4 Photo Sequence Canvas Print

My new Lastolite Ezybox softbox arrived in the post the other day and I took time out from finalizing the new website to take a few shots of my son Julian. The impromptu shoot only lasted a few minutes, but out of it I got some goofy shots that I decided would look great as canvas print. So in this article I will discuss both the photography and Lightroom 2 / Photoshop techniques I used to achieve a simple yet very effective sequence of images into a canvas print.

In terms of the actual shot this is kinda one up from a snap shot because there was no pre-planning of any sort and Jools was just in from playing swing ball in the back garden. What it does demonstrate is that if you are going to use flash, get it off-camera and take control of the light. The image below is the colour version that has not been cropped as yet and is used in the lower right part of the sequence of 4 images.

Now, the ambient (natural) window light is coming from camera left and the exposure was 1/60th @ f4 ISO400. Using aperture priority I dialed the exposure down in camera by -1EV and this underexposed the background to make it a richer color because normally your looking at a cream coloured wall. So the actual exposure was 1/125th @ F4. Now the thing with Nikon cameras is that when you under or over expose with the compensation dial. You are doing it globally and that means my SB900 in (TTL Mode) that was on a stand and shooting through the 60cm x 60cm Ezybox by Lastolite was also under-exposing by -1EV.

So you may think at this point then I dialed in +1EV on the SB900 flash to compensate right? Well no, actually I went for +0.7EV because I felt that going to +1EV would have been too much. Why and how did I come to this decision? Well I am basically balancing the flash with the ambient and the closer you bring the two together the more natural your images look. So rather than go with the camera telling me 1/60th @ F4 and the flash on fully automatic (CLS). I decided to shape the light and also control the amount of ambient because that was also acting as my fill for the camera left side of Jool’s face. Remember also these are test shots and I had never used this softbox before so I wanted to see how it would perform.

Now, for all you Strobist’s out there, lets think (M) manual for a second or two. If I had been using an SB24 for example in manual mode with a Pocket Wizard, then I would have taken a shot of the ambient and then underexposed that to suit. I would have still got to 1/125th @ F4 anyway. Here is the critical thing, where do you start from when it comes to running your flash on manual. Well for me, I would of started at 1/8th power, because the flash is running through the plastic diffuser on the flash, and then inner & outer diffuser’s on the Ezybox. This eats your flash power, so you have to start pretty strong. Had the flash just been sitting on top of the stand with no diffusion I would have started on 1/64th power. But there is no right or wrong to this stuff… After taking a test shot, I would have then chimped the back of the camera and had a glance at the image and the histogram. It would have been at that point I would have dialed in more or less power until I got to where I am right now with the image. Its nice to know where to start though and thats where I would have been at had I not used the Nikon CLS.

Ether way works and its what ever one works for you. It also depends on what gear you have as well. I am lucky enough to use the new Nikon SB900 Speed-light and it is amazing. The trick is not to let it control you!

Just to round the photography side of things up, I want to mention my lens choice and the aperture. I used a 50mm because its one of the few lenses I own at the moment. (I was using Canon just before the summer) and the reason I went for F4, was because I have a thing about creating a shallow depth of field at the moment and F4 does a really nice job of knocking everything past Jool’s right eye out of focus. The only compromise is that the because of his position, the left eye is also slightly out, but I don’t mind that for this kind of shot. Had this been anything more than a lighting test, I would have rolled with F5.6 but the other beauty of using F4 is that you get a fast recycle time on the speed-light, which in combination with the fact that the Ezybox is only 16 inches away from Jool’s face makes for pretty fast recycle time between exposures.

Lightroom

I started the post-production Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 as its my go to application for my own workflow, although there is nothing I have done in Lightroom that could not have also been done in Adobe Bridge. I use the flagging system to choose the images that I want and I also use the color labeling to make it a little easier to identify picks that I am working on. Green being the colour original RAW’s and purple the virtual copy black & white’s. Its always a good idea to make a virtual copy of the file for any interesting adjustments beyond the colour image. (If you are doing this in Bridge then make a copy of the image.)

I am not going to go into the specifics of my adjustment settings, because they are unique to this image, but with that said, note that I have lowered the exposure by -0.33 which is about a -1/3EV and is there to help the shadow depth and deepen the colours. This is a technique I use a lot, unless of course I have really underexposed a shot and then I would “Thank” Nikon for making such a beautiful NEF file for me to recover But it does help the saturation and then that allows me to crank up the vibrance so that the image will pop!

After I have made virtual copies of the 4 images and cropped them square in Lightroom. I wanted to create a series of warm black & whites, so I picked one and switched to Greyscale. Again the greyscale mix settings are kinda unique to this image, but I will say that I paid attention to the red, orange, and in particular the yellow channel because I wanted to further darken the background away from the light cream it started out as… The other channels have been adjusted to suit the tonal requirements of the image. You will also note that the warmth is provided by split toning the image 26,9 on the highlights and 64,10 on the shadows. The first image was the sync’d with the other 3 images using the sync button.

