Fashion Lighting with Leticia

Even though I would defiantly consider myself a portrait photographer I have a mega passion for fashion photography, fashion lighting and editing.  I really enjoy looking and studying the images in Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair. When I look at an image I'm always trying to figure out how the photographer created it. I'm always thinking, "What modifiers did they use? How did they expose it? What kind of light did they use? How much of the image is post? What was their retouching process?" ect....ect... I have to say I LOVE images that are way better than mine. I get so excited to see an image that is beyond my skill set in either creativity or technical ability or BOTH!  When I see an image that smokes me it makes me want to get to the level of the artist who created that image. There's a scene in the movie Seabiscuit where Toby Maguire brings Seabiscuit along side of this other horse to get a good look at the other horse to make Seabiscuit run harder, that's pretty much the same way I feel when I see incredible work! When I see great work I always think, "You better run harder if you want to catch them!" 

For this shoot I wanted it to be very clean, simple and really focus on Leticia. The goal of the shoot was to create some images you might find on the pages of Elle, Vanity Fair or Vogue. We shot in my white room at the studio. Hope you enjoy the images!

Barn Doors and Grids

I have to say I'm a sucker for a great gadget! They have the spring fair in my town every year and every year I can't resist buying some dumb gadget that is suppose to change my life for the better. I've bought the magic broom, the magic mop, the magic chamois, magic pans, magic chopper, magic never-need-sharpened kitchen knives, magic glass cleaner and so on. Honestly, I think the only thing left for me to buy at the spring fair would be magic beans! Pretty much if someone puts the word magic in the name of their product I have to have it! 

Now being a portrait photographer I'm always looking for ways to light my clients better so I can make their kids portraits, family portraits, senior portraits and any other portraits look awesome! So, the other day I ordered barn doors and some grids from Alien Bee for my studio lights. Basically barn doors attach to the front of your lights and have four moving flaps that enable you to make the light more narrow or wide and directional. Grids basically are inserts that go in your lights that have a honeycomb patten. This honeycomb pattern does not allow the light to spread as far as it normally would and focuses the patten for a more precise beam of light. You use both to help you be more creative and focus the light on your clients so you are able to create different lighting patterns that will flatter them in the best way for their portraits. 

The images below are a glamour session with Katy and is my first test of Alien Bee products, so far big thumbs up!!