Survivor News!

I am pumped! I have been wanting to get back to the Survivor Project for a while. It stalled out on me last year as I got busier with other things and the number of survivor's contacting me to participate slowed. Yesterday I made a phone call to the director of research for OU's Stephenson Cancer Center. He said he'd just been talking about me the day before. Their staff has increased, they're in their new building, and they're in a much better position to pursue the project including getting participants and distributing the finished product.

Let me clarify something real quick - "Survivor" means you have or had cancer. You may have just been diagnosed, still be in treatment, or be in remission or have heard the word cured. You may be a one day "survivor" or a 10 or 20 year survivor. Doesn't matter. You're a survivor.

The Survivor Project is something I started after having cancer myself. I wanted to fight back, and give others a way to participate. What I have to offer that is of most value is my talent as a photographer. So, I'm photographing survivors to create portrait images that will go into a calendar, initially. Over time, it will probably also result in a book of images. The calendars & books will be sold to raise money for cancer research.

Most of the images, if not all, for the 1st calendar are relationship portraits (like our "Love Is" series), of the cancer survivor with one or more family members or a care-giver. The images are black and white, with a splash of color (usually a scarf) representing the color of that individual's cancer (just about every kind of cancer has a "color").

Another part of the project will include displays in area businesses. We will set up a display for about 1 month at a time, publicize it on Facebook, Twitter, and here. That means lots of free publicity for the businesses that provide space for the displays. We will donate 20% of the proceeds from any sessions that are booked from the displays to cancer research as well.

Now, I realize, most people are a little reluctant to "have their picture made." When you're self-image is beaten up by cancer, and even moreso by cancer treatment, you may feel like you're "not pretty enough" or "good enough" to participate. You're definitely not at your best. That's okay, I know exactly how you feel. However, this is about the emotions, good or bad. This is about the fight. This is about raising money to give cancer a major slap in the face!

For the OU part of the project, I'm looking for people who were, or are being, treated for cancer at OU Medical Center. If you were treated somewhere else, that's okay, too. I'm still working on a similar project for American Cancer Society. It just might take a little little longer since they aren't helping me find people to photograph. However, if you would be willing to help, it will happen that much quicker.

What's the difference in a duck?

There really is a difference in photographers, but if you asked most people if it mattered who did their photos, it would be about like asking, "What's the difference in a duck?" There are so many people with nice cameras who "shoot" good pictures and even call themselves professional, that what passes as "professional" photography these days often isn't.

I did senior portraits for Morgan's cousins and her brother, so I asked her if she would be willing to be a spokes model for us. We'll be photographing her "real" senior portraits later at some locations she's picked out, but we did a model session this week at our studio and outdoor portrait area just for some samples. I decided to try something. I created some portraits that reflect our typical work. You can find them on our Facebook page. However, I also created some images like many of the ones I see on Facebook and even some photographers' websites.

Many of the new photographers have several things in common. Most often, somewhere on their website, you'll find "I love natural light." Then you'll see images with very vivid, saturated colors.
Here's natural light.Some of the "mom's with cameras" photographers call it SOOC - Straight out of camera.

Notice how there's a slight bluish tint to the natural light images? They were all created in the shade in order to eliminate harsh shadows in the sun. The first one, the exposure was set for the scene. The background colors look rich, but Morgan's a little dark. Camera's are dumb that way. They average everything. So, unless your light on your subject is the same as the light on your background, one or the other is going to be either too light, or too dark. So, natural light isn't all it's cracked up to be. You have to supplement the light in order to get an overall pleasing image, or else, just settle for something less.

In the second image, I set the exposure to be more pleasing on Morgan, but the result is a slightly "blown out" over-exposed background. Not too bad since Morgan still looks good, and the background is blurred enough that it isn't extremely distracting.





What a lot of photographers do to compensate is "fix it in Photoshop." They've figured out, or learned from an on-line or DVD training program, how to "saturate" the colors. And boy do they saturate. The image on the left is the same as the image above, just over-worked to saturate the colors and vignette the image. Hey, there's a time and a place for this kind of technique. But as a general rule, in professional photography, if you can see the technique, you've gone too far. A vignette, for example, should be there, make the photo look better, but not be particularly noticeable itself. Also, there's still that slightly bluish (or "cool") tint. It needs to be warmed.


 Here (left) is the same pose with a flash for the mainlight, and using natural light and a reflector for hair and fill lights. On the right is a better pose, again using flash for a mainlight to balance the light on subject and background, provide more flattering, and realistic (directional) lighting, on her face, and using the natural light and a reflector for hair and fill lighting. Occasionally, I'll saturate the colors of the background and/or clothing, but only if it seems to be the "right" treatment for the image - not to salvage poorly photographed images.


These two images are the same natural light photo. At left is the "sooc" image, and at right, the same image with the cool blue tint removed. It didn't take a "Photoshop action" or special software. I don't photograph with my camera set for jpeg. I photograph raw and load the images onto the computer with a program that can do minor adjustments to exposure, color temperature, and cropping on the raw files before converting them to jpg.

There really is a difference in photographers. For starters, look for a certified professional photographer. You need a photographer who can start with a quality image in camera. Whatever art work and retouch they do from that point should be to make you look incredible, not to fix a bad image. Remember, you get what you pay for. You want photos that look good, and more than that, photos in which you look good. It's your image; don't settle.

Visit our Facebook page to see a video of the images from Morgan's spokes model session.