Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos, November 2013 – Mexican Woman

Please click on the photo to view it larger and more clearly!  Thanks!

A Mexican woman participating in Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead, November 2013. I love the way she is lit by the sun here.  No artificial lighting is used in this photo or the previous Dia de los Muertos photos this month.  Shooting when the sun is low can create some beautiful light, so I like to use that quite often.

Foto: Ken Lee Photography
Info: Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens.
Location: Los Angeles, CA USA

Dia de los Muertos is about love, gathering families and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls and the favorite foods, beverages, and affects of the departed. Historians trace the origins to indigenous observances 2500-3000 years ago ago as well as to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl.

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

You can see more of these photos here  on my Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like). We discuss long exposure, night sky, star trails, and coastal long exposure photography, as well as lots of other things, so I hope you can join us!

And you can go to the Ken Lee Photography website, which has more photos from Ken Lee.  Thank you very much for visiting!

 

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Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead 2013 – Children Nuns

 

 

 

We’ll continue this month with some photos from Dia de los Muertos, one of my favorite holidays.

This is a photo of children participating in Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead, November 2013. The image is creepy, frightening, sweet, and loving, reflecting the holiday, where people come together to give love to ones who have passed on. Thank you so much!

Foto: Ken Lee Photography
Info: Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens.
Location: Los Angeles, CA USA

Dia de los Muertos is about love, gathering families and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls and the favorite foods, beverages, and affects of the departed. Historians trace the origins to indigenous observances 2500-3000 years ago ago as well as to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl.

Please click on the photo to view it larger and more clearly!  Thanks!

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

You can see more of these photos here  on my Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like). We discuss long exposure, night sky, star trails, and coastal long exposure photography, as well as lots of other things, so I hope you can join us!

And you can go to the Ken Lee Photography website, which has more photos from Ken Lee.  Thank you very much for visiting!

 

Photos: American Civil War Reenactment….in California!

True, there weren’t very many significant battles fought in California.  We didn’t have The Sacking of Sacramento, The Battle of Van Nuys, or the Massacre at Moorpark.

Although the Civil War Reenactment in Moorpark, California is the largest American Civil War Reenactment west of the Mississippi, the battle was a recreation of the South Mountain Battle in Maryland.  South Mountain is also known in several early Southern accounts as the Battle of Boonsboro Gap, September 14, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. This was the 150th Anniversary, and the reenactment took place in Moorpark, CA in what is the largest Civil War battle reenactment west of the Mississippi.

In fact, this event at Moorpark actually recreates five different battles over the course of two days.  And it has large camps, battle music, and much more, with much of the spectators also dressing in period clothing.

The reenactors did a great job in recreating the time period.  And as a photographer, I felt that I could enhance this even more through an antique paper and sloppy border appearance, giving it the feel of the 1860s in a way that color photos might not be able to achieve.

I checked out one of the Confederate cannons. Made in 1862, 150 years ago. As it turns out, this was actually made by the Union Army, but “acquired” by the Confederates in battle.

The battle photos were taken with a Nikon D90 and a Nikkor VR 18-200mm lens, while the up close cannon shot and the soldier smoking a cigar were taken with a Nikon D7000 and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, which is great for portraits and anything in which you want to have a narrow depth of field and highlight the subject.

If you want to learn more about how to achieve this antique paper and sloppy border appearance, click here for a tutorial.

And here are more photos from this Civil War Reenactment in Moorpark on my Virtual Photo Album.

Day of the Dead, Part Two! – iDia de los Muertos, Parte Dos!

Please click on the photo to view it larger and more clearly!  Thanks!

This was taken at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery during Dia de los Muertos on 27 October 2012.  You can see more photos from this on my Virtual Photo Album.  Act quickly, though, there’s only a few weeks until the end of the world!

If you are into photography and wish to know how to create this antique look with sloppy borders, it’s really not difficult.  Have a look at my blog to learn how.

