Noelani Bikini Tree
When we got started on the day, we drove out to a fairly remote, locals only, type of beach outside of Kona. Both models, Noelani and Nondys had informed me that "tourists" don't get to go to this beach, some of the locals (mainly guys) are very protective of it. I can see why, it was spectacular, more natural and raw, then any of the other beaches we had visited in previous years. It actually took a 4x4 to drive there, and thankfully I had borrowed my father-in-law's truck to make my way out to the beach.
The beach was a small cove, locals surfing, children looking in the small tide pools for sea life, and others just lounging the day away. I immediately fell in love with all the rocks and trees spread amongst the sand. Most of the popular beaches were cleared out of debris and so you had either one or the other, rocks with vegetation, or sand. But here, it was intermixed really nicely, and so I wanted to get the models interacting. Noelani immediately started climbing and playing around and I felt this tree worked really well. I liked the lean, it complimented her in the wardrobe, but didn't feel like a forced "model pose". The bark was quite coarse, and she took it like a champ and never flinched.
I fired my primary light, an SB800 from the left so that I could get some dark definition between her body and the tree. I wanted to create some contrast there so it gave her some form. The sun was high above and so it was giving me all the accent light I needed. I didn't have an assistant, otherwise a large gold reflector would have been really nice here. My primary flash to the left was triggered with the SU800 CLS commander at 1/2 power and from high above, and slightly to my right, I fired my other SB800 between 1/4 and 1/8th power. This was just so I could get a little fill light in the shadow areas that the primary flash produced. I also had her look towards that light so I zoomed in that flash to give a little more focus on her upper torsoe and face.
In post production, I gave this some of the classic magazine processing I'd seen in vintage ads around Hawaii. Using Selective color in photoshop to bring out the yellow warmth in the mid tones and the cool blues in the shadow areas. Pushing the ambient hue to green was a really common look I saw throughout the vintage magazines at the local dive shops. I popped a little contrast back in with some edits to luminosity masks, and I finally reached a point I was happy with the image.
I'm so glad that I got to find a local model who was gung-ho to shoot and had such great energy, it really makes all the difference.
@lifebypixels
Noelani Bikini Tree
When we got started on the day, we drove out to a fairly remote, locals only, type of beach outside of Kona. Both models, Noelani and Nondys had informed me that "tourists" don't get to go to this beach, some of the locals (mainly guys) are very protective of it. I can see why, it was spectacular, more natural and raw, then any of the other beaches we had visited in previous years. It actually took a 4x4 to drive there, and thankfully I had borrowed my father-in-law's truck to make my way out to the beach.
The beach was a small cove, locals surfing, children looking in the small tide pools for sea life, and others just lounging the day away. I immediately fell in love with all the rocks and trees spread amongst the sand. Most of the popular beaches were cleared out of debris and so you had either one or the other, rocks with vegetation, or sand. But here, it was intermixed really nicely, and so I wanted to get the models interacting. Noelani immediately started climbing and playing around and I felt this tree worked really well. I liked the lean, it complimented her in the wardrobe, but didn't feel like a forced "model pose". The bark was quite coarse, and she took it like a champ and never flinched.
I fired my primary light, an SB800 from the left so that I could get some dark definition between her body and the tree. I wanted to create some contrast there so it gave her some form. The sun was high above and so it was giving me all the accent light I needed. I didn't have an assistant, otherwise a large gold reflector would have been really nice here. My primary flash to the left was triggered with the SU800 CLS commander at 1/2 power and from high above, and slightly to my right, I fired my other SB800 between 1/4 and 1/8th power. This was just so I could get a little fill light in the shadow areas that the primary flash produced. I also had her look towards that light so I zoomed in that flash to give a little more focus on her upper torsoe and face.
In post production, I gave this some of the classic magazine processing I'd seen in vintage ads around Hawaii. Using Selective color in photoshop to bring out the yellow warmth in the mid tones and the cool blues in the shadow areas. Pushing the ambient hue to green was a really common look I saw throughout the vintage magazines at the local dive shops. I popped a little contrast back in with some edits to luminosity masks, and I finally reached a point I was happy with the image.
I'm so glad that I got to find a local model who was gung-ho to shoot and had such great energy, it really makes all the difference.
@lifebypixels