A really cool idea to spruce up your shots.

Ok I finally had a Sunday off last month and I was able to get to go out with Redeye, an organization for reaching out to different creative types like you and I.  Anyways, they had a white sheet set up as a wall and I dont know what they were going to use it for.  However, I had an idea that would make for a fun experience with the camera.

You can do this for very little money actually.  Buy any white sheet from somewhere and buy some PVC piping to make a wall.  Build the frame with the PVC pipe and stretch the sheet to make your wall.  Its really simple and cheap too.

It will end up looking like this which may or may not excite you all that much due to it not being all that fancy and pretty.

Ok, so after that, set up your strobe behind it with your wireless sync.  I was using my trust Cybersync system from paul c buff, attached to my trust Canon 430EX II.  Use the wall as a shoot through umbrella type setup.  This will allow you to get some really nice diffused light on your subjects.

Pretty nifty eh?  It gives you really nice broad light that isn't harsh and will cover a whole group of people.

Also whats fun, is using it as a silhouette wall, which turned out to be a big hit.  People will love getting in front to have their picture taken.

See what I mean?  

Then all you have to do is convert your image to black and white, do a crop and maybe a curves adjustment.  

Ok, so now you have a little something extra to maybe include in your next event shoot or maybe something to put into your studio.  This will definitely allow you to stick out more as a photographer and people are going to remember you much easier because you did something unique and fun.

When Free is Bad.

Being a photographer or any artist is difficult, mostly due to the high availability of cheap equipment that anyone can afford.  It seems that any and everyone is a photographer these days.  

This is a discussion that is common among forum threads on photography websites.  It wasnt too long ago that photographers made really good money at their craft, that was until digital cameras showed up.

Usually in market places, the pro's would still do well because everyone knows good quality and thats what they want.  That is something that is quickly becoming untrue.  Clients will accept sub-par photos for the sake of meeting deadlines.

Another thing that has been true for decades is that doing free work when you start out helps boost your portfolio and gives you necessary skills which leads to great paying gigs in the future.  Skim through the creative gigs section in Craigslist and you will quickly see many potential clients looking for work but for free.  Usually its not simple work, its work that requires many hours at the computer to fit their high demands.  I know, because I have been there.

What does free work lead to these days?  More free work! YAY!!!!

However, free is not all that bad.  It has its place and its use in our society.  If it werent for free information then I wouldnt have been where I am today.  I have found that if you know how to find what you are looking for, then honestly why pay someone else to do it?  I am not a web-developer by any means, but I have built my own website from flash and HTML from just information I found on the internet.  I have pretty much learned everything I know about photography from various places and people on the internet (besides my own experimenting with the camera of course)

So is free all bad?  No I would say not at all.  In fact, I have had a change of heart and decided to start contributing and start helping people out that need it.  Your gut reaction is to ask for a fee to help someone with knowledge or experience that was forged in your own hard work.  However, when you get something for free, your usual reaction is to be more charitable, after all, freely you received so freely you should give right?  Yes, unless you are just a dick and dont want to share anything.

I have also discovered that the free exchange of ideas and speech propels our society like none other.  It creates a breeding ground for brilliant ideas to surface.

But what does that have to do with photography and doing free work?  Well, not much to be honest.  Its just the simple concept to help change your perspective perhaps.  Selfishness and greed will definitely not get you where you want to go, and you cant get where you are going all by yourself.

How to: Beautifying tips in Photoshop

Everywhere you go, you see the beautiful people filling the covers of magazines.  If you dont know by now, a lot of the work is done in Photoshop.  But what are some of the techniques used to make your model look perfect?

Here is a typical head-shot session.  Im going to skip the color correction and save that for another time.  But for now, lets focus on the retouching of the model.

Ok, before I do ANYTHING else, I always duplicate the beginning layer.  I use a Mac so its J

Really simple but very necessary incase things go bad, you always have it to revert to.  Its also good practice to continue doing this throughout the edit.

It isnt until you zoom into your subject do you start to see the flaws, dont worry, every single person has them.  Everybody has some form of acne or wrinkles so lets figure out how to get rid of them.

Above you can see that I have pointed to the Spot Healing Brush.  This is a tool I use constantly.  all you do is make the brush size to fit your need (not too big of course) and just start clicking away at acne or sunspots.  

