Sasha-2287_V2
Mar, 2014Views
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Awards
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Member Selection Award
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Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Peer Award
Superior Skill
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Exceptional Contrast
One Of A Kind
Genius
Top Class Lighting
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VIP Favorite
Jaw Dropping
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akhtarkhan
July 18, 2014
Wonderful technicolour face decoration, nice composition, nice lighting......brilliant capture. Congrats on the feature.
Premium
Platinum
AnneDphotography
July 18, 2014
brilliant and creative .. the colors are a perfect blend ... love the post processing and excellent lighting ... congrats on your award !!
juanlflores
September 12, 2014
the eyes have it... focusing on the eyes does the spot for a great DOF...
Platinum
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my garage studio in Indianapolis. It was really a pretty straight-forward setup with a simple mottled grey and blue backdrop.Time
It was late evening, probably around 7pm.Lighting
The lighting was a three light set-up. I used a 22-inch beauty dish as the key light, directly overhead from the camera position and slightly feathered to the left. The two side lights were large grided softboxes.Equipment
I shot this with a Canon 5D mkIII and the 24-105 f4L IS lens. It's pretty much my standard go-to beauty and fashion combination. The lights were Canon 430 EXII flashes triggered by the Pocket Wizard Flex TTL system all set manually. Exposure was ISO 200, f9.0 at 1/125th sec. The key light flash was set at half-power, and I believe the rim lights were a third stop higher.Inspiration
This was a special request from one of my favorite local makeup artists, Sasha Star. She wanted to do this Sugar Skull makeup, so we planned it out and gathered up the flowers and started going through different poses with the model. After a number of shots, the model hit this pose with her hands up symmetrically by her face and we all loved it. This was the fourth image in that pose.Editing
Yes, the post processing on this image included some slight frequency separation to clean up a few blemishes. I always try to keep as much original skin texture as possible though. I've also very slightly desaturated the image using a color channel method where I desaturate each color channel slightly different. My goal was to maintain the vibrancy in the makeup around the eyes while toning down some of the rest of the image. I've also done some dodge and burning using curves adjustment layers and finally overlaid some deep blue color tones in the shadows using a layer masked for the shadows and set to multiply at about 30% opacity.In my camera bag
My standard kit is the 5D mkIII and a 7D using either the 24-105 f4L lens or 70-200 f2.8 IS II. I also have an 85 f1.8, 100 f2.8 Macro, and just recently picked up the Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art lens which is amazing. I have three Canon 430 EXII flashes and the Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 trigger system, and then a good collection of clamps and flash color gels.Feedback
Study lighting styles of professional photographers you admire. This setup was based on lighting styles used by Joel Grimes among many others. I'm always somewhat obsessive about practicing lighting. Get a stand-in model - a foam head or anything that lets you practice different light set-ups whenever you have the opportunity. Good networking skill are also essential - go to local creative gatherings where models and photographers and makeup artists make connections and work to create unique images.
