It's Almost Fishing Season, Are You Ready ?

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

 

I spent about 5 hours last night figuring out how to use layers in photoshop. Mostly because of trial and error and having to do everything 15 times until I got it right. I still have a lot to learn. Anyway, this is my first composite using layers in Elements 2.0. I've been tying for the past 3 or 4 weeks getting ready for fishing season. I tied a lot of big stuff this year. Streamers, Bucktails, Musky, Pike, Bass Bugs, Striper flies and a few cone head leeches. A few Bunny flies and a few more Bass Bugs and I should be good to go. I'll have to get some pictures taken to upload. I'm a film guy so this could take a few weeks to get around to it. I hope everyone has been busy tying and is ready to go !

This is the tech info on the photos - Background photo: Yashica FX-3 Super 2000, Vivitar 500mm F8 Mirror lens, Tiffen 1A Sky filter, Kodak Tri X 400, exposure F8 @ 1/500 sec. Inset photo: Contax Aria, Tamron 60-300mm F3.8-5.4 lens in 60mm Macro Mode, Tiffen 81A filter, Fuji Provia 100F, Available light exposure F22 @ 1/15 sec. The background photo is a group of fishermen fishing in Manatawny Creek in Pottstown, Pennsylvania which is in Southeastern Pa. Upon seeing the highlights reflecting off the surface of the water, I deliberately underexposed by 2 stops to produce the silhouette of the fishermen at sunset. The inset photo is a photo of a Black and Red Matuka streamer that I tied.

 

Best Fishes !

Rob Valine

www.MySpace.com/RobValine

www.RobValineimages.com

[Guest]

Looks great

I hope to be ready myself, with both camera and fishing gear

[smallieFanatic 0]

Nice shot

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

Thanks guys, Man, I got a heck of a pile of flies to photograph. I'm going to try to use a background with colored background lighting and multiple lights to shoot these. Much the same as would be used in a photography studio doing portraits. I'm thinking a snoot on the fly in a vise to seperate the lighting from the background and a colored background light lighting the background. I'm trying to take lighting to the next level and do something that I haven't done with flies before. I have enough of 'em to shoot a couple rolls of slide film. So, We'll see what happens. I also picked up some new macro gear that I'm anxious to try out. I got an extension tube set for my Contax cameras and a new 60mm F2.8 Macro for my Nikon F100 that I found on ebay. I'll post the results when I'm finished.

[Al Beatty 0]

Hi Rob,

 

The pic looks great. I'm with you, I really struggle with Photoshop being a fairly recent convert from film myself (only a couple of years ago). For what it's worth I use Lightroom 2 for 90 % of my pic manipulation and it seem to serve me well OR maybe I just don't know what I'm missing. When I get into trouble I come here and usually get my questions answered. Take care & ...

 

Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

Thanks Al, I've been using Elements 2.0 for about 5 years. Even so, there are things I still haven't learned how to do with it. I guess I've figured out most of the things that I really want to do with it. I have some good books on it. But, I don't always understand the lingo. So, What usually happens is after reading the book for an hour or so I get frustrated and just go on and see what I can do with it. That's what happened with me using layers for the first time here. I just started hitting the buttons to see what they would do. It took me 5 hours to put 3 layers together. But, What it really comes down to is how bad you want to learn how to do it. If I want to do something bad enough, I'll keep at it until I get it right or it comes out the way I want it to. This is something I've wanted to do for quite a while. I like the idea of making composites. It's a really cool way to express a concept or idea.

Well, I got out the F100 tonight and did a few shots with the new 60mm Macro. I love this lens ! It's my first real 1:1 macro lens. I know I'm going to have lots of fun with this. I shot 2 rolls of Fuji Provia 100F just shooting flies. I set up the background, Colored lighting for the background, snoot on the fly and I went at it. I shot 72 frames last week of group shots of flies and 72 more tonight of individual flies. I'll have to try to get them off to the lab tomorrow. I can't wait to see what the lighting set up looks like on the lightbox.

