Portraits in small places

So you don't have a studio, and the wife won't let you convert the spare room either, and the garage is full of junk, so what to do to be able to use that shiny dslr and the speedlights you got for Christmas last year and you've been itching to put to good use? Well you make some compromises and improvise. I have been living in a small apartment for the past year and don't have much space, but I can still setup my lights for a two light pic like the one below:

Here is how I set it up:

By using the curtains as a backdrop and squeezing the lights in between couches and side tables I managed to get a fairly good two light portrait set-up. Behind the model is my Strobist DIY Beauty Dish on a tripod. To the right and high is a shoot through umbrella on my junky tripod converted to super cool light stand. Nikon sb600 in the beauty dish and sb700 in the umbrella, both triggered via Nikons very cool CLS system. Easy peasy!

Photojojo

iPad CF and SD Card Readers

The Bokeh Kit

Fisheye, Macro, Wide Angle and Telephoto Phone Lenses

Great finds at Photojojo store
photojojo.com

Party Idea

Bright balloon pops, cellophane-wrapped wall candy, and a game-inspired pathway make for party decorations that look good enough to eat . Very creative and cute! Such a great party decor.

Quote Of The Day

End of Month View ~ October 2011

It seems as if somebody has pressed the pause button on my EOMV border as it does not seem to look that much different to what it did one month ago. Ok the dahlias are now only sending forth the odd flower but other occupants are still going strong. Geranium 'Bob's Blunder' is still flowering his little socks off along with the chocolate cosmos and verbena bonariensis whilst one of the penstemons is getting its second wind. I have transplanted the thyme division that was waiting in the wings last month but I am afraid the bulbs have still to go in. I also now have some sturdy little dianthus plants to add to the border. These have grown from slips that I took from my parent's garden earlier this year - I don't know their name but they have the most wonderful fragrance. I am not sure whether to plant them out now or leave until spring - decisions, decisions.

It is still good gardening weather. We still have to have our first frost and October 2011 apparently is going to be one of the warmest on record in the U.K. since such recordings began. On the excellent BBC2 'Autumnwatch'  programme last week, one of the presenters said that this autumn has been dubbed a 'double dip' autumn which seems a most apt description. It did indeed start early but the end of September heatwave slowed its progress somewhat dramatically. However the last week or so has seen significant changes. I am now enjoying watching the leaves turning on the autumn flowering cherry which you can see in the above photo. The end of British Summer Time means that it will be soon be serious catalogue browsing and making plans for next year time so more of that soon no doubt.

With special thanks to Helen who blogs over at 'The Patient Gardener's Weblog' and who came up with the idea of an end of month view. It is a great wait of stopping still and taking stock.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Serves 4 

Soup:

3 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large or 4 small cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1/4 teaspoon (or more to taste) dried crushed red pepper
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Lid:

4 1-inch slices from a large loaf of rye bread, whole wheat sourdough or bread of your choice (or 16 1-inch slices from a baguette), toasted until hard and lightly buttered on one side
1 tablespoon grated raw onion
1 cup coarsely grated cheddar (or more to taste)

Make soup: 

Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap garlic cloves in a tight foil packet. Place tomatoes, cut side up, on large baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper (I used 1 full teaspoon of Kosher salt). Drizzle tomatoes with olive oil. Add foil packet of garlic to tray. Roast until tomatoes are brown and tender (garlic will be very tender), about 1 hour. Cool slightly.

Unwrap garlic packet and peel cloves. Transfer cloves, tomatoes and any accumulated juices to a blender or food processor and pulse machine on and off until tomatoes are a chunky puree. Transfer tomatoes to medium pot and add thyme, crushed red pepper and stock and bring to a boil Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and adjust seasonings to taste.

Create cheddar lid:

Preheat oven to 350. Arrange four ovenproof soup bowls, crocks or large mugs on a large, foil-lined baking sheet. Stir grated onion into the warm soup.  Float toast slice(s) in each bowl, buttered side up and divide grated cheese generously over top. (If you’re using a wide bowl, you might find that you want more cheese to create a thick, broiled lid.) Bake soups on tray for 15 to 20 minutes, until cheese on top is bubbling and brown at the edges. If you’d like it even more bronzed on top, preheat your broiler and finish soups for a minute or two under it. Serve immediately.

Note: 

Soup can be prepared one day ahead, and kept covered in the fridge. Rewarm before serving, or before finishing with cheddar crouton.

via here

Animal Clips

Whimsical paperclips bring a new level of awesomeness to office work. Clips by Midori From Japan.

