Uh. Maze. Ing.

Joel Ifill Making Drops, this and all images by Jim Murphy.

Check out what Jim has to say about Air Drops for Puerto Rico:

Tell us a something about yourself, Kyle. Where are you from? Married? Pets? How did you get into photography?

I’m from Ann Arbor, MI, single, and I travel with a German Shepard.

My mother’s side of the family is huge, so I was 17, already shooting as a hobby, when I gave some prints to my cousin of his son’s birthday. He paid me in return and the lightbulb turned on. Haha! I could have fun and get paid?! Mind. Blown. I was a mechanic for 3 years getting self-certified, then took off on an epic road trip for the first time. New truck (currently still going strong at 215k), new dog (adopted at age 2) and the open road. Found Colorado amongst all of the glorious other perfect locations. Came back to get my shit, and moved. I come from a family of “learn by doing” type mentality. That gave me a less stressful strength to fight for the photographer’s dream.  I was a valet/bartender on the side while organically building my business by word-of-mouth. Ya know, lots of cheap/ free shoots for the first year or two to get off the ground.  Shot my first wedding as an assistant (first and only time i’ve done that). The bride and groom reached out to me separately from the “hired” photographer to tell me that they loved my photos the most . . . that wasn’t a boost of confidence at allllll. Since then I took those photos, built the crappiest website, moved all over the states  – Chi,  Den,  Asheville, Santa Cruz, New Mexico, building my clientele of families to photograph as I drove around the states. It was  kind of an accident. Curating my clients as I moved around the country. Tried buying a house, but pulled out and decided to fill the wanderlust side of my heart. Instead I got a little to buzzed on craigslist, emailed some airstream sellers, woke up to a couple replies, checked it out, and BOOM all of a sudden I’m pulling a 3,000 lb,  1952 Airstream behind my 2007 Nissan Xterra.  SIDE NOTE – I was traveling/living in my Xterra for a year with my rooftop tent before I decided to check out the “tiny house living idea”, which, tiny house era had yet to begin. I grew up having vacations with the family (one sister that’s younger). Dragged the trailer back to Denver, where I gutted it completely from the floor up and made it my own.  It’s completely off grid, which I knew I needed since I was traveling/posting up on fire trails or campgrounds for most of that first year with the trailer.  Solar, composting toilet, woodstove. I’ve been traveling in my “home” for the past 3 years. Been a riot of a ride, but am happy with the decisions and paths that have been presented to me thus far.  I am currently sitting in Boston after shooting a wedding all day yesterday, flying to Vietnam to shoot some more and back to Denver for another wedding, btw . . .

How did you get involved with Joel Ifill, DASH Systems, and Air Drops for Puerto Rico?

Joel is an old high school friend. It’s his start up and called me out of the blue to see if I could make him look good on the first flight of his new precision air drop technology.

How much of Maria’s devastation is visible from the air? Downed power lines? Washed-out roads and bridges? Roofless homes?

A shit ton. Roofs gone. Animals washed away. Water poisoned and dirty.

When making drops, are there visible gestures of celebration or gratitude from the folks on the ground?

Not that we can tell. There’s a small crew on the ground to accept the packages.

What has been the most challenging aspect of this mission for you personally?

Keeping the mosquitos off of my while sleeping in the hostel or the beach. Haha! Lots of standing water.

What has been the most rewarding?

Knowing that I did better than Trump tossing paper towels.

What gear are you using?

5dmiii 16-35 L 2.8. GoPro5 on a karma grip for stabilization.

Are you still there? If so, how long do you expect be helping and documenting the air drops?

Plan on going back if more people donate. Will go as long/often as I can.

How can we help?

 Donate what you can to our GoFundMe!

Your donation goes towards one thing only: delivering packages anywhere on the island with no excuses. Any donation helps push our mission forward and allows us to sustain operations. Beyond donations, if you know of organizations or individuals in need of delivery please contact us and we can work together to help Puerto Rico.

Thanks, everybody!

Let’s donate now and show these guys the awesome power of the LOOKSLIKEFILM community!

“Did I leave the oven on?”

