Tales of the Pixel

ZANDRA in Paris and more ...

2012-01-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Zandra Idenius was a guest in my home studio last week. Got the opportunity to use some of my background images I took in Paris last August. Here is a before and after, on one of them.

Here is a cropped version of the same image.

here is Zandra on the Alexander bridge in Paris.

And here is a more "normal" surrounding.

Old film ...

2012-01-11T14:23:00.000-08:00

Click on images to view them in a larger format.

... I was thinkng this as a start of an old movie. Without seeing what caused this situation its hard to know if it was self defence or a cold blooded murder.

I then added some images to get some movement in time without clearing up what caused the resulting scene.

jälvförsvar.

Grazyna in Hollywood

2011-12-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

My old alter ego, mr Lutz ( www.lutzimages.com ) This time I had a visit from Grazyna and MUA Ljudmila Zulfiyeva. As usual I used my old cheap china strobes.

Split visions and body ..

2011-12-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

I was having a cup of coffee with my friend Orthae ( a fakir, sword swallower and photographer and .... ). The lower end of his body suddenly got upset and refused to participate in any further coordinated movements.

With our combined efforts, we could make him whole again though.

Some baroque images with Lorena ...

2011-12-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

I had a and photoshop meeting with lorena and we also took some images. I wanted some more baroque looking images, but we did not have any makeup, so I had to add that in post. A wig and a dress,was found though, in my closet.

We also did a glamour portrait.

Hans Caldaras - old time portrait

2011-11-29T00:55:00.000-08:00

Hans Caldaras came for a short visit, so I took this as an opportunity to test my new background, a roller blind that I put some paint on. I have been thinking about having a simple portrait background, so I can make portraits fast, wihtout extracting people using bluescreen.

Image above was supposed to look like a publicity photo from the 40s.

Nedan ett mer normalt porträtt.

Amina and backdrops ...

2011-11-21T09:56:00.000-08:00

Amina and have shot some sessions for a project I have. I always end up with some additional images, that were made to test something, like some of these, where I experiment with different backdrops in post. I have also tried, for the first time =), to shoot with real backdrops. I am trying to make them myself, to look old and nice, nut it is a ot harder ( at least for me ) than I thought.

Here are some mixed images with Amina.

... and here is a strange one =) ...

Helena - Baroque style ...

2011-11-02T02:31:00.000-07:00

For this session I had a baroque feel combined with the uniqueness of Helena in mind. Backgrounds taken at the castle of Versaille.

Many fruits in the air..

I got to be in one of the images too.

Behind The Scenes - Chambre Separee

2011-10-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

When Fredrik Hedlund from o8STUDIO
was about to do a shoot at Chambre Separee with 7 models and hair dressers and make up artists, it was hard not to go there and have a look at the adventure and also to take some BTS shots.

Among the models was the elegant, now 78-year old legend, Birgitta Stubbing ( above ), who's been around in the business since the early sixties. ( no facelift ).

Roger Morgan did the hair. He was fascinating to watch. He is a legend here in Sweden. He made the most amzing things grow out of the heads of he models. On all seven.

Här hela ensemblen nästan.

There is always time for a self portrait.

Här ges den sista touchen på Birgitta Stubbings hår.

This was a fun event to attend.

Models Olivia Portnoff-Klatzkow - Sindra Trolle - Jessle C - Sue Chintu - Cecilia Nordlund - Petronella von Wowern - Birgitta Stubbing MUA Sara Floby Madeleine Oxalaryd Clothes Sandra Näsström Hair Roger Morgan Behind the scenesphotographer Per Pelle Piano

Release party for Paradiso Musicale.

2011-10-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

The baroque ensemble Paradiso Musicale released their first album yesterday. And also gave a rare concert.

They are all veterans in their respective field, and have a peculiar teste in clothing =) ( as the last image shows ).

Above is the image used for the cover of the cd ( with a dinner in hiding ).

... and then the back side image ...

Henrik Frendin, who was shot later, also had some other images taken. Among them this one. Background from a church near the famous Notre Dame in Paris.

And here is an image from the stage yesterday. Today they started a small tour.

Emelie in Paris ...

2011-10-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

Emelie and I made a nother session, this time in my home studio. I am still retouching but here are some images that are already done.

Emelie on location at Riddarholmen ...

2011-09-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

Its not that opften I shoot on location,but this day I was going to meet up with fellow camera owner Fredrik Hedlund, and some models ( Sindra and Emelie ) atl Riddarholmen, close to Old Town here in Stockholm. Mostly to do a Behind The Scenes Panorama, I like to do those ( this one can be seen at PANORAMA BTS

I immediately liked the look of Emelie, who has the rescemblence of Nosferatu, Goth and Fashion at the same time =)
So up with the Sigma 500 Super flashgun and a transparent umbrella and shoot away.

Here I remount Emelies head, that fell of, during an intricate pose.

ANNA PARADISO ...

2011-08-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

... is the well sounding name of a fantastic keyboard player. She plays in the classical group, Paradiso Musicale with her husband Dan Laurin, among other groups. I have shot them before, both separately and as a group.

This time Anna needed some publicity shots. I thought that the castle of Versaille could be a suitable surrounding for her.

Another short trip, long time over due ...

2011-08-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Two years ago ( May 2009 ) I was in London for three days, and shot some images. Since then I have been longing to go to Paris as they have so many landmarks, and famous places. So now I have been there for 3 days. The things to shoot never ends. Amazing. I have to revisit real soon.

