Anna, August, 2016
Anna - August, 2016
NSFW
Well, that was a fast and busy Summer! I fell behind on my blogging schedule, but I don't mind since I was busy with fun photoshoots. Plenty of paying clients, I'm happy to say. Of course those images are protected by my strict privacy policy so you will never see them.
Fortunately, I made time for some shoots that I can share. This one was with my model friend Anna Sereno. Not only is she athletically gorgeous, she happens to be a pretty highly trained firearms enthusiast. We decided to do an outdoor shoot in the hot August sun at a secluded home where she could display both her charms and her arms.
I brought along my photographer friend, Jeremy, who had some creative ideas of his own, one of which was to play around with a large gold reflector. Anna is also quite a good photographer, so there were three of us mixing and amplifying our creative ideas.
We started out on the deck of the country home with the sun directly behind Anna. I was using my Canon 135mm F/2 L lens on my 5D Mark 3 from almost 20 feet away. Jeremy was just to the right of Anna aiming the gold reflector at her to fill in the shadows. I'm including this screwed up example to show what can go wrong in a tricky situation like this.
The most obvious problem is that the gold reflector is not large enough to cover our lovely model. Another problem is that I forgot to bring a lens hood for my 135mm lens and I'm getting a bunch of hazy lens flare at the bottom of the image. Fortunately, I could crop most of it out.
Anna suggested that she sit down so that the reflector could cover more of her body. Great idea! We can also see the pretty flowers behind her now.
You may not agree, but I thought the orange skin was too much. Anna's late Summer tan combined with the gold reflector was too much of a good thing.
I reduced the orange saturation in Lightroom to make her skin look just about like it did in reality. Isn't that better?
I quickly got tired of shooting into the sun and looked for a different spot. Anna wanted to pose with a handgun and an amazing leather strap outfit. This was gonzo photography at it's best!
Jeremy was standing to Anna's right, holding the gold reflector to fill in the shady side of her body. At this angle, the gold color was not so overwhelming. No color adjustment was done in Lightroom.
For these shots with the strappy outfit, I used a Tamron 85mm F/1.8 IS wide open to blur the background.
This last image was taken with the Canon 50mm F/1.2 L at F/2. If you are a gun person, you will have noticed by now that there are no visible safety violations in any of these photos. I watched her like a proverbial hawk the entire time we were working and she never once broke a safety rule. We triple checked the weapons to confirm that they were clear. It's so nice to work with someone who knows what they're doing!
So that's one of the things I did during the Summer of 2016. Things are slowing down now as the Portland rainy season sets in. I will try to post some more of my adventures in the coming weeks.
If you are a photographer near Portland, be sure to work with Anna Sereno if you can. She's amazing!
Comments
In my experience, white reflectors just don't provide enough fill light. The metallic surface is much more reflective. My skin tone is more forgiving than most when it comes to gold reflectors. The siding on my house was acting a bit like a gold reflector, so it fit in well. Just needed to tone it down a bit. There's always the silver reflector, which I am guessing would work well with different skin tones.
I had no idea you were watching me like a hawk with gun safety..glad I passed your "test"!