Sometimes though, you cant fix it with the spot-healing brush.  This is where you have to use the actual Clone Stamp tool.  You can get it by just typing "s".  How it works is that you pick a spot to clone from by holding "alt/option" (on a mac that is) and then clicking your target area.  Make sure you click on an area that you want to clone and then start brushing over the "bad area"  I recommend using an opacity of about 30%, its just much easier that way to get finer details.  The clone stamp takes a lot of practice, but it always gets the job done.

Ok, after a lot of clicking to get rid of sunspots and other unwanted features, we can see that we actually did a lot to improve our picture.  Yet there is still more to do here.  We want to really smooth out the subject's face. 

This is where I show a really cool trick called the History Brush.  I never started using it until a couple of months ago, I never knew what it was and thought it was a worthless tool.  I was very wrong, its a very convenient tool and it comes in handy in situations like this.

Ok, how do we smooth out the face?

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.  When the window pops up, set it to about 10px.

Now your picture is blurry beyond recognition.  This is where the brush comes to life.

In your History box you will see the Gaussian Blur at the bottom.  Go ahead and click on the little box to the left of it and you will see a little icon take its place.

After this, make sure you backup a step, click on the last action to take place right before you did the Gaussian Blur.  Now you will notice that the picture is no longer blurry.

Now all you have to do is click on the History Brush icon or just press "Y".

Using a lower opacity and soft edge brush, about 30% or lower is best for opacity, you want to start brusing over places like the forehead and other areas that have a lot of detail.  What this is doing is smoothing out the face by applying the Gaussian Blur in small amounts.  Make sure to leave some of the areas alone, like the eyes of course.

So after you are happy with this, you might want to lighten up a few areas by using the Dodge or Burn brushes.  But if not, you ought to be done.  Go head and compare the finished result with the very beginning picture.  You will notice a huge difference.

Latest shoot - Jason Taylor

Recently a friend sent me a message saying he has a friend who needs a shoot last minute.  I said sure go ahead and send him my way.  The next day we met up and headed to the Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

Jason Taylor has just finished up his album and I got a sneak peak of it as we finished up the artwork.  The album is called love Revolution and will rock your socks off.

Here are a few shots from the photo-shoot.

Puzzle Portrait Tutorial

I have a lot of people asking my how I made my puzzle portrait, so I thought I would give a tutorial.  Its pretty in-depth.  So here you go.

First off, I used photoshop CS5 in this tutorial.  When I made the original puzzle portrait, I used CS3, so you should be able to use any version you like, as long as it has the displacement filter.

What you will need is the picture that you want to turn into a puzzle and then some sort of picture of a puzzle.  What I did back in the day was put a puzzle together, flipped it over and then took a picture of the back of the puzzle.  Then I traced out a bunch of pieces.  Do not do this, it takes too long.  You can easily find a free graphic of a plain white puzzle on google.

Once you get your puzzle you will want to take out all that extra white-space, I did this while using Adobe Illustrator.  I did a live trace and took out all of the white in the picture.  I didnt think of this till the middle of this tutorial so you might notice the puzzle lines got thinner.  Anyways, here we go

Here is my image that Im using, I think it fits the mood well.  

The first step in doing a Displacement Map is that you have to prepare your image.

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.  Give your image a nice little blur, as you can see I used one about 8.4, you can go more or less if you want.  After that you need to desaturate your image or turn it into black and white.  Do a curves adjustment to give your image some contrast.

What this step does is setting up your map, soon you will see what Im talking about.  

After you are done with this, save it in a place you will remember, and save it as a PSD.

Ok, after this, what you need to do is import your puzzle.  For this I made three different layers.  One set for the face, one for the hands and one for the shoulders.  I also made them different sizes too.

Ok after you have placed them where they need to, go ahead and turn off the layers of the ones you dont plan on mapping first.  For me I started mapping the face piece.  Go into Filter>Distort>Displace.  

This is where it gets real tricky.

You will have to play with these numbers a bit till you get the mapping you want.  I stayed around the 15-25 range on each of pieces I did.  You should be pretty safe with this setup however.  After you hit ok, a dialogue window will popup asking for a picture, make sure you select that black and white image that is all blurred and nasty looking.  This image is going to be the indicator of the highs and lows of your mapping.

