Looking from a Different Perspective…

It is amazing what turns out when things do not work out like you want. Bordering on the magikal. This past weekend I was experimenting with a bit of a high key, beauty look with two lovely young ladies who are close friends of our family. My influence behind this shoot came from a Lindsey Adler presentation on Creative Live. The premise is to shoot lights into angled V flats to create a wrap around dreamy look.  Had to do a bit of improvising with the materials as I do not have the V flats yet. A bit difficult to transport 4×8 sheets of foamcore in our vehicles right now. I just utilized a couple of reflectors positioned at 45 degrees on either side and had one speedlite pointing into each one. I also played with a light from above through a 12″ softbox.

One of the resulting images:

This set up worked great with this young lady but I could not reproduce this effect with her older sister. I thought this to be quite odd and attributed it to the fact that her hair was darker. I changed exposures and positioning of the lights and reflectors to no avail. We did get some very awesome material out of it though.

After presenting the final images to mom I went back and looked at the ones that did not make the cut. After reviewing them again I was wondering what my deciding factor in not selecting them the first time was. Little things that bothered me perhaps, a few were too hot or uneven. Maybe I was just being stubborn because they did not turn out like I had visioned. And this is where the Magik kicks in…

After some more reviewing and different edits I think I actually came up with images that trump most of the ones that I had initially presented. Got to hate when that happens… Again, good friends, second family, party buddies… makes it all easier to present a second set of shots.

First one of the shots that made the final cut..I think if I had the full V going I would have been able to achieve what I was initially looking for although I really like this image.

And a few of the ones that did not, but after re-edits should have.

This style is very different for me, but it is one I am going to be expanding on and get dialed in. My main focus will always be head shots,  but I will be doing some more with the beaty/glamour style of shooting and see how I like it. And as I have been told before, never get rid of the images you do not like, for one day you may look at them in a different way and something magical will happen.

Lots of dancing to come in the next three weeks, recital and then nationals!

Thanks for stopping by, Till next time…