I got me a Visité card, so I could grab any train,or bus i n any zone at any time, which was a blessing, as there were many travels with the Metro for instance ( I constantly went in the wrong directions =) ).

Here are some images from some different angles.

And here is a 360x180 PANORAMA

Two versions in Flash format. FLASH Second Floor

Flash from the ground

Goodbye Tannemyr Gallery ...

2011-07-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

I thought that Peppe, who changed his office into a gallery of his own art, during two summer months, should have a nice image to remember the short term gallery by. I imagined Peppe floating around the room with his art and have guitars all around like the gravity had no impact on them. Click on above image for a larger version.

I also took the opportunity to make a QuickToime panorama. PANORAMA

And of course a portrait of Peppe. This time like he usually looks. A long way from the water combed version on the poster in the previous post. =)

True Temperament, Exhibition and Art ...

2011-07-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Peppe Tannemyr is an old friend of mine, since the mid 80s. He is a very allround guy, doing everything from the video backdrop projections on the Eurovision Song Contests to making guitar artwork. ( Above is one of the strange posters we did for his exhibition ).

He has an exhibition , this Thursday and Friday at the Tannemyr gallery, Liljeholmsvägen 7, Liljeholmen, Stockholm. On display are his guitar artwork, printed and hand painted on metal, each one with an accompaning guitar, Les Paul and Telecasters.

These guitars are also printed and painted. To top it off, they are fretted with the TT frets ( True Temperament ) by Anders Thidell ( TT SITE ), for perfect intonation.

Here is Anders. The inventor of TT.

'

Here one can see the strange look of one of the frets. great DOF on this one.

I have a guest exhibition at the gallery, with my "Hollywood" shots.

Gripsholm Castle in Mariefred

2011-07-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

Was out for a drive with Washboard Lars ( drummer in one of my bands, Sweet Pain ) och ended up in Mariefred, a small town 20 miles from Stockholm. So here are some images, for once not model related. A mix of different styles as usual.

At the docks.

Washboard Lars.

Like old times.

Myself looking out of a train wagon . as I did not have a tripod with me I had to shoot myself at home and then make a composite so it looks like Im there =)

PARADISO MUSICALE - classical music with visual twist

2011-06-30T02:09:00.000-07:00

They are a very serious quartet, musicwise. They have fun and strange ideas though. The image above is Dan Laurin with his gigantic recorder flute. I could not help myself, so I put him in the woods, lika a musical Gandalf.

I did a poster for them once, with a lvitating Anna Paradiso, as a butterfly, and the others, like conducting Frankensteins, controlling her flight upwards.

They have now recorded a new album, and I will post the cover as soon as its been released or cleared with the record company.

A portrait of Dan laurin.

The military look of the cellist Mats Olofsson.

Dan and cembalo player Anna Paradiso.

Henrik Frendin. Knight with viola.

JAZZ - Anna sise

2011-06-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Anna Sise is a really great singer. She was just here for a shoot, in my home studio. I had some images in my bhead, like taken on a stage, with a standard smoky background. here are som images from the shoot.

Spntaneous shoot with Lorena ...

2011-05-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

... in a rainy Rome. And between takes and countries little Natal laughed, vomited, cried,slept, but in the end we got one nice image where both Lorena and Natal both looked amost identical, laughing.,

Exhibition from an alter ego ...

2011-05-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

It looks like I am going to have a small exhibition.

Friday the 27/5 18:00 - 20: 00 my alter ego, the portrait photographer, Joseph P Lutz will have an exhibition at Konstiga Fönsret, Sirapsvägen 3, Hökarängen. Also on Saturday, 28/5 between 12:00 - 16:00. I will be there to serve some Pommac ( classic soda pop in Sweden, like sweet champagne ).

97% Hollywood images and some strange stuff.

Vacation in Hökarängen ...

2011-05-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

A Postcard from my 15 minute vacation in Hökarängen, just outside Peppos Livs at the Asphalt Beach. Very convenient.
Click on image to see a larger version.

CD Graphics for Karin Starck ...

2011-05-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Karin Starck is a singer/songwriter. She asked me to shoot her for her upcoming CD, "In Time". Sha has very specific ideas, and brought an enormous clock that she wanted as a backdrop ( suitable with title of the cd ), with a lot of flowers on, sorted by the time of year. We went hunting online for flowers, but in the end we settled for flowers Karin thought looked good together.

For the backside she wanted to be placed in the woods.

Karin also brought a beautiful photo of her, walking on a beach in Thailand, taken by her boyfriend Carl Flemsten. It looked almost like a painting from Skagen, so I decided to try and convert it to an oil painting. Click for larger image.

Here is a portrait I started with just to get me started on the project.. She is beautiful, Karin.

Many small images to define a big one ...

2011-05-10T02:56:00.000-07:00

I have made a lot of images since I started shooting in 2005. So I thought I may have enough to make a mosaic image, using only images from my photography site. I used a self portrait for this.

Here is a close up of the eye.

This years´Ulla Winblad ...

2011-05-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

I usually shoot Ulla once a year. She is an artist ( oils and watercolor ), but also an extra, in film productions, so she needs some new images every year. This time I thought she could be in the landscape she is painting, sort of. So here is two versions of that and a portrait, featureing her trademark look, the special grandmother look.

Some location shots with Anna ...

2011-04-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

The weather was so beautiful this spring day, my cheap china strobe begged me to go out and shoot. I called Anna Ericsson and luckily enough she was free and eager to shoot, se we met up at Långholmen and stopped at the first decent spot we found and started shooting. This was late in the afternoon. Here are some images of the shoot.

Image, image on the wall ...

