Ka Blag!!!

Atlast my new Website is up.

2011-10-24T13:00:00.001+08:00

So glad that my new website is finally up! please check it out and tell me how do you guys find it.
here the link: www.jaynodalo.com

I blame it on Google+

2011-09-28T22:44:00.003+08:00

Hi peeps! Perhaps you are wondering where in heaven are photos on this blog? Well silly me, but believe it or not I accidentally deleted all the photos yesterday and I felt so bad about it, just imagine three years of blogging all gone in an instant!

It all happened yesterday, I just signed up with Google+ a few days back and only yesterday that I was able to explore it and tweak some settings. I wanted to post some photos on my port so I went to the photo section, on the left side corner I saw a tab "your album" so I went there and I saw my "ka blag" album together with my other blogger account, I press "ka Blag" and there she goes.

So it works and it was neat, but the problem is it shares the entire photos on my "ka blag" site including photos that I do not really want to share like for example my blogger's header photo the one that has a photo with a short write-ups and some other photos that I don't want it to show.

So what I did is I press the "delete album" tab by the side without knowing that by pressing it all the photos on my blog will be deleted forever and ever amen! Stupid me, but I think Google+ geeks should do something about this feature, but anyway I am now in the process of restoring all the photos one by one so good luck on me!

Beauty Headshot with Georgia and Victoria

2011-09-23T18:32:00.006+08:00

It was a long wait almost two hours, but it was worth it everything turns out well the studio was great the make-up was fantastic the models was gorgeous all works well, really worth the wait totally awesome!

Were supposed to start at 7pm our studio booking begins at 7pm until 9pm, it was a very busy day for in the office and I was practically in a hurry to finish my work when I looked at my watch it's already 6:30pm and I am still stuck in the office fortunately I got a chance to breakout from my boss and head unswerving to the studio. After about 15 minutes passed seven, I arrived at the place, Norah our make-up artists was already there Doc Ian and Geoffrey were already there also, but still our models have not arrived yet.

I sent them a text message earlier confirming their attendance and they say: "yes we are coming" so I told the guys we just have to wait, it's almost passed eight in the evening when I got a call from Georgia she said they are in the airport and they are having a hard time getting a bus so I told to get a cab instead, but right after that their line was suddenly cut-off (later they told me they have ran out of phone credit and they also told me they just came all the way from Malaysia). So without any assurance waited again for God knows how many minutes. Everyone is already packed up and ready to call a night when Geoffrey notice a cab parked downstairs and she saw two pretty ladies got off, it was them at last! I told Geoffrey.

It was almost 9pm and it's quite late, but nah! Who cares we got two beautiful tall ladies here all ready for the photo shoot so who are we to say no blink! Now it's Norah's turn to make them look gorgeous and ready for the camera in less than an hour I know it was almost next to impossible because she will not only do the make-up for both of them, but also she needs to fix their hair as well, but ho and behold Norah's magic hands did a great job all in just less than an hour! Fantastic!

Model: Georgia Vitkute

Model: Georgia


Model: Georgia

Model:Victoria Dus

Many thanks to Norah Salazar for the Hair and Make-up and to Doc Ian and Geoffrey for the studio and of course many thanks to Georgia Vitkute and Victoria Dus nice working with you guys.

The Haute Couture - Paolo Roversi

2011-09-21T19:04:00.056+08:00

To all my photographer friends out there have you heard or even know a photographer named Paolo Roversi? Do not ask me, I also don't know the guy not until I read a thread on model mayhem about his work on Vogue Magazine. It was published on Vogue Italia September issue. I was blown away when I saw the photos totally awesome dude! Those are the kind of photos that I really wanted to achieve and learn especially the toning of the photos. Too bad for me because he is using a medium format camera on all his work and I guess that how he gets that old school look of his photos.

(all photos credit to Paolo Roversi)

Paolo Roversi is an Italian-born fashion photographer who currently lives and works in Paris the fashion capital of the world. He is already 64 years old and born in 1947. Check-out this link from model mayhem to know more about Paolo and some behind the scene of his Vogue Haute Couture pictorial.

(all photos credit to Paolo Roversi)

Significant addition to mayhem website.

2011-09-16T16:06:00.005+08:00

Have you been to Model Mayhem website lately? If you do I am sure you already notice that there is one additional tab just right after "shop" the tab is called "edu" obviously it is short word for education.
Although I already notice this tab a few weeks back, but I did not even bother actually to open it and see what is inside until I saw Pratik's (Soltice Retouch) Facebook wall this morning.

Model Mayhem education blog is the latest feature on their website and it consists of different article that provides tips, advice, and knowledge in Photography, post production, Modeling, Hair & make-up, styling and using MM. And also All articles written there came from Mayhem member's submission.

For those who are into retouching and want to have an idea how to breakthrough in retouching business
Pratik Naik has a great article about Making it as a professional retoucher. On his article he discusses the basic on business and marketing side of retouching as well as other topics like networking, anatomy, manipulation, etc. it a must read for all retoucher.

How about If you are in a Photo shoot and the model asked you for a model release form, but you have no idea what is a model release well there is one article from Laurens Antoine that tackles model release, what it is for and what to write in it.

I also saw one articles about DIY lighting and about copyrighting your photos and it's importance plus an article about how to read the histogram on your camera.

So for those MM members out there watch out for this MM edu blog who knows maybe soon someone will share their workflow and technique on skin retouching so you don't have to read high-pass sucks over and over again lol!

My new website in progress

2011-09-15T17:06:00.001+08:00

I am looking for a cheap, but fast and reliable web hosting provider for my new website. Everything is almost done just some few more adjustment and additional photos and it will ready for upload. I am very excited to see it online Valeria of VF Design did a fantastic job simple yet elegant. So right now I am looking for a web hosting provider If I can't find a better provider soon probably I signed up once again with Just host. This web hosting provider offers a cheap price and it serves me well with my previous website, but of course I am still open for a better alternative.

Any better alternative hosting anyone?

S P L I T

2011-09-15T15:22:00.006+08:00

I have been very active in posting photos on Digital Photographer Philippines DPP this past few months and most of the photos I posted there is mostly beauty head shots that I retouch. I have noticed that quite a number of people there on the forum is really interested in learning the basic of digital high-end beauty retouching although I am quite surprise also to learn that this genre in Photoshop editing is somehow not so popular on DPP.

I posted there few of my recent beauty head shot and the response was not bad I received some nice feedback from other members of the forum I even got some questions on my email asking me what sort of workflow I am using while other is asking how do I achieve a clean beauty head shot with skin texture still intact yet shiny soft skins are distinct.

Well anyway I saw one thread there on that forum entitled Beauty Retouching and the thread got quite a number of posting and replies as well as workflow sharing and it was nice, I enjoy reading those stuff that they share some is really helpful and informative especially those that have a detailed workflow, but the rest is just for show-off nothing impressive, but anyway on that thread they mention the term "Frequency Separation" and how this applies to skin retouching. Now let me discuss this term in the best of my understanding and how this technique helps in getting a good result in beauty retouching.

Frequency separation in layman's term is simply splitting the image into two separate layers the high-frequency and low frequency, now why we need to split the image and how it helps in retouching.
Clone tool and Patch tool is the foremost tool in Photoshop that we often use when we want to remove blemishes on the skin, but one perplexity of every Photoshop user when utilizing such tools are after you clone or heal a certain area of the skin you will notice a shift in colors as well as a shift in highlights and shadows that are very visible on the image which tends to look blotchy specially if the skin has a lot of shadows.

Say for example, you want to remove a pimple and you use the healing brush to remove the pimple so you sampled in an area of a skin around the pimple that is clear and you apply it on the affected area and right after you heal that portion you will notice that the skin tends to darken or sometime lighten compare to the other skin surrounding it and also the color becomes different thus creating blotches and the effect is very obvious. In short, every time we use a patch or clone tool or even other healing brush directly on an image there is always a tendency of shift in colors, shadows and in highlights. This always happen when the image has a very deep shadow and also when you heal an area along the edge of the face that has a transition of shadow and highlights.

Why does this thing occur? It is because these tools tend to copy not just the texture, but also the shadow and the highlights as well.

So how to prevent this? Well that is where the Frequency Separation comes in.
Frequency separation or the "Split" is the technique being used by Retoucher to safely remove skin blemishes without the result of blotches or color shifts. In the split, the image are divided into two separate images, the first image contains the texture of the image and it is called the "high frequency" layer while the other image contains the colors, shadow and highlights and it is called the "low frequency" layer.
When you are on a Split you can safely heal the skin imperfection on the high frequency layer without the fear of color shifts, etc. because you are actually touching the texture part of the image. Now where is the color, shadow and highlights of the image? It is underneath the low frequency layer actually.

Next I will try to write some article about Inverted High-Pass and what it can do on an Image.

Here are some link that discusses Frequency Separation" and how to do it in Photoshop:

Natalia Taffarel Blog
Sean Baker Discussion about Frequency separation
Here's a very informative video tutorial from Angela

will add more links soon!

Before and After (Roll over no more)

2011-09-14T22:54:00.002+08:00

Once in a while I accept some retouching jobs from different client for the purpose of continuously learning and perfecting my craft to kill time and at the same time to earn a few extra bucks on the side.

