YLFoto

Several people have asked me about my approach with the photos, so I'm going to use my lookfab blog to document aspects of the workflow. I'm kicking off with the simple post processing that I did for one of the photos in today's post on Angie's outfit for the Tokyo wedding.

My primary goal with outfit shots is to accurately capture how the scene looked to me when I took the photos. So I do want to faithfully represent the colors, but I will also use post processing to get the right "feel" into the picture.

1. Original Photo: I always shoot in aperture priority mode (more on that in the future). I let the camera choose the exposure. "Exposure" is the amount of time the camera needs to keep the shutter open to get enough light to make the picture. For dark scenes, the camera needs more time. For bright scenes, it needs less.
2. Adjust Exposure: The camera under-exposed Angie because the bright trench made it think there was more light in the scene than there actually was. I can easily correct that in the first step of post processing on my Mac, raising the exposure a little, effectively brightening the image.
3. Rotate & Crop: First, a small rotation to correct the horizon because I have an aversion to slightly rotated scenes (intentionally rotated shots can be quite nice). Second, a slight crop to frame Angie a little better.
4. Add Drama: Finally, a subtle filter that adds a touch of drama to the shot. In this case I am just overlaying 10% of a black and white version of the image with the original.

I chose this as the first example because these steps are very typical of what I do for photos on YLF. There are other examples where the processing is much more extreme (for example, when I have to deal with white balance issues).

(By the way, if you are reading this post in the YLF forum, try viewing it in my lookfab blog to get a better side-by-side look at the different stages. The differences are quite subtle.)

Here is a photo that didn't make the cut for our Kyoto posts. It is a rickshaw driver that we saw near the entrance to the Silver Palace.

Everything about this guy signals that he plans to go fast. Very. Fast.

From his lycra cycling gear and booties, the watch that will tell him whether he exceeded his personal best time, to the low wind resistance headband and his muscular legs.

Not to mention the facial expression of singular focus.

If rickshaw races were an olympic sport, I have no doubt that he would be in contention.

Here's a little more background on today's outfit post, Embracing Colour.

As Angie said, this is a free wall in Seattle's University District. While we were there we saw a few artists doing their thing. I chatted to one graffiti artist who goes by the name "What It Do". That's him with a newly completed work. The letters are N.O.D., the name of the crew he associates with. It stands for "Not On Dope".

He also explained the significance of the word "aybee" that's on the wall in many places. One of the few female Seattle graffiti artists, Ana Dyson (previously Ana Bender and also known as "AB") had passed away in February, and other graffiti artists were paying tribute to her. One part of the wall had a painting of her where people had left flowers.

I noticed several occasions where one or more of the photos that people uploaded were "broken". After a little investigation I found the bug. Hopefully it is fixed, but if you do see any strange things happening with photo uploads, I would appreciate it if you sent me a private message to let me know about it. Please include a link to the thread where it happened.

I'm testing with two photos (taken by me and Morgan respectively) while we were taking a break in Palm Springs last week. A big thank you to Angie and Inge for covering for us while we were away.

UPDATE: Had to add a photo of Derek, the 3rd musketeer.

This will probably be my last set of pictures. It has been a lot of fun collecting these for such an appreciative audience.

Note the creative use of safety pins in #5. We saw several examples of this.

It was only later when I was looking through the days "catch" of candid pictures when realized I had captured this exchange between the master street fashion photographer and his subject. At the time I was just getting a photographer in action and some colorful leggings.

And just in case anyone hasn't heard of Bill, here is the documentary you need.

I only had a few minutes between shows to sneak in some pictures of the crowd. Luckily, you can point your camera in almost any direction and someone interesting walks into the frame.

Most of these were taken while waiting to enter Custo Barcelona. Of course, I am picking shots based on what is interesting or different. There are plenty of people who look pretty normal, if a bit dressed up. It is great how people here are getting into the spirit of the occasion.

The fourth day of fashion week, but our 3rd day because Angie took Saturday off for the YLF gathering.

These were taken while waiting in line. Time passes pretty quickly with this kind of visual feast passing by.

Enjoy!