When I process these photos, I feel like I never know what I am going to get until I am finished. Some photos take in an especially potent emotional quality when processed into a photo that looks like an antique. Others simply don’t work, and I’ll typically leave them off even if it is a good photo. But that said, often, it’s the portaits of people in face paint that work out best.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is about gathering families and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Although this usually corresponds with the Catholic holiday All Saints’ Day on November 1 and 2, Hollywood Forever held it beforehand. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls and the favorite foods, beverages, and affects of the departed.

Historians trace the origins to indigenous observances 2500-3000 years ago ago as well as to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl.

Equipment:  Nikon D7000, Tokina AT-X 116

 

Day of the Dead 2012! – iDia de los Muertos 2012!

Please click on the photo to view it larger and more clearly!  Thanks!

Seeing as, according to the Mayan calendar, the world is going to end next month, we should get in our commemoration of our loved ones who have passed on while we can.

This was taken at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on 27 October 2012.  You can see more photos from this on my Virtual Photo Album.  Act quickly, though, there’s only a few weeks until the end of the world!

If you are into photography and wish to know how to create this antique look with sloppy borders, it’s really not difficult.  Have a look at my blog to learn how.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is about gathering families and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Although this usually corresponds with the Catholic holiday All Saints’ Day on November 1 and 2, Hollywood Forever held it beforehand. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls and the favorite foods, beverages, and affects of the departed.

Historians trace the origins to indigenous observances 2500-3000 years ago ago as well as to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl.

Equipment:  Nikon D7000, Tokina AT-X 116

 

Photo Tip of the Month: How To Create Antique Photos With Sloppy Borders

Dia de los Muertos Doll Woman. This was shot with a Nikon D90 and 18-200mm VR lens. I then created an antique appearance with sloppy borders. Want to know how? Read on, my friend, read on!

HOW TO CREATE ANTIQUE PHOTOS WITH SLOPPY BORDERS  
There are some times when you want to create a timeless, vintage look.  I love the aesthetics and how it can create more emotion in a photograph.  I also love the whole idea of taking my time, getting a good strong sharp image with great lighting, and then completely screwing it up!!!

I’ve used this antique look for photos of Dia de los Muertos, pictured here and in the Featured Photo, and for photos of Civil War reenactments and postcards for assignment.  There’s several ways to do this, and some photo editing programs can do this for you automatically.  I’ll describe it using Photoshop CS4, but you can do this in other versions of Photoshop, Elements, or other photo editing programs.

ANTIQUE PAPER 
But before you begin, you need to either scan or download some antique paper.  If you can’t scan the paper, you’ll need to do a Google search on “antique paper” or “old paper”.  You can put “Photoshop” or “texture” in your search if it helps, and then download it.  One source is ibackgroundz.com.

PROCESSING YOUR PHOTO  
Now we’re ready to start screwing up your photo.  In Photoshop, open your photo.  We’re going to desaturate its color first.  I like using Image >  Adjustments > Black and White so I can control accentuate the black and white image further.  You can also simply use your Hue/Saturation function.

After this, I like to add a little bit of noise to the image.  While this step is not absolutely necessary, it adds a little more realism.  Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and add noise as you prefer.  I often add somewhere between 8-12 percent.  I also like to boost the contrast (Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast) and sometime darken the photo.  This is because the act of adding the antique paper tends to lighten the image a bit, and as well, boosting the contrast allows your image to punch through the antique paper a bit more.  You’ll see.

Now, open your antique or old paper that you downloaded.  What I do is resize the paper to make sure that it matches the photo.  However, you don’t have to do this because Photoshop will resize it for you, although it will be “edited” and you might not get all the edge textures.  Select Control-A to select the entire antique paper image, then Control-C to copy it.  If you’re on a Mac, it’d be Command-A and then Command-C.  Click on your desaturated photo, and hit Control-V (Command-V) to paste your image on top.  Done!

But, oh wait….you can’t see your image anymore, just the paper!  No problem.  Go over to Layers Menu, which typically defaults to the right side of your monitor.  There’s a pulldown menu which will have defaulted to “Normal“.  Change that to “Overlay“.  You should be able to see both your image and the antique paper magically melded together.  Nice.  I almost always keep this as 100% opacity.  If I don’t like how it looks exactly, I’ll go and lighten or darken the image or alter the contrast.

