Glitter Girl
May, 2016Views
4226
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Beauty And Make Up Photo Contest
Member Selection Award
Contest Finalist in Covers Photo Contest Vol 33
Contest Finalist in Photogenic Photo Contest
Amateur Winner Portraits with Props Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Portraits with Props Photo Contest
Featured
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
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PRO
embas
July 01, 2017
first thing i did was tilt my head to the right. been a while since a photo literally moved me.
PRO+
adavies
August 16, 2017
Great image...nicely done! If you haven't done so already, please consider joining my Make a Mess portrait challenge:)
https:// viewbug.com/challenge/make-a-mess-no-nudes-photo-challenge-by-adavies
https:// viewbug.com/challenge/make-a-mess-no-nudes-photo-challenge-by-adavies
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken during a studio event run by a small company called Swifty Productions. The model was the owner of this company, a lovely lady called Sarah Swift. The theme to the event was 'beauty' and there were several other models participating for a small group of photographers to shoot. I have worked with Sarah a couple of times before and really enjoy making images with her. She makes my job as a photographer very easy as poses and expression come very easily to her.Time
This was shot in the afternoon although the studio was generally dark and devoid of any daylight.Lighting
I enjoy the control that working in a studio gives you and I tend to shoot to with low power and big modifiers in order to give nice soft shadows. This shot was taken using my favourite method of just a single light source and a medium long softbox.Equipment
I always shoot with a tripod in a studio. My Nikon D810 is very unforgiving of any camera shake. In this case I used my favourite Feisol Tournament CT-3442 carbon fibre tripod with a Feisol CB-50DC ball head. The lens was my ever faithful Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VRII. I always keep VR switched off when using the tripod. The strobe was a 400w Elinchrome.Inspiration
Sarah's make up was applied by MUA Rachel Elizabeth. This gave Sarah a slightly 'space age' look which I thought would look good with an almost robotic pose. When Sarah tilted her head to the side in an inquisitive manner it really fit well with this idea and bang, the shot was in the bag.Editing
Yes! With all that glitter around the out of camera image was covered in glitter. I spent a very long time removing the glitter from places it wasn't supposed to be. Once this was done I worked on retouching the skin to get good even texture and colour across the face using frequency separation and dodging and burning techniques. Once this was done I balanced the colours and contrast out and pushed the background's exposure down so as to not compete with the main focal point.In my camera bag
I have a small selection of about half a dozen lenses giving me coverage from 14mm all the way up to 200mm. I always try to keep things as simple as possible and a studio shoot will generally mean just the 70-200mm lens is used. For outdoor portraiture I like the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 and also the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Micro lens. I like to shoot landscapes too and my go-to lens for this is the legendary Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 which I use with a few Lee graduated ND filters. That's about it for kit really.Feedback
Advice? Sharp focus is essential for portraiture so always use a tripod whenever you can and focus on the subject's closest eye. Its very tempting to use a large aperture to blow the background out of focus but be careful with this since some lenses will give you such a shallow depth of field that the furthest eye is not sharp! Make sure that you have enough light hitting the subjects face - use reflectors under the chin if they seem a little dark. Stick to your lowest native ISO rating so that you get the best quality image and lowest amount of image noise. Ask your model to give eye contact if your chosen image style requires a connection with the model. Images where the model does not look at the lens give a feeling of it being a candid shot and does not inspire the viewer to feel connected to the model. Group studio shoots are commonplace here in the UK and I highly recommend attending them. Its a great way to learn how light affects a face and how a professional model can really help give you a great picture. They are a great way to learn studio style shooting and as there is no pressure so you can pretty much work at your own pace.
