Tattoo

[Mnemosyne]

So, a friend of mine that writes fashion columns for the paper, and plays football, asked me to do a shoot for him for his blog.

He was inspired by the recent GQ article about L'il Wayne and his tattoos, and wanted to do a profile of a buddy of his from the team that has lots of tatoos and the obstacles he's overcome in his life. So I took some photos for him and here are some.

The full gallery is here
http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/gallery/7576697_PEdXW#489750170_S3vTa

The last photo is one of my favs, but the hands bug me. I can't crop them, and the pose relates to the tattoo. I can reshoot it if anyone has tips. people say the focus doesn't bug them so much as the fact that they look disproportionately large, which is because I shot with a 50mm up close. Maybe I could try my 135? but I would lose a lot of the angle.

http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489744147_s3QhN-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489743758_Mg8FY-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489748092_oxuGp-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489749591_yC4N4-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489748674_FMN4U-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489750170_S3vTa-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489749895_7GaRc-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489750732_UTHJK-M.jpg


http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/489749249_sVExK-M.jpg

[Nikolai]

So, a friend of mine that writes fashion columns for the paper, and plays football, asked me to do a shoot for him for his blog.

He was inspired by the recent GQ article about L'il Wayne and his tattoos, and wanted to do a profile of a buddy of his from the team that has lots of tatoos and the obstacles he's overcome in his life. So I took some photos for him and here are some.

The full gallery is here
http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/gallery/7576697_PEdXW#489750170_S3vTa

The last photo is one of my favs, but the hands bug me. I can't crop them, and the pose relates to the tattoo. I can reshoot it if anyone has tips. people say the focus doesn't bug them so much as the fact that they look disproportionately large, which is because I shot with a 50mm up close. Maybe I could try my 135? but I would lose a lot of the angle.

Nice series! :thumb

[Scott_Quier]

:agree - Very nice series.

Because of the relative size of his hands, that last one is more about him praying than the tattoos. If you don't like the perspective distortion, then a longer lens at a further distance will "fix" that.

[Richard]

Cool series. The poses are very good. I wonder if there is something you could do to make the tattoos stand out a little more. I'm not sure whether it is a question of lighting or PP--maybe both--but I think they could have more impact. :dunno

[Mnemosyne]

Well, I tried upping the saturation of every color I could think of that wasn't in his skin tone range, and it didn't help. Outside of hand painting/D&Bing them, I have no idea.

[Scott_Quier]

Well, I tried upping the saturation of every color I could think of that wasn't in his skin tone range, and it didn't help. Outside of hand painting/D&Bing them, I have no idea.
Local contrast boost maybe?

[divamum]

Really nice series. My only nit is to wonder... are these cropped? If so, I'd love a little more airspace around a few of them - seems like in many shots a body part is cut off (tip of elbow, very top of head etc etc). It's not a big deal, but even though the focus is on the tatoos, it would be cool to have the comp include the entire "canvas".

I love your lighting on these, and I can imagine it wasn't easy - very clean and even. Good job!!

[Mnemosyne]

Scott: How would I do that?

Diva Mum: Yes they are cropped, but not much. The photos were already tight to begin with. And what ones weren't tight, I pulled to the tattoos cause they were more important to me than the body parts.

[Richard]

Well, I tried upping the saturation of every color I could think of that wasn't in his skin tone range, and it didn't help. Outside of hand painting/D&Bing them, I have no idea.
You're right that this isn't an easy problem. I played with one of them a bit and got my best result using HIRALOAM sharpening, radius 10, amount 50%, threshold 0. I hope you don't mind if I post the result, but if you do just let me know and I'll take it down.

http://rsinmadrid.smugmug.com/photos/489930778_TT5SJ-L.jpg

In retrospect, I think I should have masked the head, but that should present no problem. You might also want to post a few of these in the Finishing School forum and see if someone comes up with a better approach.

[Scott_Quier]

Scott: How would I do that?

Add a curves adjustment layer, modify the curve for contrast .... the "S" curve - tweak the curve to taste
Add a layer mask to the curves adjustment layer. Mask out everything to which you don't want the added contrast to be applied. Adjust the opacity of the curves adjustment layer to taste.

