Jayne Cobb Cosplay Shoot (my first Cosplay shoot, first shoot with the D800, first attempt at Photoshop actions...)

    Last week was a week of firsts. Had my first Cosplay shoot, which just happened to also be my first time really shooting with my new D800 (other than playing with it the night before at a lighting workshop) and during editing I wound up using Alien Skin Exposure 5 for the first time as well as creating and using my first photoshop action.

    Where to start? Let's backtrack a bit. First off, my D3200 was a great camera, I don't think I could have picked a better starter body, but I found I just wasn't using it as much anymore for a couple of key reasons: First, I just liked the depth of field and general look better from the full frame sensor in Excalibur and Second, now that I am starting to play around with more advanced things like time lapse, long exposure, stacked star trails and HDR I want a body that can do all these inherently. Been thinking about it for some time finally pulled the trigger because I am starting to line up more model shoots as well as getting ready for some travel to places where I want to shoot some good landscapes and scenics. Once again, got a good deal on a pre-loved body from Keh camera... not sure I will ever buy a new piece of photo gear again. So, sold off my DX stuff and ordered the D800.

   First and foremost, holy crap 36mp resolution is incredible. I am talking count the eyelashes resolution. It's awesome, much closer to the medium format look commonly seen in publications, but much cheaper and more convenient. That being said, the ergonomics aren't as well done as on Excalibur, and for shooting with the 70-200 I will definitely have to get a battery grip so it will balance out correctly. (I want to do that soon anyway just so I can share batteries and charger between the two cameras) and the large files are eating my processing power. It's been a little over 4 years, I think it's time to upgrade the computer soon. Despite being slow, it seems like the extra resolution and detail really expands options for post processing because there is simply much more to work with. The D800 is not the see in the dark speed beast Excalibur is and it isn't as easily handled, but for controlled shoots it is going to become the weapon of choice.

   Now on to the shooting. Since I decided to start setting up more staged shoots and adding to my portfolio, I have been spending a lot of time looking around ModelMayhem for cool people to work with.  While browsing I came across the profile of the incredible Alanna Safarik, who mentioned wanting to do a Cosplay shoot from FireFly, which may just be my favorite series ever, so I was all over it. She just happened to have a Jayne Cobb hat and the outfit lying around, and a friend with some airsoft guns to use. We weren't able to get together and shoot before my last bit of travel, but that wound up working out pretty well because after I got back I found the Sweetwater Steel Bridge,  which was perfect for the feel I wanted for the shoot.

  We shot for about an hour, Alanna was a trouper because it was 100 degrees despite being May, and the very accurately named steel bridge was pretty darn warm to sit/lean/stand on, not to mention she was in spike heel boots and somewhat afraid of heights. Despite all that, we got some great shots.

  This was one of the first shoots where I really went in with an image of what I wanted the final edited shots to look like, and I wanted an old west daguerrotype look. Writing about this reminds me of my initial discussion of "photoshopping." I am still far from being a master of digital image manipulation, but I think even with the work done on these, I am staying true to my ideals in that the editing directly contributes to the artistic feel of the image while keeping the model completely recognizable as herself instead of a caricature barbie.

   I decided to give Alien Skin Exposure 5 a try to get a start at the look I wanted, because I am lazy and not up to the level of skill I need to be to do it all by myself in photoshop yet. The first thing I tried was just using the Aperture plugin functionality so that once I was ready I could batch process the images as a final step, but I didn't like the all or nothing look, something about it wasn't right, maybe it smacked too much of just adding an instagram filter and calling it done, I wanted more control, so I went into PS where I could use the original image and the filter as layers and blend them to my heart's content until I got what I wanted. But I still didn't want to have to individually work each image if I could avoid it (lazy, remember, and I am hoping one day to have to deal with high volumes of shoots and tight turnarounds, so I need an efficient workflow) so I decided to learn how to build my own action. Took a few tries and haven't worked out all the bugs yet, but I was able to get to a point where I only had to click once per image and the action took care of all the rest, so I consider that a victory.

 

    Overall it was a great experience. I enjoyed working with Alanna and hope to collaborate more in the future. I got to test out the D800 and put into practice some of the things I learned at the speed light workshop the day before (which I will post about later most likely). I was pretty happy with what I was able to do lighting wise. The shot above looks like it could have been shot/lit in a studio, but it was just a couple of speed lights and a neutral density filter shooting in bright 3pm desert sun. I got to play with some new editing techniques and toys (speaking of which, if you are serious about photo editing, get a Wacom Tablet- trust me. Editing without one is like driving a stick shift with a sprained left ankle compared to working with one) and learned the rudiments of action creation. All in all a good shoot. You can see all the results here and decide for yourself.