johnrennie Loc: North Florida

I can't remember which one I was using, but that's my early work and I think I may have been back when all I had was a rebel. I had some pretty good glass though.

I'm shooting with a 50D now and about to purchase a 5D Mark ii.

mdhatt

Really nice and interesting and good variety of looks and skills!! I like them

Bornbad Loc: Tracy, California

Great stuff.

crystal Rudd

i was wandering on the photo where the beautiful young lady is in the woods with the red cape on how did you get just the red to pop out and fade all the other colors..ive been using dif editing programs and cant find it yet...please help

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

I’m a hardcore Photoshop user, been using it since 1992. Currently, I use Abobe LightRoom 2.0 for pre-editing or image prep then Adobe Photoshop CS5 for post, or final edits.

In the picture you are referring to, I didn’t really separate the cape from the background. I think that was a simple pre-set filter in LightRoom that I used… probably a type of Sepia filter, then you can individually bump up color levels which I probably did to the cape to let it pop a bit.

I think the technique you are interested in is separating a portion of the photo which either gets saturated or left alone, then desaturation of the remainder so that your target area pops.

So here are some examples of that technique… if it’s what you are looking for.

Picture 1 – just a simple sepia filter applied in LightRoom.

Picture 2 – in Photoshop, I created a duplicate layer stacked on top of the original then used a monochromatic filter to get the B&W look, simple desaturation makes it look a bit dull. Then I created a “Reveal all Layer Mask” so that I could paint away the top layer where I wanted to see the color beneath. Once that was done I went back to the bottom (original color layer) and bumped up the saturation and luminance for a little more punch.

Picture 3 – same process as above, but the model had light blue eyes. I wanted to give them a tint of green to blend with the bracelet and blanket, so I created an additional blank layer on top, changed the blend mode to “Overlay”, sampled a green hue from the blanket, painted over her eyes, then adjusted that layer’s opacity so that they wouldn’t ‘pop’ too much. I returned the image to LightRoom then bumped up the green channel to even out the colors.

That was my first self-portrait by the way, I clicked the shutter with a remote. Just had to add someone prettier than me in the image, lol.

Picture 1


Picture 2


Picture 3

Val Loc: Minnesota

All are very cool images. I enjoy looking at your work. You know what you are doing!

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

Thank you Val!

As always... a huge compliment coming from someone with your talent. I really appreciate it.

I also love sharing knowledge, so I've been really enjoying this site. Glad I stumbled upon it.

leatherhelmets Loc: Center Conway, NH

Awesome shots John. You really do nice work. I've stuck to landscapes because I can never seem to get portriats to do the model justice. Even someone as photogenic as Cat would be tough for me. The SheVampire is hot too. Great work.

I use the 50D too...great camera.

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

I sucked at portraits but wanted to broaden my horizons. I always said that wildlife create their own beauty… it ain’t hard to take a nice picture of a tiger in captivity, lol.

I took a couple of classes on portraiture, conducted a few group shoots and learned a lot from talented friends. Hair and make-up really makes a big difference and the model needs to be comfortable and understand a few basic posing techniques. I still struggle with full-body and nudes. That’s a whole different ball-game. As you will notice, most of my portraits are close-up beauty, so I’m still pretty limited. I’m in an entirely separate niche now and just do portraits for fun.

Here’s a few more of the vampiress… that’s Sarah, and she’s great to work with. Very comfortable in front of the lens. I hired a theatrical MUA for the shoot. Make up is a bit over-done for a photo-setting, which is why I had to go monochromatic with most and dither out the harsh make-up lines. On stage it works, close up photography… not so much. I had a really good MUA on the final pic, hope that’s not too risqué for this family oriented site. My apologies if it is.

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

Correction... it's LightRoom 3.0 I use, can't keep all these versions straight.

Doe Loc: N, Augusta, South Carolina

I was wondering about something in the first picture....Something doesn't appear right with the cleavage area which includes the shirt. Did you do something to that area?

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

ha, ha... the theatrical MUA painted it on her chest. I didn't like it either. I think it may be a good stage effect but did not work for photography. The MUA's background was stage make-up. I tried to dither it out in Photoshop, maybe I'll boost it a bit.

Funny thing... it always bothered me, but you're the first person to catch it! Everyone else just said, "wow, she has big breasts", lol. I was wondering if I only noticed because I knew it was drawn in.

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

Looks like I caught a little shadow on the cleavage as well. Never noticed that, I'll fix it.

This forum is very helpful!

photosbysexton Loc: Knoxville, TN

John, I'm tossing the idea of moving to North Florida in the spring. I'd love to tag along with you and learn a thing or two. Every one of these are simply . . .

. . . awesome!

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

Would love to shoot with you. I always enjoy shooting with other photogs and I'm part of a pretty well established community here. Let me know when you're in the area!

904-327-9632