How to Turn Your Desktop Scanner Into an Artist's Tool

I am working on a new portfolio for a restaurant with locations nationwide. They requested new images to be displayed in their lobbies based on a global cuisine theme. So to go beyond my normal style of work, I tried to think outside the black box of my normal cameras for something different. How to create an image of something without a camera? Since I am not a painter, I ruled out painting and drawing an image. That is when I remembered I had another camera already sitting on my desk--my scanner/copier. Within minutes every interesting food item I could think of was about to be dumped on my flatbed scanner.

My favorites are the coffee beans and the tulip below. I really love the depth of field (or lack thereof) found in the scanner--it is great for making sharp copies of text lying on a sheet of paper. It needs no more depth than that thin surface. But add an object with three dimensions and they tend to be sharply in focus at ony one point. Everything else falls off and gets soft.

I either used the pull down document cover or created my own white surface. You could also use other colors, as this will end up being your backdrop as the scanner looks up to capture the image.

Then I did some heavier work in Photoshop to ge the colors and tones and contrast where I wanted them. To give a richer feel and to accentuate the softness of the texture.

Play around with it and see where this tool can lead you--lots of fun!

Vintage Neon, Boulder Theater

Stripped out the color and boiled this awesome old vintage neon sign to its elements. Simple line drawing done by running a glowing edges filter in Photoshop, then inverting the image colors and then adding a border from an old Polaroid A. I love how the texture of the facade lettering jumps out. Never forget watching this sign get pumped full of water by the fire department in Boulder as an electrical short in the sign could have burned the whole place down.

Three Styles, One Portrait Session

On a recent shoot I sought to capture an extremely diverse feel across the 60 minutes we spent shooting. The end result shows it this clearly--from sunset lighting on my subjects' faces to off camera flash fill to near darkness with flash. Finally I shot a quick series without flash, allowing the ambient light reflecting off the lake to paint my subject's face. And how starkly different the shoot turned out--beyond consistent wardrobe, it looks like we shot on different days and locations, yet all was done within a 50 yard radius across in less time than it takes to watch an episode of 'Flash Forward'.

The light shifted so fast we could hardly sit still--throwing rocks in the lake is way too much fun, but we quickly moved on and did the group pose on the big rocks on the shore.

Then we played some more and then ran up to a park bench for a few more shots. A group posed then the final series with just my client's son and no flash, just post-sunset skylight bouncing off of the lake. Then we jumped on a small pier and shot with off-camera flash and dialed in the ambient sunset light to really pop.

In the end, we created a whole series of unique compositions. And by scheduling the shoot around a span of time where the light would be most dynamic, we made plenty of special moments to choose from for wall portraits.

$50 Portraits for 15 minutes

Just in time for the holidays, we are holding the first official Marc Littmann Photography Great Portrait Shootout this weekend. What you get: 15 minute portrait session under the fall foliage in Boulder. A set of 8 wallet prints and a 5x7 print.

You'll also have option to get a sweet 20x30 canvas gallery print of your favorite image, a

box set of Christmas cards and a DVD with the files.

What'll it cost you? $50 bones. You heard right--just $50 big ones. So

with a tiny time and money commitment, you can make off like a bandit (or an outlaw) at the Great Portrait Shootout!

Buy your session ticket here.

5 Good Reasons to Visit San Francisco with a Camera

5. Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown. Stumbled on this one over the weekend. Dad and I walked several SF districts after arriving by Amtrak from Denver. Tried the fish balls--once was enough, if you get my culinary drift. But the copious red colors, brilliant rich textures and sheer size of this Chinatown transported me right back to my time in Yunnan Province in SW China many years ago. And the purple eggplant here was succulent, at least my camera thought so.

4. Italian celebration in Washington Square. Lagunitas IPA and the free bottlecap pins were an added bonuses (boni for plural?). The guy who tossed pizza doughs as part of a performance stole the show--how the heck did he do that? Deep fried calamari and penne with salsiccia---multo bene!

3. Tuk Tuk Thai Cafe off of Washington Square. A quick walk up Columbus Ave brought us to this highly regarded Yelp favorite. Never had I tasted so many complex flavors in Thai food. The panang curry sauce was deep. Tastebuddies screamed for more Gai Tom Ka soup--sweet and tangy yumminess! And the green tea and coconut ice cream paired with the deep fried banana post-meal rocked. No pictures please--just concentrate on the culinary ecstasy in front of you.

2. Grace Cathedral and Coit Tower. Grace's politically liberal inner walls were way beyond my comfort zone of mixing politics with religion (a whole wall was dedicated to the United Nations and its massive logo), but the architecture was breathtaking and the stained glass reminiscent of St. Chappelle in Paris--shamwow, man! Coit Tower yielded stunning views surrendered only after steep climb up a very tall urban hill. 31 percent road grades in this town are mind-boggling. Favorite was my fisheye composition laying on my back looking straight out the top of the tower.

