Sunday, August 27, 2017

Purple Gauze Fundoshi - No Design, No Tricks

For this purple gauze fundoshi, as well as the next few sets of new photos, for the initial 'look', there isn't much trickery going on. So you won't be bored by all the photography mumbo jumbo for a while. 
fundoshi
 All I did from a post-production standpoint was to make the photos look as close to what the eye was seeing at the time of the shoot. This mostly involved a simple adjustment to the white balance since my camera tends to favor yellows. 
fundoshi
 Of course, there were many surplus photos, so stay tuned for some 'rehash' sets where there will be a bunch of photo-speak shenanigans going on.
fundoshi
There is also a set of close up shots in this fundoshi, showing the fabric's weave and folds....I haven't done that in quite a while!
fundoshi

...more...

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Fundoshi Rehash 44 - Plastic Experiment Take 2

The original plastic fundoshi shoot (found here and here) featured a rather washed-out version of the photos. Below is a sample from that session.
fundoshi

For the 2nd rehash of extra photos, I decided to go in the opposite direction and see how much color may be hiding in the digital information. To the left is how the photos came out of the camera. A simple increase of saturation and vibrancy resulted in the photo to the right.
fundoshi
fundoshi

This was a good start, so I continued by adding a curves filter, which brought out some yellows, especially in the skin tones. I liked what it did to the plastic, but not really to the skin tones, so I then added a levels filter and changed the tonality of the mid-tones a touch. The photo on the left has also had some of the yellow removed by another filter. 
fundoshi
fundoshi
This left things a little blown out, so I added my new favorite filter, polarize. After a bit of adjusting of contrast, I got the photo to where I wanted....voila!
fundoshi
fundoshi
fundoshi
fundoshi

...more...

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Fundoshi Rehash 43 - Orange Gauze Take 2


fundoshi
Above is how I treated the original photos from this orange gauze fundoshi shoot. You can find the sets here and here. For this group of extra photos, I decided to go a bit out there and see what would happen. There are times I just like to play with the filters to see what extreme settings will do, and this is one of those times!

Starting from the original to the left, I changed the white balance quite a bit to make things a bit bluer. I also increased the exposure just a touch.
fundoshi
fundoshi



The next changes are a bit subtle. I increased the contrast a bit as well as the saturation. After that, I increased the contrast on the mid-tones as well as played with the curves filter to make the photo just a little more varied.
fundoshi
fundoshi

The final look below is a result of adding a levels filter and playing around with the RGB channels until I got a look I wanted...a bit cartoonish, but still grounded in reality.
fundoshi
fundoshi
fundoshi
fundoshi

...more...

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Fundoshi Rehash 42 - Red Batiste Take 2

As a quick reminder, below is from the original take on the photo shoot of this red batiste fundoshi. You can find the series here and here.   

fundoshi
For this rehash, I decided to try to go monochrome without really going monochrome....meaning I wanted some of the red of the fundoshi to come through. To the right is the out-of-the-camera photo. I started by doing something I rarely do, added warmth through the white balance. I usually take it to a cooler place, but I started in the opposite direction as an experiment...but I'll get back to coolness later!
fundoshi
fundoshi



The information in the photo had gotten a bit blown out, so I then played a bit by decreasing the contrast as well as the saturation. This helped retain some of the details. I then sharpened the edges a bit and added a slight vignette (darkening) around the edges of the photo.
fundoshi
fundoshi



One last step to add some coolness....a color monochrome filter set at a bright blue. I know, you don't see the bright blue, just a muted blue...that is due to the fact I kept the filter at about 40% of its natural intensity. This kept both the details, and the red of the fundoshi.
fundoshi

fundoshi
fundoshi
fundoshi
...more...