Here are a few before and after images that I did for my clients, no roll-over image this time because it is so time-consuming to do and I just wanted a quick post for now. Credits goes to the photographers and client click the image for a larger view.

Client: Carmen Ba

Photographer: Maze Photography


Client:

Client: Alexia Koullapis

Photographer: Adam Webster

Thanks!

Bikinis anyone?

2011-09-14T22:16:00.006+08:00

It's been seven long months since my last blog entry here and I just suddenly realized that I need to update this blog not because I have to, but simply because I missed writing some stuff and posting it here on my blog. Anyway, I had a great time these past seven months I have been busy with my work, but I manage to shoot once in a while, I also did some retouching jobs on the side as well.
So now I have a bunch of new set photos to share and I will start by sharing with you some recent shot of Ms. Che a gorgeous filipina model who frequently visit Singapore for trip and leisure. This was shot at Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino, with me during the shoot was a good friend Jumbo Kulitoy, hope you all like this.


Model: Che

Model: Che

Thank you guys and hope you enjoy the set.

Hazzy cross-process.......

2011-03-15T13:15:00.012+08:00

I was digging my hard-disks last night looking for a possible set of photos that will be perfect to my idea of like dreamy, blurry, almost you can't see anything post-processing type of thing, it's a crazy idea nothing fancy and it's all in my head and I don't even know how they called it, but anyway.
So I was browsing and it was like almost a thousand photos that I need to scan searching for the perfect set. I was particularly looking for an outdoor shoot because I can easily wash out the background and blur it to make it look foggy or something.
Then I found a perfect set it was a photo shoot I did back in 2009 with Noglamour boy and Jan Marie. The location is on a cemetery with lots of tombstone just perfect for my idea.

Here's the outcome, please press the image for a larger version.

Kiran weekend funshoot

2011-03-12T00:37:00.004+08:00

Here is from one of my recent photo shoots my model here is the gorgeous Kiran Zenkner.
Make-up and hair styling was done by a friend of mine make-up artist Christine Yong.
We manage to do three themes beauty, bikini and editorial theme. It was a blast and indeed it was fun shoot, hope all you guys like it.

Beauty Shot 1

Beauty Shot2

Beauty Shot3

Beauty Shot 4

Beauty Shot 5

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Bikini theme 1

Bikini theme2

Bikini theme3

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Fashion

Model: Kiran Z

Make-up: Christine yong

Hair: Christine Yong

Series of NSFW (Not Safe for Work)

2011-03-11T23:49:00.007+08:00

It has been awhile since my last posting here on my blog and what a better way to start this latest posting is with a set of "not safe for work" (NSFW) photos. This is a collection of few images with mature content/sexy theme that I have done in the past years. Enjoy guys!

Long time no posting.

2011-01-27T16:10:00.003+08:00

January is almost over and I have not updated my blog for quite sometime time now though I got plenty of things to share and new set photos to post, but as my usual excuse time restricts me.

I have been busy shooting as always and now got a bunch of photos obviously stacking -up on me that needs to be process, models and make-up artists are very anxious to see the outcome soon so I guess I will be sleeping late again for the next few weeks or so.

I will try to post some of my recent photos and activities here soon and hopefully gained momentum in blogging again.

By the way I have heard from the organizer of Natalia Taffarel's High-end Beauty Retouch Workshop here in Singapore that all slot has been Sold-Out, so good to hear it. See you at the workshop.

Natalia Taffarel High-End Retouching Workshop in Singapore

2011-01-06T22:20:00.002+08:00

Natalia Taffarel High-End Retouching Workshop in Singapore

NATALIA TAFFAREL - Professional High End Retouching Artist from Argentina is coming to Singapore on ...19 to 20 February, 2011 for a 2 day High End Retouching workshop.
The retouching workshop will show Natalia's complete workflow from start to finish as she works first on a beauty image and then the hair image, working in Adobe Photoshop CS4. The main goal of the workshop is to show and explain the entire process and techniques needed for retouching high end beauty and hair images. Not only does Natalia show and explain the techniques she also explains the thought process behind the techniques and why they are used or why not or when. This makes for a much more thorough and complete learning tool, with the hope that the attendees can walk away with the knowledge needed to competently evaluate an image, envision the result in the mind's eye, plan the process and execute the work needed to achieve the vision.
Some of Natalia's Clients are:
* Michael Jackson
* Westlife
* Rihanna
* Fatboy Slim
* Florence and the Machine
* Alex Reid
* JLS - Jack the Lad Swing
* Pendulum
* Lily Cole
* MIA
* Vogue UK
* Elle UK - China - Germany
* Sugar UK
* Fabulous
* The Big Issue
* Q
* Sublime UK
* L'oreal
* Maybelline
* Revlon
* ASOS
* N Peal
* Wella
* Unilever
Join Natalia to improve yourselves in creating competitive glamorous images.
Date: 19 to 20 February, 2011
Early Bird: s$405 (til 1st January only)
Reg Fee: s$445
Lunch: Provided
Images for retouching: Provided
Venue: Singapore (location will only be disclosed to paid participants)
What to bring:
* Laptop with CS4 installed
* your sound mind :-)
This is a 2 day class of 30pax, no Photo Shoot, 9am to 5pm for Saturday and Sunday. First come, First Serve basis.

Workshop made affordable!
Down payment of s$200 is required to confirm your slot. Balance can be paid on workshop day. Make the donwpayment before 1st Jan and still avail of the early bird price.
Please PM me for registration or
contact xilverclaire@gmail.com/+65 9771-2430
-Xilver Claire Events

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.8

2010-12-29T23:28:00.004+08:00

Two more days and it will be 2011, another year will pass and everybody is looking forward to the coming new year and that includes me you know why? Because yesterday I heard in the news that all people with the zodiac sign of Sagittarius will makes it big in year 2011 which so happen that I am a Sagittarius ha! ha! ha!

Apparently people who are under the zodiac sign of Sagittarius will be will be going big time in terms of job, health and financial aspect. Well I hope that everything they say will be true. .
Moving on, people tend to make a new year's resolution every year and I already read some in Facebook just now, but sure enough it is more of an empty promises for most of the people and that is a fact. I do not believe in a new year's resolution ever since.

So as for me instead of a new year's resolution I will have a personal plan for the coming new year. Why a plan instead of a resolution? Well a plan can change any time right? In engineering terms we call it revision meaning the original plan can be revise any time if needed, I am just playing save here guys.

Now for my personal plan hehehe, I would like to do more paid shoot next year and less free photo shoots I just thought that it's about time that I earned some money from photography.

I am pretty darn sure that the knowledge and expertise that I gain from all those years of doing TFCD's is enough to bolster my portfolio decent enough to gain some paid clients. Also I will probably accept more paid retouching jobs if time permits me. I plan to buy an Apple computer next year as well.

Well speaking of retouching, here is another before and after roll-over image that I want to share to you guys. This photo was taken by my client Rory Lewis from London, and it is for Vidal Sassoon London promotional ads and look-book I did the retouching here and I hope you, guys like the outcome.

"Pre pa-canton ka naman!"

2010-12-08T14:48:00.003+08:00

Today is November 27 do you know what is so especial about this day? It's my Birthday today yehey! Also today is Saturday which makes it a perfect day to have a feast hahaha!

No massive plan for my Birthday would likely just stay at home take a good rest and spend some quality time with my wife and kids. Although I invited some friends and my Kuya's family to come over for a dinner later my wife will be cooking the traditional "pansit canton" coupled with her best tasting home cook fried chicken wings on the side.

Birthday wishes keep pouring in from my Facebook since yesterday and I really enjoyed reading all the messages and birthday wishes, to all my friends and family who greeted me via Facebook or sms thank you very much! I really appreciate it.

::I offer a short prayer ::
Lord God, thank you for the gift of life, thank you for being in my life for the past 37yrs.
Thank you Lord for the blessing that you have been given us, thank you for my wonderful kids and my loving wife thank you for my supportive Family back in the Philippines, thanks you Lord for my friends and Family here in Singapore, thank you Lord for my CFC-FFL community and most of all thank you Lord for keeping me alive and healthy.
Continue to bless us Lord God keep me and my Family safe and continue to guide us Lord towards your righteous path. Grant me humility Lord , grant me courage and strength and lastly grant us peace.
I ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. AMEN!

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.7

2010-11-15T20:10:00.002+08:00

I got another before and after roll-over image here to share and this particular image is from a fantastic photographer from Indianapolis, Indiana, US. named Bill Jones of Bill Jones Photography
This image is posted by Bill on Model Mayhem Digital Arts and Retouching Forum Challenges, Contests, and Samples subforum for practice retouching.
The lighting was topnotch and well executed, I also love the model's expression here, nice job! Below is my rendition of the image.

Here's the crop version of the face showing the facial texture

credits to Bill Jone Photography for the wonderful image

Beauty Shot anyone?

2010-11-04T00:19:00.004+08:00

This is me, this is my stuff, I really enjoy doing beauty shots highlighting some skills that I've mastered in beauty retouching and I can earnestly say I can come up with a decent images now compare with the pictures I did two years ago. I know there is plenty of room for improvements and I honestly admit my skills in beauty retouching is very rudimentary compared to other experienced and renowned retoucher out there. But I am in a constant pursuit for perfection, every image that I retouch every day is a challenge for me to become better in this field. Shooting every week and processing every day is not sufficient for me. I am in constant search for more source of inspiration and knowledge.

