jen gray

May 16, 2008

tricks of the trade.

patio art, canon 20 d

many have asked you from time to time, what techniques i do with my photos to give them a little extra juice.

if im lucky, i do not have to do anything! but mostly i am always tweaking the photos in one way or another.

i use photoshop, which is a big investment, but worth every penny so long as you take a little time to really learn it.

on any given shot i use the following tools on photoshop :
levels
saturation
gaussian blur or surface blur

on portraits, i use color balance to even out skin tone and use the diffuse glow to mimic a soft pretty light.

i always us the clone stamp or the healing brush to get rid of background noise and to eliminate blemishes, wrinkles and things like the big vein that pops out in the middle of my forehead when i am overheated.

i use the burn tool to give depth and the dodge tool to lighten darkened pockets.

and when i do catalog work for jewelry i ALWAYS use the cloud dome which eliminates shadows and glares beautifully.

of course, their are things called "actions" which you can download and purchase
and these will do all the little steps for you. consider it the cliff notes for photoshop.

thats all i can think of for now, but in the future, i will try to provide more tutorial links and resources for all you fellow photo junkies.

in the mean time, thea has some good tips and resources to check out. her portraits are beautiful.(hooray for the end of geeky senior pictures and giving teens photos they dont need to be embarrassed about!)

****i would love to know your special tips as well,
email me at Jen@jengray.com.****

posted by jen at 09:23 AM   |   link   |   Comments (0)

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May 15, 2008

3:30 am

in the bottle, costa rica, canon 20 d

i needed to leave by 3:30 am to get to the shoot on time.
i love hitting the road when no one else is awake ~ and chicago can seem
so unlike a major city at that time, more like a sleepy little town.

i made it home by 3:30pm and instantly fell asleep. . .

i love this kind of hard work. i love packing up the truck load of gear and working behind the scenes and learning something each and every time.
i love getting to meet people i would never have a chance to, and getting to
go to parts of buildings and museums that the general public doesnt have access to. (fulfills my trespassing needs) i love tweaking the light so it falls just slightly on the ear of the subject.

its labor intensive and its deeply creative and its exactly what i love to do.

and to see that photograph in a magazine at the end of all the hard work is
an extra cherry on the top of my sundae.

these days, especially with the difficult situation with the economy, i am truly grateful to have an opportunity to work and even more grateful that i get to love the work that i do.

posted by jen at 08:44 AM   |   link   |   Comments (0)

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May 13, 2008

familia. . . . .

lizzy and belle, canon 20 d

that's my little niece in there.
and that's my older (who has always looked younger!) sister sportin' that big ball of loving in her mid-section.

maybe its because we are older now, maybe its because the last time we had a little baby in our family was nearly 20 years ago, maybe its because we just never expected such a miracle to have happened to her, to us...

but we are fascinated. and ridiculously giddy. and in complete wonder.

and my feeling for the importance of family is stronger now than it ever has been. it's as if this baby is pulling us together with a magical gravitational pull.

after having such a good time over the past few days,
we began to talk about how we would really like to move closer to one another ~ and how the miles between colorado, illinois, vermont, and florida is just too much. it would make me so happy to have my family all in one place...

being together somehow makes me feel like everything will always be okay. . .

and i have a feeling that little Belle has a lot to do with it all.

posted by jen at 11:01 AM   |   link   |   Comments (0)

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