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Teaser from yesterday
You may recall this gal from a couple of previous shoots. She came back for another round yesterday - she's doing some different performing work now as well as lost about 40lbs and wanted new shots (frankly, I think she looked great before too, but she's back into her college size and is feelin' mighty sassy!)
This is a shot I've been wanting to try for ages, but never had the dress- she brought this big poofy thing with her and I just couldn't resist. One of many sets we did - including straight-up headshots and some promotional images for her cabaret act. We had SO MUCH FUN!!!
This is a shot I've been wanting to try for ages, but never had the dress- she brought this big poofy thing with her and I just couldn't resist. One of many sets we did - including straight-up headshots and some promotional images for her cabaret act. We had SO MUCH FUN!!!
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Love the movement and the energy. Really everything about it is lovely!!
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GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
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Yes Gary, absolutely Sue Bryce inspired! As soon as I heard her talk about HOW she gets these "movement" shots I knew I wanted to try one, and have been waiting for the right opportunity. And this was sure the right opportunity!! This gal is heaps of fun, tons of energy, and not remotely self-conscious. She is an operatic Lucille Ball - hardest part is getting her to slow down so I can capture the fabulous expressions before she moves on to the next one!
The background is a piece of foil-backed insulation - my go-to BG these days. I LOVE it. Not only does it give a really cool look (and depending on aperture can look completely differnet) but it gives me fabulous wraparound light by "back reflecting". A very well spent $11 lol.
I will say I had to do a LOT of work to clean up where we had "fallen off" the bg (it's only 5ft wide, so there was at least a foot missing on either side when I pulled her far enough away from it that she wasn't going to hit it as she turned). One of the many times I wish I had a proper studio space with more ROOM than I do at home; I would just use two of these side-by-side and save myself ridiculous amounts of time. Loads of copy/paste/clone and dodging and burning involved to get to the finished product, but I think it was worth the time involved (I didn't do it all in one sitting - I seldom do - but it was at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes. I can feel Qarik and Zoomer shuddering all the way from here
"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anway" ~ John Wayne
I gotta hand it to the Creative Live Sue Bryce seminars - I don't go lock stock and barrel for her "guru" self-development stuff (much more of that of late, it seems - the earlier seminars were more technique and less psychology/marketing biased) but her technical approaches finally gave me a workable LANGUAGE to use to pose my clients, as well as some very specific posing techniques which go beyond the "basic" rules one tends to hear all the time; "shoot curvy from above", and "use short lighting" are great and useful, but weren't enough to get me where I want to go. But I now have much more ability to direct my clients *bodies* when I need to thanks to those seminars. I always knew WHAT I wanted to see but without fashion/commercial training or experience didn't quite know *how* to get it from those who couldn't instictively find it for themselves. And, particularly for operatic clients, a touch of magazine/editorial style in processing and mood isn't amiss for websites (and is creeping into headshots as well), so it's useful to have skills to create that "portrait couture" look when I need it. I'm having a blast playing with it
More to come from this shoot. You won't believe how different the others we got are............ SO much variety into one shoot! I'm still tired two days after the session (it was only about 4 hrs, but OMG the ENERGY we were all putting out) and shot way too many images, so it's taking time to put together her proofset. I just hope she has a tough time choosing, because from my pov there's just shot after fabulous shot!
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GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
A very powerful and engaging image! Wonderfully done.
I too have a hard time wrapping my head around spending an hour and a half in post on one image with no extra income.
Yeah, this one took a lot of work. The problem in much of this shoot was lack of space - I really need more ROOM. A 9ft background in a 20ft space (instead of 4-5ft wide with only 9 ft of shooting length) would have solved many of the problems I'm having to fix in post. BUT, particularly in the case of this image, artistically worth it to me to spend the time; this shot was for me personally as much as for her (although she absolutely loved it!).
BUT.... the difference between my business model and yours, Bryce, is that I charge more for my time up front and I only include 1 full edited/retouched ready-to-print edit (in my student package) or 3 (in my main package). The rest of the images I show the client have basic processing (the client sees NOTHING sooc) but are PROOFS and not fully finished edits. So I'm not fully editing 30 images like you might for a senior or family session; I choose a couple to edit as teasers/samples, and then wait for the client to choose theirs. I've noticed that clients often gravitate towards an image which has already been tweaked, however, so if I have an image I really like and want to subtly nudge them towards, I do that one as one of the teasers; when it's come time to deliver, it's already done.... and they are WAY impressed when they get the final digital copy within a day of requesting it
Also, typically clients purchase extra edits above and beyond those included in the package. As long as I've done my job properly and given them enough good shots to choose from, they just can't narrow it down. I LOVE it when that happens - best validation ever!!! I charge for extra edits above and beyond what the package includes, and there have been times when they have ordered up to 100% of the shoot cost in extra edits.
I've found it a good business model for my market - it doesn't scare folks off with too big a number up front (since I'm often dealing with students, or those fresh out of school), but (assuming I've done my job properly!) they have trouble staying within the included edits and purchase extras and purchase those extras. It's not unusual for them to come back to me a few months down the line with requests for additional edits, too (I archive the shoots so it's not a problem).
On another note, the rest of this session is making me CRAZY - REDHEADS!!!!!!!!!! So much energy and expression, but omg, I'm losing my mind over skintones. In multiple different lighting scenarios (many of which I'm now 2nd guessing and wish I'd done differently. Grrr). Will post in due course, but just venting here. :bash
You could always go back to shooting film
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
There are times like this when it sounds VERY VERY ATTRACTIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Diva: One thing you could do is take 2 of those, and lay them down with the shiny side down, and take a knife and cut aprox. 1" down the long side without cutting the foil backing and remove the insulation. Then butt the edges of the foil up against each other and tape them together with duck tape on the back side. This would act like a hinge and you would be able to fold the shiny sides in towards each other to make it like 1 piece. Depending on the texture, you could also paint the back side to any color you would want. This is what Sue Bryce does with her plain white Styrofoam.
GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams