A friend of mine asked me if I could touch up a photo of one of his clients Grandmothers plus I wanted the opportunity to take on a photo restoration project. The original photo wasn’t to badly affected so there was still a lot of information I could use to fill back in the missing pieces. Left is the original, right is the final composition which took about an hour to complete. Overall I am very pleased with the results. I was also pleased to hear that my friends client was extremely touched by the new image which made it quite successful.

This was a figure and light study. The setup was two Alien Bee 800’s with softboxes and a white seamless backdrop. Overall I was pleased with the nice softness of the lighting but still have a long way to go before I am great at posing the human figure. I liked this post because of the looseness and direction implied in the pose plus she is smiling which is not something I normally have (you will note a lot of my shots of people are rather neutral expressions). What do you think of the pose, and do you have any good suggestions on how to improve?

This is a shot of a co-worker of mine from 2006. The idea of this shoot was to get the model to pose with one of her favorite things to do, strum at her guitar. The purpose was a chance for us to experiment with lighting and editing techniques. Overall I am pleased with the image though you will note some editing flaws and some uneven skin tones. I do not think it is the strongest composition but what I really do like about the image is the play on colour and shapes.

A friend of mine, Giancarlo Brun Del Re (found often on this site) tends to lend me his likeness for practicing various shooting and editing techniques. He had just got his custom vioilin completed (seen in the image) and we thought it would be fun to capture him with it. The reason for this selection was due to the HDR & tone mapping editing I was toying with. I am not a huge fan of HDR images but I enjoy the heavy processing this one has. I also love the custom violin and the texture on his face. I also like the way the tone mapping adds interesting contrast.

I shot this image as a chance to practice with the new lighting I had at the time, Alien Bees with some soft boxes and umbrellas. The model had some ideas prepared so we decide to duplicate the ideas. What I like about this image is the tones as well as the clarity of the glasses. I used a polarizer to help reduce the reflected light of the lenses of the glasses. I had 2 lights setup, one for the face coming from the right side of the frame, and one from behind the left side of her head. I would be curious to how you would change the light setup?

This was a shot for a lingerie shoot in Guelph, Ontario. The idea was to use it for one of the websites for a company I was working for at the time. This was shot in extremely dark conditions which made it nearly impossible to get any usable shots. I decided to have one of the models play pool so I could utilize the pool tables lighting. I am happy with the overall composition however I think the noise smoothing and out of focus areas are very apparent. My aperture was F/1.2 and I still couldn’t get the shot. Nice try though.

This is a shot is one of my favourites. It is is a shot of her looking at a composite book of herself with a face lined up where her head actually is trying to make it seem like the book isn’t there at all. What I was impressed about this shoot was the clarity of the images shot to create the composite. It was shot at F8 using a Canon 24-70, needless to say it is crazy sharp. We were also experimenting with lighting on this shot to see if we could attempt a light contrast stock shoot feel.

Here is a shot of Sandra edited to look as it does. I centered the eye and positioned it in such a way that it was split somewhat 30/60. I took the opportunity with the red tones in Sandra’s skin to play with sucking out the colour to see what effect it would create. What I also liked about this composition was the clarity of the image itself and the natural soft lighting on the face.

Enlarge the Image

My friend Giancarlo again letting me use his likeness to practice with my gear and lighting. I also wanted to practice with a new editing technique I was playing with. This image is shot using 2 lights, one on the main subject off to the right of the frame, and another on the wall behind him. I would be interested into your opinion and suggestions on the lighting and pose of this composition. Posing is definitely not my strong suit.