Graham Owen Photography, Photoshopped?

Graham Owen is an excellent nature/landscape photographer in the Los Angeles area. He photographs one of my favorite subjects, The Eastern Sierras. This shot in particular strikes me a so familiar, yet I can’t seem to identify what lake it is. After careful examination I have determined this to be several shots composed in Photoshop. If this is the case he has done an excellent job. I was however analyzing a low resolution photo and I could be totally wrong.

Hey Graham, if I am wrong, please tell me where you shot this amazing photo.
The rights to this photo are held by Graham Owen.

Apple’s Aperture vs Adobe Lightroom

I purchased Aperture last year when I bought a new mac. It came pre-installed (they also shipped the install disk) and I was thrilled to start cooking up some RAW files. There was a serious learning curve but I seemed to pick-it-up. While working on a Red Bull photo shoot with world famous Musician/Photographer John Stephens he had mentioned Lightroom was the way to go. My office was ready to update some software so I put Lightoom on the list.

Immediately I was taken aback with familiar tools like COPY/PASTE (Aperture calls this LIFT/STAMP) and a simple, intuitive interface. Those already accustomed to Adobe products will absolutely find Lightroom easier to learn. The familiarity of the nomenclature is worth the extra $100.

Additionally, those of us who like to save our settings and apply them to a large group from the same shoot will love the ability to save presets in Lightroom. A feature not yet available in aperture.

Artist Ron Lipking

Healthcare Facility – Logo design

Simple Logo Design

Red Bull Energy Shot

I recently completed a photo shoot for Red Bull Energy Shots. The campaign eventually didn’t get chosen but it received much praise. To achieve this look I simply light the model’s hand from above with large white reflectors on either side. This image was heavily Photoshopped to achieve the dramatic look.

My role in this project: Photography, Photoshop

Muir Beer Microbrew Label

I just finished designing the label for Beehive Brewery’s Muir Beer. You’ve got to check out this microbrew if you get a chance. It is pretty good. I was faced with several challenges like, maintaining an emotionally organic label yet maintains the ability to stand out next to the big breweries on the shelf.

Beehive Brewery's Muir Beer Label

More Sofia Portraits

My daughter has become my best model while testing some seven-point lighting technique.

Indesign PDF and Black – SOLUTION

Anybody who has exported a PDF from InDesign with a black background in their art knows exactly what I am talking about. “Why the Hell does my black background turn gray?”

I have spent many grueling hours surfing numerouos message boards, and I haven’t found one that truly addresses this issue. What starts-out as a simple question, typically becomes a huge discussion about Rich-Black. If you don’t know what rich-black is, please do a little research before you read any further.

Here’s my work-around:
Export to EPS. Drag your EPS to Distiller.

It is as simple as that. There is an obvious programming error on Adobe’s part with the InDesign PDF engine. It is usually when there is placed bitmap art (ie: tiff, psd, etc.) on a black background.

UPDATE: Thanks to Jae-Que, I would like to add, exporting to Acrobat 4 solves this problem. But, the debate still goes on whether or not there is a flaw in the programming. I insist, on-screen rich-black and transparencies should be supported by current Acrobat versions. Additionally, Apple Preview further complicates the issue by screwing with the colors.

Artist – Jeremy Lipking

Lipking.com

Corporate Portrait

President and C.E.O. of Kastner & Partners, America, Thomas Grabner.