques. Basically a bundle of wannabe paid photographers send in there site to get critiqued. Zack and his wife Meg sit up to all hours discussing the selected sites giving tips and cracking some great jokes. If you want to know how or how not to layout your online portfolio well this is the place to find out. Oh what ever you do don’t use selective colouring and expect them to love it.

© Zack Arias

Udi Tirosh – DIY – http://www.diyphotography.net

Udi has built one hell of a diverse selection of DIY photography hacks and tips. Wanna know how to make gels for your strobes for cheap? Maybe you wanna build a light box or sound trigger. This place has it covered.

I have built a fair few things from the site and made a few modifications along the road. For us non-professionals there are some great hacks.

© Udi Tirosh