Follow kyle!

Posted by Seth Langner, Contributing Editor, Florida & Destination Wedding Photographer, http://karmathartic.com/

The post Air Drops appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

As we all know, often photography is more about problem-solving than anything else – transforming difficult, challenging circumstances and conditions into something compelling or beautiful or true. And this image is a perfect example of this process. Matteo took those proverbial lemons and made some delicious lemonade.

No doubt.

Matteo. You. Go!

I was born in 1983 in a wonderful town in South East Italy. Puglia. I took my first picture in 2011, at the beginning to escape from reality. Later, when I turned my camera to people, I’ve felt the necessity because it was like talk about me, through their emotions. Straightaway I decided to tell and talk about people on their most important day, and so I moved myself to the Wedding Photography. 

I love to travel, to discover, and say something new in every occasion, that’s why I do weddings, not only in my region, but also in Italy and Europe, and soon in other continents, I hope.

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

I don’t know if  “inspire” is the right verb, I like a lots of photographer, but I think that taken a bit from everyone is my way to learn, even those who have a totally different way of working compared with me.

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about what gear you uses and your workflow, how you crafted the image, both on set and in post.

Almost never do I have an image before working. I like to feel energies and emotions and myself fully inhabit the place where I’m going to take pictures. But, if I already know some details, I start to visualize images in my mind.

My workflow has nothing special. I realize the pictures while I’m shooting, knowing what I want for later. I use lightroom for a post production – very simple and I use personalized preset films.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion.

This image has shown up for necessity. We were in front of the Colosseum at 5 o’clock pm, full of tourists, full of advertising stands and other disturbing objects. I only wanted a photo with the couple and the Colosseum. Soon I  thought of a kind of reflection to eliminate the part below and to be honest I did a great job, but it wasn’t enough. I was looking for more, and after that the photo popped up in my mind. As you can see from the RAW files that I’ve sent, at the end I only did a colour correction, contrast, and a light crop.

The final picture was what I wanted, without knowing it.

Mouse over the image for that sweet B&A magic!

_MLP5755

Follow Matteo!

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Blogged by Seth Langner, Jacksonville, FL wedding and portrait photographer. http://www.karmathartic.com/

The post Before & After with Matteo Lomonte appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

When it comes to crafting compelling images, it never hurts to have an extra tool in one’s bag, and Atmosphere Aerosol is just that. Fog in a can. Sweeeeeet. And under the right conditions, namely little-to-no wind, it definitely adds some drama to an outdoor shoot. But, it’s easy to burn through a can pretty quickly trying to get the right coverage of spray in one’s frame; there’s definitely a learning curve. And, obviously, an extra pair of hands, or two, are needed while one’s snapping photos. And be quick. The stuff, as one might expect, dissipates quickly.

Overall, it’s a nice thing to have on hand to spice up a shoot. And, $11.95 per can ain’t bad.

Stay tuned for our next review of Atmosphere Aerosol · Indoor Edition. We suspect it has much more potential indoors, without all the variables of outdoor conditions.

Images and review by Seth Langner, Jacksonville, FL wedding and portrait photographer. http://www.karmathartic.com/

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The post Atmosphere Aerosol · Product Review appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

Several weeks back, our friend and colleague Mircea Branda had us scraping our collective jaws off the pavement with these gorgeous images. So, yeah, we had to learn more about how he crafts these rich and intimate wedding portraits. Check ‘em out, guys!

Mircea. You. GO!

Hi there. I am a photographer from Romania. More recently I’ve been shooting weddings, but it all started as a hobby seven years ago when I bought my first camera. For a long time my artistic focus was macro and street photography. Then, a good friend of mine and a great photographer as well, Lucian Borza, asked me to join him and shoot a wedding together. That is how it all started.

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

I’m inspired by the work of some great wedding photographers such as: Ed Peers, Jonas Peterson, Dylan Howell & Sarah Byrne, Gabe Mcclintock, Gianluca Adovasio and many others. Also, the fact that I did macro and street photography for many years has trained my eye to focus on the little details that matter.

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post.