But wait! There is one great opportunities for advancement, I've heard retouching wizard Natalia is coming to Singapore soon....yes! yes!

Credits:

Model: Chantelle Anderson

Hair and Make-up: Christine Yong

Location: RobNoc Studio Sengkang

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.6

2010-10-29T21:29:00.071+08:00

Photoshop is indeed a fantastic tool and plausibly the most important weapon in any photographer's arsenal aside from his camera and lenses of course. This software really augments the photographer's creativity and imagination likewise for me the most considerable aspect of this software is its capability to re-create, manipulate and enhance any image from a candid snap shot to an stylish and high-end looking picture. Any incompleteness and or oversight conceived by a photographer, make-up artist and even the wardrobe stylist on the actual photo shoot can easily be fix and modify using this power software.

One of the most crucial things to consider in any close-up beauty shot is the symmetry of the model face. On this particular image try to roll-over your mouse and see the difference, you will probably notice the dramatic change in the models left eye, its symmetry with respect to the eye. I recall I really craved to process this image because I totally like the models pose and expression, for me it is simply gorgeous, but the problem (aside from the usual skin imperfections) is the left eye looks a bit awkward, but of course this problem can be easily improve in Photoshop as seen below.

Outdoor photo shoot with Izabella Bano

2010-10-24T20:33:00.006+08:00

Hello guys! Let me introduce to you Ms. Izabella Bano a professional model from Budapest, Hungary and she is signed with I-models modeling agency here in Singapore. She did various editorial and Fashion photo shoots in different country in addition additionally she has been featured in various fashion magazines and print advertisement here and abroad. I am very delighted and honor to work with this gorgeous and lovely model.

It was last October 4, we had a opportunity to work with Izabella for an outdoor fashion theme photo shoots which we held at Emerald Hills near Somerset MRT. Together with me are seven other photographers who signed up for this organized photo shoot. We had a great fun and everyone really enjoyed it and I am definitely sure each has a keeper.

Thanks so much guys for the support

Below are my takes from the photo shoot.

Here's the grouphug

(L-R) Manny Ibarra, Richard Alcantara, Xtian Altuas (red shirt), Ian Escudero, Sergie, DOn Acebedo and Ryan Rubi

Black n white II

2010-10-21T00:27:00.008+08:00

I do not know, but I feel like undertaking more black and white post processing effect lately. If you notice below just before "showbiz and haircut" is my first all black and white photo series that I blog here, it was my take from a kid's birthday party held just recently. I converted all the images to black and white to have a classic mood on it and I kind of liking the outcome so I've tried it one more time for Izabella's outdoor pics series.

Some points why I like doing black and white processing, first, it is not time-consuming it can be done in a matter of minutes and secondly I do not have to fix the skin tone of the model moreover it is less retouch with respect to skin blemishes and the likes.

Here is how I process the images below:

- Open the image in PS
- Duplicate Image (command J)
- From adjustment layer, I choose black n white then pick "auto" then exit
- Shift/alt/command/E (dunno how they call it) it will create a new layer on top
- From image > adjustment > brightness and contrast.

The noise is applied by:
- Create a new layer
- Edit > Fill > 50% gray then ok
- Filter > Noise > add noise (uniform/monochromatic and tweak slider to taste)
- Then I change the blend mode to either soft light or overlay. (of course you can tone down the noise level anytime by adjusting the opacity)

* No Liquify or cloning applied here. :D

Best viewed here

Showbiz and Haircut Galore!

2010-10-14T16:38:00.018+08:00

Yesterday I was on leave, I just stayed home the entire morning and spent quality time with my kid's Cailean and Jeroen. We also happened to watch the three episodes of Glee season two yesterday together with my wife Angie and we had a great time watching the show actually particularly first episode where Charice debuted in the hit American television show. The succeeding two episode was very disappointing though Charice was no longer there huhuhu anyway I read in the internet that she will be back on the 7th episode of Glee.

Episode three is also commendable they tackled "spirituality" and the spiritual standpoint of each glee member. If you are sensitive in terms of your religious belief you may find some dialogue offending especially the part where the Cheerleading coach having a conversation with the glee club director inside the principal's office they have some dialogue there that is quite displeasing in some way, another one is the term "Grilled Cheesus" sounds like grilled Jesus. Anyway, the last scene was very dramatic, its the scene where the Cheerleading coach talking to her elder sister who happens to be a downed syndrome (special child or lady i might say) and it was truly heartwarming.

*********

Jeroen had his first haircut outside our home meaning not from his mom lol! And it was really memorable.
In the afternoon after we finish watching three episodes of Glee we went to Woodland Civic center to have Jeroen first haircut outside since this is his first haircut with a stranger we very anxious. QB house 10 minutes haircut is the place, it looks nice and cozy I ask the lady barber if they cut children hair and she said yes so we went in and place Jeroen on the chair. As expected he cried out load, literally he cried the entire 10 minutes. He cried so loud and I notice the lady barbers seem apprehensive I just ask her to continue, Jeroen puked in the process which makes the lady barber panicked and she kindda, "ewww" when she saw Jereon puked, she hurriedly removed the garment cover that they put around the neck telling us in might get spoiled or something by the vomit so my reaction was huh?. Amfu! We felt somehow offended by how the people on QB reacted when they saw Jeroen vomit although I understand their reason, but they are supposed to be professionals and they should know that things like that can happens especially if their client is a two and a half years old and kid, in the first place I asked them if they do haircut for kids and they say yes so I am confident they are ready for this kind of stuff walao e!. The cloth was saved anyway thanks to my fast reflexes and presence on mind lol! But had to use my hand to catch all the vomit.

After I cleaned the puked and everything, the lady barber asked me if we should continue I replied "yes ofcourse I pay you 10 bucks for the haircut no?" and she kindda hesitant at first but go on anyway. Well she finished the haircuts while Jeroen is crying out load with matching "tulo ng sipon" Angie and I are holding Jeroen because he was restless and wriggly so we had all the hair in our shirt. After that off to Mcdonalds for some hearty snacks memorable indeed.

Black n white

2010-09-26T17:35:00.005+08:00

Yesterday morning I went to Trevose Park Condo to cover the Birthday party of a friend's son, Make-up artist Norah Salazar, it was a paid assignment so I need to be there early.
Kids birthday party is always very exciting to cover and I guess most photographers like kids a subject. Personally, I love shooting kids especially while they are busy doing their stuff like while playing or when they are quarrelling at each other or even when they are shouting, those were the stuff that I'd like to shoot very candid and natural. I was able to take lots of pretty good shot and I thought of posting some of them here in classic black and white presentation. Take note that most of the pics shown here was shot using natural lights coming from one big window of the function room. Enjoy the series as much as I enjoy taking them :D

So excited

2010-09-24T15:04:00.003+08:00

Last night I was able to close a deal to cover the ROM wedding ceremony of Ms. C.W. and her husband Mr. S.V. They will be getting married in February of next year. The wedding will be held on a Yacht at OneDegree Sentosa, Sentosa Cove and will set sail for six hours, the setting is very romantic. I'm so excited and looking forward to that wonderful wedding event. Also, thanks so much to Ms. Ronalou for the referral, she will be doing the couple's Hair and Make-up. More wedding stint to come!

* * *

On the other hand, my wife and I were very excited when we received the Architectural drawings of our house that I asked to draw by a young architect who is a sister-in-law of my brother Amboy. The design is simple, but very modern in style and it is really nice we like it a lot although I would probably add in some more details with the floor plan, but over all it is great Nanette really did a great job on this, by the way she just recently passed her Architectural board exam a few months ago congrats Architect Nanette.
Next step the structural design, hmm...sino kaya pwede bumanat?

51 Models and counting.....

2010-09-20T14:53:00.014+08:00

I make it a point to update my model mayhem profile page regularly either adding new set pictures or changing my avatar and sometimes accepting friend request as well as tagging models and make-up artist specially after photo shoots. With this am constantly updated on what's the latest with model mayhem particularly models who just recently join and their casting calls as well as model's travel notices.

Anyway, while updating the names on the list of all the models that I've work with on mayhem when I suddenly notice the list is getting longer, occupying most of my profile page. Although ever since I did not bother to count those names on the list, but by this time am tempted to do so ha! ha! ha!. All in all there are already 51 models from mayhem that have work with.

Woo-ah! Imagine 51 models!...not including those that are not in mayhem, well I am surprised to see this figure in the first place I never intended to shoot so many models like this when I first sign-up with model mayhem last one and a half years ago. I only wanted to shoot one or two models every month just to gain more experience and build my confidence in shooting models so I guess it is a milestone for me in some way.

As they say in photography word "just keep on shooting!", so more photo shoot to come.

Ka Blag!

Will be busy for awhile now.

2010-09-15T10:46:00.009+08:00

Last week my wife and I were discussing whether to renew our Internet subscription with Starhub or jump off to another provider, which is Singtel, we were looking for a better promotion and Starhub had a good one.

When we decided to renew our broadband Internet subscription with Starhub everybody got excited especially my eldest daughter Cailean. We had one great reason to be excited because we will be getting the latest Xbox 360 console, the new sleek design Xbox with the glossy black finish, 250GB Hard Drive and Built-in Wi-Fi. This Xbox console comes in bundled with our new MaxOnline subscription. Though it's a bit expensive compare with our previous subscription plan with Starhub, but its sure worth it man! I got a chance to play last night and it was so awesome dude!