So now you have something that will probably look like this, its nothing fancy, not yet anyway.  It also might be a bit distorted too.  Dont worry, we will fix this.  Make sure you have your puzzle layers set to Multiply blending mode.

You are going to need to clean this up now.  Go through and delete the areas in the hair and sticking in the hand and whatnot.  

This is also the time where you will go in and use the liquify filter.  Its easy to find, go to Filter>Liquify. This is a whole new monster as well.  There is a little feature (at least on CS5) where you can see your background image.  You will zoom in and use a small brush to move small pieces in places.  This seems like a lot of work, and it is unless you have done this a whole lot.  But hey, its worth it in the end.

Also worth noting is that you might have to apply a soft erase brush to take away some of the areas just a little bit to add a fade.  You can also blur out some of the area where the picture is already out of focus, like the neck piece in this picture.  I dont think I did the best job on my example as I was in a hurry.

When you are done, you might have something similar to this...

Now lets get to the hands...

After erasing all the extra areas that didnt need to be used and did the Displacement Filter again, this is what I have.  Its ugly and has a lot of curves because of the way the hand is shaped.  So again, we go into our liquify filter and start playing around again.

Here is where I was talking about using the liquify filter and have the background in there to better help us.  The box is located at the bottom right btw.  You will need to play with this a whole lot in order to get the desired looks.

this is about what you want it to look like in the end.

Again, I did a little blurring of the pieces and a little erasing in shadow areas.

After this, you want to do the shoulders, at this point its pretty easy.   So go ahead and do that.

Now this is the last part you will have to do.  In each of the puzzle layers, do a bevel emboss on the pieces.  Play around with the effect till you get the desired look.  Also remember to set your blending modes to Multiply.  

Now you will have something that looks similar to this in the end.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Jaden Michaels Shoot. - how to shoot in direct sunlight.

Last Monday I went out to Venice Beach with an awesome friend to do a quick promo shoot for her up and coming album.  We ended up finding quick chemistry to get some really great shots.

I got to really see how my old 50mm 1.4 lens handled in the sun.  I also got to stretch my knowledge of lighting while over-powering the sun with a strobist kit.

I used my Canon 430 EX II speedlight synced with Cowboystudio's RF-604 sync system.  The whole kit was inexpensive to buy and I havent had too many quality issues with it.

The shots taken were with the sun in the background.  This usually causes a problem with dynamic range.  But using the strobist kit, I was able to fill in the shadows on her face.  There has to be a delicate balance in order for the shot to come out just right, otherwise the picture will look amateurish.

What you want to do is make sure that the background is a little underexposed, you have to meter the shots beforehand and then set it up using your manual (M) mode.  Here is where we come face to face with an obstacle.  The great thing about the 430 EX II flash is that you can do high sync speeds with it.  When shooting in direct sun you usually have to have a high shutter speed so its great to have this handy.

However, the Cowboystudio sync system only allows me to sync up to 1/250th of a second where I would want it to be over 1/2000th of a second.  In order to get a proper exposure on this day, I had to change my f-stop to about 18 which isnt a problem.  Not a big deal, just have to make sure you get a good balance.  With this I also had to have the flash on full power in order to get the balance.

This made for a fun learning experience and Im very happy with the pictures and how they came out.  

Super Macro!!!

New equipment opens up new doors for everyone, including myself.  The other day I finally received my m42 adapter for my 50mm 1.4 (finally have a fast lens) and a reversal ring.

Wait, whats that?

Im glad you asked.

A reversal ring is an adapter that allow you to use your lens backwards.  Why the heck would you ever do that?  Another good question.  When you do this, you get super macro DOF.  Why spend over $400 on a new macro lens when you can get the same if not better results with a cheap adapter?

Its very interesting to get used to it, you have to get very very close to your subject.

Here are a couple of photos for you to check out and see what it can do for you.

really tiny screws.

Abraham Lincoln on the back of a penny.

Here You can really see the razor thin DOF on this piece of metal.

Want a New FB Profile Pic?