Before a photo session, I like to meet with my clients first and find out a little bit about them. What are their interests or passions?  I also observe them as a couple. Are they adventurous or reserved? These bits of information can really set the mood to a session and even inspire a location. Then during the session my main concern is to keep it all natural. The first thing I tell my clients before a wedding is to try to forget that I am even there.

I like to keep my workflow as simple as I can. At a wedding I shoot somewhere around 3,000 photos. The first step, which I consider most difficult, is selecting the photos that I give to my clients. Then I import all my photos to Lightroom, choose an action and start working.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion.

I had this location in mind after finding out that the groom is an architect and that the couple also loves nature, just like me. The place itself is a complex of traditional houses in a village near my hometown. We woke up very early in the morning and started shooting. Long after the sun rose, as we were heading back, I accidentally saw this wonderful place behind a hill where the sun hadn’t shown up yet. That is where I took this photo. Back home, I selected Kodak Gold 200 and started to get to work.

SOOC

Final Edit

Bonus Eye Candy!

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Follow Mircea 

Post by LOOKSLIKEFILM contributing editor, Seth Langner | www.karmarthartic.com Jacksonville, Seattle wedding photographer

The post Before & After with Mircea Brânda appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

This image by Thomas Morel is just gangbusters! Now get the low down on how this fine art masterpiece came to be . . .

Thomas. You. Go!

I am Thomas Morel, Dutch photographer living in Norway. Born 1988. Official Hasselblad ambassador. I have been working professionally since 2007, with customers like Nike, Puma, IOC and Maui Theatre and Scandic to mention a few. For the past two years, I have mainly been focussing on creating art for customers who wish to decorate their venues with taylor made photography. I am specialized in freezing motion that goes by too rapidly for the human eye to register.  I don’t have any education whatsoever, and have chosen to rely on my own instincts to shoot imagery that I feel comes straight out of my heart. It is simply a way of trial and error; if something doesn’t turn out good enough, I have to change something until it is exactly how I want it to be. Don’t let anyone define the value of your work, stay true to yourself at any time.

I make a point out of not creating the motion or gesture in post production. Off course I do use photoshop for minor adjustments like color correction or removing disturbing elements, but the motion itself is unmanipulated. I do this because I believe the true art of photography is it’s ability to tear something completely out of context, it is a slice of time within the absolute universe of the frame. You only see what I want you to see, and the fact that it is not manipulated is something that I hope intrigues the viewer even more as to how the shot was taken. The beauty of photography is that you don’t see the sweating of the models, you don’t hear their heavy breathing, and you don’t see that they don’t land on their feet right after the shot is taken. You just see the slice of time that I find interesting, without seeing the context.

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

I am inspired by perfection. Other artists who don’t stop until they have exactly what they are looking for, artists who keep pushing their own limits as far as they can go to create something that gives the audience a glimpse into the creative mind of the artist.

This basically involves every singe creative artist who follows his or her heart, no matter if it is music, painting or photography etc. that they create.

Creativity, and the feeling it gives you, is really personal. So I would be an idiot to point out artists that do “good” work; you have to decide for yourself. But artists that create photographic work that inspires me tremendously, are for instance Lois Greenfield and Tim Flach. The technical perfection of their work is something from another planet, another universe. I get emotional when I look at their work, just because of the sheer technical and creative perfection of their imagery.   

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post.

I started working the way I do because I felt that I wanted to control the situation that I was shooting completely. I don’t want to be a spectator, because I want to create something that I find interesting rather then something that is “correct” or “realistic”. I much rather manipulate the truth to get my results then manipulating the photo in post-production, and that means that I have to be able to control the setting completely in order to visualize my idea. Before I start organizing a shoot, I know exactly what I am looking for, and what I need to make it happen. That is basically the whole essence of my workflow.

Off course, during the session itself, there are always surprises, and I am completely reliant on the models to be able to do what I want in a natural way. The fact that I always shoot tethered enables me to communicate the vision to the models, and they can come with their input to get is as good as possible. It is always a close collaboration between me and the people I shoot. When it comes to post production: as you can see the only thing I did was darken the background even more to point the focus as much as possible on the dancers and their gestures.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion.

