Making Your Mark

Any advertising guy knows that branding is everything. Well, I've been a little lax with my recent uploads to this blog with my watermarking. Some people use watermarking as a way to protect their images from "misappropriation" and that's something to think about. Aside from this, I like the presentation this gives even more so. Especially as I work with more people and give them samples from the shoots, I'm going to ask that when they display them on their online portfolios to keep my watermark on them.

When reviewing photographers on OneModelPlace.com and even models, it's great when a model adds your OMP number to your images, but the watermark is visible to all that don't follow the links. There are a number of photographers on OMP that I recognize their style now when I see it, but only because I've seen a bunch of their images watermarked in models portfolios (attention nicovision, it works! I like your stuff!)

So, how do you make this quick and painless while keeping it professional. I prefer the Russell Brown approach. On his site, he has a Creating Watermark Tutorial and Quicktime Movie. It's a fast approach do doing this easily and quickly. All you need I a logo in a "path file" or shape in Photoshop and you are ready to go.



You've seen mine in previous image examples, or in the header of this site. But here's one I made for my friend, Matt and his soon to be released site (right matt? Wink wink, nudge, nudge.)

Lighting Podcast

It's a funny story how this all came to be, but I'm co-host on LightSource, the brightest podcast about studio lighting. Our episode 1 released this week. While I'm still getting the hang of "broadcasting", I think it's a good show. In this show, we talk about lighting news, setting up a studio in your home and have an interview with Paul C. Buff owner and creator of Alien Bees and White Lightning lighting systems.

I'm looking forward to future shows and improving my technique as well as learning, talking and teaching more about studio lighting. If you have any ideas, comments or suggestions, feel free to email me, or contact us through the podcast page.

Listen today, tell a friend. This podcast is also available via iTunes in the iTunes directory... and mentioned on the home page of alienbees.com

Photo Manipulation, Prison and Internet Religion.

Isn't love grand? Photo manipulation reaches new heights. Imagine you are confined to a certain location, like say… prison. But wish you could take a vacation somewhere with your significant other (and not the one you share a cell with.)

Well, now there is a company catering to this group. Thanks to Adobe Photoshop, this company is now taking prison visit photos and putting the subjects where they wished they could go.

This brings up an interesting question. As virtual reality becomes more of… well, a reality, will it's use be restricted for prisoners? I know I've played computer games where the experience was so real that I felt like I had been "immersed" in another reality. Or even the Internet allows that to a point (are prisoners allowed online?) A former creative director I worked with argued that the Internet was man's attempt to be more god-like. With the ability to "transport" to anywhere in the globe through the web, it closes gaps that used to exist before. Information is instantly accessible that once required lots of research and maybe even some traveling. I can see where this quest for "all knowing knowledge" could be perceived that way. (To counter the god-like theory, it's important to remember there is a difference between knowledge/information and wisdom.)

I constantly marvel at how the Internet has shrunk the world for me. I used to be very centralized here in South Central Pennsylvania. Now I have people I consider close friends that are all over the states, different parts of Canada, some in the UK and Europe. And they are no farther then my bedroom office.