Head-shots(#7)

This last week has been a productive one for me.  I was able to get a lot of yard work done, complete a minor repair on my car and take some head-shots for a local hair stylist.  Of course I had the most fun doing the photography stuff.  It was nice to bust out the lighting gear and get some decent results.

I tend to be the kind of guy that likes to have all the high-quality tools, gadgets and sometimes unnecessary equipment.  So I have been trying to challenge myself to get good results with simple stuff.  Part of the reason for the challenge is that photo-gear cost bucks and if I spent the kind of bucks I would like, I probably would be adding alimony to that list of expenses... Love you honey!

This last week is the first time I feel like I got some of my best one-light head-shots to date.  Michelle wanted to try out some make-up techniques and see how they photographed and I wanted to practice some more one-light stuff.  I busted out the Vivitar strobe light, stand, shoot through umbrella, ebay cactus wizards that I am borrowing and some white foam core board for reflectors.  Michelle acted as a model and a VAR(Voice Activated Reflector) stand all in one!  One of our trusty pub chairs acted as a second reflector holder and away we went.

Please forgive my photo-editing errors, my computer runs like a VW Bus trying to climb a mountain pass over the Sierras when running Photoshop.  It makes for really long editing sessions then I get frustrated and stop.  I need to work on that.  Anyway, this is one of my favorite photos I have taken to date.  It's hard to tell in this blog, but you can jump over here to check out a large version on flickr and see some more detail.  I was really pleased with the overall sharpness.  It seems like it has been a long road to sharp photos.

After this session, Michelle told me that our hair stylist, the awesome Ms. Joanna Montemayor at Razors Edge Salon, needed head-shots for their website.  Joanna wanted Michelle to do her make-up for the shoot and Michelle figured I could take the photos.  At first I was a little apprehensive, but decided to give it a go.  You don't know what you can and can't do until you try.

So Joanna came over and brought her friend Zac.  Little did he know he would be put to work as a VAR holder.  Michelle rocked the make-up, then I put her and Zac to work and we came up with this.

I feel like it came out pretty well for one-light and a couple reflectors.  I'm anxious to see how it looks on the website.

Next lighting mission, high-speed syncing with a medium format camera...

-dg