Sunday, April 25, 2010

Confessions of a Dirtbag Retoucher - Matthew-Jonathan Collage

Excuses, excuses, excuses. I've had 'em all the last couple weeks. But I've finally finished retouching images for awesome model Matthew-Jonathan.  Variety is the theme with this set.  We start at fairly classic fashion, clean backdrop, full length, some crazy accessory, one big light, and posing or jumping in the air.  Next we get a little closer, and a little weirder, attempting to at least a teensy bit channel Vogue Italia...I played with the color a little.  And finally, the primal and feathery artsy beauty sort of shot.  All makeup and feather-crafting by the lovely and amazing Ellen Wilkins.

Without further ado, here is the collage of images from this shoot...as always, click for a bigger image:

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Charlie

Here are the final images from Charlie's set.  I decided to play with replacing the sky on one of them. I think it works well on that one, but didn't work as well on others. But that's what this is all about, experimenting, seeing what works, and figuring out how to go forward.

And I hafta say it one more time, it was awesome working with Charlie...great model, great guy. Photographers should be so lucky.

Without further ado, the usual collage (click to enlarge):

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Charlie, and Matt + Ellen

My shoots seem to bunch up, rather than spreading themselves out.  It's odd like that. A horrifying thought: if things had worked out on every front, I could've ended up with 4 or 5 shoots this week.  Two was enough, I think...especially since as soon as I deliver these sets to the models and makeup artist involved, a new project starts up with a buddy, trying to discover the new "it" lighting.  WAY too many models lined up for that, which is awesome...if any flake, we're covered, if none do, all the better.

The first model is Charlie Quiles. He was in Vegas for a while with some friends, so we set up a shoot via Model Mayhem. We ended up with a desert nomad fashion sort of concept. The location is desert on the way out to Lake Mead, from the north side of town. We made our way down into this great canyon/cravasse/ditch sort of area, and made it out alive, bonus.  Charlie was totally awesome, providing kick-ass props, personality, talent, and a damn good attitude (how many models would've bitched about schlepping through soft clay on location?) and sense of adventure.

Second model, Matthew-Jonathan, the first model I've worked with whom I've met via myspace.  Also working on this shoot was the lovely and delighful makeup artist Ellen Wilkins. We shot at Lillie K's XQuizit PiX studio; she and the studio were awesome in every conceivable way, and I'll definitely be using the studio again and recommending it to anyone who will listen. The makeup and talent were fantastic on this shoot...ideas flowed, and we were all on the same wavelength. Again, torturing a willing model, this time by gluing feathers on him.

Until I finish the sets of Charlie, and Matt + Ellen, here are a few tasters of what we were up to. As usual, I'll do collages when the jobs are all done.