Are you tired of your old picture on facebook?  Would you like a new profile pic taken by yours truly?  I am on a quest to give all of my friends a free facebook photo session, and guess what, its free.  Call or email me and set up a time and place.  Its that easy.
(must be in the LA area...)
Everybody deserves to have great pictures taken.

matthew@garsteckphotography.com
213.570.3681

I heart Stereo

I was approached to do a photoshoot with these guys last week and of course I obliged, I love music and I was interested in seeing what would happen.  They sing at our church, Angelus Temple each week so I had no problem hooking up some new friends.

I asked for some tracks to listen to to get a vibe of what they sound like and then form an image from that.  Im not sure how to describe it, but I liked what I heard and you wont be disappointed by them either.  They have a couple shows coming up including one at a place called The Roxy.

Check some of their music out here...

What can missed opportunities teach you?

It seems that I have had a lot of opportunities float my way.  Its almost funny how they happen to come around right at the perfect time, as if it were meant just for me.  Then what happens is something gets in the way that I had no control over and I miss the opportunity.

This has been happening quite a lot for me in the photographic world.  Honestly, its a bit frustrating because the one thing I hate the most is missing opportunities.  So what does it teach me?  It teaches me to take charge and overcome the "unforeseeable circumstances".  If this is true and they can be overcome, maybe we have more control over our lives than we previously thought we did.

Most of the time when something happens beyond our control we usually just move on with our lives because there isnt much we could have done, right?  If there was nothing we could do about it, then yeah, sure.  What if there was something we could do about it though and have just been totally oblivious to it our whole lives because we were told we couldnt?  

In all honesty I believe that this is what Ive been shown, that perhaps there is more control we can have in our lives.  For me, its the ability to take charge.  Ive always been in the middle of the crowd with great ideas but have been hushed by the roaring crowd around me.  Im meant to lead and to take charge, but why isnt it happening?

Thats the question to ask yourself.  Why isnt it happening?  Are you just going to chock it up to "unforeseeable circumstance" and just let it slide or are you going to learn that there is something you can do to change your situation?  This applies in the photography and business world and is very relevant.  The only ones that go on to be successful are the ones that overcome the obstacles and they make it happen.  Do you honestly think Donald Trump didnt have walls he had to climb over?  What about Ansel Adams?  Dont you think he had things that challenged him that he didnt see coming?

The point is that we shouldnt make excuses anymore.  Be innovative and no longer accept common thought that you know is wrong.  I know im meant to be a leader, its written right in front of me so clearly.  So instead of letting the circumstance get in my way of getting that awesome picture, well Im going to make it happen, no matter what.

And so are you...

Garsteck Photography: Utilizing the strobist mentality.

A few months ago, I decided I would start getting lights for a future studio.  I looked more into this thing called "Strobist" and I was very intrigued by it.  I felt God tell me, "Pray for lights" and I said, "Ok" and I did.  And now, I have lights, well, a light.

I researched and priced out my initial strobist kit.  I already had a Canon 430 EX II strobe so I was good on that end.  All I needed to get was a: stand, sync cable or a wireless sync system, umbrella, and an adapter for my flash.  No big deal right?

Well I found a cheap and workable set on Amazon.com and now its all here and set up.  It works like a dream and I am pretty happy with it.

Along with said equipment, I also bought a tripod, new lens caps and a remote for my canon (to essentially use my bulb exposure).

whats the big deal with using off camera flashes?  They arent as powerful as a monolight strobe and they cost the same thing, if not more.  This is true, however, they are very portable and lightweight.  If I wanted to get a monolight kit, I would have to have portable power.  Care to guess how much they cost?  Yeah, a lot of money.

The strobist kits are way portable and lightweight.  Not to mention they allow you to get creative with your setups by allowing you to use less.

I plan on getting another light and stand and all that.  I will have a two light strobist kit eventually.  I also plan on getting a nice two light setup from Alien Bees.  They also have great wireless sync systems and I am looking forward to eventually replacing my $20 setup.

Fear and Courage.

A few years ago when 300 came out I was like many who went to the theaters who saw it and loved it.  I remember coming out of the theater feeling something different.  I just watched a couple hours of brutal fighting (its a guy movie) but it wasnt the fighting that I liked, it was the attitude of the Spartans.  They represent a time when men were truly men.