2011-04-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

I visited Susanna at her home for some images in a more natural environment. But I ended up using a flash to get the shadows, and then in with the images i a 3d app. So much for natural =)

First spring session, with Jonathan Fritzén ...

2011-04-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a great weather. The spring is proceeding rapidly, and the temperature is quite bareable. I felt the urge to get out and do something with my flash. After a call to Jonathan Fritzén ( monster keyboardist. I built his www.jonathanfritzen.com ), we went out to a meadow here in Hokarangen, where I had noticed an old tree that is both standing and lying down, great look. So with a umbrealla, stand and my ultracheap plastic chinese strobe with batterypack, we started to take some images, for fun. I used a Sigma 10-20 and a Canob 50mm 1.4

I had to climb the tree to get some unusual angle.

Music Noir - a poster from my image ...

2011-04-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Berwaldhallen ( concert hall ) for the first time in 15 years ( Albert King was the reason for my previous visit ).

Henrik Frendin, with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra was going to perform the new musical work, Music Noir, inspired from Film Noir music and stories from the fifties. The main character ( PI ) had the voice of Henriks custom built electro-acoustic viola grande, and the femme fatale was played by a/on a saw =) ( a similar sound to a Theremin ). It sure looked funny with a hundred people with "normal" instruments and one guy with a bow and saw.

The image above was used as a poster. The ones below are portraits ni a similar old style.

Tallee, first image shot outside this year

2011-04-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

Click on image for very large version.

We were a bunch of people from a photographer/model forum that met for coffee a week ago. As Tallee joined us I thought I had to take a portrait of her. So before going home, we went to a park, and I opened up a transparent umbrella and my Sigma 500 Super and took some shots. She leaned over me so I could get the clouds as a background. Below is a bw version too.

Some more images of Hannes ...

2011-04-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to make a 40s style film reporter portrait of Hannes, shown above, and then some other experiments on him.t.

Some images of Hannes Råstam ...

2011-04-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hannes Råstam is a rather well known reporter here in Sweden, ut he started out as a bass player. I first met him in 1986, when we both played with Rolf Wikström, a Swedish blues artist. We toured together for many years, al around Scandinavia. After many years he left the band to study to be a journalist.

I haven t seen him in many many years so it was a joy to suddenly find him on my doorstep. While talking about past and present, and serving lots of coffee and chocolates I was hoping to get some portraits of him. My apartement has one room, and the bluescreen was already up, so my intentions probably was quite clear =).

And we did a photo session. I am retouching some of them now. Here are three that are done so far. More coming later.

Six hypnotists ...

2011-03-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

... came knocking on my door, and wanted their picture taken. Well, not really. But Ulf Sandström ( Jump4Joy etc ) who is a certified hypnotist, has teamed up with five other hypnotists to form the International Hypnotists Guild, and among them, the rather famous Fredrik Praesto. They neede some portraits and a group image for their new website.

Its hard to gather that many busy people at the same time so we had to do it in three sessions, and then put them all together in post, for the group image.

Something I think is hard, is to decide what kind of lighting to use, as you are stuck with it, forever. I am a Gemini, the ambivalence personified =), but finally decided to do it with two different lighting setups. For the portraits, something rather general , like a soft light from a room divider with some sheet on it. For the group shot I thought something a little more dramatic would suit, like a simulated backlight from a window. I could jot help myself and took some really shallow dof images too, of some of them.

Cropped portrait of Alexander.

Whole portrait of Daniel

Pia with a really shallow dof.

Simulation of large format camera.

Some more of Tifa in Hollywood ...

2011-03-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

here are some more images from Tifas and my Hollywood session. Here I built a imaginary studio environment in 3d. A little less glamour than usual.

Looks like a good record =)

Tifa in old Hollywood ...

2011-03-01T02:07:00.000-08:00

Tifa brought a Flapperdress, something I would call a Charleston dress ( in my mind ), and we were suppose to do some 20s-30s images. As inspiration I had some images of the stars at that time, one very light and one with a strong backlight. I wanted to combine the two styles. Se below, the images I picked as inspiration.

Here are some more images.( Im fond of nose shadows ).

When viewed small, the skin looks very clean, the pores are still there though, only very light.

iPads,3d, breakfast and Therese ...

2011-02-20T06:44:00.000-08:00

Thought I would show some images of Therese in a nother way. Earlier sessions have been displayed in renders from my 3d app like the cafe table one with prints .

This time I used a virtual breakfast table from my home.Fourth image is a little to clean, but I like that the iPads is the only light source. Last is a wireframe view.

And here is a wireframe view in the 3d app.

Valentines Day - in latex ...

2011-02-14T05:57:00.001-08:00

Susanna (Sister Sinister ) brought a red latex dress, that would suit a day like this. Happy Valentines day ( in Swedn its callad All Hearts Day ).

S

Behind The Scenes - But in front of ...

2011-02-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

I like Behind The Scenes footage, but havent done it myself. So I did a special session with just behind the scenes images, and no afters ( strangely enough ). A worthless location ( outside my door ) and in the cold, would be a suitable setup.

This was one of many strange themes, done this weekend when Sister Sinister and I had a spontaneous shoot.

No model or photographer came to any harm or got cold during this session, as all is just fake, as usual.

ASJO - Big Band att Jazzclub Fasching

2011-02-09T03:12:00.000-08:00

ASJO is a big band led by composer and arranger Ann-Sofi Söderqvist. I have done her website as well as the one for ASJO.