I took this shot in Lois Greenfield’s studio in New York. I had no gear or experience at the time, I just knew that I loved the way Lois worked, and I knew what I wanted to create. This was my first ever try at doing something professional, and I owe Lois a lot to give me the chance and confidence to realize it. After this shot, I went back to Norway and persuaded the bank to give me a loan to buy my own gear to continue creating artwork like this.

It was such a great experience to get to work with such talented dancers like these four (Miguel Quinones, Dario Vaccaro, Patricia Foster and Colleen T. Sullivan) it is one thing to have a vision, but a whole other thing to find the dancers who are able to actually realize it. 

BONUS EYE CANDY

Quad_Renaissance

Sleeping_Beauty

Now mouse over this image for that sweet B&A magic!

Quad_Renaissance_VSCO

FOLLOW THOMAS

This post edited by Seth Langner ~ www.karmathartic.com 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The post Before & After with Thomas Morel appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

This week’s Before & After is brought to you by BACON! Yeah, no, seriously . . . bacon.

Maggie! Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Maggie Sheffield. I am a lover of Christ, Wife, & Mother.  I live in a little farm town in Oklahoma. My husband, who was my high school sweetheart, is a farmer and we have two beautiful kiddos, Drake (5) & Dru (3).  My husband gave me my first camera about 4 years ago. I literally had no intentions of starting a business from it, I just wanted pictures of my kids with a “good” camera.  I was a stay at home mom & about a year and a half later, I decided to really dig into photography.  I had help from fellow photog friends, inspiration from other photographers on social media and just practiced my rear off. I learn something new ALL. THE. TIME. I think that’s what I love most about photography. You always evolve, you don’t have to have one certain style, & I am constantly pushing myself at seeing things differently.  

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

Tarah Sweeney is one of them. I have followed her work for a while & bought her E-Book a while back. I love her style and messy view. I am all over the place and I think she is too and I just love how she put that into her work and how she photographs her own children. I love the mood in her photographs and how she uses available light.

Mae Burke is another. I love how she photographs motherhood. Obviously, that’s one of the most important things in my life and to see her whole career be focused on that, I was just like WOW. I love that whole take on it. I love the raw feeling in her images and you can just feel the emotions for new moms.

Another thing I am influenced by is not a photographer, but a television show. My husband and I are obsessed with FARGO. I literally say on every episode, “Babe, pause it. Look how amazing that would be if it were a still image.” The tones are phenomenal, it is always gloomy & moody and I LOVE it. I get so much inspiration out of it after every.single.episode.

My husband and my kids definitely inspire me– My husband is the most encouraging person and literally- whatever I need, he makes sure I have it. He’s my free advertising! We can’t go to a store without him telling everyone about my photography! Ha!  My kids inspire so much of my photography. My favorite images are of them . . . biased? Yes. But, I think when you have so much emotion in your photographs and the ones that make you feel something. They’re always your favorite. I love looking at their images and remembering exactly what was going on in that moment. Something I’ll have forever. Can’t beat it.

Do you have  a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post.

I usually don’t have a specific vision before shooting, maybe a few ideas or things to try, but for the most part, no. Sometimes when photographing my kids I do. I feel like I step outside of the box with them. I’m trying to put that into play on all of my sessions 🙂  My workflow is super simple. I’m a wife & a mama and I literally don’t want to (CAN’T) spend my evenings at my computer editing all night.  

I shoot with a Nikon D4s and my main lens is Sigma Art 35mm 1.4. I also have a 70-200 2.8 that I love, but for the most part, my 35 doesn’t leave my camera.  I edit mainly in Lightroom. Photoshop if needed, but I try to avoid it, because I have no idea what I’m doing in there most of the time. Ha! I love my presets from VSCO and the new ones from Tribe Archipelago. If I can get one click & go, I’m a happy girl.

Now, tell us how this amazing image came together.

