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Neeksie

Sophie a la Bardot

Aug, 2019

Views

715

Likes

+45

Awards

Action Award

Spring 21 Award

Legendary Award

Judge Favorite

Contest Finalist in Studio Glamour Photo Contest

Peer Award

+11

Absolute Masterpiece

Top Choice

Outstanding Creativity

Superb Composition

All Star

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Behind The Lens

Location

I am a semi professional photographer and had been on a break, I contacted my model and good friend, so we decided to do this shoot at the model's home in Tauranga.

Time

We started this shoot in the early afternoon, this was about halfway through the shoot and the second costume change. We had moved to her bedroom for this shot, as the afternoon light was coming in from the bedroom window adding a nice ambient light

Lighting

As we were shooting inside, I was running dual 400W lights with 600×400 softboxes. I had an uneven lighting arrangement, stronger on her right side, and a light fill on her left. and using the ambient light to fill in the background.

Equipment

I used my canon 6D with the 24-105 f4 lens, 2× 400W studio flashes with 600×400 softboxes.

Inspiration

The model and I took inspiration from Brigette Bardot. We both adore her look, elegance and beauty. It was a case of taking old school glamour, fashion and giving a salute to the skill of the photographers and photography of that era.

Editing

I try to do as little post processing as possible, but its unavoidable to not do some. I firstly in camera raw made all my l;lighting and colour balance adjustments. As Sophie has a naturally beautiful look, i wanted to keep as much of that as possible. I didn't want to make her skin look waxy or fake, and to keep with the era of the photo, so I avoided much in the way of skin editing. I did spot removal on a couple of minor blemishes, used a high-pass filter for the hair to make it pop, and then a black and white mask, to make the amazing blue in her eyes stand out.

In my camera bag

My camera bag normally consists of my canon 6D, a couple of speed lights, lots and lots of batteries, my 50mm f1.4, my 24-105mm f4 and the 100mm f2.8. I normally use the 100mm prime for 90% of my portrait shots, even though it's predominately a macro lens, it is an incredible piece of glass, it has a great range of f-stops, and shoots crystal clear. the only disadvantage is the distance I am often standing away from a model. it's great for studio work, but in a tight place, not as good.

Feedback

When taking a photo like this, it's always best to have a plan of what you are doing, this was always one of the photos the model and I wanted to create. As we always toyed with the idea of this being a black and white photo, i set my camera to a black and white style, so i could see what it would look like in B&W in a preview on the back of the camera. We planned how we wanted the lighting, as we were shooting inside, and wanted a crisp ISO (ISO50) so we took a lot of set up photos and dialed the light settings to where we wanted it to suit the mood. I toyed with the idea of making the cigarette look like it was lit and adding smoke, but I decided against it. As it stands, it looks like shes asking for the viewer to light it for her and makes a connection between the subject and the viewer.

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Neeksie

Neeksie

Sophie a la Bardot

Behind The Lens

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