She had a concert at jazzclub Fasching here in Stockholm, and asked me to documant it and make a small gallery of it in her website.A bit intimidating as I'm used to a small room with blue backdrop =) ( on the plus side, I would get the backgrounds automatically instead of adding them in post ).

I took a number of shots to ensure that there would be at least a couple that could be used. Last of the images is one of the great piano player Harald Svensson. He was well suited as a painting. Perhaps next years Santa Claus.

Esperanza and some skinny dinosaurs ...

2011-02-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some more images from Esperanzas and my session last week. We did a lot more than the bikini in snow images.
Among other thigs, as above. Like a mix of glamour pinup and som b-movie from the 50s. The background is the Swedish National Museum, the dinosaur skeletons were rendered in a 3d app.

Below is the same image, but i a more painted way. Click for larger version.

Some more with the red skirt.

And another "painted" version.

A workshop of sorts ....

2011-01-30T02:24:00.001-08:00

Click on image to view larger version.

Had two nice people, Mattias and Michael, visiting yesterday, to talk about lighting in a home studio and some retouching. Mattis was forced to be a model while Michael did the shooting and I changed the lights. The images here, were shot by me though.

Some of the shots came out rather nicely so I did some retocuhing and changed backgrounds on them.
The top one use 5 light sources. A Sigma 500 Super ( camera flash ) that I use for hairlight, two back lights and two front lights.

Below with a rather short dof..

Workshop av nåt slag ...

2011-01-30T02:18:00.000-08:00

Hade två trevliga mäsnniskor på besök igår ( Mattias och Michael ) för att prata ljus i hemmastudio och lite retusch. Mattias fick agera model och vi gick igenom en rad olika ljus. Några av testbilderna blev lite trevliga så jag beslöt att göra en retusch på några, och byta bakgrund förståss.

Bilden ovan har 5 blixtar tex har en Sigma 500 Super ( kamerablixt ) för hårljus, två billiga kinablixtar bakifrån och två paraplyförsedda blixtar framifrån.

Esperanza - In the cold

2011-01-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

Cold and snowy, so why ot make a bikini session outside?.First time for me shooting Helena W ( Esperanza ).
We did a lot of images on our session. Here are the first three.

Helena 2 - More Oink

2011-01-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

here are some more images from helenas and my session. The pignose I bought came in handy,

Below a nose modification, that can make room for different objects.

Helena III - Portraits

2011-01-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

Third time shooting Helena, the lady with tattoes all over, and other body manipulations.
I wanted to try some old fashioned portraits with a very shallow DOF, as one theme. Earlier that day I had bought a pigs nose for another theme but also tried it here.

Camilla - very pregnant

2011-01-03T02:46:00.000-08:00

Camilla, at the moment very pregnant indeed, called to check if I wanted to shoot some maternity images. As I have never done that I said yes instantly.

Camilla and I have been shootng some glamourstyle images previously, so I though it could look funny with a babydoll-night gown, high heels and the right brand of the cradle.

Sen fick jag en konstig bild i huvudet där barnet tittar ut med ett periskop, och kanske läser lite i dagen tidning.
I got a strange look in my head of the baby, looking out of mummys tummy with a periscope, checking out the news in the paper =)

And of course, you have to start very early to influence the future kid's taste in music. So with some big earphones around the belly and Spotify on the iPhone, there will be some groovin and dancing inside.

heres a rather normal pregnant shot.

Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year ...

2010-12-22T03:39:00.001-08:00

Its Christmas time again, and a very white one here in Sweden, and cold ( 5 ºF today ( -15 C )) A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.

Emelie was here last week and was shot in som santalicious clothing. ( Sofie Carlsson was the great MUA for this session )
here are some images from the session.

Here Sofie is working hard, in what seems to be a somewhat larger makeup room than it really was. They were doing makeup in my kitchen with all lipsticks, rouge and stuff all layed out on my stove.

Below a portrait with very much D&B work to get the skin smooth, while retaing all the structure/texture.

Tifa DeLeone - giving retro a face ...

2010-12-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

Tifa is really superb on modifying herself in a retro fashion. It was fascinating to see her come out with different looks, between takes.

I love a good shallow depth of field ( bluuuuurrrrrr ), and now with a NEW camera ( wooohooo a 5d mark II ) I could squeeze some additional blur out of my plastic little 50mm 1.8.

We had "film" as a loose theme ( I like the slightly deranged looking woman with the knife, wondering who's for dinner ).

Last is another way to do a collage with all images. A 3d software is a big help there.

Click on images for larger versions.

Angelica - old images, new retouch

2010-12-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

The other day I had a severe retouch abstinence, so I decided to look thru some old sessions to get something to work on. My old sessions with Angelica Jansson, usually have to many nice images to retouch at one time, so I started looking there. Found these two portraits. Down the page I also included how a mask , showing the collected layers for Dodge and Burn.

Click on the images for larger versions. Below is another crop of the image above.

Här är masken för bilden ovan.

Lolo - Like a Dance

2010-11-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Lolo is the daughter of a photographer friend of mine, that has taught me many things about photography. Last time I shot her was in 2006, she was still in school. The last image in this post ( desert one ) is from that 2006 session.

Heres the image from 2006 where she did her now famous crab imitation =)

Inside a 2d image ...

2010-11-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

I have seen some rather amazing videos online, where people take an ordinary image, extract people and objects to separate them from the background, clone in the areas behind them and simulate camera movement in software like After Effects.
I decided to try this on some of my own images. The advantage is that most extractions are already done.

So here are two of my 2d images , now in "3d".

