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Bill Pador > So Saturday it is, this week has been a yoyo up & down battle health wise for me but I'm feeling much better as of Friday afternoon. Hopefully this will continue for the next few days because our weather is said to be near 90' for the next 4 days, Hurray ! I have a Sweet 16 party booked for tonight and I'm looking forward to a fun shoot as my client is a close friend of my oldest daughter. I'm always amazed at how well behaved the young folks are at these high grade parties and they seem to have a lot of fun which gives me a lot of shooting possibilities to make the client happy with lots of fun memories to look back on. This will be my first official shoot with the SB-900 so I'll report on it's performance as well ! Since I wasn't feeling 100% today I decided to just sit in the digital darkroom and play with my smoke art again. This piece is titled "The Bow Legged Torso" LOL When I first looked at the first layer I saw some bow legs and what appeared to be a woman's torso, hence the name. Hey it's a fun piece and I liked the finished product so I decided to post it for today's Daily. It's made of 3 separate smoke layers along with flipping and blending each layer for a total of 6. The good thing about this piece is that I discovered another technique to do some really cool things with smoke that I will use in my next piece, I just want to perfect it a little more before I show it but I think you'll like the results. It adds a really cool art deco twist to an already cool looking art form. I should be ready to unveil it by weeks end after I get a chance to shoot some more smoke frames and get the right combination of shapes & forms I'm looking for. Oh one last thing, Project "SMILING JOE" is close to being launched. I have a few more things to take care of and hopefully we will get JOE off the ground and on to his journey. I'll let you all know when it's ready to go, shouldn't be but a week or so and I think his first stop will be to pick up his girl friend so he doesn't have to travel alone! (Angela are you listening?) Joe is scheduled to land on ALL 6 CONTINANTS Now ! I'm still looking for a place in JAPAN OR CHINA if anyone is interested ? ? ? So have yourselves a great weekend and I will be reporting on my Sunday Daily of how tonight's party goes. Chow for now . . . ~Bill~
Bill Pador > Pictured here are the basic 4 Untouched Raw Smoke Images that I used to create the Smoke Art Piece titled "X-Ray Aliens" located in my "April '09 Photo of the Day" Gallery SEEN HERE so that you can see how this technique starts off and then the finished image after some creative work in Photoshop.
Bill Pador > "X-Ray Alien" details best viewed @ X-Large First I'd like to Thank You all for the wonderful response to yesterdays smoke art piece & step by step I did. I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed it & were interested in the instructions and possibly trying this technique out, it is after all a lot of fun and pretty simple to do once you do it once. I just wanted to clear up the concern about using 2 lights, you do NOT need to use 2 off camera lights for this, you can use a single with great results. I had done this with one flash until now without any problems & just added the 2nd to try something new, you just replace the second flash with a reflector piece opposite the flash unit pointing some light back into the set so you get the 3D effect of the light bouncing off the rear of the smoke and your golden. For Nikon users with the iTTL Creative wireless flash system you can also use 1 off camera flash and then utilize your pop up flash unit on the camera set at a low power instead of just using it as a master / trigger to fill in the front of the smoke as well. Any questions fire away and I'll assist you. I did another piece tonight using 4 different smoke shots that I duplicated, flipped, layered & blended together, using the same techniques as yesterdays. This one turned out really cool creating several ALIEN faces & 1 whole alien figure in the middle looking like he's doing jumping jacks. Look behind & under him and you'll see several more alien faces staring straight at you. View this at X-Large to see all the details in this one guys, it's really cool IMO and what you see is ALL SMOKE as shot, nothing has been manipulated besides the colors and some minor dodging & burning to bring out some of the depth in certain areas. I only spent about 30 minutes from start to finish so as you can see it's not a huge project and can be done quite quickly. "HERE'S THE BEGINING OF THIS PIECE" If you'd like to see what the raw beginings of this image look like I placed the raw images as a small collage in my Extras gallery so you have an idea of how simple this starts off as and what a little work in CS3 can do to create an artistic piece. SEE RAW IMAGES CLICK HERE "MY Nikon SB-900 SpeedLight Review is Complete & Posted" You can check it out on my blog located here: http://billpadorphoto.blogspot.com/ ~. . . Enjoy the read & the music !~ Have a Great Hump Day (Wed.) folks your half way to the weekend ! ~Bill~