SEED

The online shop is called Seed . They have such sweet little things for babies and kids .

Photoshop Techniques

4 Easy Photoshop Techniques to Make Your Pictures Pop!
1: blur/overlay

Duplicate your picture layer by dragging the layer to the ‘new’ icon in the layers palette (ctrl+j).

Apply a gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur…). Blur it enough that the detail disappears but the shapes mostly keep their form.

In the layers palette, change the blending mode from ‘Normal’ to ‘Overlay.’

If you look at the before and after, you can see that this method makes the light tones lighter and the dark tones darker while softening it a touch. Basically, it softly boosts the contrast. If you want a more dramatic effect, try changing the blending mode to ‘Vivid Light’ instead of ‘Overlay.’

Try it on all kinds of shots: portraits, nature shots, you name it. You can use this method ALL the time. It works so well with everything!

2: filter the background

This one can be fun… With a picture open, duplicate the layer (as always). Use your lasso tool to roughly select the subject of your image.

Feather the selection by going to Select > Feather (ctrl+alt+d). We want a pretty large feather, so what you input depends on your picture. Try 50 pixels. Go to Layer > New > Layer via copy. You should end up with just your subject on a new layer with a nice feather to it (fades at the edges).

Select the layer copy below your subject layer. Start trying out filters. I used Filter > Brush Strokes > Dark Strokes for this example. Most of the Brush Stroke filters work well with this effect. Using blurs tends to look a little funny. When you’ve got it all done, your layers palette should look a little like this:

That’s it. Try this out with lots of different filters. If you want to tone down the effect, change the opacity of the effect layer. If you want to get more advanced with your subject selection, you can duplicate the layer, mask it out, and use a large soft white brush to paint the subject back in.

3: neon glow

Have you ever played with neon glow and wondered when the heck you were ever going to use it? Well, it’s time to give it another shot. This can add a touch of color and drama to your shot.

Duplicate your layer, then pull up Filter > Artistic > Neon Glow. Pick a color that you think will complement your shot. In mine, the cat is lit with sunlight, so I went with a yellow to exaggerate that. Start with a glow size of 4 and a glow brightness of 18, then tweak it to suit your shot. This is what I ended up with:

I’ll bet you can guess what’s next. You got it — change the blending mode to ‘Overlay.’ Also cycle through those modes: soft light, hard light, vivid light, and linear light. I prefer overlay and vivid light with this effect.

4 :easy blur

This one nearly passed me by… it’s a wonderfully easy effect to soften a picture. Try it on portraits.

Duplicate your layer and apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) so that the details start to go, but not too much.

Set the opacity of the layer to 50%. This is a great, super-simple way to soften a picture. It can give it almost a dreamy look. Play with opacities until you find something that works really well with your shot.

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Quote Of The Day

Casa De Perrin

Casa de Perrin is a full service boutique rental company specializing in tabletop and decor. They provide a certain art and soul of setting a table or decorating a room without limitations for brides, event planners, designers, photographers and private parties. Their one-of-a-kind, bohemian-eclectic collections span continents, time periods, design aesthetics... 

Hinged Packaging Tape

Interesting . . . from here

Balloons!

Love these balloon lamps by Estiluz. Which are capable enough to take us back to our childhood days when holding balloons was such great fun. Plus these will never fade away and spread soft light at the same time.

Happy Tiny Feet . . .

These are the cutest moccasins from freshly picked.

Oil-Free Makeup Eraser Sticks

We’ve always known that cotton swabs are handy for all sorts of grooming dilemmas, but cotton swabs filled with a soothing cucumber-aloe-green tea potion that saturates the tip with a snap of your fingers  ? You simply break off the marked end, which releases the fluid into the other end… 

Buy here

Think This Way . . .

Peter Lippmann For Christian Louboutin

This is one of the most unique and compelling fashion ad campaigns I've seen. Even though it’s not super new, but would love to share it with you. Christian Louboutin collaborated with celebrated photographer Peter Lippmann to reinterpret a number of fine art masterpieces by incorporating his signature red soled shoes. See the whole campaign right here.

Upon A Fold

Ice cream card

Envelope maker set

Milk carton storage/gift box

Tracing paper pockets

Happy Memo

"Upon a fold" is wonderful online store dedicated to everything cute and papery. They have an amazing collection. LOVE!