Blaire, Carlos and It’s a Small World

In late July, Cindi, Steve, Paul and I (members of Bay Area Photo Club) went to Galveston, Texas for a Houston Strobist Meet-Up—according to the postings, there was going to be models for us to practice our use of strobes.  The reality was no models, and very few other Houston Strobists showed up.   After eating dinner, we shot some local skateboarders for a while and then decided to practice on each other and started to head to an ally.   I spotted this very attractive couple (Blaire and Carlos) sitting on a bench watching the skateboarders.   I asked them if they would like to be “super models” for the evening.  We agreed to send them our “best shots” if they would model for us.  They agreed and off everyone went.  

We had a wonderful time.   Blaire and Carlos were terrific.   They are extremely photogenic and great to work with.   I would love to have them model for me again (Blaire and Carlos, that is one of my really subtle hints—hope you got it!).  I think that all of us believed that it turned into an absolutely great shoot, until we discovered that no one had their email addresses.

Now, fast forward three months.   

I am in a tattoo parlor in Pasadena, Texas talking to some of the artist about taking some “environmental portraits” of them.   I am showing them  photos of people on my website when I hear:  “You know Carlos?”   Naturally, I tell them the story and they tell me that they will get their email address for me.   Yesterday, I received an email from Blaire.   This made me go back and visit some of the photos that I took of them.   I had not done anything with this one because, to be frank, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to present it.   Looking at it and looking at a few of Brian's, I finally got an idea about what I wanted.

I wanted the photograph to draw the viewers’ eyes to the overall strong structure of her face and her eyes, which are very expressive.   I also wanted it to be a very simple image, thus the sepia treatment.   Many will tell you that the viewer always goes first to the brightest spot of the photograph; personally, I agree with Craig Tanner and Joe McNally, I think they go to the area of greatest contrast, which is her eyes in this photograph.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 50mm f/1.4, shot at ISO 800, f/8 and 1/250 second with a SB800 at camera left being feathered in front of Blaire and a SB800 at camera left lighting the background.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—tweak white balance, set white and black point, and added mid-tone contrast.

Photoshop—cloned-out some very minor imperfections, ran nik Silver Efex Pro using Antique Plate II preset with minor tweaks of brightness, contrast and structure and used Agfa APX Pro 100 paper choice.

What do you think?