Category Archives: Inspiration

After Infinite Color

My favourite thing about Infinite Colour Panel is the intensity settings. I tend to hit the create button on the medium setting most often, which I find gives me an amazing amount of colour, with only a few opacity tweaks needed to make it perfect. If I feel an image is ‘almost there,’ I may play with the ‘light’ colour adjustments. The fact that every layer is adjustable makes it the perfect colouring tool – no look is ever the same!

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Follow Joanna on her Instagram and see more of her work on her website!

Have you tried the panel yet? We’d love to see your creations! Get in touch on Instagram @infinitecolorpanel or the Facebook Infinite Color Panel group and show us your work.

If you haven’t tried the panel yet, get started here:  https://infinite-tools.com/infinite-color-plugin/

Four years ago, I found myself at an electronics store, shopping for nothing in particular. I had wandered into the camera section and, on impulse, decided to buy an entry level DSLR. I believe it was the Nikon D3100. Up until that moment, I had never owned a camera and, still to this day, I don’t know what possessed me to make such a random purchase. I sat down with the instruction manual and learned the function of every button and knob. I told myself that I would keep the camera in manual mode until I understood what was going on. I taught myself about exposure and how the ISO, aperture and shutter speed all work together. With this new knowledge in mind, I felt ready to take some pictures, but I had no idea what to shoot. I’ve always been a very imaginative person and had some prior experience with graphic design, so I was comfortable behind the wheel in Photoshop. I thought I might be able to put the two skills together to translate the thoughts in my head into images. I didn’t want to just create visually appealing pictures. Rather, I wanted my work to tell stories. Stories that have real meaning. Stories that have a real message.

Sketch

RAW

Before

With Color Grading

My name is Aakaash Bali. I’m a 28-year-old conceptual photographer based in New York.

When I was much younger, my father brought home a 35mm Minolta camera, which I proceeded to steal and never give back. Since that day, maybe 15 years ago, I’ve had a hard time putting the camera down. While my family had tried to get me into music (playing the piano in this case) as a kid, I kept gravitating towards the camera. It became the only thing I enjoyed, and the one thing I was passionate about at a young age. Soon after that, I started teaching myself an early version of Photoshop.

I started photographing as a hobby when I was in my Video Production class in 1996. Honestly, my passion at that time was behind a video camera. I, however, had a generic Kodak point and shoot camera, and had to practically beg my parents to pay and have the film developed at our local K-Mart or Eckerd’s drug store (Now known as CVS). By 1998, my young ADHD mind shifted focus toward the internet, and I started designing websites on the side. At this point, I just kept photography solely as a hobby. It was not until I joined the military in 2004, where I would learn photography as a profession, and have a wonderful mentor who would show me how one powerful photo could change the world.

I would describe my style as shamelessly nostalgic, consisting of a tribute to my childhood in the 80s and 90s, painted with an array of vivid colors and composed of moments that tell a compelling story. In other words, I really like colorful photos, and I find great inspiration from great photographers such as Mert Atlas / Marcus Piggot, Ben Hassett, Steven Klein, and Mario Sorrenti.

Before

With Color Grading

When I first came to Combat Camera, I had a bit of an ego because I was a bit of a Photoshop prodigy compared to these old salty sailors who were photographing on film and bickering about the movement to digital. In my young egotistical mind, I thought photography was a piece of cake, yet, I had no idea how to shoot outside of Program. I honestly just thought it was taking photos with sleek angles, and photoshopping the crap out of it. My mentor, Bobby McRill, who was also my boss, slapped me (metaphorically) behind the head and called me a shit-stick. He spent months mentoring me and made me cry at one point when I finally learned what the art of photojournalism really was. He introduced me to legendary photographers like Eddie Adams, Robert Capa, and Joe Rosenthal. To go through their photographs, read the captions, and learn about the outcome of millions of people around the world seeing these photos is breathtaking… It’s incredibly powerful, and it’s storytelling at its finest.

We, unfortunately, lost Bobby July 6, 2007 to an IED in Iraq. He died doing what he loved most. From the moment I carried his casket to the church service, I decided to tribute my career to him. He is the reason I pick up the camera, and he is always kicking my butt and pushing me to be better. If it was not for Bobby, I would more than likely be a UX designer today (No offense to UX Designers).

Before

With Color Grading

This project was shot in a “studio” — a large pavilion on the grounds of International Market Centers in Las Vegas. After taking photos of desert scene plates first, we had a large white set in the pavilion and tried to match lighting to those desert landscapes, where the light was dramatically coming from behind. The white set allowed for the actual shadows to be preserved and carried over to the composite.

Lighting Setup, 4 Lights (rented Profoto Pro-8a):

– One light with orange gel pointed towards the white wall behind the model to create bounced glow, mimicking the glow of the desert sky.

– Another light, also with an orange gel, was pointed towards the back of the scene and facing the camera. This light defined the shadows more and also created some nice sun-like flares, so we kept moving it depending on where we needed the flare.

– Then, slightly in front of the camera, there was a 12×12’ ultra bounce with two heads firing into it for subtle fill and shadow detail, so we’d have a good tonal range to work with for compositing.

