Dawson City - Lightroom Magic

July 21, 2014 in How To, Tips

Hello friends! Gary here,

Well the morning started out a bit rainy, so we thought it'd be a perfect day to talk about some indoor stuff.... like photo processing!

Ok, so if you have taken our Lightroom work shop you will know that we do about 90% of all our image processing in Adobe Lightroom 5. We do all of our ingesting, keywording, tagging, colour tweaks, spot removal, and even use it to build photobooks for our clients.

In other words, Light room is the sh*t!

SO, I wanted to show you a bit of before and after action of this image from Dawson City, Yukon we took in the beginning of the summer for our stock library.

Out of camera image, no lightroom adjustments..... blah, flat, laaame!

Well how did we do that? Below are the the adjustments we did!

Increase Temp - I like my images to be a bit on the warm side
Decreased Exposure - image was too bright
Increased Contrast - to make highlights brighter, and shadows darker
Increased White - One of my fav tricks to brighten the brighter parts of the image
Increase Clarity - Love clarity, it adds sweet mid-tone contrast/sharpening
Decrease Vibrance - I like to drop the vibrance of the colour in all of my images

Green Hue - I upped this a bit to warm up just the green tones in the image
Green Luminance - I increased this a bit to make the green tones a bit brighter, to help them radiate a bit
Blue Luminance - I think I just forgot to make it zero.... oops.

I just added a bit of sharpening and a bit of noise reduction to smooth things out a bit.

Graduated Filter - These brush tools are the most powerful of the magic of Lightroom:

Ok its hard to see but I made a selection of just the sky area:

Increased Temp - to warm up sky even more
Increased Contrast
Decreased Highlights - to try to bring back some of my over exposed sky :(
Increased Clarity - Love Clarity!
Increased Saturation - Add a bit more colour to the sky area.

And finally I did another Graduated Filter selection of the lower part of the image:

Increased Clarity - Love Clarity :)

And there you have it! Let me know if you have any questions in the space below and we'll happily reply!

Firefighters,Puppies and kittens...need we say more?

July 17, 2014

Alright, so it's official! We have teamed up with the Whitehorse Firefighters Association and Mae Bachur Animal Shelter to create a 2015 Calendar and the official shoot is happening today!!

Now, the good news is that there is still time for you to be a part of this sweet project!

We still need corporate sponsorship in order to ensure all production costs of the calendar are covered, so that way, 100% of the proceeds from calendar sales can go directly to helping keeping animals safe and healthy through the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter.

We've even got this handy dandy little info-graphic to help explain how it is all going down:

Now, we've only got a few sponsorship spots left, so if you, or someone you know has a business that fits the following criteria, you should give us a call:

1) You love puppies and/or kittens and want to help keep them safe and healthy

2) You love firefighters

3) You love helping out your community

4) You are like Scrooge McDuck and are swimming in a pile of gold coins that you just need to get rid of

And just a little sneak peak at the types of photos we're creating today:

FIREFIGHTERS, PUPPIES AND KITTENS PEOPLE...I mean COME ON.

If you're interested in being a sponsor, get a hold of us asap at info@gbpcreative.ca and we'll get you set up!

And if you're interested in purchasing said calendars, stay tuned for more info on when/where that can happen later this fall!

Environmental Portraits by GBP Creative

June 24, 2014

Fact: Environmental Portraiture is our JAM!

I was going through the old vaults yesterday and realized we have a bunch of environmental portraits in there that we haven't shared in a while...So what better way to spend a rainy Tuesday than taking a look through some of our favourites from the past few years.

The reason we love environmental portraits specifically, is the fact that they have so much of a story in one shot. Not only are you going for a natural, authentic shot of your subject, but you also get to highlight something important to them-whether it's their workplace, their home, or a significant landscape in their lives.

Plus, it's just super fun taking any situation, and finding the awesome looking background hiding in a seemingly 'normal' looking place...

Mmmm Morels

June 17, 2014

Here's what we know about morel mushrooms so far:

1. The year after a forrest fire, they grow out of the burn sites.

2. They look like little brains popping out of the ground, but also look very similar to pine cones, which can be deceptively tricky when looking for mushrooms.

3. They taste DELICIOUS

4. It is hard working picking these little guys...but it's like a treasure hunt so it's fun hard work.

5. Burn sites are a crazy beautiful and peaceful environment. (Stay tuned for our portrait session we did out there, to be released soon!)

5. When driving to the burn site you can play Iggy Azalea on repeat, and drive Gary Bremner crazy.

6. Carmacks has a milkshake machine you guys...and it's called "F'Real" which is apparently a thing in Ontario??

7. Basically, spending time in the woods, picking your future dinner, in a crazy beautiful place is pretty sweet...especially when you end it with weird milkshakes.

