Austin Fashion Week 2012
This lovely lady was part designer and part model. She was explaining to me how some of the outfits were ones that she had cocreated and others she was modeling for a friend. The work was beautiful and she did a great job posing and taking direction. I loved her overall look as she transitioned between various outfits. I have one more of her that will processed soon that I can upload.
For most of her shots I turned down my large parabolic feel light/umbrella to almost 1 stop above ambient and the shoot through umbrella on the right was dialed to about 2-3 stops above ambient. From here I was shooting mostly to capture her as naturally as possible. This gave me a lot of room for what to do in post. Sometimes I get asked about what technique I use for this "strong" look. Well I can tell you it's not just upping the contrast or using curves. More often than not my technique for this is a mixture of either a black and white gradient map layer set to soft light as a blend mode. From there turn down the opacity of that layer until you find the strength and appearance you find most desirable. The biggest issue with this technique is dark tones go racing to solid black. So with a layer mask I dab back in all the low key areas so they blend better and don't look too overdone. In some of these shots you can see that her hair still has some detail and highlight in the front center area. That was removed from the gradient map layer with a mask. If the gradient map layer is too harsh, I do the exact same thing only this time I'll use a black and white adjustment layer, experiment with the presets or color sliders until I find the tones I want. You can also mess with the sliders after you've switched it to soft light and see what sort of different effects you get.
Mix and match a black and white adjustment layer set to soft light with a reduced opacity and then put a gradient map layer above that. This gives you an unbelievable amount of control for zoning different tones in the image.
I didn't remember to write this model/designer's name down but I hope we get to work together again in the future, she had some beautiful looks with her outfits.
Twitter: @lifebypixels
Austin Fashion Week 2012
This lovely lady was part designer and part model. She was explaining to me how some of the outfits were ones that she had cocreated and others she was modeling for a friend. The work was beautiful and she did a great job posing and taking direction. I loved her overall look as she transitioned between various outfits. I have one more of her that will processed soon that I can upload.
For most of her shots I turned down my large parabolic feel light/umbrella to almost 1 stop above ambient and the shoot through umbrella on the right was dialed to about 2-3 stops above ambient. From here I was shooting mostly to capture her as naturally as possible. This gave me a lot of room for what to do in post. Sometimes I get asked about what technique I use for this "strong" look. Well I can tell you it's not just upping the contrast or using curves. More often than not my technique for this is a mixture of either a black and white gradient map layer set to soft light as a blend mode. From there turn down the opacity of that layer until you find the strength and appearance you find most desirable. The biggest issue with this technique is dark tones go racing to solid black. So with a layer mask I dab back in all the low key areas so they blend better and don't look too overdone. In some of these shots you can see that her hair still has some detail and highlight in the front center area. That was removed from the gradient map layer with a mask. If the gradient map layer is too harsh, I do the exact same thing only this time I'll use a black and white adjustment layer, experiment with the presets or color sliders until I find the tones I want. You can also mess with the sliders after you've switched it to soft light and see what sort of different effects you get.
Mix and match a black and white adjustment layer set to soft light with a reduced opacity and then put a gradient map layer above that. This gives you an unbelievable amount of control for zoning different tones in the image.
I didn't remember to write this model/designer's name down but I hope we get to work together again in the future, she had some beautiful looks with her outfits.
Twitter: @lifebypixels