Bill Pador > "Heart of Smoke" Best Viewed @ XLarge Good Monday folks, I hope all of you who celebrate Easter had a wonderful holiday with your families, ate some good food and enjoyed the company of others. Today was a very good day for me pain wise and I felt like a million bucks, so I felt like playing around with my new flash the mighty SB-900 and wanted to play with duel off camera flash. In doing so I went back to one of my favorite hobbies and that is playing with SMOKE Art. This piece was conceived almost immediately upon shooting this frame, as soon as I saw the raw shot in the LCD I knew it was going to be a HEART just by the half shape I saw emerge in the LCD. Kinda looks like one of those crystal displays that light up only in 3D don't ya think ? The last time I did one of my smoke creations I received a ton of emails asking me HOW to do it, so today I present a basic step-by-step for those interested in trying this fun project: "The Process & Layout" This shot is actually one frame that I duplicated and flipped horizontally on a separate layer using screen mode to blend it to make the final image. So imagine HALF of it down the middle and that's what the original raw shot looked like. Then I took my own technique I've developed to change the colors of the smoke and came up with this color scheme to highlight the heart in the middle with a small flame at the top as if lit like a candle, like a heart on fire. "The Set Up & Execution" The lighting setup consisted of the SB-900 in front of the camera at 5 O'clock facing 11 O'clock tilted upward at 45' using the wide angle diffuser and bounce card engaged set as a slave unit @ 1/80th power with a black background to the rear. On the other side was a SB-600 same settings pointed at 2 O'clock bunch card & wide angle diffuser @ 1/80th power. My D300 pop up flash was set as the Master TTL unit set only as a Master unit with no flash engaged to set off the SB600 & 900. 2 DIY reflectors made of tin foil on card board were placed in the far corners of the set to reflect a small amount of light back into the scene to create the 3D effect in the smoke. Smoke was generated from 2 small incense sticks directly below the lens dead center approx. 12" from the lens. When doing this technique I recommend that you MANUAL focus on the Incense STICK then adjust your lens just above it. The camera is set on a tripod along with using a wired trigger so I can concentrate on watching the smoke come up with both eyes and setting it off when I see a shape developed with the smoke and then firing, Camera settings are SS=1/80th @ f/10 ISO 640 zoomed to 75mm, be sure to use your lens hood to prevent lens flair since the flash is so close and to the side.. "Some Finishing Tips" You may have to adjust your focus after seeing how sharp or soft you want the smoke to look. I also recommend that you do this in a SMALL area that does not have any wind what so ever so the smoke rises as straight up as possible. I do this in my studio with large 3' x 2' card board slats on each side and I block the bottom of both office doors with some towels to keep any breeze from the house out because ANY breeze even the slightest will make things rough and screw your smoke up. Once you have smoke layers blended you then select an area, create HUE & SATURATION layer and adjust for the colors you want then merge the layers after each color adjustment. Then I use the Smudge tool to blend any harsh lines where the colors meet using a low opacity and many passes to make the blend natural looking. I've created a SET DIAGRAM on HOW TO Layout your set to shoot smoke art CLICK HERE TO VIEW If anyone has any questions about using this technique yourself please feel free to post or email them to me, I'd be happy to help. It's a lot of fun guys so give it a try ! ~Bill~
Bill Pador > This is a simple diagram of how I lay out the set for shooting my Smoke Art creations one of which can be SEEN BY CLICKING HERE with full instructions, settings and set lay out. Best Regards, ~Bill~
Bill Pador > "The In-Sense Rose" Challenge Code for 'SENSE' 12/29/08 The Sense Challenge...12/29/08 The Challenge: Show us your interpretation of the word, "Sense," or any spelling of the word. The Participants: Kre8ive, John (300m), The Curious Camel, Creative Deviance, Johnloguk, MyKey, Trevlan, MSpencer, and myself. The Result: Until Saturday Morning I had no clue on what I wanted to do for this weeks challenge shot. My original idea was to shoot a pair of Givenchi cologne bottles I received for Christmas (for the Sense of Smell) but then it hit me right in the face because of some Incense sticks I also got - So the In-Sense Rose (or Incense) was born. I shot several streaks of incense smoke burning and then off I went into CS3 to create this piece using the techniques I developed while doing my Smoke Art Creations. This piece was created entirely using 3 different smoke patterns, then individually mirrored and placed side by side. The colors then created using various layering techniques and masking to form it the way I wanted it to look. Then I applied a blank white canvas behind it and placed a texture into the piece to give it some body, then finally the lettering was added. Looking at it you can see a pair of Abstract Roses at the top with some fire flames burning in the middle to light the roses and some lets say carnations on the out sides of the bouquet. Use your imagination and you'll see what ever flowers or objects you want, that's the beauty of art isn't it! I had a lot of fun with this challenge, I hope you enjoy my entry ~Bill~
Bill Pador > "Photo of the Day" April '09 photo
Bill Pador > "Photo of the Day" April '09 photo
Bill Pador > "Photo of the Day" April '09 photo
So Saturday it is, this week has been a yoyo up & down battle health wise for me but I'm feeling much better as of Friday afternoon. Hopefully this will continue for the next few days because our weather is said to be near 90' for the next 4 days, Hurray ! I have a Sweet 16 party booked for tonight and I'm looking forward to a fun shoot as my client is a close friend of my oldest daughter. I'm always amazed at how well behaved the young folks are at these high grade parties and they seem to have a lot of fun which gives me a lot of shooting possibilities to make the client happy with lots of fun memories to look back on. This will be my first official shoot with the SB-900 so I'll report on it's performance as well !