Regarding post-processing, I integrated the Infinite Color Panel, in the following way: After the base grade in Photoshop, multiple instances of ICP were used on Light mode at varying low opacities. The panel helped add further aesthetic complexities to the tones and hues of the images, better unifying the palette.

The project involved several of these different scenes as well as a later product shoot (that one was done without compositing). You may see some of the other images on my Instagram

There is so much humanity in your images, how do you achieve such a relaxed state of emotion with your subjects? I know you personally, and you have an extremely warm and welcoming vibe. Do you think someone’s character plays a significant role in the emotions they’re able to evoke from their subjects?

Yes, I think that’s true. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shooting a seasoned model, performer or someone who’s never been in front of the camera: everyone feels vulnerable, to a degree, in the shoot. I think it’s pretty common for people to feel self-conscious initially, and part of my job is to help people feel at ease. I think a big part of that is just being natural, confident and taking control of the shoot. Once people can see that the shoot has direction, a plan and is moving efficiently, they become more at ease, and things generally work well. I always shoot tethered in the studio, which allows me to show the client how things are progressing through the session. Communication is key: even people who shoot often like to have feedback and reassurance that things are going okay, so I talk to people!

I love the elegant simplicity in your work; although it’s mainly just you and the model, the final product looks so regal. Are there certain choices you consider before making your background, styling, and floor/chair choices for each shoot?

The inspiration for much of my work is old painted portraiture, whether it’s in the posing, furniture or colour schemes. My feeling is that the old masters’ pictures have survived and been revered for very good reasons, and I’m able to tap into that and be creative! We stand on the shoulders of giants in the history of art and design, and I’m happy to learn from the masters. I have a pretty decent selection of furniture, almost all of it thrifted, and I just try and match that up as best I can with wardrobe, styling, etc. Although I like to approach shoots with a good general plan, I can’t do it all myself, so I’m lucky to work with four hair & makeup artists, all of whom have a good eye for wardrobe, styling, colour choices etc. Over the years I’ve amassed a pretty good stock of backdrops, floors etc, so there’s a degree of flexibility and potential for plenty of variety.

When it comes to posing, many people find it difficult to position, and direction, people’s hands. It’s usually an indication of how comfortable someone is, and heavily influences how at-ease they seem. Do you provide much guidance when it comes to posing people’s hands or do you let them do what they want?

This is a, really important point, and people definitely communicate any kind of discomfort or self-consciousness through their hands! I photograph mostly professional performers (singers, actors, models etc.) so they’re generally used to thinking about hands, and know their angles. For clients who aren’t used to being photographed much, they do need help with how to place hands. I keep any posing direction simple, and with hands, I try to limit it to positions that people would do naturally (outside of a shoot situation), and make sure that they don’t have any ‘defensive’ hand posing.

Your color choices seem very deliberate on set, is it the same in post-processing; do you always know where you want to go? How do you decide?

Yes, the colour schemes for my shoots are almost the first thing I think about. I try to have as much input into wardrobe choices as I can (not always possible with clients, but it’s generally not an issue). Clients will often have a range of choices which I can help them narrow down, or in some cases, they’ll be purchasing wardrobe especially for the shoot, in which case there is even more freedom. My colour schemes are based around old, time-honoured methods: mostly via a cardboard colour wheel (like the ones they give you at school). I most use triadic colour schemes, a single dominant colour, or complementary colour pairs. I also like to consider fabric textures. If you’re shooting a set which is mostly a single dominant tone, breaking up the textures is an important way of avoiding a ‘mushy’ and indistinct look.

As a part of our community, what are some of the reasons you use the Infinite Color Panel? Has it done anything for you that you wouldn’t have expected, prior to integrating the Panel into your workflow?

I’m pretty much obsessed with colour and feel that it has the potential to inspire an almost limitless range of emotional responses! With the colour grade in all my images I like to begin with a broad tonal palette and decide if I’m going for warm or cool tones – I’m naturally drawn to a cooler palette, but that’s just personal preference. With Infinite Color, I’m able to really refine the grade and produce a unique look for each shoot. I love the fact that I’m able to save ICP layers stacks within the Photoshop Library: it means I can bring the ‘vibe’ of one shoot to something else later on. An area that I always have to be careful with is colour saturation: if I’m not careful I have a tendency to over-saturate at times. The ‘Harmonize’ feature of ICP is a very good way of pulling me back from my worst saturation crimes!

What is your favorite feature of Infinite Color?

The thing I find amazing about it is its ability to randomise parameters in Photoshop, and actually return usable results. I like to use it as a final polish to my work. I find that, if I’m not careful, I can slip into making ‘habitual’ decisions about colour work. Infinite Color helps me to avoid that by providing me with a wide selection of other choices.

Do you a favorite adjustment layer that you like using a lot? If so, why?

For colour work I tend to make most use of the Selective Color and Color Balance layers. Selective Color is very powerful for working with skin, so I add and remove tones from the reds and yellows to get the desired skin tone.

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Have you tried the panel yet? We’d love to see your creations! Get in touch on Instagram @infinitecolorpanel or the Facebook Infinite Color Panel group and show us your work.

If you haven’t tried the panel yet, get started here:  https://infinite-tools.com/infinite-color-plugin/