More Ad Work
Nothing new with that. After posting the selects from a recent shoot for a Summer Intensive ad and even getting as far as image delivery, the powers that be changed their mind. No longer was the image to be a just a "happy girl" with a big smile. It needed to say "dance" as well.
Yes, I know.
I specifically asked about this and was told that it wasn't necessary.
Ok, round two. We re-shot a series of images more along the lines of what they now wanted - 3/4 portraits with elements of "happy girl" and "dance" thrown in for good measure.
Hey, I can do that.
Here are some of the out-takes (my favorites, only some of these were selects for the client):
I'm very pleased with
this set and more-so with my wonderful model. What a
trooper. And I love the colors I was getting out of
Lightroom tonight. Sometimes things click, and
especially the blue tones were really working for me.
I caught a video on YouTube of imaging wunderkind and
all round great guy Seth Resnick (of D-65 Fame, highly recommended)
at Imaging USA today:
Forgive the goofy video, focus on Seth's pearls of
wisdom.
He's singing Lightroom's praises and I understand
why. Today I was asked to go back in my archive 8
months and get a picture for a client - it took me
less than a minute. I found it amidst the 60,000
other images I shot last year. Nice.
Finally, I worked late into the night working
on a book for a client - 90 images in 50 pages. The
prototype looks great and I'll be excited to send it
off to the printers...
Shoot: Summer Intensive Ad
I took about 30 exposures and came up with a gallery of potential images and sent it off to the decision makers. I love assignments like these that leave it mostly wide open for me to explore. For this shot, I had a chance to bring out my giant Calumet 3-D Reflector and positioned 2 lights shooting right into this massive diffusion unit (one above, one below). I love what this setup can give for shoots like this.
Here are a few out-takes from the past few days. Sometimes the goofy stuff in between the "serious" stuff can be wonderful.
Also, this evening saw me working on a custom book
for a client in-between print sessions - I've had
several orders come in over the past few days (10 or
so prints from the Nutcracker galleries from Emerald Ballet Theatre) as well
as some orders for the audition photos I shot last
Wednesday. A couple of those required some
extensive Photoshop work as I have foolishly been
neglecting the need for a 13' backdrop and tried
to fit things onto a 9' one instead. The
arabesques really just don't fit without some
serious focus on the dancers part (all the while
also trying to nail technique), so needless to
say, I had some stray hands/feet.
Time to pick one up...
Audition Photos
Thankfully, Viktoria
(EBT's founder and artistic
director) was working with us to make sure things
were perfect and this one was the last frame shot
in what was a grueling shoot.
I believe the lead up to this particular shot was her
encouraging the dancer to "fly away like a beautiful
bird."
And I believe she did...
Print Delivery
I was curious to see what I was going to get because I've had quality problems with my Epson R4200 recently that have been driving me crazy (leading most recently to a printer replacement 3 days before the printer's warrantee expired). Epson was awesome - I said I was unhappy with the printer and they sent me a new one in less than 4 days. How cool is that.
Back to the print job - I printed everything in-house on very spendy fine art fiber paper. The order had several larger prints and I chose to use Innova's F-Type Gloss paper as I have depended on this paper for all top-drawer printing for the past year. The Innova paper is nice, but I've recently discovered Harmon's Fiber FB paper and it has impressed me in initial testing. Now I hear that Illford has a new Baryta paper as well that rates high up on the scale and costs less than its competitors.
Read the Bartya paper review here...
These new papers really make for interesting times. Two years ago there was nothing for a fine art black and white photographer to really like, as I have never liked the matte fine art papers that many are printing with. I wanted something that approximates what I was getting with Seagull or Illford fiber papers in the darkroom.
Finally, in reference to the Epson, I'm about ready to be done with all the warrantee exchanges I've had to do lately - a camera body, two lenses, a printer and my color calibration device. Sheesh.