Got two wireless controller, one for me one for Cailean...yehey! So I guess I am going to be busy for a while now, not with photography, but with Halo 3!

Ka Blag!!!

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.5

2010-09-13T22:59:00.009+08:00

Hello! I have here another rollover before and after processing that I created last night this time the image is from one of my recent model Jessica and this was shot just last week at RobNoc Studio.

I decided to create this rollover image of Jessica to clarify some inputs/comments that I received in one Photography forum where I posted this particular image. Apparently, I mention there that I admit I liquefied the rib cage area just below the left elbow in response to the comment made by one of the photographer in the forum, I was in the office, that time and I do not have access to my original file to verify it. However after I open the original file at home and finishing this roll over effect I just discovered that I actually did not touch or liquefied any part of the lower rib cage area as I did mentioned earlier. You can verify this by hovering your mouse on the image and see the rib cage area just below the left elbow.

I also mention there that "I got another version where I amended this flaw" I was wrong there it was just an excused on my part and I am sorry with that. But I just remember I really did some correction on flaws on the same part of the body, but in a different but almost identical image.

Come and Join, FFL Christian Life Seminar

2010-09-06T22:56:00.009+08:00

What is the Christian Life Seminar (CLS)?

The CLS is an integrated course intended to lead seminar participants into a renewed

understanding of God’s call to them as Christians. It runs for a total of 9 separate

sessions, usually held once a week. Most sessions consist of three basic ingredients: a

teaching, a group discussion, and a time for fellowship. Each session would normally last

for about 2-1/2 hours.

What are the goals of the CLS?

The CLS has two basic purposes: evangelization and spiritual renewal.

To evangelize is to take the basic message of Christianity and to proclaim it anew so that

those who hear it can make a renewed commitment to God in a way that will allow them

to receive a fuller experience of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Spiritual renewal works in three ways:

1) For the individual, it brings a person into a stronger relationship with God by

discovering and living more fully the power and gifts he/she received through the

Holy Spirit;

2) For the family, it brings married couples and other family members to a renewed

commitment to Christian family life and it starts to build a community of

committed Christian families;

3) For the Church, it brings people within a particular parish to a fuller experience of

life in the Spirit. Consequently it strengthens and revitalizes community life in the

parish.

Testimony from a Servant

For more information and Details please contact the following:

Henry - 9757 6440

Liza - 9853 1285

Boyet - 9229 6183

Glenda - 8228 5976

Jordan - 9183 4710

Lou Ann - 9339 4780
or Email:
cls.ffl@gmail.com

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.4

2010-09-01T21:50:00.041+08:00

Another roll-over image here to share, but this time it's a collaboration works between me and Ian Escudero. Doc. Ian as we all call him is a medical doctor cum photographer and this particular image was taken by him from a photo shoot organize by Ivan See aka Modelinn (he's a photo shoot organizer at Clubsnap).

I saw this image while we were shooting one afternoon at RobNoc studio, he brought with him he's Macbook and in between shoot we browse he's mac looking for some sample poses for the model to emulate. As soon as I saw this image I immediately ask Doc. Ian if I can have a copy of the image and will post process it for him. By just looking I can tell that the shot itself is already a good one and actually looks high-end in style and professionally shot worthy of becoming a front-page in any Fashion magazine. However, it will look more elegant and astonishing if further process in Photoshop.

Now here is my rendition of the image, especial thanks Doc. Ian for the confidence!

Ka Blag!

Credits:
Model: Nathany
Photographer: Ian Escudero
Post Process: Jay Nodalo

One more time with Ms. Meity Chan

2010-08-25T22:17:00.005+08:00

Last Saturday evening I was again invited by Thirdy for an outdoor photo shoot "strobist" style. It was a fashion theme photo shoot and Meity Chan was our model with the lovely Fiena Woe doing the make-up and hair styling.

This photo shoots is quite different compare from previous photo shoots that we commonly do. Most of the time we shoot in the morning were available light is always present. Frankly speaking I don't have any idea how outdoor strobing works and personally I am not a big fan of outdoor strobing or "strobist" as it was popularly known.

One dilemma I am concerned with was, how to light the model properly without being either overexpose or underexpose, but spite of that we went on with the photo shoot.
I invited Jp "Jester" Alcaraz to join us he is the first person to come in my mind when you mention the word "strobist". Jester is a big factor to the group primarily because we don't have to worry about the lighting equipment since this "strobeast" guy really got something, with four Pocket wizard II, three SB flash guns, three light stands and umbrellas plus different sets of colored gels I should say he's the man for the job...heck! Why calling him the "strobist" master if he does not have all this stuff Ha! Ha! Ha! (yabang), secondly he has a lot of experience shooting at night using strobes and knew outdoor strobing by heart technical and lighting wise.

The whole crew did a pretty good job that night capturing pretty good photos additionally I also need to mention the fantastic make-up that Fiena did on Meity especially the second look where she did a fabulous creative make-up. It was an awesome night indeed, we started 9pm in the evening and finishes at 2am in the morning!
Ka Blag!
I'm loving the ropes.....yes!

Fantastic Make-up

the first look was with this long dress and shot along the jetty

Bokehlicious

Of course here's the Grouphug form the Photo Shoot....Thanks to Thirdy for the invite.

(L-R) Thirdy, Fiena Woe, Meity Chan, "Jester" and Me.

Lonely Planet Jp Alcaraz

Credits:

Model: Meity Chan
Hair and Make-up: Fiena Woe
Photo Shoot Organizer: Thirdy
Location: Woodland Singapore

Photographers:
Jp "jester" Alcaraz
Thirdy

Creative Photographers Club

2010-08-15T13:54:00.008+08:00

Last week was a very busy week for me I was back in the Philippines for four days (I arrived Thursday and went to back Singapore Monday morning) to attend the wedding of my friends Thirdy and Mitch and likewise to attend the baptism of Ritchie's first baby named Chena. Chie personally asked me to be one of the godfather so how can I say no to a good friend.

Sunday was the busiest day for me, baptism is in the morning and wedding celebration at night then after that I rushed back home to fix all my luggage for my early morning flight to Singapore.

Indeed those four short days really got me busy not only with the wedding and baptism, but also with some scheduled Photo shoots that I organized and or joined with. And one of those photo shoots was with the group CPC or Creative Photographers Club (formerly CAMANAVA Photographers Club). I signed up for this photo shoot through our website www.camanavaphotographers.org .

It was a fashion themed photo shoot and was held Friday night in a studio somewhere in 7th avenue in Caloocan. It was really a fun filled night "asaran at kwentuhang umaatikabo". Well of course it was a great opportunity for me to meet in the flesh those awesome people behind CPC photography group of whom I am a proud member for two years now. Though I only got a few shots from almost two hours of shooting, nevertheless really enjoyed it a lot, shooting side by side with the masters of CAMANAVA Photographer Club is really a fantastic experience.

Good luck guys!

Ka Blag!

Here are some of my takes:

Credits:
Model: Stef
HMUA: Maylene
Location: Studio 7th Ave. (thanks to sir Nelson Sze)
Special thanks to Pafi Jun Navarro for Organizing this photoshoot.
Also nice meeting you guys, Jun Gorospe, Anwar Ratag, Adrian Baltazar, Gerry Santader and Nelson Sze. Manny Chua (kahit late na dumating).
Thanks guy's sa uulitin!

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.3

2010-07-28T16:27:00.061+08:00

Hello guys! Here is my third roll-over, before and after processing to share. This image was taken by a lady professional photographer based in orange County, CA. her name is Chanel Rene, this is posted on Model Mayhem's Digital Art and Retouching thread and can be downloaded for practice retouching.
The photographer also allow this image to be posted for the retouchers personal portfolio as long as there is a proper credit or link to Chanel Rene's website.

Credits:
Photo by Chanel Rene:
www.chanelrene.com
Model Mayhem Port

Thinking of selling my gear.

2010-07-28T15:35:00.002+08:00

I am almost in the verge of selling my camera gear, my Canon 50D together with EF24-70mm lens and some other stuff.

Transferring to another house literally depleted our funds aside from that there is also some important dues that I need to settle right away, I mean right away! And it all heaping on us. We badly needed additional source of fund right now and we need fast that's why I am thinking of putting all my gears up for sale. Am I serious about this? Dead serious! But my wife advises me to keep my gears instead, she said there is other way to source out for some funds. She knew that those gears are most precious to me lol!

We are praying to the lord to give me and my wife a strength and patience to overcome this challenges that we are facing right now. I am so fortunate to have my kuya Boyet here to help and also my CFC FFL Family especially Bro. Franco.

By the way I have a Sony Vaio laptop for sale! It's cheap who want it?...just email me lolz!

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.2

2010-07-20T21:21:00.019+08:00

Here is another before and after image that I want to share with you. This image was taken a few months back at RobNoc Studio and compare with the previous roll-over image that I posted, which is a close-up shot this time it is a whole body shot of my model named Krizl. On this particular image aside from my conventional fixes on the skin as well as dodging and burning I also utilize one particular Photoshop tool called the liquify tool. This particular tool is an integral part of my personal workflow, I depend heavily on liquify tool to add curves and contour to my subject.