Okay, for real…. BURNT BACON. This has cracked me up! I’m not kidding.. We were cooking breakfast on Christmas eve morning and the bacon got a little burnt, so it was smokey in my house. We are all sitting at the kitchen table eating and the sun is shining through our door and the blinds. I’m thinking wow, that would be a neat photograph. I get up from the table without saying a word and my husband jokingly says, “Oh, man, I need to grab my camera for this…” (I said he was encouraging, I didn’t say he couldn’t be a pain!) My kids were kind of playing in the rays and then my son went back to eating and my daughter was standing there still and I said, “Dru, look outside. Tell me what you see.” Then I just started photographing her there. I knew I would love the images, but I wasn’t even sure I would post to Facebook. I imported into Lightroom and clicked on the Kodak Gold presets, tried the 101- bumped up the temp a little and I was like wow, that looks REALLY good with just that. (I’m simple, I told ya) I saved it and uploaded to Facebook & that is that. I’m BLOWN AWAY by all of the feedback. I was literally sitting at my computer about to log off Facebook and kept seeing all of the notifications from everyone, I had to give my husband an “I told ya so!”  

Thank you guys so much, I am so inspired by all of the photographers on this page and all of the photographs I see daily. You all push this small town girl out of her element and I love it.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

SOOC

The bacon

Follow Maggie!

The post Before & After with Maggie Sheffield appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

We all loved this image; so we had to get the skinny, as they say. So, here goes!

Hey, Beth! Everybody was awestruck by this image. So gorgeous! How’d you make it happen?

This photo was shot during the golden hour on top of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, NM. I wanted to photograph the model, Sachi, in this beautiful Free People gown. I also made the eucalyptus crown. Hair was done by Max Sanders and makeup was by Kata Baron.

Gear?

Canon 5DMIII & 35L.

Settings?

f/1.4 | ISO 100 | 1/1600

preset? 

Alien Skin Exposure Fuji Provia 100

SOOC?

final edit

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Ready for some more off-the-charts gorgeousness? Check out the rest of the session here.  

Follow Beth!

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The post Before & After | Beth Wells appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

Need more to be thankful for this holiday season? Feast your eyes on our latest Before & After with Daniel Alonso.

It’s a veritable cornucopia of visual deliciousness!

Tell us a little about yourself, Daniel.

I’m absolutely inspired by cinema. It was my visual school since I was a kid. I always try to imagine how my favorite cinema directors or cinematographers would shoot a wedding. That’s a huge freedom of possibilities. In this way, Terence Malick, M. Night Shyamalan, David Fincher, Emmanuel Lubezki, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan… are references for me. 

Your influences. Who are they? 

And talking about wedding photographers: Fer Juaristi (my main reference), Jonas Peterson, Jeff Newsom, Sean Flanigan, Samm Blake, Roberto Ramos, Sara Byrne… And such much more. 

Do you have a vision before shooting a wedding? Tell us about your workflow – how your vision comes to life while shooting and in post.

I have some of my own rules when planning a shoot that makes it “my style”. Basically, my priority is emotion and good light. Finding these two things is my obsession and I try to make them come together in the same frame. But, I always try to be in an open-minded state and think like a cinema director, like I said before. 

This photo is and example of working outside of my own rules. 

My workflow is as follows:

1. I shoot almost 4000 photos per wedding. I select 800. I re-select 150-200 of this 800. I use Photomechanic for the selection. 

2. I edit that 150-200 with LR. Always with Portra 160++ as a base. 

3. I end the final look with ASE. I use Fuji Reala. 

4. I make a slideshow with these photos. 

5. I edit the rest of the 800 photos using the same post-process and catalog that as the first edition. 

This process takes me 2 to 3 days.

When posting the wedding, I try to tell the story even if I have to “lie” in the order of the images to make it more cinematic. 

I studied cinema scripting in college and it helps me to try to tell a story. 

Now, tell us all about how this magnificent image came to be.

The story of this photo is the story of a photo that I didn’t want to take.

We were coming from the ceremony to the venue and taking some time for the portrait shoots. I had in my head some shoots that I planned the day before and we were running out of time.

Suddenly, on the road we saw all the sheep in the country field.