Link to original image.
http://www.lutzimages.com/studiobild?image_url=manhattan_3b_sunset_II_600.jpg

Link to original image.
http://www.lutzimages.com/studiobild?image_url=drinking_gasoline.jpg

New CD from Sven Zetterberg

2010-11-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

I had the honor of making the cover. The images were taken in the studio where they recorded the album. I had some transparent white umbrellas with me and a Sigma 500 Super and a Vivitar 285hv flashgun. The top image is a 3d mockup though.

Here are some images from the cover.

Bits and Pieces of Sandra Grefve

2010-11-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here are two more images with Sandra Grefve

Portraits of Sandra ...

2010-11-01T02:58:00.000-07:00

To continue with the session of Sandra Grefve, here are some portraits. Some images really lend themselves to black and white. I think this one worked pretty well as black and white.

Sandra shopping in Rome ...

2010-10-31T08:41:00.001-07:00

Had a visit from Sandra Grefve the other day. Her booked shoot had been canceled, and she contacted me just as I felt a need to shoot. She wanted some portraits among other things. We tried a variety of themes. Here is the shopping spree in Rome one.

Some New Retouch Challenges ... Oct 2010

2010-10-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

I havent done much shooting or retouching lately. But here are two retocuhes from the other day, I did just for fun.

And here is the before.

Here is a new before.

And the after.

Johanna thru the ages ...

2010-10-08T02:12:00.000-07:00

Johanna Halle , Ebba Fromell( MUA ) and I met to take some images. We were going for a couple of different looks, from 40's to 60's.

We start at the makeup ( above ). I made my home "studio" a little bigger in Photoshop =) ( 12 square meters is not big ).

Below is Johanna at the trainstation, like from an old movie from the 40s.

This was meant to be a 50s like photo, but got to be something different .. or, i dont know ... it looks rather nice anyways.

The image below has more characteristics of the 50s, with the clothes. The background is from a vacation I had in Chania, Crete.

This one is taken with my bathroom window as a backdrop. It provides nice light, overexposing most things.

Here is a "painting " made in Photoshop. I like "paintings".

Lorena as a Puzzle and Ikea cubes

2010-10-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

When Lorena was here the last time, her newborn took over, but I got some images of Lorena by herself, although they looked to normal. So I extracted her and put her in a autumn image, added som swirling leaves, and used that image as a texture on the puzzle in a 3d application.

I did the same with the Ikea image. Used a image of Lorena as a texture on the cubes.

I can not paint but then again I can ...

2010-09-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

I can not paint, but Photoshop makes it possible to do it even if you can't =)

I have always been fascinated by painted looks and comics, but I have never had any success doing it myself. Heres a method that I think works quite well, although timeconsuming, and there are a lot of strokes to paint ( like a real drawing ). The video is speeded about 20x or so, Looks kind of neat ( and fast ).

The model is the beautiful and great singer Jasmine Kara. Check her site site.

Here is a closer look.

Edward Hedenberg - paintings in oils and more ....

2010-09-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here in Hokarangen we have a a small exhibition facility called "The Strange Window ". This week Edward Hedenberg is the artist, watercolor and paintings with oil crayons. Some examples below.

After talking to Edward a bit, about painting and drawing comics, he started to make some of his "ugly men" faces on a piece of blue paper. I found it fascinating to watch and asked if I could do a small poster of them. So I went home and scanned the piece of paper and decided to change the lines of the drawings, from ball point pen to something more odd, why not some doodles from Leonardo Da Vinci =) Strange idea but it looked kind of cool ( you need a microscope though to see that it is Leonardos writing ).

Quint Starkie - Composer

2010-09-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Quint Starkie is a musician, who creates music for commercials here in Sweden. Tv, radio, sound logos, whatever. I built the foundation of his website in 2004, but we have never taken any images.And now, the need for a press image was kind of urgent, so he came to my small "studio" and we fired away some shots. here are two of them.

The first image was taken with a Sigma 10-20. The perspective gets rather funny when aimed a little from above. Below I used the Canon 50mm 1.8 ( sharp, cheap, light and very plastic ).

"IMPOSSIBLE" VIEW FROM A CHURCH

2010-09-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

Click on the image for a larger version.

Its not often you see a full 360x180 panorama image, and even more seldom a full 180x360 vertical panorama. It certainly looks a bit strange. Something Dali could have done. Or Escher.

here is a horisontal one, slightly more normal.

Click on the image for a larger version..

Here´s a link to the QTVR version of the panorama. Its made from old images from 2006, just moments before my bluesplaying piano buddy Freguz is getting married.

PANORAMA

Lorena and the new baby ....

2010-08-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have shot Lorena a couple of times before, she is one pretty lady. Now she has given birth to her second child, that she brought to the shoot as she had no babysitter. Turns out we just shot a lot of baby images =), with the little one, that is 1 and a half months old, but with a strong grip with his tiny hands. Here are some of the images.

here I imagined waht it would be like if Lorena had given birth to sextuplets

Unpublished things ....

2010-08-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Havent got so much new things to show at the moment. So I dug into the archives to find some unused material.

Here is Amina with a falcon, for instance. I think it was a test to do a fairytale theme, or to convert to a painting, like below.

here is another with Amina.

This is Angy in the desert. ....

Here is Linda Marie from the Jessica Rabbit session, sort of at home with Jessica.

Below was a test to do a silhuoette, with Hensrik frendin. I shot his wedding a couple of years ago.Should be in the archive.

Johanna Halle with an old studio background.

... and as a stamp .

Jenny, and a car ...