I heard some photographers is reluctant to use this powerful tool supposedly because some models may somehow get offended if they alter some part of their body, but my thoughts on this is models are supposed to be perfect and beautiful and it's the photographers job to make them look that way so if there is a need to alter some physical feature just to make them look beautiful I will do so.

Now going back, here I use the liquify tool on Krizl's back to add a bit of curve to make her look more slender and sexy I likewise use it to tuck-in a bit of her tummy and neck, which is quite distracting for me. I also did some adjustment on the lower part of her dress by making it a bit wider to mimic the swaying effect similar to a Flamenco dancer swaying her dress left to right, this was done by copying a portion of her lower dress and paste it just beside the existing dress on her right, this will create a new layer, then I rotate it and adjust accordingly. I added a blank layer mask then invert and brush until it blends with the original dress. Another noticeable adjustment that I did on this image is I removed a portion of her left hand, which looks like sticking out of her belly, I find distracting so I decided to remove it using the clone tool likewise with the very obvious softbox on the right side. I also tilt her head just a bit to make straight and that's it! Easy right?

More roll-over to come....

Credits:
Model: Krizl Cudal
Make-up: Shikin Khalid
Location: RobNoc Studio Sengkang

Before and After (Roll-Over) No.1

2010-07-19T21:42:00.012+08:00

Hello guys! I would like to share with you my roll-over, before and after processing of Geoffrey Paras's close-up shot which this was taken just recently at RobNoc Studio in Sengkang.

Please pardon me if the image is a bit off center because honestly, I don't have any idea how to fix this CSS script. But anyway, for this particular image if you roll-over your mouse cursor you can easily notice the big difference on Geoffrey's face after I remove the blemishes and some stray hair using clone tool and healing brush. Yep just clone tool and healing brush only, but I use the clone tool and healing brush differently I normally zoom in on the image until I see the square pixel of the skin before I start cleaning. Zooming to pixel level when healing and cloning with help you save those skin areas that are perfect and clean and keeping the texture intact.

Those facial or skin highlight was done using the dodging and burn and if done correctly the skin will look glowing especially if you apply shadow and highlights after the DnB well of course one key element to achieve this kind of effect is the proper lighting of the subject. Just take advantage of the highlight created by the studio lights.

Ka Blag!

Credits:
Model: Geoffrey Paras (Thank you sir)
Shot at RobNoc Studio Sengkang

Madz and Anna Prenuptial Shoot

2010-07-11T19:28:00.010+08:00

A good friends of mine will be getting married this coming July 21 this year so as a gift for them I figure to showcase here on my blog some images that I took when we had a pre wedding Photo shoot a couple weeks ago before they flew back to the Philippines for their wedding.

This photo shoots was shot entirely at Singapore Botanic Garden together with Robby and Edwin. I Invited Carmen Chan to be their make-up artist. We actually had no definite theme for this photo shoot the couple just brought with them some casual outfits like t-shirt, jeans, short pants, red sneakers and a dress for bride and from there we just experiment on the looks.

It was a fun filled day everybody was laughing during the entire photo shoot, si Madz pa kwela yun e. The make-up was great the couple was very eager cooperative so the shoots went well we had a great time actually not to mention the incidental photo shoot we had with a pretty Indonesian lady. Lucky us!
All of a sudden remember that was my third time to do a prenuptial photo shoot, the two previous shoot was also for a friend.

Special thanks to Carmen Chan for the couple's make-up, she did a great job here.

To Madz and Anna, I wish you all the best in life pare, pa-inom ka pre pag balik mo dito...Congratulations!!!!

Lovely couple

sweetness

****twilight inspired****

Groom: Madz Ablang

Bride: Anna Nuque

Hair and Make-up: Carmen Chan

Kakulitan:

Robby Nocun

Edwin Estimo

Jay Nodalo

Caroline

2010-06-24T21:37:00.004+08:00

It has been an awesome experience for me and the rest of the photographers who were with me last night. We definitely had a fun filled photo shoot with a professional and experienced model from Canada named Caroline. Being a dancer and athlete Caroline had a very good body awareness and move very well to adjust to the camera angle and light which I think is a great standpoint for any professional model like her.

Caroline nude-art photo shoots was shot at Camera Rental Studio in Clarke Quay with me are my photographer buddies Doc. Ian. Geoffrey, Hardy, Don and Geoffrey's friend, but I forgot the name. It was a two hours photo shoot and we experimented on different lighting setup courtesy of Doc. Ian.

Here are some of my takes during the shoot

Grouphug Shot1

(L-R) Doc. Ian, Hardy (back), friend of Geoff, Geoffrey and Don A.

Grouphug Shot 2

Credits:

Model: Ms. Caroline

Theme: Artistic nude/Lingerie

Make-up: Caroline

Location: The Camera Rental Studio

Lighting Setup: Doc. Ian

Photographers:

Hardy, Doc Ian, Don, Geoffrey and his friend

Ms. Singapore World 2009

2010-06-24T18:07:00.006+08:00

It was definitely an honor to be able to have a Photo shoot session with the reigning Ms. Singapore World 2009 Pilar Carmelita Arlando.

Some background stories regarding the Miss Singapore World 2009 title. There is a controversy behind the Miss World Singapore 2009 title when the reigning winner Ris Low was stripped with her crown after the organizer found that she had been convicted of credit card fraud in May 2009, and was sentenced to two years' probation. I was told that there is another model who is supposed to replace Ris Low, but got some issue as well so Pilar got the title after that controversy and the rest is history.

I happen to know Pilar through model mayhem she sent me message one time proposing if we can somehow arrange a photo shoot she just signed up with model mayhem and needed to update her portfolio. Of course I gladly accepted it primarily because it's Tfcd and secondly I saw on her profile that she is the reigning Miss World Singapore 2009.

At first was in doubt if whether she is the real Miss World 2009 so I asked Mr. Google hahaha! Surprisingly not so much article was written about Pilar being the Miss World 2009 it's always about Ris Low though I manage I see some videos on you tube and news articles to prove to me that she is indeed the reigning Miss Singapore World 2009. Don't blame me if I made some research I am just curious hihihi!

Here are some of my take.

Credits

Model: Pilar Arlando Ms. World Singapore 2009
Theme: Corporate Look

Location: RobNoc Studio

Mua and Styling: Carmen Chan

Organizer: JumboLiit

Jen Polce Fashion Shoot

2010-04-19T21:37:00.006+08:00

Here's another model shoot that I organized last March, a bit late in posting, but has actually been in my blogger draft list for two months now, but because to my busy work schedule I forgot to update my blog and publish this on time.

Anyway let me introduced you to Miss Jen Polce she's 20 years old, A Euroasian model who moved here in Singapore two years ago. According to her she's half Indonesian, half Italian and she is currently studying here in Singapore.What I really like about Jen is her facial features, her alluring eyes and luscious lips while still being skinny which I think every model should be.

Our make-up artist is Lucy Beta also from model mayhem, an artist from Indonesia who has tons of talent in make-up artistry. Geez! This girl is incredible! She definitely knows how to do makeup and what she did with Jen is awesome! A total make over from beautiful to super beautiful! No kidding!
I noticed Lucy is quite charming so I asked here she tried modeling hehehe! Lucy mentioned that she posed in front of cameras on occasion, but she prefers to do make up rather than modeling.

Even though we only manage finished two looks instead three as we previously discussed but we need to cut it short because it was already late and Jen needed to rush to some other commitment, but we definitely got a bunch of nice pics and I am pretty sure everyone had a great night.

Ka Blag!

Here's my take on the first look.

Here's for the second look

Grouphug and behind the scene take from Jen Polce photo shoot

(L-R) (Standing) Robby, Thirdy, Lucy and Jen

(L-R) (Seating) David and Welly Lim

(L-R) David, Jay, Jen, Lucy, Third and Robby

Credits:

Model: Jennifer Polce

Make up and Hair Styling: Lucy Beta

Studio: RobNoc Studio Sengkang

Gothic Inspired Fashion

2010-04-18T21:09:00.010+08:00

It was in February when Erich and I started discussing this themed photo shoot, he invited me personally to do this shoot with him and I am really thankful for that. Initially we started discussing details about what kind of theme we will do, who will be the make-up artist, who will provide the wardrobe and location, etc. We encountered different problems like choosing a suitable date to shoot since both of us has a busy schedule and if it is a couple shoot we need one more lady to his partner. He proposes to shoot him and his girlfriend for a street fashion theme (anything goes style) but was dropped eventually due to some personal problem between him and his girlfriend. I suggested to invite another lady model to replace his girlfriend, but did not work either.

I really wanted to work with Erich again before he flew back to the States, I know this guy because I had worked with before and he is a good person. Super friendly, an experienced model with a killer expression, furthermore I like how he executes a pose at the same time rendering a very realistic expression. Those were the modelling qualities of Erich that I like the most.

Apparently the photo shoot was materialize late March when Jan Marie another model from Mayhem joined in and organized everything for us. The theme was eventually changed to Gothic Inspired Fashion theme instead of street fashion theme as previously planned. Jan was a great addition to the team I've worked with Jan Marie a couple of times before and I know her very well she is a gorgeous model, very passionate and really knows how to execute a pose glamorously very friendly and easy to work with.

