Fashion – Photographer Ross James – Website www.rossjamesphotography.com
LOCATION – This shoot took place on the beach of Vashon Island, WA. After scouting the island for over 2 days, I decided on this particular spot near an abandoned dock.
CAMERA AND LENS - I used a Nikon D300 with a 50mm 1.4 lens. I chose that focal length because I didn’t want to go too wide, and I also had limited length behind me to get the angle that I wanted. My exposure was 1/250th second, f/16, and ISO 200. I was using the sun as a backlight but since it was so bright, I closed down the aperture and shutter as much as I could.
LIGHTING - My main light on the model was a Profoto Acute 7 head with the Profoto 22″ soft light and diffuser sock. This was up fairly close to the model just to camera left and just above the frame. I like the light I get from the beauty dish because it’s not too soft and not too hard. I also triggered a couple Nikon sb800′s that were gridded just to highlight the jackets. I had one at full power on camera right mainly hitting the 2 jackets on the right to show the details of the clothes.
CREATIVE PROCESS - I conceived this shot ahead of time… First I chose the location, and that’s were most of my inspiration came from. While I was shooting some test shots the week before, I noticed that it would be fairly easy to get some birds in the shot if I brought along a loaf of bread. I knew that the designer, Heilyke, had this corset top and I envisioned capturing a mood like this with the model posing like I captured. Besides only trying to fill the frame with birds, I asked the designer if I could hang some of her jackets across the 2 posts.
POST PRODUCTION - In post I composited the birds from a couple different frames, applied some dodge and burn to the clothes and model, and removed a board the model was standing on in order not to sink into the sand. Then a little color and contrast tweak for the last step.
Weddings – Photographer Tracy Turpen – Website www.tracyturpen.com
LOCATION - The beach, Hilton Head Island
CAMERA AND LENS - Canon 5D Mark II, 24 1.4 L lens, 1/1600 sec at 1.8. ISO 100. I grabbed my widest lens so I could really showcase how generous the sash was in length.
LIGHTING – Available light. The photo was taken about 45 minutes before sunset.
CREATIVE PROCESS - I spotted the silky sash on the couple’s wedding arbor during the couple photos after the ceremony and knew I wanted to incorporate it. Seeing as how they were both dressed in white my eye was drawn to the blue sky. I wanted to contrast the blue against the surplus of white fabric. I had my assistant throw the sash high into the sky while the couple kissed. It took quite a few tosses but with the help of a nice throw and a powerful wind gust I finally nailed how I wanted to scarf to flow around the couple. I love the movement, the dreamy feel, and how the long sash draws your eye to the couple again and again.
POST PRODUCTION - Photo was a RAW file taken in SRGB mode in Camera. There wasn’t a great deal done in post production but I did brighten the exposure in Lightroom and deepened the blacks. Then I exported the raw file and burned in the blue sky in Photoshop. I also burned the sash to bring out more of the detail.
Fashion – Photographer Luke Copping – Website www.lukecopping.com
LOCATION - Buffalo, NY USA
CAMERA AND LENS - Canon 5D, ISO 100, F: 6.3, Shutter: 1/50, Lens: MKII, canon 70-200 4.0 L
LIGHTING - 3 Kino Flo Diva light 400′s
I like to use the Kino-Flo for beauty and portrait work, as it allows me to visualize the more subtle changes of light on the face, I also really like their ability to spread a nice even light across the face, because of their limited variance in output, you have to be very careful with positioning to control your output. They are really great for picking out highlights on the skin and defining shape.
CREATIVE PROCESS - This was prepped for a magazine in the Buffalo and Toronto areas, a story on androgyny and fashion, I felt that the model had a very strong profile that worked well within the theme of the assignment. We needed a full spread layout that left room for copy, so we decided on a strong profile that was balanced with more negative space on the right side. As usually, with a story like this, working close in hand with my styling team was exceptionally important, they are an integral part of the creative process. In terms of light, we allowed the background to be lit by the spill from the keys, and the main light is camera lift, and slightly above the model, just a little less than 90 degrees off camera axis. There is also a light above the model to bring some more highlight out of the hair, and one low and facing her back to provide some highlight on her skin and clothing
POST PRODUCTION - Most of the post-production involved general beauty retouching, enhancing and evening out the tones of the skin without destroying the natural texture and beauty of her skin. All done at the pixel level to give her a more consistent skin tone. Some hand painted highlights and shadows were dodged and burned into the image as well The only major retouching was some subtle reshaping of her hair shape.
Fashion – Photographer Kate Drennan – Website www.katedrennan.com
LOCATION - Yanchep Beach, North of Perth, Western Australia.
CAMERA AND LENS - Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, 1/250sec, f/10, ISO 100, Focal length 50mm, Lens EF 50mm f/1.2L USM. I usually use the 24-7omm because I like the ability to zoom and crop but I have started using the 50mm and LOVE the quality, which I sometimes get disappointed with in the 24-70mm. We were on an isolated beach with plenty room and time to move around the models.
LIGHTING - I used an off camera speed light. I started with the reflector but for this shot just used the flashlight held to the top left of my camera.
CREATIVE PROCESS - I love sharp punched out images. This image has great detail and I think the colours blend well together. The lighting is straight on and matched to the background so that the subjects appear almost cut out from the background. A very standard composition in this case, I tend to often place subjects left of center and moving the viewer’s eyes from left to right across the image.
POST PRODUCTION - I must admit, I know all the great photographers swear by an all in camera production, but I love Photoshop! I do retouching work to earn extra money while studying and I am on Photoshop all day and night – it’s a bit of an obsession… I use filters, which resemble HDR effects and then remove areas here and there so that skin is still real but edges and features are punched out. I lighten and darken areas to assist in this overall effect.