Share Your Work & Get Feedback!
Upload your photos early for our “Photo Discussion” segment to receive thoughtful feedback tailored to your questions.
Mentor Night is a free, public event dedicated to collaborative learning and improving photography skills. Sessions often begin with a short presentation based on member interests. We look forward to seeing your work!
Agenda
7:00 PM
Social Time: Connect with fellow members and other photography enthusiasts before the meeting starts.
7:30 PM
Meeting Starts: Welcome and club announcements.
7:35 PM
Kickoff 1: Rich will share tips on improving photo backgrounds.
7:50ish PM
Kickoff 2: Sandy will show how to add smoke to a photo.
8:05ish PM
Photo Discussion: How can I improve this photo? How did you create that photo? Other Q&A.
8:30 PM
Meeting Closes
Making Backgrounds for Cosplay Photography
Presenter: Rich
The Problem with Event Photography
Taking photos of cosplayers at conventions (like Comic-Con) often results in poor backgrounds. They are typically cluttered with other people, distracting modern buildings, and harsh lighting. A busy or contextually incorrect background detracts from the character and ruins the illusion of the costume.
The Goal
Create a custom, distraction-free environment that tells a story, matches the specific character’s lore, and allows the subject to “pop.”
Tools Used
- Pixelmator Pro (Mac): Used for extracting subjects and compositing.
- Procreate (iPad): Used for digitally painting and generating custom background textures.
- Camera/Phone: For capturing real-world textures (skies, walls, scrapbook paper).
- iColorama f enhancing photos and converting them into amazing pieces of art.
- Potential Procreate Alternatives for Windows
- Adobe Fresco: Often considered the best alternative due to its touch-friendly interface, live brushes, and free version availability.
- Clip Studio Paint: A professional, one-time purchase, powerful alternative popular for illustration and animation.
- StylusX: A new, developing application specifically designed to emulate the Procreate interface and experience on Windows.
- Leonardo: A lightweight, fast drawing app with a user interface designed for Windows tablet users.
PaintTool SAI: A very lightweight and capable, though older-looking, professional app
The Workflow
- Extract the Subject: Open the original convention photo in Pixelmator Pro. Use the “Select Subject” tool to automatically mask and remove the busy background. Do minor edge cleanup if necessary.
- Source the New Background: * Digital Creation: Use Procreate to paint backgrounds using various brushes (e.g., starry skies, alien planets, factory windows, cloudy beaches).
- Photography: Take photos of everyday textures to use later as backdrops.
- Simple Fills: Use solid colors or gradients for a studio-backdrop look.
- Match the Lore: Place the character in an appropriate setting.
- Spider-Man belongs on a brick wall or building ledge, not in a generic hallway.
- Luke Skywalker belongs in a dark cave, not a convention center.
- Batwoman fits well in a dark, moody, abandoned factory.
- Match the Lighting (Crucial Step): A composited image will look fake if the lighting doesn’t match. Look at the shadows and highlights on the cosplay subject. If the light is hitting the left side of their face, add a light source (like a window or sun) to the left side of your digital background, and darken the right side of the background to simulate realistic shadows.
Good CosPlay Events
Cosplay is a performance art and hobby where fans dress up and act as specific characters from popular media like movies, comics, video games, or anime.
- TERRIFICON
- Celebrates comics, creators, actors from superhero, sci-fi, and horror media, as well as cosplay and pop culture memorabilia.
- August 7–9, 2026, Mohegan Sun Earth Expo Center in Uncasville, Connecticut
- New York Comin Con
- New York Comic Con is an annual, multi-day fan convention held in New York City that celebrates pop culture, including comics, film, television, anime, authors, voice actors, and cosplay.
- October 8–11, 2026, Javits Convention Center in New York City
- Anime NYC
- It is a multi-day event that celebrates Japanese pop culture, featuring unique exhibits, exclusive anime screenings, experiences, and appearances by creators from Japan and around the world.
- August 20–23, 2026, Javits Convention Center in New York City
Adding Realistic Smoke to a Photo
Presenter: Sandy
The Goal
Enhance a dark, moody portrait (e.g., a subject holding a cigar) by compositing realistic, swirling smoke into the image without it looking pasted on.
Tools Used
- Adobe Photoshop: For layering, blending, and masking.
- A Camera & Strobe: To capture the raw smoke assets.
- A Candle: The practical source of the smoke.
Capturing the Smoke Asset
Instead of relying on digital brushes, capture real smoke for authenticity.
- Light a jar candle (like a Yankee Candle) in a dark room.
- Blow it out and immediately put the lid on to trap the smoke.
- Take the lid off quickly to release a dense, swirling plume of smoke.
- Photograph the smoke against a pure black background, using a strobe or flash to illuminate the particles.
The Photoshop Workflow
- Prepare the Smoke Image: Open the photo of the raw smoke. If it has color casts (Sandy used a red strobe originally), use an adjustment layer to convert it to Black and White.
- Adjust Levels: Open the Levels adjustment (
Ctrl/Cmd + L). Crush the blacks to ensure the background is pure black, and boost the whites so the smoke stands out sharply. Flatten the image. - Import to the Main Image: Drag and drop the flattened smoke layer onto your main portrait document.
- The Magic Trick (Screen Mode): Select the smoke layer in the Layers panel and change its Blending Mode from “Normal” to “Screen”. This mode mathematically hides all pure black pixels and only keeps the white/gray pixels, instantly removing the background and leaving just the translucent smoke.
- Position and Transform: Use the Move tool and Free Transform (
Ctrl/Cmd + T) to resize, rotate, and position the smoke so it realistically aligns with the source (like the tip of the cigar). - Refine with a Layer Mask: Add a Layer Mask to the smoke layer. Use a soft-edged Brush tool painted Black to gently erase unwanted parts of the smoke (such as the rim of the candle jar that was captured in the original photo) and shape the plume so it flows naturally.
A few photo adventure ideas
- Wicked Tulips Flower Farm
- A flower farm featuring over 1.5 million blooming tulips. They host seasonal “U-Pick” events for a few weeks each spring where visitors can walk the fields, pick their own flowers, and capture a beautiful photo.
- They operate two farm locations: Preston, Connecticut, and North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
- The season is very short, roughly two weeks, generally starting in late April.
- Buttonwood Farm
- Ice cream is great.
- Sunflower Fields at amazing in the summer. Usually the last 2 weeks of July.