Christmas week is always so busy for me, as I’m sure it is for all of you. With all the shopping, family gatherings then the clean up, by time the week ended today I was exhausted! This coming New Years week isn’t going to get any better either. I normally end up in Las Vegas for New Years but not this time, instead I’ll be working at home all week! I’ll be doing some photo shoots in January and need to get some new parts for my studio lights and search for some model outfits.
To ease the pain for the Monday blues as everyone goes back to work for a short week, here is one of my…or rather Santa’s helpers deliver some joy! As most of you know, I enjoy collecting diecast model cars, so each year I donate model cars to local charities. I purchase them usually months before at sales then give them away during Christmas. A few months ago while on one of my shopping sprees I had my helper pose with some of the cars.
As usual, I always carry a camera with me, this time I had my Nikon DSLR and simply stopped at a parking lot in a public park. No studio lights, no reflectors, no light meters, only my camera and the leggy Santa’s helper! Do you blame me?
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Film cameras seem like such a long time ago for most of us, but one thing I miss is shooting with black and white film. I love the tones, the detail and the overall look of it. Luckily with digital cameras and imaging software, we can continue to enjoy black and white photos without having to pull out our old cameras and searching for expensive, if available, black and white film!
There are two ways you can choose to shoot b&w images with your digital camera. One is to change the settings on your camera to shoot in b&w only. I know some cameras have a feature that let you choose the tone for the images, so you get different styles of b&w. This option is good for an instant “out of the camera” b&w image. The second way, would be to shoot your images in regular color settings, (I recommend you shoot in RAW/TIFF format) then use a program like Photoshop to convert your image to b&w. Try doing it both ways to see which one you like better. The image of Christi on the left was taken with a Nikon D70 (6 mega pixel, by the way), and I was shooting in RAW format, well actually NEF since that is the codec (Nikon’s version of a RAW file).
Christi in color
With Christi I shot about 95% of it in full color RAW, then for this photo I used Photoshop (I’m currently using Photoshop CS3) to convert it to B&W and made some other small tweaks. I chose this image to convert to B&W because of the shadows. Her hand, neck and face had some great tones that I thought would look great in this version. The color version on the right looked great, but for some reason I really enjoyed it in B&W. I know, I know, many of you probably prefer the color version, but I guess its the way the top version emphasizes the details better. In the bottom version did you even notice the ear ring? Look at the B&W version, then notice how the shadows stand out and there is a type of mystic to the image. At least for me there is! Well, I hope you at least enjoyed the images, if not the subject!
Photographers are always stating how they have “amateur” models, but then when you look at the photos, the models are usually internet models or semi-professionals. For the most part, with the exception of a few here and there, I enjoy working with everyday woman. Maybe its the excitement they bring to a shoot or the sexy nervousness when she first starts to pose for me, whichever it is, it works for me!
A woman new to modeling transforms within a few hours during a shoot. A good example is the woman below. First, I noticed she liked to play with the water, so I photographed her playing and having fun. Later, I was complimenting her about her figure and I sensed she was enjoying the attention. She began to loosen up, hence the second photo when she opened up her wrap to reveal her body. She said she felt “sexy” and “free” at the beach. Maybe the open wrap pose was her way of teasing me or the camera, whichever it was, I liked it! The last photo was later in the day after she tried a few more sexy outfits. I figured she was ready to be more daring. I asked if she wanted to pose in this tight red dress and she said yes right away. As you can see, its meant to be worn without underwear. She was completely fine wearing it, even though it was the most revealing outfit she ever wore, at least that’s what she told me!
If you are a photographer working with a new model, be prepared. She is relying on you to guide her. So take your time but be sure to lead her to the poses and outfits that accentuate her beauty. When she sees the great photos you took of her, she will want to work with you again! And believe me, she doesn’t care if you are using a Canon, Nikon, Olympus, or have the latest and fastest lens. She wants to feel comfortable and beautiful as you photograph her, so make sure she feels that way and capture it!
I was looking over my calendar and noticed that a past model’s b-day was coming up this week. She was always someone I enjoyed shooting because she really isn’t a “model”, just a friend who allowed me to photograph her several times for fun. Ok, fun for me and fun for her!
A couple of our shoots were impromptu and I simply asked her to grab her bikini and we drove out to the beach. I photographed her in what she had on and a few outfits I had laying around in my truck from a previous shoot.
We often get caught up in this megapixel war, thinking that more megapixels will translate to better pictures. I get caught up as well and today as I was looking over some photos I took with a 6 megapixel camera, it reminded me that there are other things more important than a camera with super high megapixels, such as my Canon G10. Don’t get me wrong, I like my G10, but check out this photo, un-retouched or re-sized for comparison. This photo was taken with a Nikon D70 and shot in RAW format (this is a .jpg copy of the original, RAW file is too large for webview, but dimensions are same). I love the detail, but more importantly, I love the model! She was great and I’m sure I wouldn’t have taken any “better” images if I shot it with my Canon G10, which has 14 megapixels!
This goes to show you that sometimes we need to focus on other aspects of the photo shoot besides the camera! More important than a camera is the subject or object that you are photographing. Attitude, lighting, nature, all are much more important and contribute to better pictures, not megapixels. At least that’s how I see it.
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