Christian Barten's Photography Blog

Movie Trailer „Wind of Iceland“ finished!

christianbarten — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:45:38 +0000

More than a year after my return from Iceland I finally found the motivation to start some composing and editing works! I will work on the main movie this winter to hopefully coming up with a 10 to 15 minutes movie next spring.

Cheers

Chris

styling up pictures

christianbarten — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:44:21 +0000

1h of time, some retouching techniques, textures and color filters, that’s it:

1st movie with new equipment

christianbarten — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:12:42 +0000

Using my new ProAm Camera Crane and Skywatcher Merlin Astro head I did a small movie from our weekend trip to the „crestasee“ in switzerland. A very stunning place in the heart of the swiss mountains.

Check it out here: CRESTASEE

It’s here! :-)

christianbarten — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:50:09 +0000

This week I finally received my new camera crane:

I’m looking forward to film some nice landscapes this weekend in the mountains of switzerland. A first test to get familiar with the crane for my planned iceland movie.

Thailand 2009

christianbarten — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:42:59 +0000

A short movie of our trip to Thailand end of 2009

some nice landscapes…

christianbarten — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:31:19 +0000

…I’ve put together in this small video to test my new video software. Sit back relax and enjoy two minutes of nature views:

Beauty Retouching

christianbarten — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:19:59 +0000

Inspired by Calvin Hollywood I did a complete beauty retouch based on his technique:

(click on the image to expand)

Works done so far: Body modifications (ears, nose, mouth and eyes), digital makeup, skin softening (with a very nice technique where you can keep the porosities) and a gentle dodge and burn treatment. All works took a total time of approx. one hour. Thanks to model Jeannine!

I was surprised how efficient and quick this guy works with photoshop and I can really recommend his DVD-Package:

CALVINIZE I-III

Cheers Christian

escape to paradise

christianbarten — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:54:40 +0000

I don’t like the actual weather in Switzerland! It looks like in Britain actually… it’s cold….it’s rainy and the people are demotivated and tired.

Time to leave to paradise for me. Together with my cam I’m going to explore this region of earth for the next three weeks: It will be my first time in Thailand and I’m looking forward to come back with some really nice pictures.

By the way: Two weeks ago I took a really nice HDR-Panorama of the „Belchenfluh“ in Switzerland:

The picture(s) was taken at 06:30 a.m and the atmosphere was really stunning! The pano is a composition of 6×3 portrait pictures. Stiched and tonemapped with PTGui Pro.

cu you soon folks I can already smell the curries

Cheers

Christian

The „DOCKSIDE“ shooting

christianbarten — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:27:06 +0000

Today I finished the post-processing of the recent shooting „Dockside“ which took place two weeks ago in the harbor area of basel. This area is huge and offers a lot of nice locations with it’s typical industrial style. On the weekends you can shoot there without any disruption ’cause no one’s working! Maybe you’ll meet some people from the border patrol because the harbor adjoins to switzerland, france and germany.

My team was supported by a makeup artist, two assistants and the two models Sandra and Michèle (who actually worked for the first time in front of a camera…and the really did a great job!).

During four hours I used the chance to test the new Elinchrom Ranger Quadra system on different locations. I was quite convinced with it’s low weight and easy to use control and just had some trouble with it’s low power (only 400J) when I tried to shoot with a very wide focal length (15 mm which is my absolutely favorite angle). The flash heads really needed to be placed next ( max. 2 m) to the model on that sunny day! But when shooting indoor or just taking portrait pictures this system is perfect for semi-professional photographers with a low budget! All pictures were taken as always with a Canon EOS 5D.

All pictures were just edited in Adobe Lightroom…no photoshop-retouch at all!

Please feel free to have a closer look at some of the final pictures in this small web gallery:

Unfortunately I’ll not be able to present a making of video this time My girlfriend (who had the job to film) took all movies in the upright format

Finally I would like to thank all involved people which supported me. Thanks a lot it was really fun to work with you!

cu soon

christian

Preparation is everything!

christianbarten — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:30:29 +0000

I’m just planning another photo shooting with two nice ladies taking place in two weeks. In the course of planning and preparation I realized once again how important this part is! A good preparation is everything for a successful shooting! Here are some things I have done and which I would like to recommend to you:

Location scouting:

Two weeks before the shooting date I always walk around the location to check the general and (especially) the light situation. Where is the sun at the planned shooting time? Are there any obstacles or do I need a shooting authorization? I always take some pictures from different locations in the area and send them to the models. So they can already have a look and prepare themselves for the situation. In this case I was able to create a nice overview of the harbor area in Basel. Use the actual communication technology! The following website was created in 10 minutes and shared to all involved people via facebook. The models can now choose their favorite locations:

Contracts:

Another very important thing: Always send the shooting contracts to the models and the make-up artist before the shooting day! It’s stupid to loose time on location fighting with contracts. Everything has to be clear before the first picture is taken! I placed the different contracts directly on the web as pdf-files. So the models can download and complete the forms themselves. And hey: Never ever shoot without a contract!

This time I’ll try to shoot with the new Elinchrom Quadra system. It seems to be very useful for shootings on different locations in a short time line. I’m looking forward to share some of the resulting pictures with you in a few weeks…and of course a making of video!

Cheers

Chris