Try something new and experiment for a day

If you follow my work, you know that it consists mostly of boudoir and model photography.  I love working in these genres, but sometimes I like to try something new.  Prior to moving to the DC area, I worked as a sports photographer for a local city newspaper in Pennsylvania.  I absolutely loved photographing sports and sometimes find myself missing it quite a bit.  With that said, I ventured out this past weekend in the 104 degree heat and photographed a sport I hadn’t before.  I also experimented with the post processing to give the photo an entirely different look than what is currently in my portfolio.

I looked up a local skateboard park where I currently live and scouted the location and talent a few weeks ago.  Finally having the time to return to the skate park, I headed out with my camera and lighting equipment.  I had somewhat of an idea as to what types of photos I wanted to get while I was there, but was there more to just have fun with it and try something new.

I used my JTL Mobilight 200 and had it powered by its battery pack.  The shots I took were with my Canon 40D and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens.  The one thing that I noticed was that the power output of my light was barely getting the job done, which I knew was going to be a problem.  Next step, get some stronger lighting.

I also took the day’s experiment to try out a new style of editing.  My photos are mostly colorful with a nice soft and smooth look to them.  With skateboarding, I wanted to give the photos a more rugged look in Photoshop.  To do this, I copied the background layer.  I then desaturated the newly created layer completely.  After making the layer black and white, I then put a high pass filter on it with a radius at about 80.  Then, on my layer palette, I changed the blending option of the layer to “Hard Light”.  The last step was playing with the layer’s opacity to get the look I was wanting.

All and all, it was a good day, and I’m now really interested in doing more work in skateboard photography.