The 2011 Christmas Giveaway

Ok so I've decided to give a run at the whole contest thing.  So here we go.  You can win one of three different things in this giveaway drawing.  And here they are:


-A gift card from Starbucks, because who doesn't like some coffee?


-An 8x10 print of your choice from one of my 52 Projects.


-A 30 minute photo shoot of your choice.  This can be headshots, portraits, whatever you need done, or you can just let me have my way with you and do some crazy cool Photoshop project staring you.


So you must be wondering "How can I win one of these amazing gifts!?"  Well it's very simple

1) simply click here to “like” FANTiM Fotography on Facebook or here to add FANTiM Fotography to your Google+ circle.

2) update your Facebook or Google+ status with: 

“I want to win FANTiM Fotgraphy's Christmas Giveaway! You can enter, too! fantim.blogspot.com” 

In order to get credit for the entry, be sure to mention (using the @ symbol) FANTiM Fotography and make sure it's a public post so that it links to my page and I can see it!

3) And I'll even give you a second entry in the giveaway if you leave a comment here telling me why you want to win.

You have until December 17th at 11:59PM CST, so make sure you get your entries in.   Good luck!


Note   For the 30 minute photo shoot to work you just have to live close enough to make it to my studio or be in one of the locations I'm visiting, otherwise we could try a Skype photoshoot? ;)

11.17.11 Decrep·It

::Before and After::

So on my way home from a wedding I shot last weekend I decided to take a detour.  I tried to go to the Davy Crockett museum in Tennessee, but ended up getting tired of the drive.  It gave me a good chance to scout though on the way and stop at places I wanted to on the way back.
This was one place I decided to stop at.  

Original Image

I got up and close and personal with this building; the shattered windows and wind blown sheets hanging over the windows made it more eerie than I wanted to face by myself.  As I approached he building I expected to see shadowy figures run past the holes in the plywood covering the door, or see the face of a witch in the window pointing at me and grinning.
I decided not to enter the building because I noticed alot of modern things around it and feared that either someone still lived there or that the owner came by frequently and would arrest me for trespassing.  After all the wheat farm in front of the building had been cut not too long ago.

So instead I ran into the field and took three photos so that I could start my image by making an HDR photo.

Same Image -1

Same Image +1

I put all three images together in Photomatix and came up with this HDR:

Rendered HDR image

It was not bad but still needed some work.  So I imported it into Photoshop.  I removed my car and the building behind it, along with the electric pole and wires.  I then adjusted the levels for the sky and trees, then adjusted the levels on the building, and lastly adjusted the levels on the grass.
Lately I've been driving around and staring at all the birds migrating.  For some reason I've been very fascinated by them this year.  I've been wanting to add them to a photo so I chose to add them to this photo.  Lastly I added some sun rays in the sky and put a gradient around the edges.  And I was finished.  Pretty easy photo to do, but I love the way it turned out.

Completed Image

11.08.11 Vampire Before|After

::Before And After::
So this week I've decided to add a before and after shoot from my Halloween Vampire shoot.
My first step in post processing was I made a copy of the raw image and increased the brightness.  I then put it into Photoshop and combined the lighter image with the darker image.
While adding makeup to the image we had decided to put a little drop on the top of her teeth to look like blood, but while I was working on this image I ended up removing that in order to make her teeth stand out more.  After basic touchups, and dodging and burning I took a white brush and created more light coming out of the lantern.  For a final touch I created a drop of blood and made it a similar color to the lips.
Some level and color adjustments later and you have the final image.

Before

After