2010-08-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

Jenny and I went on the road for a couple of hours. She has a drivers license AND a car. I have tickets for the subway, thats all. We took a chance and just went, and stopped at two locations we found. Jennys boyfriend, who probably could trip a car with his leg, was kind enough to hold the stand with the flash and umbrella, that would have been flying like a kite if he had not been there.

A year ago I shot Jenny on similar locations but then we forgot to do the "legs in the trunk" image ( or model transport ). We did have a go at it this time though.Here are some more images from the shoot.

The original IDLA girl ....

2010-08-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

The IDLA girls was a famous gymnastics group in the 40s and 50s here in Sweden, using coreographed movements with balls. One of the original memebers was Agneta Sandstrom.

And now she was here, in my small home studio, looking just great, so I naturally asked to take her portrait. I asked her to give me a hard look, like an actor from the 40s publicity shot or something, which she did, with honors. See below.

Stockholm Pride Festival song shoot ...

2010-07-25T04:53:00.000-07:00

Anki Bagger and Peter Magnusson are the artists for this years official Stockholm Pride Festival Song. They came to my tiny little home studio for some portraits and the cover of the single. I went to my 3d software and made some stylistic canons that shoots heartshaped canon balls in the color of the rainbow =) Below is another angle with Anki and Peter composited.

Here are the two portraits.

I also tried to do some "paintings" on the portraits.

And heres a closeup. ...

Emelie at night ...

2010-07-20T11:56:00.001-07:00

Emelie and I were supposed to shoot at a small beach I found on Google maps, rather secluded. However, we were late, the GPS did not find the spot we were looking for and the sun went on holiday, and when we were one mile from the small beach, the road was closed =). So what to do? We figured that the exact spot we were located at, had to do. There was water and a little "pier" and a boat, of plastic, but a boat. AND, we had a nice car that we could use too. Unfortunately my car lighting skills are somewhat lacking, but I tried the best I could at the moment, running around the car flashing like a maniac.

So here are some images from my first session with Emelie.

Here is a virtual coffee table with some of the images, made in a 3d software.

Portrait of Hans Caldaras

2010-07-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hans is a Swedish singer and I have known him since the early 90s or so. Initially I wrote some music for him, when I was a kind of musician. Later I built his website ( its quite old now www.caldaras.com ) and now we dicided to take some images, in the warm summer weather, as I am eager to test my new cheap china strobe with a battery pack. Its not that powerful, about 200ws and the battery looks like a toy =). I like cheap. So I used the strobe with a transparent umbrella, with a 50 mm plastic thing for my 40d and a Sigma 10-20 for the wider images ( on a 350d ).

Here is a strange image made of doodles from leonardo Da Vinci =)

Mirja, and some nude dogs ...

2010-07-09T02:33:00.001-07:00

... the dogs are Chinese Nude Dogs, and are actually just one, multiplied.

Below is the outside of the Drottningholm Theatre. They dont let you shoot inside unfortunately but ...

... you could take images thru the window, so below is a image taken thru the best window.

Here is one is from City Hall.

The background for this was shot here in Hökarängen. The nice fence divides two suburbs here. The deer was borrowed from www.photoxpress.com

Mirja och några nakna hundar ...

2010-07-09T02:24:00.000-07:00

... fast hundran är egentligen bara en, multiplicerad och det är mer rasen som är naken ( kinesiska nakenhundar )

Nedan är Drottningholms Teater. Man får inte fota därinne tyvärr, men ....

... man kunde ta bilder genom ett fönster =)

Här en från stadshuset..

Bakgrunden nedan är härifrån Hökarängen. Det tjusiga stängslet delar Gubbängen och Hökarängen, och ser gammalt och gärdsgårdsaktigt ut. Rådjuret är hämtat från www.photoxpress.com

Sandra, in and out of the studio

2010-07-02T14:40:00.001-07:00

Sandra came by to test some things, and we shot both outside, at a meadow very near my apartement, and some "normal" bluscreen shots.

We did not have the proper makeup or hairstyles for a 40s shoot but we tried a portrait in that vein anyways.

Heres a image where I try to capture multiple Sandras so I had to be cloned to b keep up =)

Here is a "painted" portrait.

Panorama - Djurgården bridge and "planet"

2010-06-26T12:12:00.001-07:00

Click image for larger version

I was going to Skansen to see the Midsommers Eve celebration, but there was so much people standing in line ... se belew the small pano of the line .. made from extracted images from a small video sequence ).

So I went to the Djurgarden Bridege where they have a small sand "beach" , where you can rent a canoe and paddle away. I thought that may be a suitable motif for a sunny panorama. So up with the old 350d with the Peleng 8mm and fire away. As I dont have a pano head I take 8 images around as well as one of the sky and one of the ground and stitch them manually in Photoshop.
The resulting big 360x180 panorama can be seen if you click the link. FULL SCREEN PANORAMA

Below, a "planet" version of the panorama. Tutorials can be found HERE.

Click image for larger version

I also like to view all 360 degrees at once. Its not often you can do that. Heres the panoram before exported to the MAKE CUBIC ( free ) softwre from Apple that makes a QTVR file of it.

Click image for larger version

There are a lot of software to make panoramas. In Photoshop there are simpler tools to make non interactive panoramas ( Extended is more advanced ). A FREE very good software is Hugin.

Jonathan Fritzén´s third album

2010-06-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Fritzen is a very talented piano player. He plays in a style called Smooth Jazz, which is very popular in the US.

Now when the third album is out I thought I´d show some of the test images we did for this album, mixing 3d and photos. Using 3d can be helpful, when trying to visualize the album cover for instance.

