Before I start to explain the process used to create the above photograph, I wanted to thank Krista (an actress from Toronto whom I met during a Lighting Essentials workshop, visit her website here) for being such a good sport having endured the cold temperature of Montreal at the end of November with such grace. She is a fun and dynamic person fun to work with.

This specific photo was taken at the end of the shooting and as we were about to walk back to the coffee shop for a well deserved rest and a hot coffee, I was struck by the beauty of the stairs and the different textures of the side of this building located in the Ghetto McGill in Montreal.

I had bring my tripod and after taking a few photos, I decided to setup my Nikon D200 with a Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8. Before putting Krista into the frame, I took a few photos to make sure I was underexposed from 1.5 stops then I asked Krista to sit at the bottom at the stairs and act a little worried as if she was looking at someone upstairs, I then positionned my SB-900 with Speedlight Pro Kit diffuser and took this shot.

then, I asked her to go up the stairs and look down as if she was spying on a person downstairs and I adjusted the flash so it would lighten her a dialed it up a little in power.

For the last part, I wanted her to act as if she was intrigued by the whole scene. This time I had to move the flash.

I had to use a fourth image to cover the location where the flash was in Photoshop.

Then when all was packed and that everybody was warm at home, I started by putting each photo on a different layer and started masking so that the flash and lightstand would disappear. The lighting looks a bit surreal, but that was what I was aiming for.

Once it was done, I started adjusting contrast, tones and colours using adjustment layers (curves and black and white) and blending modes (color dodge for the door). I then went on adding some tonal contrast using high pass sharpening with a high radius. I added a few more effects after web resizing.

Here is a video showing the different steps involved:

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check my portfolio and my stock photos at http://www.davidgiralphoto.com

This specific photo was taken on Christmas Eve 2009 on a fairly overcast weather. I used a Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm all zoomed out at 10mm to make sure I captured the whole scene. I used a tripod to be able to stay at low ISO. The exposure lasted 2.5 seconds at F/10.0 and ISO 200.

Retouching involved mainly curves and levels adjustments in order to increase contrast on the whole image as well as locally.

• Photo after retouching

• Photo before retouching

• Video showing the adjustments done on each adjustment layer in Photoshop.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check my portfolio and my stock photos at http://www.davidgiralphoto.com

During my last trip to San Francisco, I had the opportunity to take a few photos at the blue hour in San Francisco before heading out on a road trip to Seattle, Wa.

The photo above was taken at Union Square and pictures the amazing facade of Macy’s store along Geary Street.

The three photos used were taken at 13mm with a Sigma 10-20mm lens mounted on a D300 and a Gitzo tripod. Exposures ranged from 1.6, 0.8 and 6s.

The particular challenge with this pĥoto was to correct
1- Level the photo accurately,
2- Correct the perspective using the lens distortion filter,
3- Blend the photos together via layers.
4- make various corrections.

Here is the making of of this photo – 3min 10s  (22 min in realtime) :

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check my portfolio and my stock photos at http://www.davidgiralphoto.com