Jellyfish Days

Jellyfish Days

Once Leanne's professional shots were done, we decided to have a photo play day at the beach. However, we were thwarted out of the best light due to a white-out thunderstorm that forced us to sit in the car for half an hour. I had brought along my green "seaweed" dress and had planned for Leanne to romp around in the water with it on. However, not hundreds, but thousands of jellyfish put the kibosh on that plan. They were everywhere. Tiny pebble sized ones that tricked you into thinking they were just beads of water and giant sized ones bigger than my hand. They were on the beach and in the water. We were screaming and running and tiptoeing our way through the sand. At one point I was taking a picture of this large jellyfish when a wave came and washed it towards us. We screamed and ran but Leanne lost her flip flop in the water and I had to go rescue it from going out to sea. That was the scariest moment because you can't see where you are stepping or what is floating under the white foam of the waves!

Evil Jellyfish

With the loss of good light (thanks in part to a constant grey cloud cover) and constant movement by both model and photographer (thanks to the jellyfish), the day was not the best in terms of photography. But, that doesn't mean the shots are wasted. Leanne has a classic look which can fit into any decade. So, I decided to process most of the shots with a vintage look. There are a few ways to make your images look aged by using just the basic photo controls found in all photo software programs.

 

Before Vintage Processing

After Vintage Processing

One of the best ways to make an image seem older is by adjusting the color balance. Adjust the blues and greens to be less and increase the yellows & reds. Remember all those images from the 1970's when color photography was fairly new? Most of those have red & yellow tints. To make the image appear faded, simply lower the contrast until you get the desired look.

Here are three vintage looks that are done with just basic adjustment controls:

 Overlay a texture to "age". Convert to black & white.

Up the contrast and lower the brightness. 

Up the contrast and the brightness. Slightly desaturated. 

Of course, sometimes you just want the shot left as it is, or known by photographers a SOOC (straight out of the camera).

 Sea Beauty

Lovely Leanne

Leanne heads back later this week to begin her third year at NYU. We are planning on trying the "seaweed" dress again in December along with a 1920's flapper themed shoot. Til then, we'll look back onto our Jellyfish days with fondness and laughter!