En variant .

heres a espresso machine with some stylized initials. Had to try anything that came to my mind haha, and my mind is rather strange at times. The Espresso maker did not make it =)

Here is one of the portraits ( cover image ), sort of like a writers portrait =)

here is a test with a thousand covers or so.

And some more stylized initials.

To listen to some music, go to Jonathans website, www.jonathanfritzen.com

Madeleine at Tyresö Castle ...

2010-06-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

Click on image for larger version

Luxury. Madeleine owns a car. So we could get together and have a shoot at Tyreso Castle. Using subway and bus can be a little tough at times, transporting strobes, stands,umbrellas and more.

At the Castle there is a small wooden bridge, and at a certain angle you can see the castle in the background. So we settled for that location this time. I used my chinese 200 ws strobe ( Bao Rong seems to be the company ).

Click on image for larger version

I thought the first image of Madeleine and Zorro, looke like a painting almost, so I decided to try to make it a "painting".

Click on image for larger version

Visiting Nils Hinnas, wood carver and painter ....

2010-06-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

I have been writing about Nils before LINK
This time I was going to visit Nils in his home and take some pictures of some of his early work, from the 60s, to add to his temporary website, that I did for him. I also tooks some images of him at work.

Here is one of his early works.

National Day of Sweden ... and Sandra ...

2010-06-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

The sun was shining and it was Swedens national day, and I had no no model to shoot. I emailed Zandra and she was fortunately available.

Our first stop was the beautiful ship, af Chapman. My plan was to shoot Sandra onborad and have the castle and the 25000 balloons that they let go, every year at 13:15. But this year there were no balloons unfortunately. Well, Sandra was there so I could get some nice images anyways. Here are some images of our spontaneous session that day.

Nåväl, vi tog lite bilder på den fina båten , och gick sen vidare och försökte hitta nån trevlig plats. Här är några bilder från dagen.

This is how I looked ....

2010-06-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

... when I saw how I looked =)

I was trying out a new flash, a no name chinese brand with a external battery pack, that looks like a toy. The image is made of 4 images, put together in Photoshop. I had the camera on a tripod and a remote trigger to take some images of myself, and then took some more shots to the left and right.

Smal panormas are fun Here is one from last weekend when I went to Drottningholm ( where our royalties live ) . It was a little to clean so I put Anna E in there, I should never have a post without Anna anymore =)

yet another Anna session ... now at ..

2010-06-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

.. now at Långholmen, a prison island in Stockholm. I was eager to try my new budget portable flas, a no brand 200 ws portable flash. Thats not much in sunlight situations, but far better than my Sigma 500 Super. Good fun to test.

Shooting Anna on location ...

2010-05-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

I had three sessions with Anna in a week, that has to be a record for me. One at my place, and one at hers, and one on location as the weather was so good. And its exiting for me to shoot with my small camera flash, Vivitar 285hv and the Sigma 500 DG Super. Here are some images from that session.

More images of Anna E ...

2010-05-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some more images from Annas session. These are more like portraits. Since then we have made two more sessions, one at her place, ( 50 squqre feet =) ) and one outside, in the sun with some small camera flash, that was exiting, but more on that later.

Anna E and I , in "New York"

2010-05-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Anna mentioned something about the beams, that the skyscraper workers sat on and ate lunch, at the 50th floor or something ( like THIS ). I then saw a scene where she was standing on said beam, a rusty one, at the 103rd floor in the sunset, with a nice evening gown, and some champagne or Martini, and some exclusive paint buckets, as if she were about to paint her penthouse from the outside.

A short video with some parts of the making, is included below. Im a real novice when it comes to video, but I consider this a step in the right direction, just that I did one. Its probably rather confusing.

"Shootout" with Anna E ......

2010-05-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Anna shot me as I shot her ( with my pink little Z80 ).

Today is the third day of retouching a session I had with Anna Ericsson this Sunday. Very nice to see her again, as she has been in the states for the last three years or so.

Below a layer mask for one of the new portraits of Anna. I should be done with this session this weekend I think.

Last time I shot Anna was in October 2006. Wow, time flies. Here are a couple of images from that first session.

Another retouch challenge ...

2010-05-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Click for larger version

Sometimes its fun to do a retouch on a photo you did not take yourself. So I tried to make something out of the image below. ( above is the result ).

Click for larger version

Coffee with Max Schultz and a Flash ...

2010-05-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

I went to town today to see if there was something worth to shoot, as it is May the 1st, which means a lot of demontrations all over the city. I did not find anything special to shoot so I went to have a coffee with Max Schultz, great guitar player ( www.maxschultz.com ). I had my Sigma 500 Super with me so I took some shots of him and his new guitar, a great looking piece with a Bigsby whammy bar.

JIve never done any videos from a shoot. I think I will start with that now that I found an online editor that was real simple to use, JayCut. Heres my first try just to test how to combine things, in a glorious 30 second video =).

Ulla Winblad - Watercolor artist,film extra and allotment garden owner

2010-04-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

Ulla has a small allotment garden ( had to look that up in a dictionary =) ) here in Hökarängen, and she grows a number of things and I am clueless to what they may be. I can only see that its a small 10x10 meters beautiful garden with a very tiny porch ( no house ). She offered some coffee and lit a cigarette, and I could smell the sweet smoke, making old memories of smokefilled lungs come to life again. I quit 2 years ago and havent smoked since. Oh those morning cigarettes when I almost fainted of nicotin shock. Those were the days. Lucky for me I got real cheap, and managed to quit realising I could get new cameras and lenses for the cigarette money.

