Wednesday, February 06, 2008

The "Dave Hill" style...

A couple weeks ago Airika and I got to hang out with a few of our photographer friends at Ella Blue's house along with Sarah Rhoads and Yuriy Manchik. We had an absolute blast eating dinner, playing games and of course talking shop. One of the topics of discussion that evening was Dave Hill. He's photographer with a unique style of photography which I can only describe as illustrative; that is, they almost look like cartoons. You should really check out his stuff, it's very original, something which is very hard to come by with the saturation of photographers out there. I've been pretty intrigued by his work ever since I was introduced--mostly because I wanted to figure out how he does it. One thing is for sure, it's not a simple process! From what I can tell, the two main components are the lighting and the post-processing. The lighting is typically a fairly complex studio setup that essentially surrounds the subject with light from every angle. The postprocessing however, seems to be a very closely held secret. A search on the internet will quickly reveal nothing but a lot of other people asking the same question as you.


Anyway, I had a chance to play around with some studio lights that I use at the PRO Sports Club (working on ideas for a future cover shot for the magazine) to see what I could come up with. I actually got with some pretty interesting results--as long as you can get over the goofy look on my face, my silly work uniform, and the fact that I am leaning way forward to trip the shutter on my own. I hope you get a good laugh at my expense. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the lighting setup... I will do that next time!





Gerald

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

G-Pope does it again! That's awesome man...you'll have to give up the lighting secret sometime soon! To me, the unifrom makes you look like a breakdancer of sorts...or a pretty dope DJ.

-Jason

Anonymous said...

SO cool. You don't even look like your self....you look eerily like a skin-and-bones version of Heath Ledger, back from the grave to tell us what exactly happened to him. You continue to kick photographic butt!
Lisa

Restless said...

Dude, that's awesome.....I think you got it down, that should be your bio pic....Now how do we get you to spill the secret???!!

-Yuriy

Anonymous said...

Hey, sweet shots. I'm Joe and used to be with Pictage. I'm also somewhat intrigued by Dave Hill's stuff because it seems so elusive! I agree, all the tutorials and examples online don't really get close. you might have heard of Joey Lawrence though, and some of his stuff is pretty close -and he did that by a lot of dodging and burning. Let me know if you figure the DH technique out! Joe



seattle wedding photography, seattle photographer wedding, wedding photographer seattle, redmond photograph, wedding photojournalism, wedding photographer, northwest wedding, the knot, wedding channel, bellevue wedding, bothell wedding, seattle photography, documentary photo, wedding, Lake Washington, Pacific Northwest, redmond wedding photographer, redmond wedding photography, www.geraldpope.com , microsoft photography, PRO Sports Club, PRO, Northwest, photojournalist, photojournalism, documentary photography, san diego, california, vacation, weddings, bothell, woodinville, bellevue, redmond, seattle, tacoma, mt. vernon, Pike Place, Alki, Golden Gardens, Discovery Park, bellingham, bainbridge island, orcas, san juans, portraits, senior portraits, photos, kids, children, pet photography, the classic crime, SAM, Olympic Sculpture Park, Gasworks park, erwin wijanto, engagements, Mountain Springs Lodge, Lake Union, Semiahmoo Resort, Long Beach Aquarium, Fairmont Olympic, B & E Wedding show, Fall Bridal Spectacular, Seattle Wedding Show, Seattle Bride, real weddings, Seattle Metropolitan Bride & Groom, Best Seattle wedding photographer, artistic wedding photography, modern photographer, Lairmont Manor, Colorado weddings