All 4 images were then exported (Shift+Command+E) or (Shift+Control+E) as jpegs ready to pop into Photoshop although I could have also sent each image to Photoshop for editing directly (Command+E) or (Control+E) with the Lightroom adjustments added. The first option was faster for me.

Photoshop

When you are creating a quad of images like this, you have uniformity of size on your side. In other words all the images are same height and length. The other trick here especially with a sequence is to put the most important images top left and bottom right or first and last. This is because we mainly read from left to right and top to bottom in that order. I know its naturally different in other cultures, but I am presenting this for my people viewing it in my home. So do what best suits you.

Step 1 – Copy the background layer (Command+J) MAC or (Control+J) PC.
This is so that you have a free floating layer that you can move about if needed.

Step 2 – Fill the background with black by first of all pressing (D) on the keyboard which defaults the colours and then select the background layer and do (Alt+Backspace) PC or (Option+Backspace) MAC. This will fill the background with black, which is handy if you miss align any of the images later on.

At this point I would save the image as PSD and give it a new working title, then continue working on expanding the canvas. Now remember how this first image is going to be top left, well in the next stage note how I choose the top left position of the anchor point.

Step 3 – Change the unit of measurement to percent and then type in 200% in both the width and height to double the canvas but by choosing the top left anchor this all happens on the bottom and the right. (Note – Do not tick relative unless you want to confuse things)

Step 4 – Open the other 3 images in the sequence and use the move tool (V) to drag n drop them into place. You could if you wish, hold down the (Shift) key to drop them directly in the middle, then finalize the position later on. I find it easier to place the first and last image, then the other images in between. As you drag n drop each image close it down after the move and that way you keep your interface less cluttered and finally once all the images are in place save the document ready for the final stage.

It makes it easier for image placement if you have the snap to layers feature switched on. You can that in the View>Snap to>Layers menu. It also does not do any harm to name your layers after their position in the canvas. Now at this point you could flatten the image and your done, but I am going to finishing things with a resizing exercise that retains the resolution of the file and also add a stroke edge.

Step 5 – Image>Image Size – Un-tick “Resample image” and set the unit of measurement to inches of they are not already there, then choose the size you would like your image to be printed. (If you do the resizing correctly the resolution will alter but not actually the pixel dimensions, which will remain the same.

It is at this point you have to think a little about the end product, because this image is destined to be a canvas print with a 2 inch border. So for me to get a 20 inch square canvas print, I am going to have to allow an extra 2 inches of image and also make a note of how much of the image will bend around a full wrap. I know some of Jool’s features are going to wrap, but I am doing this for effect. Had I not wanted this, I would have decreased the wrap to 1 inch or made the canvas larger to compensate for the wrap.

Now for a stroke edge to divide the images up. I am going to choose 5 pixels which will add up to 10 pixels by the time the stroke edges sit side by side. (Remember that when you choose your own size.)

Step 6 – Select the top left image and choose a stroke edge from the “fx” layer style in the layers panel. Set the size to suit your taste, I dialed in 5 pixels and set the position to inside and the color black. Click ok and your done with the first one.

Step 7 – Now right click and copy the layer style from the Top Left Layer, then (Shift) click the other layers and paste the layer style onto the other layers in one go. Now save the image for the last time! (Command+ S) MAC or (Control+S) PC.

Step 8 – Flatten the image – Layer>Flatten Image and you done.

Step 9 – Save the flattened version as a Jpeg copy of the un-flattened version ready for uploading to your favorite lab.

After doing the square quad, I thought it would be cool to do a variation and make the canvas shape a panorama. All you have to do is change (Step 3) and anchor the canvas to the middle left plus increase the width to 400% in total. (The height does not need to be adjusted.)

I love this image image because it really was just a lighting test and Jool’s started pulling goofy faces which is just him! So this image will be going to Russ at Canvas Ideas in Manchester for printing as 40 inch canvas with a 1 inch full wrap.

Pro Tip - These images could also have been printed individually and sold as quad of prints for the wall. (If you are a pro reading this article, there is more perceived value in 4 individuals over one canvas, but do this quad idea done as an offer and it helps keep the cost down at the other end.)

Now if you found this a little simplistic it is! The reason is, that simple ideas are the best, and whether you are doing this for the fun of it or for a living, you are benefitting from the fact that it took me longer to write this article than it did to shoot, edit and composite the image. So have a go… Enjoy! >

Related screencasts & articles.

• The Falconer and Owl Composite - Part 2 Thu 24 Sep 2009
• The Falconer and Owl Composite - Part 1 Mon 21 Sep 2009
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