Jan invited Carmen Chan to do the makeup and hair styling she also invited her friend Rin Loh to assist us with wardrobe styling together with Shiqin Chen assisting her. Carmen and I already did three photo shoots together so I also know her very well and how she works and I am pretty sure that with this team we manage to put up everything will be awesome.
Kranji War Memorial near Kranji MRT was our shooting location, lots of tombstone with huge memorial marker and a big cross perfect for the theme.

It was very hot and we are shooting under the sun already for 3hrs, it was very tiring, but still Erich and Jan are very cooperative. See how the sun cast a very harsh light on the following images.

Wardrobe styling was fantastic, Rin Loh did a great job here and I like how they turned out, by the way Rin Loh is also a photographer and a makeup artist .

Here's some solo pics of Jan Marie

I personally like this shot of Jan

Now here's the Grouphug pics of the Photo shoot.....behind the camera is me of course hihihi.

(L-R) Erich (noglamourboy), Jan Marie, Carmen Chan, Rin Loh and Shiqin Chen, (me taking the picture)

I would like to thank Erich for this photo shoot, bro good-luck man! I know you're enjoying yourself back there in the States. Also, I need to say thanks to Jan Marie for organizing this photo shoot (we had a long telephone discussion a night before the photo shoot....hihihi), thanks also to Carmen, see you around or perhaps see you next shoot and lastly thanks to Rin Loh and Shiqin good-luck to both of you hope to work with you again. Goodluck guys!

Credits:

Model: Jan Marie Rico

Model: NoGlamourboy
MUA/Hair: Carmen Chan
Wardrobe/Hair Stylist/: Rin Loh
Organizer: NoGlamour/Jan Marie
Photographer: Jay

Forum here...Forum there....Forum everywhere.

2010-04-08T22:01:00.010+08:00

I just received an email from a fellow photographer here in Singapore and he is inviting me to join a new photography forum which caters "again" for Pinoy photographer here in Singapore. I am a bit surprise because with so many photography forum existing here in Singapore what will this new photography forum will offer. They will be joining the roster of Clubsnap, PinoyCser, Pinoygraphers and MasPinoy.

Anyway, I visit the link he gave and yes it is indeed a newly established Pinoy photography forum, but I guess its members were old timer though. I remembered just a few days back I also signed-up from yet another photography forum here (well actually this group is just a re-birth of one of the earliest photography group here in Singapore) so I just thought huh? How many groups are already there?

I tried browsing the website and I saw some familiar name in it and because know some of them personally and the rest I just know the names, but what puzzled me is those names that I saw were the same people who started and put up this old photography forum that is active until now and yet they have a new one? Again? Lol!

Seriously in my opinion it is a sign that photography here in Singapore especially for Filipino is really on its peak, more and more "artist" in photography are coming out to express and show-off their talent and this ever growing popularity of all these photography forums really proves it, furthermore DSLR camera can be bought cheap here in Singapore compared to the Philippines and because of this pinoys here can easily get hold of one.

To continue, I mention this here on my blog because on my count I think there are already six Photography forums existing here in Singapore, Clubsnap of-course is oldest plus those Filipino photography forums like PinoyCsers, Pinoygraphers, Maspinoy, FOTOholiks (new one) and PinoyObscura (now defunct recently) so all in all five forums and I am an active member with most of them. I am also a member of four more popular Photography forums in the Philippines namely DPP, PiPho, CPC, and Neutral Ground and also with Pinoygraphers.com forum, but this one is based in the States. My heads spin every time I log-on to all this websites so many leh! Now I'm having a hard time remembering all those usernames and passwords lol!

Singapore Based Photography Forums:
www.clubsnap.com
www.pinoycsers.org
www.pinoygraphersg.org
www.pinoyobscura.com (defunct)
www.maspinoy.com
www.fotoholiks.com

Enjoy your passion man!

Bunch of retouching videos and tutorials here!!

2010-03-30T14:21:00.009+08:00

1.) For those serious retoucher / Photoshop user this is a highly recommended site. This site got plenty of useful tutorials in Photoshop, from initial retouching consideration, color corrections and tone, structural enhancement (contouring), removing wrinkles, eyes/hair/face enhancement to skin softening all rolled into this one fantastic site.
And one great things about this are that all tutorials are in easy to follow video format....isn't that lovely? But the downside is, it requires you to have an active subscription to lynda.com. to gain access some major tutorials
nyahahaha!. Well you can watch the videos from introduction to color correction and tone for free but following topic after that you will need the subscription, not bad, errr...anyway here's the link for the tutorials. The main site is www.lynda.com and they offer online training not just Photoshop but other programming stuff like Ajax, HTML, CAD, MS Office etc.

2.) I know some of you specially those people who are into skin retouching may have heard of "Pixel level dodging and burning" well this is one of the common technique being used by some expert skin Retoucher and also the most tedious one because you will need to zoom in up to 500% (where you can see the pixel boxes of the image) to execute this which makes it time consuming, but it's a very effective skin retouching technique and the result is awesome. I personally use this DnB technique discuss here but in a bit different approach.

well here's some good tutorials for this non-destructive Pixel level DnB
~ from everythingsmagic
~ from Ronald Tan

This for now perhaps I will add some more rocking tutorial link here soon. Hope you, guys find this useful in your everyday Photoshop'ing. Enjoy!

Credits:
www.lynda.com
http://blog.ronaldntan.com/
everythingsmagic.deviantart

As Promised (NSFW)

2010-03-19T22:19:00.010+08:00

Here it goes as promised! Sharing my take from our recent photo shoots with Playboy Philippines Playmate none other than Ms. Joy Pagurayan, but first let me start with the Group hug shot. Thanks guys for participating in the photo shoot

(L-R) Elmer, Jimbo, Doc. Ian and Don

(seating) Geoffrey

(L-R) Elmer, Jimbo, Doc. Ian and Don

(seating) Geoffrey

Now here's my take, it's a bit sexy so I guess this is not safe for children below 18yrs old or to some narrow minded individual.

From this image you can see how her skintone glows when the studio light hits her.

Joy has a very expressive face and she definitely knows how to pose, very professional

This pose rock! men!

I just say " I want to see some curves" she strike a pose and boom here it is nyahahaha!

The photo shoots went well despite some problems in locating the studio credit goes to Ms. Joy for being professional and confident during the entire shoot I am sure everybody got a pretty nice takes of Ms. Joy last night. It was also a good experience shooting in Lighthouse Studio it was my first time to have a photo shoot there actually and it was a great experience for me! The place was quite small though (Geoffrey told me they had a bigger one just opposite) but they have five lights man!...five lights! Imagine that hahaha...camera rentals studio got only three lights. Lighthouse got two lights mounted on the ceiling with rail where you it can be moved from left to right with ease and can even move it up or down nice huh! Hahaha there is also one huge beauty dish and it rocks man!

Special thanks to Doc Ian E. ang galeng na niya mag setup ng ilaw, it was a five light setup and he expertly set it up with ease naks! Well-done bro. He told me he just recently attended a studio lighting workshop (knowledge bowl in CS) held on that very same studio nyahahaha! kaya pala! The photographer who conducted the workshop was the Lighthouse studio owner himself who happen to be Geoffrey's colleague in RWS project.

Credits:

Model: Joy Pagurayan

Studio: Lighthouse Studio

Photographers:

Ian Escudero

Jimbo Cruz

Elmer Baquioro

Don Acebedo

Geoffrey Paras

On leave today

2010-03-19T21:33:00.003+08:00

March 19, 2010 - On leave today and I still got 1.5 days to clear all my annual leave balance before the end of March or it will be forfeited.
I spend the whole Friday with my family of course, I guess it's time to spend quality time with my kids and my loving wife. Doing some handyman job in the morning cleaning and fixing fan and A/C and then later spend time playing with Jeroen and Caily.

We went off to the mall in the afternoon just strolling and doing window shopping played some arcade game in the Mall until 8pm in the evening. While we were looking for a seat in the food-court area we saw Eric Matias busy eating his fried hokkien mee we just chat a little bit and he left for his evening class. The MRT was crowded on our way home (as expected because of rush hour timing) so we have to endure almost 30mins of our travel time standing inside a crowded train.

A simple life for a typical Pinoy family in Singapore.

++++++Quote of the Day++++++

2010-03-11T11:24:00.004+08:00

Here's some interesting quote i've read this morning:

"The unwritten rule for fashion/glamour photography - Make the model look beautiful!" - JT

"Its your job to hide her flaws not flaunt it - Genald Tungol

I'll keep all this in mind......

JAG Jeans inspired theme Photo shoot 09

2010-03-09T20:29:00.013+08:00

The year 2009 was very tiring yet fruitful year for me literally because that was the year that I decided to concentrate more on shooting models and do more on fashion photography. Prior to doing Fashion photography I used to shoot landscape and street events once a week sometimes shooting either sunrise or sunset. And during those times I'm not that very active in shooting I shoot when I feel like shooting not so consistent.

Second quarter of 2009 when I convinced myself and my wife to sell my very first "L" lens my EF17-40 F4 and bought a new EF24-70 F2.8 L lens then after that I told to myself, "from this day forth I'll be more active in shooting and utilized this very expensive lens more often," Then I signed up at Model Mayhem and the rest is history for me.

