Can you get a good shot when there are showers?

I was asked if you could get good shots on the beach when it was overcast and showers. Here is Amie on Bournemouth beach on 30th March last year in exactly those conditions. We were dashing back and forth to the van to avoid the rain and had to simulate some sun with an off camera strobe. So what is the answer, can you?

 

In The Rain

So girls and boys don’t be afraid of getting a little wet. You can still get a shot for your portfolio when rain is predicted and falls.

What to do when plans don’t go exactly as you would like

I had the pleasure of shooting with Kimberley yesterday. We had discussed a latex outfit and doing a studio shoot but I really fancied the latex with a backdrop of street graffiti. I edited an image I had taken of some graffiti in Volgograd.

I arrived at Kim’s house using my trusty Sat Nav and during our initial chat it became obvious that a location shoot would not be appropriate as she was just over the flu and it was a little chilly outside. She has a well equipped studio with Bowens lights, just what I am used to. Remembering the lighting from my graffiti, I set up a soft box low on her right and used a beauty dish on her face to the left. Beauty dish a stop brighter than soft box.

Here is the result and the graffiti

Volgograd Graffiti and Studio Shot

Into Photoshop and using the select colour range tool I selected the background, with the quick selct tool I refined the edges and created a new layer masking out the background. Copy and paste the graffiti below my masking layer and blended.

Here is that result.

Street Latex

I also wanted to try out my new Lencarta Ringflash. I had used it at Studland but only for fill so not mounted on the camera. This time I used it as it should be and was very pleased with the results and the ease of use. Nice and light and the battery recharges quickly. Also you have good control over the power with an easy read LED.

Here is the result and you can see the distinct halo effect with the shadow which is what ringflash is known for.

Ringflash Portrait

And here is another example but this time in contrasty black and white.

Ringflash contrasty black and white

Lightroom 4 – continued review

In my last post I gave a brief review of Lightroom 4 Beta. I stated that I was having a problem when I uploaded an image to Flickr.

Petesky came up with this solution:

“Ok, checked your blog. Now I see what you mean. I had exactly the same problem as you with lightoom. Lightoom default is to export images (to an editing program) as Prophoto RGB.You need to go into Edit-Peferences-External Editing and change it to sRGB.”

That did sort it and so thank you Petesky.

I decided to give it another go and edited one of this series of 15 images and then synchronised. All the images were updated and no firther edits were made before I used the slide show function to produce the video below.

Verdict cannot wait for my jewelry shoot on February 4, the post production work has just been cut down to about 10 minutes.

Do you re-touch your portrait photographs?

This is another question I am often asked. The answer is in most case almost certainly especially if the subject is female.

I was talking to a wedding photographer one time and I asked the same question. He told me that if he doesn’t re-touch he gets far less final sales.

The key is not to do too much. Don’t make a sixty year old look like a 30 year old but taking 5 or ten years off will almost certainly get you a sale.

You saw some images of Annie Moya yesterday. At 26 she has beautiful skin and to skin smooth her until she looks like a plastic mannequin would be a sin. She had a few small spots on her chin, you poor girls must hate those hormones doing that to you, and so a little spot removing with the clone tool is all that is needed.

Here is a before and after to show you what I did to her.

After Photshop

You will also find a few more examples here.

What does a Deluxe package get me?

The title is certainly one of the most asked questions but it is generally followed by and how much more will it cost me?

I can answer both of those questions easily. To the first, read on and to the second….not another nickle or dime.

The best way to tell you what a model gets with the Deluxe Package is to give you a recent case history.

Subject: AnnieMoya (be warned if you follow this link that the subject matter is not for kids)

Annie Moya

Is this art?

Here is an image taken from a shoot with Zoe. Her version of the Black Swan.

I used an off camera speedlight to light her allowing the background to be in shadow and under exposed. In processing I used a Platinum Palladium tone.

Does she dance alone because she has dirty feet? You might think so as she seems to be pointing to them.

Didn’t see the Black Swan yet so this is my interpretation.

Dance Alone

New Front to my business card

Playing with those images to imitate a Calvin Kline ad gave me an idea. I thought why not use one as a front to my business card. I think this fits in with the new branding.

Do you?

Business card - Fashion and Beauty

If you want to know how it was done, click on yes in the poll below, if I get enough responses I will do a blog on it.

Want to be a Vargas Girl?

I am still looking for Vargas Girls for a calendar, won’t be 2012 now but hopefully 2013.

Go to this page for details and to apply.

Vargas Girl - Zoe

Who goes first?

I need to put together some galleries for the model portfolio section of my web site. I have had the pleasure of shooting with a number of great models but who should be first?

I need your help.

Who should go first?

Amie

Sharon

Zoe

You can see others here if you don’t like my initial pick.

Another day in the orchard

We were very lucky with the weather despite being on a hurricane watch.

The theme for the photo-shoot was The Gun Club Collection and so a shot gun was in evidence throughout. Charlie had never held a gun before nor had she been in front of a camera for real. Didn’t she do well?

So Innocent