Iowa Lilly, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Another flower image from my trip last summer to Iowa. This Lily had a couple of ants crawling around and some of the pollen had fallen onto the petals. I cleaned that up in post. I’ll post the original image out of the camera in the comments. This image is another flower I’m hanging on the wall as a 16×12 print.

Technical Ramblings: All natural light. Had to push the exposure up about a stop to get the image to pop. Lots-o-clone tool work in Lightroom and then some more cloning in Photoshop to remove the pollen on the petals and the two ants. Totally Rad Actions; Oh Snap! (no saturation layer as the yellows clipped and I doubled up the contrast layer)

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 20 Mar 09, 9.52PM MDT.

Out of the camera RAW image.

Iowa Cone Flower, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Working through some photos from my trip last summer to Iowa. This cone flower was in my soon to be wife’s mom’s garden in North English, Iowa.

Technical Ramblings: All natural light. Only did some slight sharpening in Lightroom and then off to Photoshop and the Totally Rad Actions: Oh Snap!, Lights Out! (to darken the upper right of the frame) and Lights On! (to lighten the center of the flower, I’m sure there’s a fancy name for it).

Kyle, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Kyle sitting down on the job. I’m starting to think I’ll never get through all of the photos from the session with Kyle. I’ve been at this session for the last 3 weeks. Uggh! After I’m done doing the post work magic I still have to go back and select my picks for submission to my iStockPhoto portfolio. This will include key wording all the images and that is a big undertaking. Another unless bit of information about this image is it was taken with the wicked cool Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II at 33mm. With a full frame camera shooting this lens at 16mm is a lot of fun.

Technical Ramblings: Two AlienBee B800s in large softboxes camera right and left. Lightroom sharpening and clone tool work on the skin. Photoshop CS3 and Totally Rad Actions; Modified Oh Snap! (I’m now calling it Mark Snap!, basically I removed the Defog layer as I feel it over sharpens the image), Lights On (painted a mask over Kyle and set at about 40% opacity), Pro Retouch (smoothing of the skin). I also did some additional clone tool work to remove the outlet.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 14 Mar 09, 10.18PM MDT.

The RAW image from the Canon 5D Mark II. Photoshop is my friend.

Kyle SX-70, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Working through some more images of Kyle next to my living room wall. This image is suppose to emulate a  Polaroid SX-70 look. The  Polaroid SX-70 was produced during the 1970′s. You know that Polaroid that folded.

Technical Ramblings: Two AlienBee B800s in large softboxes camera right and left (actually right next to each other). Lightroom sharpening, exposure bump (1/3 stop) and clone tool for skin touchups. Photoshop CS3 and the Totally Rad Actions; Modified Oh Snap!, Burn-out (no edge burn and customized the vignette), Pro Retouch (skin smoothing and whiten eyes), Lights On (pushed Kyle up about 15% in brightness) and finally the SX-70 action.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 12 Mar 09, 7.56AM MDT.

Kyle, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Another sample from the modeling test shoot with Kyle. This was the first image I captured from the session. Very fancy suit.

Technical Ramblings: Two AlienBee B800s bare and fired at the white seamless background. One AlienBee B800 in a large softbox camera left. I don’t have the silver reflector camera right in the this shot and the shadows are a bit too much. Lightroom sharpening and clone tool for skin touchups. Photoshop CS3 and Totally Rad Actions; Modified Oh Snap! (basically no additional sharpening), Good vs Evil (whiten the background), Pro Retouch (skin smoothing and eye whitening).

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 11 Mar 09, 9.59PM MDT.

Kyle and Book, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

The model Kyle peaking over the edge of a very old book. The book is one of mine and about 50+ years old (The Peabody Sisters of Salem 1950).

Technical Ramblings: Again two bare AlienBee B800s fired at the white seamless background. Background is about 8 feet behind Kyle. One AlienBee B800 in a large softbox camera left. Silver reflector camera right to lighten the shadows. Lightroom work included; sharpening and touch ups on the face. Photoshop for some Totally Rad Actions; Oh Snap! (no defog layer), Good/Evil (lighten background), Pro Retouch (skin smoothing and eye brightening). Are these technical ramblings useful to people?

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 4 Mar 09, 5.29PM MST.