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All posts for the day December 4th, 2010

2 For 1 Christmas Special

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 4, 2010
Posted in: Daily Posts.

Christmas Tree Resident 1

The title?  Only because I posted earlier today and then I decided to do a shoot of our Christmas tree.  So two for one.  Now I’m not a huge fan of Christmas.  Oh I am about the birth of our Savior for sure, but what Christmas has turned into NOT so much.  Anyway one of the few things I do like about Christmas is looking at all the ornaments Jeanne and I have collected over our 34 years of life together.

Christmas Tree Resident 2

There are way too many to post here on the blog and really even too many to post on my photography web site. (see the link to the right.) but what I thought I might do over the next few days before Christmas  is post some of my favorites and perhaps depending on how nostalgic I feel I might even share some of the stories of the ones that mean so much.

Lego Santa

Perhaps like the one above.  I remember it so well.  Angie was about 4 I think and we were at my Mom and Dad’s house for Christmas that year.  Jeanne had given Angie  this little Lego Santa in her stocking from Santa and Angie was so excited about putting it together.  Then she was worried about it coming apart so when we got home we put some glue on it and it has been on our tree ever since.  Every time I see this little guy I think of my folks and that Christmas in Bethany.

Christmas Tree Resident 3Now take the ornament above.  It holds no special meaning for me.  I just thought this was a really neat shot the way the light wraps around it.  I didn’t ask Jeanne about this one but I’m sure it means something to her, Angie or Mark.Christmas Tree Ornament 4

Jeanne Whoops, I mean Santa always put an ornament in the kids’ stocking on Christmas day so that is why we have so many like the one above, which I just love because I use to tell the kids so many “Forest” stories and there were always bears in them.  🙂

I hope you are enjoying the season.

Green Screen Photography

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 4, 2010
Posted in: Uncategorized.

Green Screen Shoot

I had an opportunity this week to do some portrait work for one of our banks.  The bank held an event for a selected group of people and one of the opportunities we offered our guests was for them to have a portraiture of themselves made. So I got to do the photography.  I was happy to contribute a small amount to a very successful event.

When I do portraits I will normally use  a green screen for my backdrop.  Green screens and blue screens have been used for decades and have become an invaluable part of a photographer’s toolkit. By photographing subjects against a green screen or a blue screen background, they can be easily isolated from that background and composited onto a different background entirely.

The primary reason for using a specific color backdrop is to avoid clashing with any colors on your subject. This is why red screens are not commonly used – due to the amount of red in human skin, it’s impossible to get good results when shooting people. Green and blue are both far less prominent in skin tones and therefore work as a successful keying color.

Additionally instead of buying lots of different materials and trying to haul them around you only have to take one backdrop and then you can make the image look like it was taken anywhere.  The biggest problem with green screen is lighting it properly.  Too dark and it blends with subjects hair.  To bright and you get what is called green splash (where the green color actually reflects on your subjects hair and skin.  Not a good thing.  I’ve learned a lot about shooting against a green screen but it is still tricky and I always seem to struggle getting the lighting just right.

Now if you look at the image above.  I was set up for a portrait (one person, two at the most.)  But these women wanted a group shot so I had to improvise on the post processing.  I’m not thrilled with the end product but you get the idea.

What are some piratical uses for green screen?  You see it every day when you watch your weather forecaster stand in front of his/her map. 🙂  Thanks for checking in.

Green Screen Shoot - Final