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[Jia Jem]

This is a thread where you can request links to other tutorials. Please keep all requests in this thread and do not make a new thread asking for a specific tutorial.

Otherwise, this forum will be nothing more than another general help forum. We want this forum to be a useful knowledge base, not a request page. Thanks for understanding.

[ByeByeBeautiful]

I would love a tutorial on where to place strobes during a shoot. I seem to have a lot of trouble finding a comfortable distance and not nuking my subjects. A basic distance formula, that's really all I want!

I've looked on strobist.com, but so far no dice.

Thanks!

[FiveRings]

Originally Posted by ByeByeBeautiful

I would love a tutorial on where to place strobes during a shoot. I seem to have a lot of trouble finding a comfortable distance and not nuking my subjects. A basic distance formula, that's really all I want!

I've looked on strobist.com, but so far no dice.

Thanks!

Have you tried searching for lighting diagrams? If you can't find anything relevant, we could start a lighting diagram thread where you pick a photo from someone's collection and we could either dissect the lighting or the photographer could explain their setup.

[ByeByeBeautiful]

I have found some lighting diagrams on Flickr. The idea of a diagram thread intrigues me!

[KiraCosplayHai]

okay, you have just had a wonderful cosplay photoshoot, you love the shoots, and you wanna edit them, add effects,blur stuff, etc. only to open up photoshop, and you dont know how to use it.(fail, i know.) so anybody got any tips, or a tutorial on how they use photoshop to edit thier pictures? i have seen great photos use it to add efects and stuff, and there amazing!
any help would be aprciated

[ShiNo_Usagi]

I only use PS for manipulating an image (which I don't do too often) Light Room is what I recommend using, it's by Adobe as well and pretty easy to figure out =)
If you want crazy effects though, yeah, You'll want to use PS.

[brucer007]

What type of things would you like to do with your images? We might be more helpful if you had a process you wanted to understand better. There are artistic effects for creative looks and styles and aesthetic effects to correct aspects that did not come out in-camera the way you wished.

[Ashurachan]

If you're a beginner, I'd suggest getting Lightroom first, it's a great tool for organizing photos, developing raws, and exporting your work.
Lightroom allows for more precise manipulation of light and colors than Photoshop, without touching the original picture, and as you can copy/paste any combination of settings from one picture to another, it's also quicker when working on a photoshoot, for which you generally want homogenous photos.

Once this work on light and colors is done, you may want to open it in Photoshop to correct some things (removing blemishes, cleaning the bakground...) or because there is some light/color effect you only want to apply to a part of the picture.
One of the best pieces of advice I can give you for Photoshop is : ALWAYS use layers while working, and always keep an unaltered background layer until you're finished. Learn how to use layers, as well as layer masks. If you do several edits on your picture, use as many different layers.

For example, I'm currently going through a series of pseudo-studio shoots I've done in July. We did not have proper lighting studio gear or studio backgrounds, so there's a lot to correct. For any picture, I generally have these layers :
* a background layer with the unedited picture
* above it, a layer to correct the background (wrinkles on the white sheet we used as background, dirty floor) ; I mostly use the clone stamp for this.
* above it, a layer to smooth skin (everyone has a different technique for this, mine is to make it extremely smooth, and then put the layer at 50-60% transparency to recover the detail of natural skin under it).
* above it, a "selective color" adjustment layer that makes the whites whiter (in order to even the background even more).
Each layer above the first has a layer mask associated to it, so that the correction only applies to the parts of the pictures I want it to. It's especially handy with the background correction layer : I can do the clone stamp thing very roughly, and then fine-tune as much as I want on the layer mask with the brush and eraser tools.

Hope this helps, and sorry for the grammar

[firecloak]

What do you guys do when you pose with another cosplayer?

Arm around the shoulder? Linked arms?

I've been doing the arm around the shoulder, but it doesn't work well with tall people.

[tfcreate]

Originally Posted by firecloak

What do you guys do when you pose with another cosplayer?

Arm around the shoulder? Linked arms?

I've been doing the arm around the shoulder, but it doesn't work well with tall people.

I try to get them to interact with either each other or with something in the environment.

If they're characters from the same series, I try to encourage them to come up with something among themselves since they will likely know more about the series than I.
If not, I'll offer generic poses or action to add a bit of life to the shot.
The important thing is not to just stand around.

[atemluver]

i have no clue how to smile for pictures. i am smiling challenged. i'm sure im not the only one out there, but i really need help. i look like an idiot. (//_ _) does anyone have tips or anything to help i would be very greatful. I just cant stand to see my pictures anymore its that bad. and it really is.....please someone help me so i dont look like an idiot!!

[Tealeafy]

I totally feel your pain. This is a little trick I tried out before my last convention:

Stand in front of a mirror and experiment with your facial expressions a bit. If you want a smile, try a few different ways: a grin, a smirk, etc. Find one you like, then try to remember how it felt when you were expressing it on your face. That way, when you're getting photographed you can achieve the smile you got in front of the mirror by remembering how it felt on your face. It may sound strange, but it does work after a few tries. Not sure if I explained it well enough...

Hope that helps! Have a good time at the photshoot.

[edwardskittykat]

Think of somthing REALLY funny like inu yasha in a pink tutu then the smile wil come out natrally don't try to force it or it won't look right

[Ashurachan]

Don't force anything. Just trust the photographer to catch that one moment where your smile looks good.

[mylilpazuzu]

Originally Posted by Tealeafy

Stand in front a mirror and experiment with your facial expressions a bit. If you want a smile, try a few different ways: a grin, a smirk, etc. Find one you like, then try to remember how it felt when you were expressing it on your face. That way, when you're getting photographed you can achieve the smile you got in front of the mirror by remembering how it felt on your face. It may sound strange, but it does work after a few tries.

This really does work. Like with many other things in life, practice makes perfect. And, when you're posing for photos, don't forget about your eyes. Make sure you look at the camera and don't squint. I used to ruin so many pictures because my eyes were doing something stupid, but I have the problem much less frequenly now. Practice practice practice!