cmARTcreations

Senior Sports Banners

Hey all! Just wanted to share the latest design proofs for an upcoming senior sports shoot. I love these shoots because I get to give the senior boys and girls something to remember and it gives me a chance to get creative. It's also great to see your work hanging from the bleachers at a high school football stadium!

So let's get to the new designs.

For the boys, I wanted to keep the grungy look but step it up a notch and add some drama. So i decided to swap the custom M design for one of my earlier shots of the stadium with some creative transforms, added lights and a ton of smoke brush effects.

For the girls, I wanted to do something entirely different so I went for a more classic look with a swipe graphic and overlayed the same stadium image.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Or, if you'd like something like this, shoot me an email at info@cmartcreations.com

Updated Look and New Prices!

Hey everyone and thanks for taking a few minutes to visit my site. Hopefully, you'll notice that I've updated my logo and watermark to give it a little more color and personality (see below).

I've also updated my portrait pricing for this year. My intent was to lower the session costs and provide more flexibility on the packages and individual prints and images. Hopefully this will give everyone more options to better meet your needs and budget.

As always, if you have any thoughts, questions, or want to setup a session, email me at info@cmartcreations.com or add a comment below.

thanks and have a great day!

The Painted Look

I've been doing more experimenting with a painterly look on my images. The idea is to make the images more artistic by combining standard, retouched images with a paint filter, followed by use of the mixer brush and added brush strokes in Photoshop.

Here's an example of my latest with the before and after just below it.

After Image - "The Painted Look"

Now that I've completely revamped my primary website (www.cmartcreations.com) and this blog, it's time to start posting again. For this post I thought I would share the software tools I used most often for all of my image post-processing.

Here's the breakdown in priority order...

1. Adobe Photoshop CC

This is the granddaddy of them all and my most often used "tool" and my favorite. It's the most powerful and allows for the most creativity. And, if it doesn't have something I need, I can always add plug-ins, fonts, create my own brushes and just about anything else. Since I have a photography business on the side, I have no issue spending the $9.99 per month for the Photography package since it comes with Lightroom.

Beach Image Transformation

Created this more artistic composition in photoshop after completing the Creative B&W Photo Artistry course by Sebastian Michaels. Although not black and white, I did use many of the techniques.

After

Before

Portrait Photography and Photoshop composites

Here's a compilation of some of my photo shoots over the past year. I mainly do natural light photography although I've also done a few headshot sessions using off camera flash and softboxes. I also do quite a bit of photoshop work, mostly composites.

You can also check out more of my work at any of the links on this page.

If interested, just email me at info@cmartcreations.com

Urban Exploration

Here's one image from a recent shoot in Graffiti Alley in Cincinnati, Ohio. More specifically, it's in the Northside area of Cincinnati. In any case, after editing the image I animated a graphic effect and converted to .GIF

Stylized Portraits

If you're following me on my Facebook page you will have already seen this and other examples, but thought it was worth sharing again on my website. If you're interested in how I do it or if you'd like something similar, just shoot me an email at info@cmartcreations.com and I'll respond quickly.

It's essentially a high resolution portrait, in this case from one of my sessions, but then I edit in Lightroom and through a series of layers and hand drawn elements, get to this more stylized look.

Once again, feel free to check out my Facebook page or email me at info@cmartcreations.com

A storm is brewing

As mentioned previously, using the cold and dark months to get more in touch with my artistic side combining photography and photoshop. In this example, I wanted to emphasize the dance motion using a grunge effect with dynamic lines while still keeping with the Asylum theme.

Original below...

The end of an Era

This is my short tribute to my daughter and her fellow MHS Senior Football cheerleaders. Congratulations to all!

Senior Cheer Shoot

So it's been awhile since my last post but I've definitely been keeping busy!

Through trial and error, I've developed a nice preset I've been using quite a bit lately as it seems to work on just about any of my images. I've applied some variation of it to all of the images below which were taken recently during a spontaneous shoot at the local high school football field.

If you're interested in setting up a shoot of your own, just let me know at info@cmartcreations.com

New Portfolio Site!

I've re-opened my SmugMug site to securely publish photos from all photo shoots. This is where you can go to view your proofs, order prints, and view and order anything from my public portfolio.

Currently there isn't much there, but I'll be adding more over the next couple of weeks.

See you there!
https://cmartcreations.smugmug.com

Off the Beaten Path - Mulhauser Barn

Spent time today exploring new shoot locations and came across Mulhauser Barn in Beckett Park. Been in and around Westchester for several years and for whatever reason never came across the park. A biking/walking trail surrounded the area filled with wildflowers, birds, fishing ponds and plenty of places for some great shots. I'll definitely have to come back.

Mulhauser Barn est. 1881 (Nikon D7100 w/ Tamron 70-200mm 2.8)

Apocalypse

I haven't posted in awhile but have been quite busy. This is actually the second version of a photomanipulation created from an original picture taken by my daughter. After first editing in Lightroom, spent about an hour cutting out the hip hop team. From there combined a number of photoshop tricks to generate the checkered floor, floor light effects, shadows, star background, stars and exploding dead planet. I finished it up with some color blending and lighting effects and added the text.