Model shooting or Fashion photography is a very difficult genre in photography, but surprisingly most photographer started out with this kind of genre probably because most photographer specially nowadays can easily hire a model to pose for them practically, anyone can be a model even your pretty girlfriend can be your model so perhaps that is why some photographer started out with fashion photography.
From landscape and event photography to fashion is a very challenging on my part first reason is I am not confident in shooting models especially lady I am typically a shy person and I also lack of experience in such genre.

That is why I intended to shoot models more often by this way I can overcome my shyness and eventually gain more confidence. Initially my problem is how to look for a model to shoot lol!. Model Mayhem got me started, this site offer tons of models just like me who is starting out also and most of them is on the process of building their portfolio and it has everything from newbie to professional, from young to old, from not so pretty to super beautiful.

One memorable and also favorite Photo shoot that I did last year was the JAG Jeans inspired theme Photo shoot. I really enjoy this shoot because I have so many "first time" here this is the first time I've done photo shoot alone meaning I am the only photographer (although later before the last look Eric showed up) and also the first time I experienced shooting with complete castings, we have a wardrobe and hair stylist on the set also make-up artist. On this particular photo shoot we have Sha16 rendering wardrobe and Hair styling (my first time to shoot with wardrobe stylist actually) and Diane Yap for the make-up and our models are Winnie and Erich (also my first time shooting male models) Very memorable indeed, great wardrobe styling, great make-up, awesome theme truly a bunch of professional people.

This photos shoot was shot last October of 2009

Model: Winnie Loo

Model: noglamourboy

MUA: Diane Yap

Wardrobe: Sha16

Hair Styling: Sha16

VA: Ivan

Photographer: Jay and Eric M.

Location: Emerald Hill, Somerset

this particular shot was taken in one of the bar in emerald hill, inside this bar was a huge mirror and this mirror works well for the shoot.

shot with the giant mirror

Winnie and Erich

Winnie Loo

Credits:

Ivan Cariaga

Playboy (Philippines) Playmate Centerfold

2010-03-04T16:09:00.004+08:00

Gearing up for a Photo shoot with the former Playboy Playmate (Philippines) centerfold model. Yes!, and it will be next week and I'm very confident this will be fun and the guys are all excited about it.

Checklist:
Model - Confirmed!
Studio - Booked!

Photographers - All has been informed and confirmed!
Now all is set for the big night, but this time it will be different because we got to try out a new studio called Lighthouse Studio located along Seah Road, it's a bit expensive and definitely a bit small in terms of its area compare to The Camera Rental Studio (our regular studio) but they offer more lighting equipment.
And by the way our model next week is Ms. Joy Pagurayan
checkout her site: www.joypagurayan.com

*Playboy Magazine Philippines 1st playmate centerfold
*Philippines'NextTopModel (top5 finalist)
*Playboy Magazine Philippines Cover April 09

Pics of the photo shoot to follow weeeeee!

Ayuz!

Behind the scene at ION

2010-02-20T17:20:00.011+08:00

I decided to post some of the behind the scene takes from our recent Harper Bazaar @ ION Photography contest entry photo shoot this morning here rather posting it on my Facebook account thanks to my model friend Winnie Loo for the short head-up message. She suggested that it's not a good idea to post some pictures even some behind the scene takes from our recent ION photo shoot on my Facebook since a lot of people are taking part on contest that even smallest of ideas can be copied and stolen. She has a point there and besides I do not want to disappoint Eva (our model), it's all her idea that we should join this photo contest plus the fact that she had put a lot of effort just to make this Photos shoot happen.

Anyway I would like to share some experiences that we have shooting inside ION Mall. Well a bit intimidating and exciting at the same time, intimidating in the sense that there has a lot of security guard inside the Mall of course, but the idea of whether are we truly allowed to shoot inside the mall or not really bothering us, in one of the contest rule states that shooting are allowed inside provided that there is no heavy lighting equipment involved. Were excited because it is our first time to do a photo shoot inside a Mall and it's not just an ordinary mall its the ION Orchard mall huh!

Initially we started shooting outside the mall with the awesomely designed architectural facade as the backdrop for the first look after a while the group decided to shoot inside the mall for the second look. But before entering I ask the security guard posted outside if we can have a photo shoots inside the mall. I am a bit apprehensive about the idea of shooting inside the mall actually, but Eva and Calay was determined to shoot there...ang lakas ng loob, the guard says we are not allowed, but still we went in "bahala na si batman ika nga". so we went directly to the upper level where there are few people and no guards in sight. Next thing I knew, we were already shooting frantically and surprisingly security people inside the mall who happens to pass by does not even bother to ask us what we are doing and why we are shooting inside they just looked at us and they left lol!

here's the BTS shot this morning

Eva with Jacqueline (MUA)

we all laugh when I showed this pics to everyone lolz! See how Calay shoots behind Willie's bottom. I just thought to myself this is perhaps one of ML's technique that Calay learned recently (joke)

Credits:

Model: Eva Fydrich

Organizer: Eva

Wardrobe: Calay Galinero Facebook

MUA: Jacqueline Kate Agabon

Location: ION Mall Orchard

Shooter:

Willie rolf

Calay Galinero

Jay Nodalo

It's showtime!!!!!!!! magpasikat!

2010-02-19T21:07:00.002+08:00

Tungtong taklo jang jaweng!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eeeeeeeeee!!! tataaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

hay!

Together again with One Mark and Jp Alcaraz.

2010-02-17T21:58:00.023+08:00

It has been another full five days of rest and a lot of quality time with my family woot!, looking forward to next year's Chinese New Year. To all my Chinese friends Gong Xi Fa Cai everybody!

Another opportunities to shoot side by side with the Mark Juan and frozenjester himself Jp "the strobist master" Alcaraz. People might say: "who the hell are they?" Actually I do not know either lol! Perhaps a new bunch of losers and wannabes or perhaps the new dynamic duo in the making hahaha! Just kidding guys!. Seriously frozenjester and onemark were a good friend of mine as well as my infamous shooting buddies. I've known Jp way before he started shooting and I've known him through his younger bro Ade who was my former colleague back in the Philippines.

These guys seldom shoot with groups likewise we seldom shoot together lol! The last time we did a photo shoot together as I remember was almost year ago if I am not mistaken in some place I already forgot hahaha! Though Mark was with us during Pinoycsers's Thaipusam EB photo shoot just recently, but with Jaypee it was a long time ago. Actually these guys prefer to shoot by themselves are they quite "shy" to shoot with other photographers weird huh? (Joke!).

Last Saturday was a holiday because of CNY so we had an opportunity to have mingled again, me Jp, Mark, Che and Willie at Chinese Garden for our fashion theme Photo shoot. We have a model who was the former Miss Earth Singapore 2009 Air (1st Runner Up) Ms. Nur Amira, a very gorgeous model and very down to Earth. Thanks to my good friend/buddy Willie for organizing the photo shoot and for the invite.
Actually Willie personally requested for frozenjester to join us on this photo shoot (he's secret big fan of Jp's strobist work naks talaga lang ha!) anyway, Carmen Chan did the make-up and hair styling for Nur. This is my first time to work with Carmen, she did well on the make-up she even helped us in directing some poses during the shoot. Everybody had a great time and we learned a lot from each other.

and here's some groupshot during the shoot

(L-R) onemark, Wille and frozenjester not in the shoot is Che (late kse e)

(L-R) Carmen, Nur and onemark

onemark and frozenjester at work...

Team:

Organizer: Willie Arolf

Model: Nur Amira

MUA: Carmen Chan http://www.thewonderofcolors.blogspot.com/

Shooter

frozenjester

Che

onemark

and me

Simple and clean beauty retouch

2010-02-10T21:45:00.007+08:00

This is a Grant Thomas photo (Mayhem #1049808) and I did the retouching of this image. I basically worked more on the skin removing some imperfections, visible blemishes and roughness specially on her left cheek a bit of contouring and color correction plus cleaning up some stray hair.

This a simple and clean beauty retouch and my main objective here is to preserve as much as possible the models skin texture I do not want to make her to look plastic and glassy.

From this image you can see how I work on the skin and how I manage to save the facial texture.

Credits:

Photographer: Grant-Thomas

check out his Mayhem Port here.

Some retouching tutorials

2010-02-10T21:26:00.002+08:00

I have been watching this Digital Retouching video tutorial for quite sometime now and I want to share this with everybody (well for those who doesn't know this one yet) It came from one that I looked up in photo retouching Ms. Carrie Beene, I find it so simple and easy to follow compare to other retouching tutorial from youtube so I decided to share it here.

Some background: Carrie Beene has been retouching professionally since 2000. She has worked in or freelanced for many of the major retouching houses in NYC. In 2005 she formed Otto Imaging, LLC. And now retouches through OTTO and CarrieNYC. Carrie has retouched for M.A.C., Revlon, Maybelline, Elizabeth Arden, L'oreal, Chantecaille, DEVA, Shape Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, Glamour, Vogue, W, OK Magazine, Paper, V magazine, Vanity Fair, ID, Allure, Arena and many top NYC Beauty and Fashion Photographers.
She regularly do LIVE retouching tutorial for RetouchPRO.com together with Cris Tarantino, Amy Dresser and some other guys.

It's a simple clean retouch but it's very useful and informative since she discuss some PS shortcuts and color correction and her style of dodge and burn.
The video consist of 3 parts; Details, glamour retouching and color correction. Here's the link to the tutorials.

You check out here works here.

