Pete Lounsbury Photography

2009-04-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

Two more Renaissance Faire pictures. Stylized to remove the tourists. Who wants tourists with fanny-packs encroaching your historic fantasies?

2009-04-16T06:01:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 motion studies from the PA Renaissance Fair. The first uses a long lens which follows the lateral motion of the horse during exposure (1/60th"), creating a blurred background and simulated 2D motion. The other photo of the pumpkin man was forward motion created by zooming the lens back during exposure at about 1/30". Prepare to take many exposures to nail the right image. These exposures require a tripod (or at least a mono-pod) to be effective.

2009-04-16T05:56:00.000-07:00

This is a self-portrait, reminiscent of Hamlet ( "Yorick, I knew him well Horatio"). It was an attempt to capture the infinite mirror effect which is virtually impossible with a camera. All images were Photoshopped in layers--about 15 layers in all. No actual mirrors were used!

2009-04-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

This image is actually a close up photographic study of a female eye with the blue tear drawn in using Photoshop. The unique thing about this image is that it looks like close-up newsprint. This is done using a halftone filter from the filter selections. Unfortunately the photo needed to be manipulated considerably before the filter could be effectively applied. This image, as simple as it appears, took me about 4 hours to create.

October

2009-01-31T04:03:00.000-08:00

I tried to catch the essence of October in this photo, trying to steer away from the cliche pumpkins etc.

Bubble Gum

2009-01-31T03:55:00.000-08:00

These Gumballs must be filled with helium. This was actually two exposures. One a standard still life setting with the base on the seamless background. The other exposure was challenging. I had to turn the gum ball machine upside down and lower the light source to give the impression of anti-gravity. In Photoshop I joined the inverted globe with the base photo.

Photographer's Nook

2009-01-31T03:48:00.000-08:00

Here's another fantasy. A stylized still life. The photos in the background supposedly taken by that old Kodak relic and the weird elf-like face on what appears to be a portrait of the photographer give this photo a magical yet foreboding appeal.
Also I lit the set with candlelight only and used aluminum foil as a reflector.

Drink Down the Moon

2009-01-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

This Altered reality image is a tribute to the fountain statue at Archmere Academy in Claymont DE. The statue depicts a "puck-like" character stealing wine from a wineskin worn by a traveler. He did this by puncturing the wineskin and drinking the dribbling wine. It's a fascinating sculpture and inspired this image which hopefully does NOT glorify intoxication. My photo is called Drink Down the Moon (from the old expression "Drink down the Moon, Drink up the Sun" -- an all-nighter).

Urban Fantasies

2009-01-04T05:24:00.001-08:00

Here are two photos I entered in the DE Photo Society competition for Jan 09. I call them urban fantasies. One, I photoshopped in a grand background the other is posterized.

False Colors

2008-11-01T02:53:00.000-07:00

This tombstone was photographed in Lexington, MA. The thing that makes it look strange is the false colors, somewhat inspired by the old infra-red Ektachrome film from the 70's. I selected areas throughout the image and then either re-colored those areas or washed over existing colors with Photo Shop paint brush.

Through the Looking Glass

2008-11-01T02:47:00.000-07:00

When you train your camera on water, mirror or glass reflections you get a perspective that's different than observing real life directly. In photography different is good. However it's important to maintain compositional principles while creating a "different" looking image.

The Prince

2008-11-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

When I travel back in time I go to the Renaissance Fair up at Mount Hope in PA. Of course I take my camera. I found this to be an interesting exposure for a number of reasons. Firstly, I decided to use a movie tri-pod with a fluid head to try to capture the smooth motion of people walking or riding their horses. What I discovered is that when I followed this horse and rider through the crowd with the camera two things happened. 1) The crowd, of course, was rendered blurred and apparently out of focus and 2) the saturation of the colors of the crowd was diminished accenting the vivid blue of the prince's coat.

Wedding of the Teapot Clown: Fantasy or Reality

2008-10-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

This is a photo from a wedding I shot recently. The Groom is actually in the background. The Clown is entertaining at the wedding.

Close up "Helicopter seed in Motion"

2008-10-04T04:10:00.000-07:00

This is an extreme close-up of a seed we like to call the "helicopter" because of it's ability to navigate, with a helicopter motion, away from its source. When you photograph something this close it's impossible to capture motion and critcal focus at the same time (and forget about background elements being where they should be.) A shot like this has to be manufactured using Photoshop. In my studio using close-up diopters, I photographed a close up of the seed, critically focusing. I used a studio flash to get a translucent image of the seed. I also used aluminum foil as a lens hood to fill the front of the seed with light. The background was black.

Then I cut out the seed by removing the black background and proceeded to layer on the effects. The background tree canopy rendered out of focus with Gausian blur, about 20 layers of "seed motion" and then the seed itself. Lastly I flattened the image and accentuated the sun glare using paint brush so that it washed all the layers.

Principles of close-up still life

2008-09-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

This photo is a close up of a blueberry. Using Macro diopters on the front of my lens, I arranged various nuts around the berry. The nuts are earthy tones, warm tones while the blueberry stands cool and dark in contrast.

I saturated the blueberry with Photoshop to give it a bluer appearance.

