Cosplay

The Fandom Nerdlesque: Infinitease Promo Photos - 2019

The time is finally here! For anyone who has been following me on Social Media the last few weeks you have probably heard me teasing these series of images. For you and those who may not have known alike you are all in for a treat.

I was contacted by my friends over at The Fandom Nerdlesque (who if you don’t know are an Atlanta based collective of nerd-themed burlesque performers from all across the country) asking if I wanted to be a part of the marketing push for their upcoming Marvel Themed Show (being performed at the time of this blog post on Friday and Saturday THIS WEEK..HINT HINT…TICKET LINK AT THE END OF THE POST…HINT HINT).

After some very brief talk of concept, we decided that the end goal was to emulate the famous Marvel MCU posters that have been coming out regularly. It wasn’t until we were on set going through photos that I thought about using some various forms of compositing to create artificial backdrops for each character.

Jet Spiegl - Matt “Daredevil” Murdock

Risky Sour - Domino

Jessica Nova - Hela

Red Kyber - Thor

Silver Kitsune - Hawkeye

Batsy Sinclair - Rogue

Sig Sawyer - Deadpool

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Final poster design by Evin from Apologue Media. He did a FANTASTIC job of throwing everything together into an amazing final product. Be sure to throw him some love as well!

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Additional poster design by Kali Fornication (You can see her link above under her Thanos photo).

Get your tickets here!

For a peek behind the curtain as to how the sausage was actually made, keep reading below.

I’ve done some experimenting with various forms of compositing over the last few years. For more of an expert’s view I would make sure to check out the work of Renee Robyn or Clinton Lofthouse. Anything I have learned was very much learned by watching both of these amazing artists at work.

The first part of the recipe was making sure that the subject of the photo was lit properly. In the case of these Marvel photos I needed 4 lights. A Key in a 3’ Octabox, a fill in the form of a 12” beauty dish, and two 3x5 softboxes as rear kickers.

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That setup lent itself to a photo like the below.

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by using content aware fill you get one of the following photos below.
One worked better than another:

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Spoiler alert, it was this one that worked much better.

Spoiler alert, it was this one that worked much better.

Afterwards I roughly followed this tutorial from DIY Photography to mask the image

Click the photo above to read an in depth article that I assure you is WAY less scary that it looks.

Click the photo above to read an in depth article that I assure you is WAY less scary that it looks.

After masking its then just a matter of sourcing an appropriate background, and then adding any needed tweaks to it to fit the image at hand, and then several hours of refinements…the process of which I don’t have photos of because I didn’t think to take them.

If you would like to see a more in-depth step by step, let me know. I’d be happy to work something together!

Erin and Preston - 2018

Erin and Preston are probably some of the greatest friendships I have formed in the last few years. Both are wonderful people and very talented performers. Readers who have been around a while will definitely recognize their faces as they have appeared many times on this blog.

Last year when I found out that after many years of dating that Preston was going to pop the question, I was ecstatic to hear it and knew that I had to be a part of everything.

Although the location was a lighting challenge, I still consider this one of the most fun weddings I have ever been a part of both as an attendee and as a photographer. I wish them many long years together, and can’t wait to pet their 13 cat children as they join the family.

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Guests and anyone who missed the ceremony can view the other photos at the gallery link below:

Erin and Preston Wedding Gallery

Jessica and Thomas - 2017.

I'm fairly certain I met Jessica and Thomas when we shared a room at DragonCon a few years ago, but for all I know (and I even asked) we could have met before. 

Sometime later Jessica became a huge supporter of me and my photographic career. We always talked about shooting, but things never seemed to line up. 

When Thomas asked for Jessica's hand in marriage at this year's Con, the decision was made that it was in fact time for us all to work together. 

And because you can't get a bunch of nerds together without having a moment of "we should dress like Mortal Kombat characters and run around a park". It was decided that some additional fun had to be had. 

Congratulations to you two, here is to many loving years together.

Oh, and Thomas. FINISH HER...or something. 

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