Anyways, this was the first time this year I took the small camera flashes out for a spin. Ulla became the first victim of the Sigma 500 Super and the transparent umbrella.

Pinup Grunge

2010-04-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Helena is a very tattoed and body modified lady, she has even a split tongue. I thought it would look slightly strange and unusual to dress her in a classic pinup baby doll thing and place her in a really grungy apartment ( like she had been a pinup queen years ago ). I found a nice background image, but it destroyed the composition so I built a room in a 3d app instead. I also thought it could be nice to see the images in "print" so I took one of the composited images and made an "article" image ( page spread ) in Photoshop, and used that as a texture on a "magazine" object in the 3d app and added som glass and lamp.

Helena - The Tattoed Lady II

2010-04-22T02:38:00.000-07:00

I shot Helena rather recently, but this time we tried to do all the things we forgot last time. Portraits was one of them. My memory gets completely blank when shooting. I am often to busy thinking about the lights and shadows, where to shoot the background and so on. But I am getting slightly less concerned for every shoot.

Helena has some wonderful tattoes, and she also has a split tongue, as is evident on the first image here. People totally freaks out when they see it live. More to come,like a pinup trash session.

JONATAN STENSON - New site and images

2010-04-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

Jonatan and I played together for many years with Rolf Wikström. I have also shot him before as well as building some of his earlier sites. And now, Jonatan was in need of some instant photos and new site, as he is going to release his new album any day now. So he needed some "live" photos and other stuff. Here are some of the images we did.

http://www.jonatanstenson.com/ ).

Ulf and Bo from Jump 4 Joy

2010-04-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

This is a portrait of Ulf. I looks rather odd, but in a nice way, sort of a metallic look.

Ulf and Bo has a duo together. The second image is what probably will end up as a poster, in all its strangeness. Looks a little like a museum or something. Background made in a 3d app.

JUMP 4 JOY, is a band ...

2010-04-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

... that has been around for many many years. The bandleader, Ulf Sandström is a great pianoplayer as well as a accomplished photographer, inventor, lighting book author and a thousand other things. The band needed a new poster and some portraits, so they came to me, and said they want a huuuuuge saxophone in a desert and a piano , sinking in the dry salted surface ... This will show in a coming post. At this moment there is just the guys playing in the melting snow ( actually they were shot in my studio ). The background is in front of my building, shot with the Casio Z80, one of the cheapest pink point and shoots you will ever find. And generally taking terrible pictures.

A DAY AT THE OPERA

2010-04-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

Helena has a Bach Sonata tattoed on her left arm. It felt natural to place her at a musical environment, like the Stockholm Opera house. Here are some more images of Helena.

DRINKING TNT AND SMOKING DYNAMITE

2010-03-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

I am a huge blues fan.Ive been playing and listening to the blues since I was 14 or so ( means a long time ago ( "way back in the alley" )). Some parts of some lyrics have got stuck in my head. There is the Don Nix "Everybody ants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die" ( way before Tumbuktu ). Albert King sang "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all " and so on.

In the Willie Dixon song "I'm Ready" there is a line, "Drinking TNT and smoking dynamite". I have seen this scenario in my head, so I based a session on it, with Helena, that has a LOT of tattoes and piercings and other strange stuff going on. So here are some images from that session.

Background was made in a 3d software.

And here is an additional image, in another setting.

Sister Sinister i new latex dresses

2010-03-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

I have shot Susanna a number of times. And not without a reason. She photographs very well. So Susanna showed up with some new latex dresses, and we shot two of them with different themes. Here is the red dress, for starters.

The image below is strange and I dont know really what I was thinking =) She has my tax files on her back, maybe her alter ego is an accountant or something.

LouLou in Hollywood

2010-03-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

I found some unpublished images of LouLou, so I had to make something out of them. As usual without light modifiers, to soemwhat mimic the old lighting.

Here is a color version of the first one.

Yet another Hollywood image ...

2010-03-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

Found another old image that I redid, and added a more shallow depth of fiel, to get her to pop more and also to blend in more with the background.

I used 4 undiffused lights ( kcheap chinese strobes , 110 ws branded QiHe ).

heres a color version as well.

ROBERT IKIZ, drums.

2010-03-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Today I suffered from severe photographic abstinence. After a look in todays paper, I saw that Robert Ikiz was playing at Mosebacke Jazz brunch, so I took my Sigma 500 Super, umbrella, camera and Cactus V4 and went to town.

I got Robert to go outside in the sunshine, it was a beautiful day today. After shooting Robert I went back in and forced his musician buddies to come out to be shot to ( I just had to get something to retouch in the evening =) haha photo junkie ). here are some of the images.

New Hollywood portraits of old shoots ...

2010-03-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

The other day I found some images of Angelica and Linda Marie that I did not finish at the time, so I retouched them and they came out rather nice. Here are a coupole of them.

A new retouch challenge ...

2010-03-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

.. heres a forum challenge from today with an image from Cmays Photography that came in RAW format. The original is placed last in this post. First I put a scene with snowy mountains behind her, but then I thought she would spin really fast so the background would be a little blurry, as well as the refelction in the glasses. Below I tried to get a nice black and white conversion.

Below is the original.

New Photography Site - Studiobild.com

2010-03-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

My photography site, www.studiobild.com just got a facelift. The old version was more of a chronological dump in 13 sections. The new one has nine categories of images, and they can be linked to individually, even though its a Flash gallery. I also included the ability to have text for each image, if I feel there is something to be said about lighting or so.