blog has moved...

This blog has moved. It is now at http://jeremybales.com/blog/ AND there's a new post there. So what are you waiting for?

masking around hair in photoshop

Photoshop masks with Calculations and Overlay from Jeremy Bales on Vimeo.

Here's how I make masks in photoshop now. It works great when trying to mask around hair. AND you don't have to use the pen tool!

Watch the video above, then use the cheat sheet below. Let me know how this works out for you.

CHEAT SHEET:

Image - Calculations: Fiddle around with the channel colors, set blending mode to either add or subtract. You're looking for strong contrast between your subject and background around the edges.

Adjust levels on the new alpha channel to increase contrast. This will be your mask.

Paint around your edges with a soft brush in overlay mode. Black makes darks darker, white makes lights lighter.

Color in your mask with a hard-edged brush.

Color in your background.

If your mask is black on white, invert with Command+I.

grace helbig is a monster

One of my favorite people to photograph is getting huge. She has thousands of followers on every kind of social media. She was interviewed by Amy Poehler. She's on TV.

I've worked with Grace several times: she was one of my geek goddesses, with an H&M interactive video, drinking 40s in Tompkins Square park.

She makes decent monster faces too.

hellgate: photo comic book

It certainly was hot off the presses earlier this month. There's a lot of time to cool off enroute from the printer in Texas. My photo comic book Hellgate is finally in printed form and looks pretty hot to me.

I've wanted to produce a photo comic book for some time now. I once tried to take an existing project and cram it into comic book form. It looked good but lacked a cohesive storyline. It didn't quite fill the page like real comic books do.

(more after the jump...)

Freestyle Poling (not pole dancing)

When I was in Atlanta recently I made a point to schedule some shooting time with Blake Dalton. Blake is an old friend and Artistic Director of dance company Crossover Movement Arts. 

He's developed a dance style called Freestyle Poling which in his words, "Blends martial arts traditions from the world over with contemporary dance and parkour sensibility." Its' wild stuff.

Check them out in Atlanta. crossovermovementarts.com.

my new look

I knew that brand was important because I had read and heard it at least a hundred times. I had certain vague ideas about what my business's identity should be. But, that usually landed me in a convoluted mess of symbolism and impossible-to-get metaphor.


























I would love it if my office was in a converted Airstream pulled by a restored '77 El Camino to assignments where I'd shoot with an old range finder and file with carrier pigeons. I'm not there yet, but more importantly, neither is the work.

I decided to work with a designer. Crazy, huh? Amber Luke took my nutty visions and the actual work that I'm doing and gave me something that I wasn't expecting. The type was big and bold with a colorful icon. We revised to simplify the icon (I'm still a fan of symbolism). And that was it: a logo that looked like it belonged on my work. Like a fiery brand. 

don't let it be like last year...

Come Monday, 8am has a whole new meaning. Like 9am. Remember to Spring Forward.