February Fun

 I had three shoots this past month. Two shoots were with new models, local to my area, and the other was with one of my favorite models, Joey Darke. The first two shoots were a continuation of my "In Black" project and the last was an iteration of my "On Black" theme. And, when I say new models, I mean that I hadn't shot with them before, but they were both experienced and needed little to no direction during the shoots. 

Sunnie was the first model of February. Tall and slender, she primarily had worked as an alternative model and she cultured that look well. I planned to use her images for composites as well, but for this shoot I wanted t to create some dual-use images. I wanted images to use just as they were with a normal background, but then I also planned to extract the subject from that background to create composites. So this shoot was an experiment of sorts. And, it worked. 

Sunnie in Black

Composite Shot

Two days later, Joey arrived in town and the experiment continued. This time, I decided to shoot the model against a neutral background–light gray for this shoot. My thought was that the neutral tones would be easier to remove for compositing, but also provide a nice backdrop for unaltered images. This worked quite well, although my compositing skills still need a lot of work.

Joey in Vinyl

Vamp Hunter

The final shoot for February was with Olga Hersh. Olga is a vivacious blonde with a great attitude about art nude photography. She was quite comfortable with her body and came to the shoot ready to get started. She was attentive to the details of her makeup and hair and she was most adept with her poses. 

Due to her skin and hair tone, I planned to shoot here as part of the "On Black" series as I knew the contrast would work well.  With that in mind, I chose exotic jewelry and pearls as the sub-theme for the shoot. The jewelry I provided included torso chains, chainmaille jewelry, and gold chains that draped across her torso. 

Olga - Dewdrop Chains

Olga - Pearls

And that was that for February. I have only one shoot scheduled for March, with another new model to me. I haven't completely decided on the theme and props, but given the portfolio I've seen from the model, I think whatever I decide it will be a fun and productive shoot.

January Blues

Well, December was a bust for shooting. It was great for family time and Christmas Day itself was quite fun, but between bad weather and sickness both my planned shoots simply couldn't happen. First, Shawna had a sick child and had to cancel, then I had sick grandkids and had to cancel, then I got sick and really didn't get any better until right before Christmas Day. But....

In January, Floofie and I managed to schedule a shoot at her garage studio. She had had a green screen set up for a video project she had been working on with her husband, so I thought that would be a great opportunity to do some shots for compositing. With that idea in mind, I began putting together the concepts I wanted to shoot. 

One idea was to bring some holiday outfits with me to shoot my Xmas pinups, and so I gathered a few costumes for that. I also had an idea for a new project that I call "In Black." The concept for that was instead of posing the model against a black background, I would pose the models in black outfits of vinyl, leather, lace, or spandex. With a green screen background, it would then be easy to extract the subject from the backdrop and place her against a different scene. 

I had done some compositing in the past and it was something of a tedious process, but with the latest updates of Photoshop and Lightroom, subject selection had become easier with AI automation. And, indeed, subject selection has become easier, but subject selection and background removal is only part of the process. I soon learned that, while green screens and blue screens are great for video production, the same is not true for still photography. The problem occurs due to color contamination from the background onto the model's skin. The green cast from the screen had to be removed and I had to learn several different techniques to accomplish it. Learning new techniques is always fun, so I enjoyed the process and I think I created a couple of fun composites from the images I worked on. I've only created a couple of composites so far, but I think they look pretty good.

In the Castle Commons

Xmas Fun

Come November

 Only two shoots in November as the weather was rapidly turning cool and wet. We removed and stored the outdoor decor, stacked the chairs and tables, covered the grill and smoked, and brought in the cushions and umbrellas. The cool, wet weather and dying blooms meant backyard boudoir and outdoor shoots elsewhere simply weren't feasible. Also, winter is when  I break (mostly) from shooting and begin editing my images for the year. I thought the two shoots I planned were quite successful, so it was a good month regardless of the number of photo shoots.

The first shoot was part of my "On Black" project. Shawna enjoyed wearing the custom chains during our Sauvie  Island shoot in October, so I decided to use her for this project as well. The "On Black" project is simply the model posed in various positions against a pure black background and on an elevated platform. I light the model with either strobes or LED panels, as I did with Merrique. For Shawna's shoot, I used a diffused beauty dish for the key light and a large umbrella for fill. 

The outfits for the shoot were simply different chainmaille outfits but we did through a set of pearls into the mix. For the next "On Black" shoot, though, I'm going to add a gridded strobe and a backlight/hairlight to provide some rim light and separation between the model and the backdrop.

Shawna On  Black

November's second and final shoot involved a traveling model making her way down the West Coast. Copper is a petite model with short red hair and a sparking personality, despite her lack of coffee which I quickly remedied with a fresh pot. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours shooting boudoir around my living room studio area. As it was a rare sunny day for the time of year, I opened all the blinds and curtains to let in as much sunlight as possible. I then used a bounced fill flash with a  reflector card to provide fill and to create a specular highlight in the eyes. That small spark of light makes the eyes sparkle with liveliness. 

Copper &Pearls.

I have a couple of Xmas pinups scheduled for next month. I try to do at least one or two every year. They're always fun to shoot  and I'm hoping to use Shawna and Floofie for those shoots.