1. Riding our bicycles across the Golden Gate Bridge. This one should be #1 with exclamation points. 8 miles to Sausalito (named after conservative Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito? Highly unlikely in Nancy Pelosi's backyard). So stunning. Magnifique. Just plain old cool. Fog bank rolled in and turned the red giant into a gaseous nebula of fuzzy mist shrouding a riveter's dream. Will never forget that experience as long as I live. New toll station assesses a $100 fine for anyone caught without a camera here.

Circular Reasoning

I once read a photographer's book where he would teach his students to look only for a certain shape to photograph. Like squares, triangles, or even wavy lines. OR he would have them throw out a hula hoop and wherever it landed, they would have to make 25 compositions either of macro objects within the hoop or to shoot outwards without leaving the hoop. Really forced you to start looking for patterns and finding that same unnecessarily beautiful detail that also adorns places like the Grand Tetons or the Horsehead Nebula a few jillion light years away. So here is my fun attempt at a composition of circles I shot one morning near Boulder, Colorado. And I did decide to convert it to my Twitter home page, too, cause I liked it so much.

Like Sand Through the Hourglass...

Forgot all about this image--every so often I rummage through the archives of older projects and fun things I experimented with and say 'that was kind of cool--what was I thinking?' All I know is that this is called "Sand Mandarin Woman". It is the mandarin character for 'woman' and the pink striated backdrop that looks sort of like muscle tissue is beach sand from Sanibel Island, Florida. Let me know if you can see the lightning shape in the picture. Or the crab.

Every Day is Goggle Day

Forget ever trying to get Ellie's goggles off--she not only swims with them on, but loves to eat, play, take a bath and even sleep with them on. Can't believe this one started preschool last week. Hope her teachers don't mind the goggles! These aqua-tinted scenes put her underwater in our living room without having to build an indoor pool--always a $mart move in uncertain economic times.

Broker Headshots

We posted up broker headshots for the Colorado Group this week. Here is a link.



The architectural detail shots in the upper right corner of each page are ours, as well. Doing broker headshots does differ from environmental portraits. You get 2-3 minutes per person with the quick headshot. Environmentals usually run from 20-60 minutes and are much more creative and dynamic. But there is a place for each.

Anyone Want a Neon Sign?

I detoured off I-70 last Sunday--too much traffic and needed a break from drive from Glenwood. Enroute to the Idaho Springs java place, I saw a vintage neon sign being torn down. I shot this sign last fall when it was still intact (first image). By the way, I love the richness and grunge texture encrusting these old neon signs, intact or lying forlorn across a soon-2-B-gentrified property. But the Peoriana Inn has seen better days and the sign out front sure could use a new home. It would be fun to have my own vintage neon sign retirement home be a great place for 'seasoned' signs to spend their final years in dignity? I know there is the neon sign graveyard just off the strip in Vegas, but there are so many other striking signs beyond the realm of the casino sign. Time to start getting land and a some sign inventory!

Senior Session with Casey

There really is a different feel to shooting senior portraits versus a wedding. With a bride and groom as a couple, I find it can be quite easy to put them at ease in front of the camera, as they have each other to play off of. But with a solitary portrait, especially high school seniors, it usually takes a little bit longer to break the ice and to get in the zone for being photographed. But the results are fun and very individualized, especially when you let them play! Casey is a pretty dedicated skateboard enthusiast, braving his share of broken bones yet not giving up one of his passions.

Peyton's First Day

Baby Peyton showed up for her first portrait session Friday morning. She was very prepared, looking cute and swaddled like a burrito, her skin perfect and not a hair out of place. For being just 4 hours old, she certainly has it all together! Catch the whole shoot here to see just how ridiculously good looking she is!

Urban Funk in a Corporate Portrait Session

Got to hang out and shoot a portrait session for an attorney friend recently. Jodi is a great lawyer starting up a new law firm in Denver and wanted to create something special and not so stuffy for her new corporate image. So we loaded up and took a few clothing changes down to Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, Colorado and made a whole new look for her. This is not the traditional feel of a conservative lawfirm. And I love it! My guess is her existing and future clients will love it, too. Bright colors, scratchy and rich urban grit come standard here...stuffiness and boring sold separately.

Collages and Clusters

I put this collage together from a collection we shot for a Boulder commercial real estate firm. The task was to photograph several architectural structures around the city and then create a display for their office lobby and hallways. We had previously done a collection of our landscape images, but the architectural images were to complement the natural scenes with some man-made vistas. If you are around The Colorado Group's offices on Iris and the Diagonal Highway in northeast Boulder, step in and check it out. And they rock in the commercial real estate market, too.

Love This One...

Short of shooting a wedding in the Himalayas, you won't find too many wedding venues straying from sea level as much as Ten Mile Station in Breckenridge, Colorado. Perched on the slopes of this stunning ski town at almost 11,000 feet above the ocean, bring extra oxygen bottles for your guests (and even the hired help!) But Colleen pulled this pose off in high style (and without supplemental oxygen), combining strength, beauty and fashion. Love the weighted hip that forms such an appealing S-curve and shows off the dress--FABULOUS!!