Dear Yukon Summer...

May 30, 2014

Dear Yukon summer,

I'm writing on behalf of this beauty couple who are about to have a very important day tomorrow. They are getting married.

Now I know you appreciate a sports fan, and I can assure you that these guys fit the bill. Not only do they cheer for the Jays, but they met at a sports tournament back in the day and have been together ever since.

They take advantage of your awesomeness...and i'm just writing because I think you should take advantage of theirs too.

All we really need is a light overcast, (even just between 2-6pm) to make sure that these two look their absolute best. Heck we'll even take sunshine if you'd rather. We can make it work. Just no rain or crazy wind ok?

We promise to take a ton of photos to prove to you that they appreciate your playing along.

We need a win here Yukon summer...Montreal couldn't quite do it, even though they gave it a good effort, but we know you can.

Sincerely, GBP.

Corporate Photography with GBP Creative

May 21, 2014

As visual design nerds, we are always stoked when we get a call from a corporate client that works in that world and comes to us looking for imagery for their company.

We are even more stoked when that company is looking for something a bit more unique-something that really showcases either their space, or their personalities, which is exactly what one of our recent clients, Northern Front Studio, was looking for.

This wasn't a tough sell as they are located in the new Waterfront building in a beautiful office, and not only is the team awesomely personable and approachable, but they just so happen to have their fourth team member, who happens to walk on all fours, but still holds a high spot in the company. Well played office dog, well played.

If you want to check some details on the team and their architecture and design work, check out their website at http://www.northernfront.ca

Get your dancing shoes ready...Portraits by GBP Creative

May 15, 2014

Ok...so let me tell you a little story...

A guy and a girl each decide they want to take Salsa dancing classes. So they sign up, not knowing that they are about to meet each other there while practicing their sweet moves...Then BAM. They TOTALLY fall in love and eventually get engaged, then call GBP for an engagement session to which Gary and Bri reply: "Are you KIDDING ME? You met and fell in love at salsa lessons?? That is full on movie set cute...You people aren't real."

Seriously guys...this actually happened. And these are the photos that resulted.

HUGE thanks to the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre for hosting us in their beautiful space for this shoot. We needed a location with high ceilings to accommodate dancing and lighting gear, and this space worked out perfectly.

And congratulations to Brigitte and Justin for having the most adorable story, and moves, out there...

Photo Shoot Fresh... Portraits by GBP Creative

May 12, 2014

Birthdays. They are always a good time.

They become even better, when you get to gift one of your best friends a surprise portrait session! And even BETTER is watching that friend's boyfriend have to try to organize the whole surprise (which also included her whole family flying in for the weekend) and him just about having a melt down trying to keep her from finding out...Now THAT is what made this particular session so damn fun. (Beal, you're a good man buddy!)

Needless to say, we had an awesome time with this shoot. How can you go wrong with Prosecco and party dresses?

Speed Control Takes Over

May 06, 2014

When Speed Control visits the GBP studio, you can hear them comin'...

Like literally...every shoot with these guys seems to end in gut wrenching screams that probably leave our neighbours wondering what the hell we have going on in this place...

**Sorry neighbours!! We promise we're not doing anything too weird!

But hey, sometimes 3 grown men just have to scream as loud as they possibly can in in order to get the shot, because it turns out it looks pretty damn rad. And if anyone's going to be down for an unconventional shoot, it's Speed Control.

We did try a few more serious looks at first, but when editing, quickly realized that it just didn't look like 'them'. Anyone who's seen a Speed Control show, or knows these guys personally, will agree that these shots capture their energy a lot better than the old "band standing in a triangle brooding toward the camera" shot.

On top of the shoot itself, we were lucky enough to have our friend Brett Elliot come by and film a Behind the Scenes video for us as well! We are so stoked with how it came together, as it was cool for us (and hopefully you guys!) to see how the shoot went down, and then how that process transpired into the final images.

So again, a HUGE thanks to Brett for putting this video together, and of course to the Speed Control guys for taking over the studio for a night! Always a good time!

To check out more on Speed Control, visit their site at: http://speedcontrol.ca

5 in 1...Headshots by GBP

April 29, 2014

We've done quite a few posts featuring our head shot work as it ends up being quite a large part of our business. Whether it's for people to use on their social media, a business needing them for their bio page on their website, or for an actor to use when auditioning for a play, each head shot is unique in terms of it's purpose and the look/feel that is being captured.

We really loved the shots we got out of a recent session with Tara, who is the editor of a Northern Magazine. She needed a large range of variety in her shots, and we really wanted to feature not only her awesome personality, but also her epic sense of style.

Plus, anytime a shoot ends with literal puppy love...it's a good day.

So without further delay, here's Tara, looking fabulous as ever!