Pick and talk about ten memorable and technically challenging pictures of yours.
This shot of @baldheadlilboy, if left completely up to me would have never happened. For a really long time I struggled with shooting in direct sunlight, and it wasn’t like I didn’t know the math either. Keep the ISO down, aperture high and do get too out of hand with the shutter speed. When she suggested shooting in front of these plans, my reply was a bit hesitant and she called me on it without hesitation. Switched to my 24-70mm F/4 L IS, a couple adjustments and that was it.
This one of @sonjoel wasn’t so much challenging as it was memorable. Whenever I’m with this guy it’s a good time, so having worked with him for a year and supporting each other’s ventures since the jump, it’s always one for the books when we create. I also like what I did with the grading in the picture which is something I came up with while editing.
The backlit shot of @trishnora is still a shot people specifically ask me if I can recreate for them. The reason this shot is challenging is when you put a light source, in this case the sun, behind the subject, you naturally cast a shadow on the face. Adjusting to reduce that show causes everything behind them to be blown out and too bright. Given that I don’t use reflectors or flashes, it’s particularly important for me to be able to glance at something and decide within second what my settings need to be. It’s a shot is genuinely enjoy looking at, from having a smooth bokeh even when the lens was at 2.5 (but it was an 85mm 1.8 so that makes sense), so the lens flaring on both sides of her face.
I’ve now developed a certain grading method(look) for my work. The prominence of oranges and yellows is pretty consistent throughout the last year but this shoot with @5-6-7-8, and this location in particular sent me in a different direction, and gladly so. The entire image has a sort of light yellow creamish hue casted over it. I did that to kind of level the colors since we were shooting indoors and the light was already pretty balanced. Besides that hue, there’s a concentration of orange behind her and I reduced the blues to draw attention to her face which I pushed the yellows on. It’s very much mine, yet differs from a lot of my other sets and for that reason I’m a fan of it.
It’s one thing to shoot with someone, and it’s another to connect in such a way that the high you both have during the shoot allows a friendship to form. I’ve had that with a few people now and @easysocks is without a doubt one of them. This shoot itself wasn’t much of a challenge, but the post editing was a bit tricky because it was a really sunny day and the walls bounced a ton of strong yellow light back into the camera. Now that’s good, I like warmth in my images, but too much of it would take away from here and then you have to deal with the yellow that the camera sees on her skin. But yeah, was a solid shoot, came out with a lot of keeper shots, and a great friend.
This shot of @xcvttx wasn’t the most compelling right off the camera.
The framing was nice, had some colors to work with and I could definitely see the potential in the shot. As you can kind of see from the comparing the shots, computers interpret skin color as orange, so when I started modifying that it also changed the color of the car which I didn’t intend to do up until that point. I went with it and shifted almost every color in the image except for yellow/green which make up her sweater. If you’re wondering what kind of God shit I did to get the sky back, it was actually never gone. Shooting in RAW allows the camera to capture much for data than JPEG which is what most cameras shoot in as it’s a more widely and manageable format.
Okay, there’s a lot going on in this shot of @gunsounds. This conservatory of the NY Botanic Garden in the Bronx wasn’t the most lit area so I exaggerated the contrast afterwards which worked out really well cause it gave me those bright light patches across the lower section of the background and on her face. This picture is also the first time I got to really witness how well strong greens and blues worked together. Now if you’re asking where the blue is, her bodysuit is grey, computer sees that as a shade of blue, so I darkened it and shifted the primary (change the balance of the other color channels. Think of how green is blue and yellow combined. You can shift say, the blue and make the green more on the blue side as opposed to a perfect mixture of the two) and increased the oranges a lot.
Spend a little time with Parker and you’ll see that this is what she spends 95% of her time doing. She’s always smiling or looking for a reason to and that’s something I appreciate in general. Working with someone with that kind of attitude makes my life a lot easier. It’s much more pleasant shooting with someone who you put out that much energy, have a good time, and express their genuine excitement to be there. Once again like other people I’ve shot with, a good friendship developed after the shoot and I’m looking forward to seeing her next month when I make it out to LA.
I think at some point, most photographers think about nailing a shot that epitomizes light/shadow balance and think is that shot for me. Muvaearth was sitting right now to the window so it wasn’t like I was in impossible conditions but getting the settings just right, having the focus tact sharp to pick up the lines and imperfections in her skin, up the the detail in her hair including that one rogue curl at the bottom are what make this one for the books in my opinion.
The gremlin, Jada. This shoot was almost a bit rushed cause New York public transportation does this thing where it doesn’t care about your life, plans, family, goals, or time sensitive tasks. We started shooting maybe two hours later than originally planned and were running the risk of losing sunlight. it was her first shoot and I shit you not from the first frame of the day, she was dialed in. This is my favorite shot from last year because I think it captures a lot of what I am to achieve in my work. Technically, this entire shoot was some of my best control of low aperture shooting and nailing the bokeh without making it look harsh.
These are just what come to mind off the top but there are a ton of shots of the 60k I captured last year that would prove to revolve around your question.
prguitarman
origamiaround
2087
gamechangershow
gracieabrams
stormborns
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
vaporwave
ellievsbear