[Mnemosyne]

Oh, so it's really complicated? :)

[Scott_Quier]

Oh, so it's really complicated? :)
Not really. I don't know that it would work, it just an idea.

[Mnemosyne]

I'll give it a shot. Thanks again.

[Mnemosyne]

You're right that this isn't an easy problem. I played with one of them a bit and got my best result using HIRALOAM sharpening, radius 10, amount 50%, threshold 0. I hope you don't mind if I post the result, but if you do just let me know and I'll take it down.

http://rsinmadrid.smugmug.com/photos/489930778_TT5SJ-L.jpg

In retrospect, I think I should have masked the head, but that should present no problem. You might also want to post a few of these in the Finishing School forum and see if someone comes up with a better approach.

HA. Have at it :)

But there looks to be some artifacting around the chain now. Is that a result of the sharpening? Or did you shrink the photo and just post it in the response?

[Richard]

HA. Have at it :)

But there looks to be some artifacting around the chain now. Is that a result of the sharpening? Or did you shrink the photo and just post it in the response?

I just worked with the image as posted and re-posted it at the same size. Working from the original would have yielded better results, but I was more interested in finding the right approach. TBH, I didn't pay any attention to the side effects. But you can always mask them out. The nice thing about sharpening corrections is that a really crude mask is usually all that is needed.

[Mnemosyne]

I just worked with the image as posted and re-posted it at the same size. Working from the original would have yielded better results, but I was more interested in finding the right approach. TBH, I didn't pay any attention to the side effects. But you can always mask them out. The nice thing about sharpening corrections is that a really crude mask is usually all that is needed.

Ok, thanks for the help.

[Flyinggina]

I love the series as is.

But if you want to emphasize the tatoos, you might want to try the High Pass Filter (under Other in the CS3 filters menu). Duplicate the background layer, apply high pass filter at radius 6, change blend mode to overlay, softlight or hardlight, whichever gives you the effect you like best, add a white layer mask and use a black brush to paint over areas you don't want to "sharpen." Adjust opacity slider to taste.

I applied it to one of your photos with this result:



http://flyinggina.smugmug.com/photos/490077144_8aUth-L.jpg

As I said at the beginning, though, I like the series as is.

(Let me know and I'll remove this.)

Virginia

[Mnemosyne]

HAHAHA. ALL the photos have a 5 pt High pass Soft light, AND a High Pass 5 pt Overlay on top of them. I prefer High pass for sharpening over other sharpening methods. Just like the effect.

The more I obsess over them, the more I like them as they are, since the tattoos fill the frame a lot. And in the context of the story, I think readers will be primed to see the tattoos.

This is just me obsessing :) and trying to learn probably.

[Mnemosyne]

PS. I bit the bullet, and after a suggestion cropped this one. I think it turned out ok.

http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/490085141_7xhaC-M.jpg

[Flyinggina]

I like HP too. Sometimes I use it in addition to USM. Never tried both soft light and overlay on one subject, though. Neat idea.

As I said, nice set as is. :D

Virginia

HAHAHA. ALL the photos have a 5 pt High pass Soft light, AND a High Pass 5 pt Overlay on top of them. I prefer High pass for sharpening over other sharpening methods. Just like the effect.

The more I obsess over them, the more I like them as they are, since the tattoos fill the frame a lot. And in the context of the story, I think readers will be primed to see the tattoos.

This is just me obsessing :) and trying to learn probably.

[joshhuntnm]

nice series. love the white background for this series.

[Mnemosyne]

Thanks Josh. Since I'm still a rookie, I've had to learn how to do things by killing 2 birds with one stone My lighting setup was uber simple.


___
\ O /

Two strobes with jumbo umbrellas, turned so the light feathered off him, and filled the background. I was getting to many highlights, so I had to power them down, which made less fall off on the screen behind him. Luckily the difference made magic wanding him real easy. Poof, all white :)

Also, I got bored the other night and created a banner for my friend writing the piece.

http://mnemosyne.smugmug.com/photos/490868819_xsi8D-L.jpg

Now he wants to do a similar project for all 25 of the senior football players :D