Al, I also wanted to mention that I got my first copies of Hatches this week and I have to say it's one of the best fly fishing publications I've ever seen. Nice job !

If you ever want to run an article on How to tie my Crayfish pattern, let me know. I have all the tying steps photographed already.

 

 

Best Fishes !

Rob Valine

www.RobValineimages.com

[Al Beatty 0]

Thanks Al, I've been using Elements 2.0 for about 5 years. Even so, there are things I still haven't learned how to do with it. I guess I've figured out most of the things that I really want to do with it. I have some good books on it. But, I don't always understand the lingo. So, What usually happens is after reading the book for an hour or so I get frustrated and just go on and see what I can do with it. That's what happened with me using layers for the first time here. I just started hitting the buttons to see what they would do. It took me 5 hours to put 3 layers together. But, What it really comes down to is how bad you want to learn how to do it. If I want to do something bad enough, I'll keep at it until I get it right or it comes out the way I want it to. This is something I've wanted to do for quite a while. I like the idea of making composites. It's a really cool way to express a concept or idea.

Well, I got out the F100 tonight and did a few shots with the new 60mm Macro. I love this lens ! It's my first real 1:1 macro lens. I know I'm going to have lots of fun with this. I shot 2 rolls of Fuji Provia 100F just shooting flies. I set up the background, Colored lighting for the background, snoot on the fly and I went at it. I shot 72 frames last week of group shots of flies and 72 more tonight of individual flies. I'll have to try to get them off to the lab tomorrow. I can't wait to see what the lighting set up looks like on the lightbox.

Al, I also wanted to mention that I got my first copies of Hatches this week and I have to say it's one of the best fly fishing publications I've ever seen. Nice job !

If you ever want to run an article on How to tie my Crayfish pattern, let me know. I have all the tying steps photographed already.

 

 

Best Fishes !

Rob Valine

www.RobValineimages.com

 

Hi Rob,

 

I don't know if you've tried this or not but I sure got some great tips from www.youtube.com. Once you get to the Web site there is a search engine at the top of the home page where you can type in any subject. "Photoshop" in that search engine will net you so many videos it will take several weeks to work you way through them. I recently had a photo shoot where the daughter (teen ager) just wouldn't smile. I went to youtube to learn about retouching portraits and learned how to use the liquify filter to put the smile on her face she didn't want to share during the shoot.

 

Regarding your crayfish pattern: I'm assuming that Will Mullis (the real boss of Hatches) is seeing our correspondence and will follow up with you. By the way, I sure like the pattern; it looks like a good tie. Take care & ...

 

Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

Thanks for the comments on my pattern and for the tip about Youtube. I'm sure I could pick up a few pointers. I've seen a lot of really cool photography videos on Youtube. But, I never would have thought of going there for photoshop. I'll have to check that out.

[Ben Cochran 0]

Nice job on the background Rob, I like the feel of it. If you would like, I will be happy to make some suggestions that will help in layers but I will refrain, for now, as you didn't ask for critique. Nonetheless, it has a wonderful feel to it and there truly is nothing like layers .

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

Thanks for the offer Ben, I don't know when I'll have time to play around with layers again. I have a lot on my plate right at the moment. Between my full time job wanting me to work overtime and writing for Creative Image Maker, I have my hands full. I got the slides back this week that I shot with the new Nikon 60mm Macro. They turned out great ! Fuji Provia 100F and the 60mm Macro work well together. I was playing around with a studio lighting set up with color gels on the background. It worked out pretty well. I still have a few more ideas about the lighting. I'm going to shoot more flies with the same color gels and add a spot with a snoot rather than using the snoot on the fly. It'll be 2 lights on the background and a monolight with a softbox on the flies. I'll try to post some of the fly photos later tonight if I have time. I have 9 rolls of film in front of me that need to be scanned ! Man, I'm backlogged. I'm heading out to pick up a fishing license. The weather in Pa. is finally starting to get nice and I'm hoping to get out and do some fishing tomorrow.