Special note: When you do close-up photography the same rules apply as if you were doing a full-size still life. Note the rule of thirds applied, the foreground framing and the background design which balances the composition and leads the eyes to the subject.

Back light is used for lighting with a silver reflector adding foreground fill

Pre-focus

2008-09-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you can't rely on auto focus to give you that sharp focus. Probably the most difficult focusing situation is when you have a moving subject obstructed by foreground elements. In this case Joan is riding her horse rapidly toward the camera with her face framed between two lances in the foreground. You can't possibly focus manually fast enough. How do you handle this?

You PRE-Focus. Pre-Focus on a spot on the field where you know the rider will be passing through, set your aperture on f/11 to f/16, shutter speed around 300th of a second and shoot about 5 frames a second as she fills the pre-focused area.

Anytime a subject is moving toward you at a fast pace it is always a good idea to Pre-focus.

Altered Reality with Photo Shop

2008-09-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is a Photoshopped altered reality image inspired by Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. It's called Titania (after the fairy queen in the play).

There are three layer elements which make up this image.

1) The background
2) The subject
3) A prop or props

The background was taken with the idea that I'd be adding subject matter to it. It's simple but has classic elements, namely backlighting (which is favored by most schools of landscape art)
A tunnel to draw your eye to the subject and a diffused light source.

The subject was an attractive model from a Shakespearean dress rehearsal (she is made subtlely translucent to give a "spirit" look). Costumes and permission all inclusive.

The prop is a set of moth wings (notice that they are made considerably translucent with the opacity control). I chose moth wings because one of the fairies who introduced the magical element of Midsummer, speaking to Puck, called herself Moth. Moth wings rather than butterfly or bird wings gives the image a more foreboding and dangerous element. The spirits Shakespeare portrayed were not to be trifled with.

A "wash" with a broad white paintbrush set at about 5% opacity creates a foreground mist.

Composite Pages

2008-08-03T02:53:00.000-07:00

Composite pages can be used for scrapbooking, photo albums or wall framing. You pay for the price of one photo but get as many photos as you can fit on one page! In this case, I've put 8 images (all vignetted) on a square black background. You can use whatever color or shape background you want. Or you can use an abstract image, an out of focus detail, sky or some type of scenery as a background. Use Photo Shop to create a background layer. You can make it translucent, B&W or monochrome. Then with multiple layers and about a 30% vignette on every image (cut and paste with marquise tool) start laying in and arranging and resizing your images to your satisfaction.

Streaming Rays of Light

2008-07-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Light is the most important factor in photography. More so than subject matter. Light is the medium for photographers just as paint is the medium for the painter.

Where is beautiful light seen at it's best? When it is streaming visibly through water molecules into a wood canopied by tree leaves. Get up early in the morning when the sun is high enough to get through the canopy and the air is still filled with water molecules. Check out the images to the left taken early in the cool morning during the hot and humid days of summer.

Insert backgrounds with PhotoShop

2008-07-16T02:58:00.000-07:00

Why go to the beach for a portrait when there is Photoshop. The background on this photo was carefully inserted using layers and fine blending and retouching. Be careful blending hair wisps or you could end up with matted hair. Use varying opacity with clone and paintbrush to salvage as much wispiness as possible.

Reflex: A Self-Portrait

2008-07-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here's another resurrected exposure from the past, brought to life with the Magic of PhotoShop.

Brides! Check out this site

2008-06-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

Wedding Photo USA features Pete Lounsbury Photography

Macro vs Micro

2008-05-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Macro Photography vs. Micro Photography--in order to show the world of tiny things such as my photo above--Dandelion in a Storm. You need a special macro lens. These can be very expensive so I use Magnifying filters that screw in to the front of your lens--a set of 4 filters can cost as little as $15 on Ebay. The photo above using these cheap filters is very high quality by anyone's standards. The secret being that I used a very small f-stop (f/22). This increased the focal range to the max. I also used a tri-pod and studio flashes which froze the image to increase sharpness.

Now the difference between Micro and Macro. The current definition of Macro-photography refers to the image captured on the film plane of the camera is the same size or larger than the actual subject. The designation 1:4 Macro means one quarter the size of actual Macro, while 1:1 Macro means full size Macro. Micro-photography refers to the image captured on the film plane is much larger than the actual subject (to the extent that an actual microscope could be used). Both show small subjects larger than life when they're enlarged, but as it goes Micro images are extremely close studies of your subject. As close as the camera got to Dandelions, it would still be considered only a Macro shot and not a Micro shot.

Tight crop for better composition--rule of thirds

2008-04-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

One thing I like to do , especially with portraits, is to crop tight. In this portrait the main subject is the cat (it's always the animal, unless of course it's a baby). The cat is right-side up and placed in the bottom right quadrant of thirds. People! Watch that mystical rule of thirds!

Realistic Outdoor flash lighting

2008-04-12T03:32:00.001-07:00

Many photographers I've seen don't understand the principle of flash lighting outdoors. It's important that the foreground is never unnaturally brighter than the background. This is also true when photographing an indoor scene where there is a window in the background; make sure you don't render the daytime into nighttime by over exposing (with your flash unit) the interior. Make a realistic balance between interior subjects and the light coming in from the outside.