Since I wasn't feeling 100% today I decided to just sit in the digital darkroom and play with my smoke art again. This piece is titled "The Bow Legged Torso" LOL When I first looked at the first layer I saw some bow legs and what appeared to be a woman's torso, hence the name. Hey it's a fun piece and I liked the finished product so I decided to post it for today's Daily. It's made of 3 separate smoke layers along with flipping and blending each layer for a total of 6. The good thing about this piece is that I discovered another technique to do some really cool things with smoke that I will use in my next piece, I just want to perfect it a little more before I show it but I think you'll like the results. It adds a really cool art deco twist to an already cool looking art form. I should be ready to unveil it by weeks end after I get a chance to shoot some more smoke frames and get the right combination of shapes & forms I'm looking for.

Oh one last thing, Project "SMILING JOE" is close to being launched. I have a few more things to take care of and hopefully we will get JOE off the ground and on to his journey. I'll let you all know when it's ready to go, shouldn't be but a week or so and I think his first stop will be to pick up his girl friend so he doesn't have to travel alone! (Angela are you listening?) Joe is scheduled to land on ALL 6 CONTINANTS Now ! I'm still looking for a place in JAPAN OR CHINA if anyone is interested ? ? ?

So have yourselves a great weekend and I will be reporting on my Sunday Daily of how tonight's party goes. Chow for now . . .

~Bill~
Bill Pador > So Saturday it is, this week has been a yoyo up & down battle health wise for me but I'm feeling much better as of Friday afternoon. Hopefully this will continue for the next few days because our weather is said to be near 90' for the next 4 days, Hurray ! I have a Sweet 16 party booked for tonight and I'm looking forward to a fun shoot as my client is a close friend of my oldest daughter. I'm always amazed at how well behaved the young folks are at these high grade parties and they seem to have a lot of fun which gives me a lot of shooting possibilities to make the client happy with lots of fun memories to look back on. This will be my first official shoot with the SB-900 so I'll report on it's performance as well ! Since I wasn't feeling 100% today I decided to just sit in the digital darkroom and play with my smoke art again. This piece is titled "The Bow Legged Torso" LOL When I first looked at the first layer I saw some bow legs and what appeared to be a woman's torso, hence the name. Hey it's a fun piece and I liked the finished product so I decided to post it for today's Daily. It's made of 3 separate smoke layers along with flipping and blending each layer for a total of 6. The good thing about this piece is that I discovered another technique to do some really cool things with smoke that I will use in my next piece, I just want to perfect it a little more before I show it but I think you'll like the results. It adds a really cool art deco twist to an already cool looking art form. I should be ready to unveil it by weeks end after I get a chance to shoot some more smoke frames and get the right combination of shapes & forms I'm looking for. Oh one last thing, Project "SMILING JOE" is close to being launched. I have a few more things to take care of and hopefully we will get JOE off the ground and on to his journey. I'll let you all know when it's ready to go, shouldn't be but a week or so and I think his first stop will be to pick up his girl friend so he doesn't have to travel alone! (Angela are you listening?) Joe is scheduled to land on ALL 6 CONTINANTS Now ! I'm still looking for a place in JAPAN OR CHINA if anyone is interested ? ? ? So have yourselves a great weekend and I will be reporting on my Sunday Daily of how tonight's party goes. Chow for now . . . ~Bill~
So Saturday it is, this week has been a yoyo up & down battle health wise for me but I'm feeling much better as of Friday afternoon. Hopefully this will continue for the next few days because our weather is said to be near 90' for the next 4 days, Hurray ! I have a Sweet 16 party booked for tonight and I'm looking forward to a fun shoot as my client is a close friend of my oldest daughter. I'm always amazed at how well behaved the young folks are at these high grade parties and they seem to have a lot of fun which gives me a lot of shooting possibilities to make the client happy with lots of fun memories to look back on. This will be my first official shoot with the SB-900 so I'll report on it's performance as well !

Since I wasn't feeling 100% today I decided to just sit in the digital darkroom and play with my smoke art again. This piece is titled "The Bow Legged Torso" LOL When I first looked at the first layer I saw some bow legs and what appeared to be a woman's torso, hence the name. Hey it's a fun piece and I liked the finished product so I decided to post it for today's Daily. It's made of 3 separate smoke layers along with flipping and blending each layer for a total of 6. The good thing about this piece is that I discovered another technique to do some really cool things with smoke that I will use in my next piece, I just want to perfect it a little more before I show it but I think you'll like the results. It adds a really cool art deco twist to an already cool looking art form. I should be ready to unveil it by weeks end after I get a chance to shoot some more smoke frames and get the right combination of shapes & forms I'm looking for.

Oh one last thing, Project "SMILING JOE" is close to being launched. I have a few more things to take care of and hopefully we will get JOE off the ground and on to his journey. I'll let you all know when it's ready to go, shouldn't be but a week or so and I think his first stop will be to pick up his girl friend so he doesn't have to travel alone! (Angela are you listening?) Joe is scheduled to land on ALL 6 CONTINANTS Now ! I'm still looking for a place in JAPAN OR CHINA if anyone is interested ? ? ?

So have yourselves a great weekend and I will be reporting on my Sunday Daily of how tonight's party goes. Chow for now . . .

~Bill~
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