In my head, I saw that great pictures could come from this. But I didn’t ask the bride and groom to take them. I saw a lot of difficulties. Just in my head: how can I ask them to stop the car on a side of the road, get out the car, get into a dusty and dirty country field to try to get a good shot? It was an internal fight for me. I didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable.

“OK, let’s do this” I said to myself.

And we did it.

The final image that I wanted to take is this one.

But in the process of getting this, I asked them to take a walk up the hill while I was shooting that sequence.

And then it happened.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The post-processing was as follows:

1. SOOC

2. I use Portra 160++ as a beginning with and warm tone on shadows and pink tone in
highlights.

3. I decreased the highlights and the saturation of reds, yellow and oranges.

4. I opened the photo on Alien Skin Exposure. I applied the Fuji Reala and used the bokeh
tool to give a little tilt effect just on the below zone of the photo, just to avoid that the
stones get the attention.

5. It’s done. 🙂

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Now, dear viewers, Feast your Eyes upon the whole sequence!

04.rocio.luis.boda.2074.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2077.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2079.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2082.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2086.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2091.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2106.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2107.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2115.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2116.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2120.People-Producciones

04.rocio.luis.boda.2139.People-Producciones

Follow Daniel!

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The post Before & After | Daniel Alonso appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” ~ Road Dahl

Although we don’t always see or believe it, our world is full of magic and wonder, and it’s images like this that help remind us. But, it takes more than a good camera to capture that magic. It takes an adventurous heart and a keen eye. And, like Ansel Adams said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”

Heiko Schmidt’s capture of this German castle is just such an image. Let’s hear from him just how the magic happened.

First, tell us a little but about you.

My name is Heiko Schmidt. I’m 24 year old graphic designer from Germany. I am from a small town called Wetzlar, better known as the birthplace of the Leica Camera – but I never had one. I’m just a guy with a camera, who likes to capture memories and have a good time with people. Most of all I like to photograph people and landscapes.

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

There are many influences, but I guess music is the most important source of inspiration for me. I listen to a lot of Instrumental/Trip-Hop. It really gets me into a thoughtful mood. Also, I try to travel a lot and explore different places. But sometimes it is even a stage play or movie that inspires me. But above all, it is the people around me and the ones who I look up to – like the German photographer Johannes H. (@IG: pangeaproductions)

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post:

Sometimes I prepare everything in detail – I even draw what I imagine for the shoot on paper. Often I just shoot with gut instinct. And suddenly I see something I want to implement. And other times I don’t even start taking photos in the first place but observe my surroundings in detail.

In post-processing I think choice of color is most important; I play a lot with colors.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion: 

After stressful weeks at work, I had to get out. In search for some relaxation, only one thing came to my mind: a fresh breeze and quiet. Inspired by other photographers on instagram, the destination was easily found. So I asked some friends to go on a walk through the woods with me. 

We left the house at 4am to get there before sunrise. We hiked in the dawn through the dark forest in between rabbits, foxes and deer. 

As soon as we got to the castle, the sun has slowly risen and the fog that surrounded us on the way has gone. It was a really cold day and the first sun rays gave us an incredibly warming happy feeling. 

First I tried to capture the castle from many different perspectives.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

After we had some good shots, we decided to move on. Past the castle, I took a last look back, for another photo. A strange perspective slightly from the side.

After I checked my photos on the computer I felt very frustrated – no fog and too much harsh light. Not the fairytale mood I expected. Through post-processing with Lightroom I tried to get the fairytale mood back onto my photo.

First I cropped and straightened the castle. To fill it with warmth I changed the white balance.

I lightened up the photo and corrected some areas with the adjustment brush to highlight the fog. 

With the dehaze slider I reduced the haze to get more structure of the castle.

After that, I experimented with VSCO Presets, but I wasn’t satisfied with the colors.

So I took out the green and changed yellow into orange.

At the end I added some Graduated Filters with more saturation to intensify the orange colors of the forest.

Et Voilá.

Follow Heiko’s work!

The post Before & After | Heiko Schmidt appeared first on LOOKSLIKEFILM.