Enjoy

On leave today

2010-02-04T21:40:00.007+08:00

On leave today so I got plenty of time to write something on this blog, but what should I write then? Let me see..... well today is somehow a special day for my family because later tonight my Nanay and my brother Noel will have to back home to the Philippines after about one and a half months of stay here in Singapore and sadly Noel was not able to get a job here, despite sending out lots of CV's and stuff online.

We had a great dinner lasts night, my wife cooked spaghetti and chicken and we all ate as a family one more time last night and we will definitely miss them. It's always a sad feelings somehow for me every time a member of my family is leaving either going back home to the Philippines after spending sometime here or going elsewhere and knowing you will never see them again for God knows how long. Hay!

I'll just post some pictures of Noel and Nanay during their short stay here in Singapore.

classic pose......

threes a crowd?

the sun still up....look at the their faces nyahaha...frowning!

I'll miss this one...

CBD at the back, nice...

I'll post some more soon!

Belle Hernandez

2010-02-03T14:47:00.094+08:00

"Aging is inevitable,it's a natural occurrence-but aging gracefully is a phenomenon few women gets to experience and I must say it's a wonderful thing." Belle Hernandez

I was very eager and excited to post some images of this gorgeous and sexy Filipina model whom I just recently shot, her name is Belle Hernandez. Would you believe she's turning 40 this year and yet she looks young, sexy (naks!) and attractive. Belle as her friends call her is a freelance model and a certified make-up artists.

I got to know Belle through Facebook, she added me because my name was mention to her by Winnie L when they had a photo shoot together just recently.

Belle was very earth, very attractive lady walang "kiyeme", very cheerful and always smiling and laughing on the set, but then very focus and professional once the camera starts clicking and she definitely knows how to pose.

I still got some photos to process for this particular shoot perhaps I'll update this blog once I finished processing the rest.

Model: Belle Hernandez

MUA: Belle

Wardrobe: Belle

Location: RobNoc Studio Sengkang

Check here Mayhem profile http://www.modelmayhem.com/1499900

Busy busy busy

2010-01-26T17:19:00.005+08:00

I need to write something here I really got something to blog about however, I cannot seem to unearth my brain to compose the words Hahaha!
I got two blog entry on my draft list, but I need to edit it before publishing it here however, my difficulty is I do not have the luxury of time editing those entry so I guess it will have to sit on my draft list for a while.

********

I think I need to shoot again, my camera is now started showing some white speckles, particles, white thingy on the inside plausibly because I habitually neglected to clean it consequent every photo shoot likewise my lens is also accumulating dust now.
Hay!....am I loosing the passion? Or just too lazy to do it.

Retouching error?

2010-01-12T14:11:00.003+08:00

Just got this from Model Mayhem "Emma Watson Now a One-Legged Wonder", the article is about Emma Watson, the young lady star of the movie Harry Potter who somehow lost her right limb on one particular photo for Burberry SS2010 ad. There are some discussion on Model Mayhem whether if it's a big retouching error some or just about the angle or bad posing direction. I saw Mario Testino Portfolio online (he's the photographer of this picture) and his works are magnificent so I assumed he commissioned somebody to retouch this image. What do you think?

Here's the article

"No...not my first time"

2010-01-11T18:10:00.003+08:00

Writing a blog is not new to me I have been blogging since 2008 on my Multiply blog page. Most of my topic there was just my day to day personal experiences some are comments and critiques for a particular event and apparently all my blog entry was in Tagalog. The very first blog entry on my multiply was March 2008, but now I rarely updated it.
I also written some blog entry on pinoyobscura blog page when I was very active on that site. And since I have my own blogger account will be writing all my blogs here from now on. Nice..nice..nice. But to tell you frankly, I am not good in writing sentences or even long stories or article and I admit I always faulty with my grammar, but one thing I am sure off is I love blogging.

Ka Blag!

Read my previous blog entry on my Multiply Blog here

"And I did it all by myself"

2010-01-08T16:22:00.187+08:00

I am very excited to see what my personal site will look like once it's already up and running, but I guess it will not be too soon because there is plenty of work to be done on the programming aspect just like for example I wanted to put a flash preloader to make it more dynamic and attractive, but the problem is, I don't know how to do flash programming so it is a slow process.
Engaging a web designer/developer will cost me a lot of money so I decided to do it my own website, but my problem is I have a very limited knowledge in web design and developing and in doing so I need to learn or study HTML, CSS, Adobe Flash Player, XML, etc. Which means that I will digging books once again just like the old school days hahaha! But I guess it will be easier this time because there are lots of references to look at like the internet and you tube likewise some friends who are very willing to help me out.

Right now my website is based on a free, customizable image gallery website. It's a xmal based image gallery called simple viewer, this image gallery is user- friendly and easy to customize with easy to follow procedure suitable for people like me who do not know anything about web designing and stuff. But the most important thing about this image gallery site is its FREE to use, but of course in customizing it you should have some basic knowledge in XML programming to be able to customize it.

By the way you also need to download an XML editor, which is also free to download, mine I am using Editix.

I am planning to buy the pro version of the simple viewer soon because the pro version got a svBuilder where you can easily customize it even if you do not have any programming background.
Man! I can't wait for the outcome! I know this is not as awesome and dynamic like the other pro photographer's website, but I am very proud of my site because "I've done it all by myself" toyang!

Simple Viewer website: http://www.simpleviewer.net/simpleviewer/pro/

hair...hair...

2010-01-07T11:34:00.102+08:00

I was amazed by how this 19 yrs old lady from Israel did the retouching of this Grant-Thomas image and it's so F***n awesome man! She definitely did a job on the messy hair. Here's the image .

Inspired by her work I decided to try my skills on the very same image she uses. The images above is my finish product, I don't know if I got the correct color correction for the skin tone since my Macbook is not yet calibrated, but I guess I got pretty good. I did a lot of cloning, stamping, and masking here, I copy and paste some hair to cover the expose left eye same as what Natalie did on her processing. My primary objective is to make the hair looks more natural and neat as much as possible. I think Natalie applied some low opacity noise on the skin (some retoucher do this to enhance the skin texture) but here I use the High pass filter to bring out some texture. All in all I spent almost three hours retouching and cleaning this particular image and I hope I do justice.

Kudos! to Natalie, this young lady for sure will make it big in retouching business. Check her port on Model Mayhem.

Credits:
Photo by Grant_Thomas http://grant-thomas.com/
Photo Retouching: Jay Nodalo

Alam mo! You know? Alam mo! You know?

2010-01-05T12:09:00.022+08:00

Right now I am feeling exhausted furthermore bored doing Photo retouching so I intend to stop accepting retouching job from my client for a while. I need to slumber and focus on other things that will keep me busy rather than hammering my keyboard for four to six hours making models look gorgeous and sexy. For me retouching is already becoming so monotonous, you always do the same thing over and over again. Of course it is difficult for me to cease hastily on this knowing that will be losing several loyal clients like Mr. K Jones where I am supposed to finish a set of pictures for his stock photography submission.

I will probably go back in playing my favorite pastime...PC gaming yes! here is my new game RISEN

Photoshoot with a Brazilian Model

2009-12-09T13:16:00.030+08:00

Again last night I was invited for another round photo shoot session by my shooting buddy Willie Flora. And our model was the young and gorgeous lady Ms. Luiza Linhares a Brazilian up and coming model and presently studying in a local university here in Singapore. She is currently building her modeling portfolio and actively doing photo shoots.

No more outdoor photo shoot this time because RobNoc Studio in Sengkang is now officially opens. Owned by a renowned (in his own right) photographer hobbyist shooting buddy of ours Robby Nocun. It was my first time to shoot at RobNoc Studio and also my second time to encounter studio lighting equipment hahaha! Newbie!

All goes well, everybody got a decent shot and of course the model enjoyed the night and I am pretty sure this won't be the last. Now I am already excited learning new stuff like light studio lighting setup weeee!

View the whole set here

Model: Luiza L
MUA: Luiza
Photo: Jay Nodalo
Location: RobNoc. Studio
Organizer: Willie Arolf

Christmas is near

2009-12-08T17:18:00.007+08:00

Christmas is hasty eminent yet still I need to finish numerous things. This morning two of my clients in Photo retouching just mailed me about the status of the pictures that I am working likewise just last night I received an email from my model inquiring if I have already done any pics on the second look taken from the photo shoots that we did a couple of months ago.

Another dilemma lingering on my head was that my web hosting subscription is now up and running and yet I do not have any working website. And Of course there is also pressure with my job in the office.....hayz!

And because of those busy workload now I almost forgot.....it's going to be CHRISTMAS SOON! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Trying out new Field

2009-11-05T12:17:00.024+08:00

I have been into high end photo retouching for quite sometime now after venturing into Fashion Photography a couple of years ago. I had been introduced into high end retouching after I signed-up with Model Mayhem. I regularly visit this site learn especially the Digital art and retouching section wherein they discussed different techniques in photo retouching. Some members posted tutorial links for you to follow and learn. Free practice image can also be downloaded.

I had been immediately astounded by the works of Natalia Taffarel, koray, Nienna1990 and Ashish Aurora all these guys were impressive and they are a great influence on my technique.

On this blog I will try to showcase some of my work in high end retouching likewise include before and after processing of the image and perhaps also showcase my recent photo shoots. Thanks and enjoy reading my blog.

Ka Blag!!!