SLOPPY BORDERS  
I’m going to tell you the easy way to do sloppy borders first.  Pay for it.  Yes, pay for it.  The time you save is worth it.  I was doing this by hand for the longest time, but with the time involved, it’s just not worth it when you can pay $40 and have it done effortlessly and quickly.  Go to James Cook Photography and follow the directions for buying and installing.  What you are downloading is a script, which is a method of automating tasks in Photoshop, and a series of sloppy borders.  If this does not work for you, fret not, you can either find scripts for your photo editing program or do this by hand (more on this later).

And just as a disclaimer, I don’t know James Cook, I get no kickback from him, I am not dating his daughter, any of that.  I am simply mentioning this because it’s easy to install, works efficiently, looks great, is relatively cheap, and gives you numerous border options.  It works on CS2 through CS4, and there’s another one for CS5 as of this writing.

Using the James Cook Sloppy Borders is easy in Photoshop.  Go to File > Scripts > JcpSLOPPY.  This will produce a pop-up window.  Follow the easy directions.   I like “Sloppy Borders 2”.  The script automatically flattens your image.  If you don’t want that, go back through two layers of undo and the layers will reappear.  Bang.  Done.

SLOPPY BORDERS WITHOUT SCRIPTS OR ACTIONS 
This is the way I did sloppy borders before using the James Cook Photography script.  It’s time-consuming, but you have a lot of control over your image.  But first, you’ll either have to scan some sloppy borders or search around for one.  “Sloppy border image” are good keywords for your search.  If possible, look for ones in which the middle is transparent so it doesn’t affect the color of your image.  There’s a number of free ones available, and you may want to download several to try them out.  Deviant Art has some good ones that are PSD files that are transparent in the middle so you don’t have to create that yourself.  If that link doesn’t work, try Design Resource Box.  

After you download the sloppy border image, open it in Photoshop.  You’ll probably need to resize it slightly larger than your desaturated image for this to work.  Select Control-A to select the the sloppy border image, then Control-C to copy it.  If you’re on a Mac, it’d be Command-A and then Command-C.  Then, click on your desaturated photo, and hit Control-V (Command-V) to paste the sloppy border on top.

Unless you’re extraordinarily lucky or good at guessing how large the sloppy border should be, you may have to resize your border several times.  Eventually, you’ll get a size that seems to work for the majority of your photos.  You can save this as a template if you wish.

When you paste border on top of your image, you may jiggle the border around.  You can do this by using the Move Tool, which is the icon with the four arrows criss-crossed like a cross on the left side, and adjusting the canvas size (Images > Canvas Size).  You can always crop later, but this gives you a little wiggle room if you need to adjust the sloppy border without it “disappearing” off the canvas.   Now it’s just a matter of massaging this until you like it.  When you’re satisfied, either save this as a PSD file (this is larger because you are saving all your layers, but you can go back later and adjust it more if you wish).  Or you can get rid of the layers by flattening (Layer > Flatten Image).  You can also Save For Web, which will automatically flatten it for you.

Obviously, you can make your photo look antique or have sloppy borders alone, not both.  But you’ve just gotten two tutorials for the price of one.  And considering that the price is free, you’ve really lucked out today.

Featured Photo: iDia de los Muertos!

Woman And Skulls – Dia de los Muertos 2011

It’s that time of year!! We’re going to kick off our Featured Photo series with a photo taken at Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Los Angeles in October 2011!!

I was  moved by the haunting sadness on the woman’s face.  Later, I felt that a vintage, timeless appearance would accentuate the emotion of the image further, so I created an antique look and sloppy borders. In fact, the very next Tip of the Month is a how-to on how this very thing!!!

Equipment used:  Nikon D90 DSLR with a Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens.  I also used a Nikon SB-600 speedlight off-camera (wireless), holding this with my left hand to better illuminate the woman, using it largely as a fill light because she was in the shade.  Photoshop CS4 for processing.  The Tip of the Month for November 2011 is a double-shot how to create an antique look and how to create a sloppy border!