We all live lives of quiet desperation and one reason I think that men love movies like 300 and Troy is because it speaks to something deep inside of them.  Its not the violence, its the courage that those men represent.  All men have something deep inside that calls them to be great conquerers.

One of my favorite lines from the movie Troy is from a scene when a small messenger boy alerts Achilles that he is summoned to battle.  The boy expresses his fear because the man Achilles has to fight is massive. The boy says, "I wouldnt want to fight that man" and Achilles says, "Thats why nobody will ever remember your name.

In today's society we tell small children that its ok to run from fear and that there is no shame.  We even get to the point where we tell people there is no shame in having shame.  We as men are sort of castrated in a way.  We are forced to be desensitized by those around us.  What the line from that movie tells me is that in order to be great, we must become great.  All men experience fear, however great men overcome the fear and become men that history remembers.

As Christians, we are required to overcome.  There seems to be a wall that we all have to face and in order to get past that wall we have to overcome so many fears.  We have to give our lives up for Christ in order for this wall to be scaled.  This is also expressed in the book called "The Pilgrims Progress" by John Bunyon.

Now, will men remember your name?  Even if you cared about such a thing, do you bare the required character to face your fear, to face the giant?

Hope pt.2 - Maintaining Consciousness.

The first part of this blog talked with how we are all hoping for something and that we are all somehow searching for God in so many different ways.  Yes hope is a great thing.  Now I want to talk about how hope can be bad.

So many people just try to maintain consciousness.  They want to get by and stay under the radar.  Somehow they did something that caused them to run in fear from the their conscience.  These people dont want to face reality, they dont face their guilty conscience.  In desperation, they look for something, some small thing to give them hope and to give them a reason to just get by till tomorrow.  Tomorrow they can find something else to live off of and hope for.  They hope that their deeds wont come into light, they hope to stay in the darkness.  

Its a miserable existence really, I know because I lived it once upon a time.  I anxiously awaited what would come next and I dove into it so that I could hide from my guilt, but guilt never goes away that easily.  There is only one way to a clean conscience and somehow deep inside we know the way to that path.  

Yet some people dont want to take that path.  They take comfort in knowing that just outside there is bright sunshine.  Some take comfort that salvation is right around the corner.  To them, their comfort and hope comes from knowing there is hope or that there is salvation but its not found in being saved and it doesnt come from actually being free.  Its a prison and its not pretty.

I say take a good look at your life and see what you are doing just to fill in the gaps, trying to avoid the inevitable.  Dont shy away from the light, its there for a reason.

Hope pt1

There is something so innocent about hope that there are few who would dare tamper with it.  Hope and faith are something that actually goes hand in hand.

We as Christians, we hope for the things to come from the God that nobody sees.  Most people desperately search for something to give them hope.  They will even go into a delusional state to believe that their hopes are for something real and that they wouldn't be let down.  I believe that all mankind are in this sort of desperation to hope in something.  But why are we all searching for something to hope in?

I will take the religious corner to answer the question.  In fact, religion is a very obvious way to show that on some level we are all connected.  Its amazing how people who are raised outside of any sort of society even have a religion.  They naturally will seek some sort of God.  

Indeed, I do believe that we are all born with an innate call on our lives to search for a God of some sort.  Yet the soul is not quenched with religion and you are able to see the evidence of this in the way religious people act.  Most dont act at peace, in fact, most seem like they are trying to prove to themselves that the "god" they worship is real.  For to show that what they worship does not exist would be traumatic.

This is why you see a world full of all sorts of different kinds of religions but they all bare the same sort of fruit.  There is nothing to really suggest they have any clue of what they talk about.  This is not to suggest that God does not exist.  In fact, it seems to prove that we are all searching for something without even being told to search.  Yes, God does exist, to me, the proof is found in mankind's search as if searching for a long lost love.  The discontent in our hearts keeps us wandering.

I take this with a sigh of relief to continue my personal journey with God.  Yes, I have found God.  Not just god, but the one we are all searching for.  My journey isnt exactly how my affiliated religion would normally desire nor is my relationship what it should be.  However, it is what it is.  I say let your relationship be what it is.  Stop being afraid to say that you arent alright or that you are in need of help.  Its the only way you will find God.