The Gift: 2 Girls, 5 Pictures, One Sweet Story!

Sometimes it seems like video is taking over from still pictures. Movies, television, YouTube, parents with video cameras at every child’s play or sports game.  Better digital SLR cameras now include an option to take HD video as well as stills – as if just offering stills is somehow not enough.

I’m stuck on the old technology – shooting still photographs. And, you can tell a story in a few images – without pictures that move, without a soundtrack.

For the story to work, you need good actors. In the story below, “The Gift,” my fabulous actors are Kaitlin, almost 11, and her sister, Ashley, 9. Take a look at each image in sequence; Kaitlin and Ashley will tell their story to you.

Hign Contrast Fashion Shot

As part of my shoot with Joanna (to view the earlier post, chick here), we did some fashion shots, using a very high contrast lighting scheme. In this image, there was only one light, in a big umbrella to camera left. In most fashion shots there are several lights, to provide a more flattering, soft look. But the high contrast lighting can be very dramatic and can also provide a sharp line of the figure against the background. The high contrast also gives the image more three-dimensionality.

Triple Fashion Image!

The image above is from a shoot with Joanna, a college student majoring in business and an aspiring model. The picture is a composite of three images, melded together in Photoshop.

I put the camera on a tripod to keep the background fixed in all three images. We took a lot of care in positioning Joanna on the paper so that she didn’t overlap herself. In Photoshop, I brought all three images into one file in three layers. Layers work like pieces of glass that are stacked, with information on each piece of glass.  I erased parts of each image, so that, looking through the whole stack,  all three Joannas are visible.  This work and the normal retouching took about two hours altogether.

I used a white seamless paper background, which is on a nine-foot wide roll that comes down from near the ceiling and then along the floor. Usually in a fashion shot the areas outside the paper are not visible. But here I chose to show outside the paper, to give some context and frame of reference for where the three Joannas were standing. You can see the stands on either side that hold the paper roll in place.

This was a fun concept to put together. We might call it “Waking up, at Play and at Work.”

Makeup Artist Extraordinaire!

As faithful readers know, I work with makeup artists in many of my shoots. One of my favorite makeup artists is Maria Dominici. Her website is here.  Maria is a real pro, with over 20 years experience. In addition to her work on photoshoots, she also does brides and bridesmaids for weddings, as well as makeup for film and television. I recently shot Maria for some new images for her website.  If you ever need a makeup artist, Maria is fantastic in her profession – and also very friendly and easy to work with.  We’ve become good friends.

Aspiring Model Shoot

As regular readers know, I enjoy helping new models develop images for their portfolios. It’s tough getting started in modeling. There are lots of girls – and boys – trying to get into a field that’s pretty crowded. Kristen is a young lady that I think will do well.  She’s lovely and photogenic, but also pleasant and easy to work with, determined, and eager to learn.  I hope these images will help her.