Top 3 Ways to become a happier photographer

Posted on November 8, 2012 by David Levine

1. Automate anything and everything that doesn’t require personal intervention. That’s a fancy way of saying: just relax and make your robot computer do the dirty work. Find ways to cut time from the total time you spend on images by letting the computer finish the tedious work. Here’s stuff my computer does for me: optimizing images’ resolution, size, color space, or adding metadata, applying specific actions, and merging sets of images. Find those actions through Photoshop, Bridge, Lightroom, etc… To automate order fulfillment, I looked for websites that host images AND provide print services directly or through partner labs. I use Zenfolio to automatically handle all client orders. All I have to do is make sure everything is uploaded correctly, and after that, Zenfolio takes care of the rest, including customer service. They’re great at what they do, so why should I interfere?

2. Create a variety of content! Shooting the same stuff and processing it the same way gets super boring for me, and very repetitive for the viewer. What I like to do now is to shoot something extremely goofy or stupid (which comes totally natural to me… ha!); then I focus on shooting something intentionally dark & dreary. It keeps me on my toes and hopefully adds an element of surprise for any random viewers!

3. Define workflows for everything to remove unnecessary uncertainty! For the longest time, I didn’t have a plan for ANYTHING. That includes downloading, saving, uploading, & sharing. So every single photoshoot, I had a totally different plan that was based COMPLETELY on how I was feeling that day. Well, I started working with more people, and having deadlines, and it became facking chaos. So I literally wrote out step-by-step paths for most of my processes. Now, I can rely on a defined plan unique to each process. Like right after a shoot, I batch rename the raw files into a temporary hard-drive, append metadata, apply basic raw edits, and finally star the best images. I’ve learned though that the way I perform is totally different from any given person, so the right way is the way that is most comfortable for you. Whatever gets the job done, right?

Well, those are the top 3 ways I became happier about shooting, processing, and sharing photography, whether it be for personal or commercial use. Care to share your helpful hints that can make me even happier?

Top Secret Technique 4: Spontaneous Combustion by Black & White conversion

Posted on October 20, 2012 by David Levine

There’s something about the old-school film techniques like wet plate and daguerreotypes that feel so… MMMMMPH. You know? It’s so good, it literally feels like an explosion and a few slaps on the back. The blacks are so rich and dense, and the whites feel so dimensional. Is it just me? Well, I’ve dissected images (or atleast tried) that are made with those old processes and applied color conversions to digital images to get similar results. Check it out below:

1. Here’s your original, color picture. Let’s get started.

2. Slap on a Black & White adjustment layer and adjust the sliders based on your own image. At this stage, it’s best to have a flatter image in terms of contrast.

3. This black gradient on soft light depends entirely on the content of the image. I want to make the man’s face pop out and make his body recede and draw less attention.

4. Curve layer numero uno: add contrast in the face. I push the blacks down and raise the mid-tones & highlights. To make those blacks very rich and dense, this curve needs to be steep!

5. This curve layer is to flatten and darken the surrounding area around the face. This’ll make the face pop more, and it’ll make the face have the brightest whites and the darkest blacks. You’ll notice the curve’s 0 black was raised to approximately 10, and the shadows were dropped. This flattens the darkest shadows together and gives them less contrast.

6. This curve layer is a very subtle adjustment to modify the entire image rather than parts of the image. I slightly raised 0 black, and raised the shadows slightly. I made sure not to raise the highlights because the whitest whites would lump together and grab too much attention.

7. This purpose of this last curve layer is to add a bit of color to the image to make it look slightly aged. These curves need to be very subtle so that nobody consciously sees that this b/w is in fact a color image. Sneaky sneaky

8. The next 3 layers are to add texture to the image to make it appear as if it were film/plate. I added noise, but you could add any texture here with the same process. In 12 I blurred the noise, but you’ll blur whatever texture you choose to use.

