DIY: Glitter Phone Case

My old iPhone case was getting a little worn so I thought this would be the perfect time to try out DIY iPhone case craft (from Design Sponge). I love sparkly, shiny, glittery things so this was right up my alley. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any mod podge so I settled on the next best thing I could find, glitter glue.

Here’s my take on this quick little diy.

If you read how Grace did it over at Design Sponge you’ll see she applied hers on the inside of the case. I don’t have a screen protector on the back side of my phone and I was afraid the glitter would scratch it so I painted the outside of my case instead. Yes, it’s rough (lets call it texture) but I kinda like it, it was a labor of love.

Enjoy,

Jack

How to: Simple Up-do

 

 

If you’ve been on Pinterest or Tumblr, and if you love pretty hair, chances are you’ve seen this photo. I’ve spent many hours trying to figure out how this was done but I could never find a tutorial for it. To me it looks like a rope/waterfall braid hybrid. Then earlier this week, I tried out the 5 minute hair-do (croissant bun) and it suddenly clicked. I knew how to do it in my head and I suspected that it would look so much better with curly hair. And since I’m lazy and can’t be bothered to curl my hair, I needed a willing victim.

Here is my version of that twisty-tumbly hair-do:

Kryz looking oh-so-girly. If you follow her on Twitter or Instgram than you know she wasn’t always this composed:

8 minutes later…

But finally, success!

I promise, the hair style took less than 30 minutes to create. It just took us awhile to photograph it since my room didn’t have enough light.

So after a quick change in venue we were finally able to grab some photos:

And it’s so simple. Here’s how you get this look:

1. If it’s not already curly, curl your hair.

2. Take a headband, we used Kryz’ stay put elastic headband from Goody, and secure with hair pins about halfway down your head. Or do what I did and have your model hold it in place.

3. Take 1″ sections of hair and wrap it around the headband once, letting the rest of the hair fall.

4. Repeat from ear to ear (we did it from one temple to her bangs).

And that’s it! If you’re having trouble picturing how to warp the hair around the headband check out the video from my croissant bun post.

Love,

Jack

How To: Levitate

There has been a lot of interest in my recent blog post on the Experimenting with Gravity shoot. For those of you who asked, the image is a composite and here is how we did it.

First, I directed and shot our model (Anne Concepcion) against a white backdrop. Yes, she really is jumping in the shots. I was lucky enough to have such a graceful model who made jumping (over and over and over again) seem effortless and beautiful. It helped that I knew exactly how I wanted her to pose and where I wanted her to be in the photo. I made little sketches for her to follow (will not be showing those as they are absolutely horrid) and I even attempted a few jumps myself (will not be showing those either!) so I could show her where I wanted her limbs to fall. As I’ve said before, it is so important to know where you are going and to make sure everyone on your team knows what you are trying to achieve before you even begin shooting. Use sketches, models, photos you pull from books or the internet to help explain what you want. The better you communicate with your team the smoother things will go.

Then, with the same light set up (sb800 shot through a shoot through umbrella, camera left about 6ft. up) I shot the room I wanted to put her in. In retrospect, I realize that it may have been so much simpler to shoot her straight in this room. Live and learn.

Put it all together and what have you got? Bipity bopity boo! (sorry… I’m still on a bit of a Disney high). I simply masked out the white backgrounds, repositioned the models so they would make sense (perspective-wise) relative to the room and to each other. Added a lot of dodge and burn to get the shadows and highlights to make sense. And finally, played with the colors of the models and the room so they would blend better.

And that’s all she wrote. I hope that helps explain things, this really was a whole lot of fun and I look forward to trying it again and seeing how far I can take this effect. Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas on how to take this to the next level.

x,

Jack

Photoshop Tutorial: Faux Lomo Effect

Here’s my regular caveat, everything I know I learned through trial and error. I’m sure there are other ways to do this but this is how I prefer to do it. I didn’t give any values since the outcome of this depends on what your starting image looks like and what you want the final image to be. Before I start with any shoot or with processing any images I always already know how I want the end product to look like. From there I play until I get the look I had in mind.

Carla, one of my readers, left a comment asking for how to do something similar to this. As it turned out this was also the effect we wanted to the next bikini shoot for WAGW. I decided to wait till after the shoot to use the photos I took then to make this tutorial. Two birds, one stone. Enjoy x

Jack

p.s. Ugh, my voice.

p.p.s. If you didn’t that was completely lame and want more of this type of thing, let me know.

p.p.p.s. Photos from WAGW‘s bikini shoot are looking hot! Will be sharing those soon!

p.p.p.p.s. Don’t throw stones at birds, it’s not nice.

How To: Beauty Retouch

I was looking through Sara Lando’s blog, after reading her guest blog post on Tracy Zhang’s blog (link love galore!). I don’t understand a word she’s saying but I absolutely adore her work. The reason I bring it up, aside from she’s fantastic and you must check her out, is that I spotted this video tutorial on her blog and I thought I’d share it with you.

Yes, it is a make up tutorial and not a photoshop one, but it is a beauty retouch nonetheless. I was watching it when I realized, I retouch photos very much in the same way. I like to keep things simple and as much as possible – keep skin looking like skin. I’m not a make up artist but here’s my “photographer’s perspective” on it.

The first thing she does, is to even out the skin tone. She’s getting rid of the redness in the skin and makes sure every thing looks balanced. Getting the color the way you want it in your photos can make a world of difference.

Then, she brightens up the eyes by getting rid of the dark circles underneath and highlighting the areas around it. This is my favorite way to perk up any face (and image) instantly.

And finally, she tackles the blemishes. Applying very little make up and going slowly to cover up all the problem skin while still making sure everything is blended. I achieve the same effect by using a soft brush with the opacity lowered wayyyyy down and using a tablet to control pressure. What I’m going for is subtlety, I don’t want my models to look retouched, I just want to help their natural beauty shine through. Remember: Natural = good.

So that’s what I think.

Another thing I thought of was, you’ve just watched a make up tutorial and all you can think of is photo editing. And that’s just a little sad.

x,

Jack