13. Flatten your image and apply an Unsharp mask. The ammount, radius, & threshold completely depends on your image.

Did this help you at all? Maybe you have a better way of doing it? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you made it this far, give yourself a round of applause. Check out my portrait photography portfolio if you want to see more. Happy weekend!

A picture of me & my speedlite family + a quick update

Posted on October 8, 2012 by David Levine

Here’s the whole family: Ma and Pa… and there’s me holding lil’ Suzy in front.

I’ve been workin’ on this exciting Magic Mist series, and I’ve gotta say, each shoot is SOOOO freakin’ fun. Once that ice-cold water hits the person sitting, it really brings out the fun side in him/her.

I’ve got a few more exciting personal shoots in the planning stages, and I’m also still shooting Magic Mist portraits, so who knows what I’ll show you next time… Until then, have a great week!

To view my portrait photography, visit the main site for David Levine Photography.

You can also view some stunning pet portraits at PuppyLovepics.

Ice Water Squirting Everywhere!

Posted on September 22, 2012 by David Levine

Remember the post when I started a series of portraits of people getting squirted with water? This series now has a name: Magic Mist. Here’s the idea:

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves to let go and experience life in the moment, free of the stress that has accumulated in our lives. By bombarding people with a magic mist, they tune into their bodies, responding purely to their immediate environment.

Since my first attempts at this a few months ago, I’ve refined the lighting, figured out better ways to edit the images, and most importantly, started shooting ICE COLD water at people. I’m hoping to shoot a diversity of people: young, old, little, big, male, female, and people of all skin colors. Anyways, here are just a few from the past week. Enjoy! Check out larger images here.

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Getting it out of my system…

Posted on September 1, 2012 by David Levine

So I’ve randomly shared pic.’s of animals on my facebook for over a week now, and I just had the idea to get it all out of my system here and now. Enjoy these images from the past 2 years. In the future, I’ll be posting about my pet photography services and my family portraiture. This blog will include all that I do, not just my fashion photography.

Smooth Outlines

Posted on August 27, 2012 by David Levine

Photography: David Levine Photography

Model: Jessica Trenay Williams

Sometimes, a major idea is thought-up & added all in the post-production phase. That’s what happened for this shoot.

The idea of having “walls” on the side of the images struck me AFTER I finished retouching this batch of images- seriously. I reviewed the files, and I just thought: “Jessica’s surrounded by pure white, and this whole thing is just boring and forgettable…” I’m used to that nagging, self-deprecating artist’s conscious, but this time, I trusted it! So I spent an extra day retouching and added in fake walls whose shapes interact with her body. I had never done this before, so it was all guess an check and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing for awhile. To make the walls, I used radial and linear gradients at different radiuses (radii plural?) to get that out-of-focus-edges look. Only one image has colored walls. Why? I have no clue. It just feels right.

It reminds me of James Bond movies, looking down the gun barrel. Or peeking through keyholes. That’s the sort of vibe I wanted to achieve by surrounding Jessica in color & darkness. I really love the negative space that was created between the edges of the canvas & the model. So without further delay…

I’ll shoot your everything: head & body shot galore

Posted on August 19, 2012 by David Levine

Disclaimer: Regrettably, that isn’t me in the video. I’d totally join him given the opportunity though…

If you’re an aspiring model, a model who wants more experience in front of the camera, or maybe even someone who just needs to update your model book, I now offer photo sessions for you. I literally just call it David Levine’s Model Development Service. Pretty creative, right?

My goal is to provide you with images that suit your needs. If you’re more interested in doing fashion modeling, then our session will be focused on getting dramatic images that show off your uniqueness. Maybe you’re more interested in beauty or lifestyle modeling? Then our session will be focused on bright, vibrant set-ups that complement your shine. Of course, whatever your needs may be, I’ll do my best to accommodate. So check out the juicy details right on my main website and contact me to set up a shoot! Below are examples of the quality and creativity that I bring to every shoot:

David Levine Photography