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| Kimberley #1 |
I'd like to claim to have had this brilliant idea myself, that I saw it in a dream or that during a stormy evening upon seeing the clouds parting and sun shining on them creating a ring light that then this idea was born. But alas, this is true only in the movies.
This idea has a much simpler and probably a far more common birth. Kim asked one day for an image of her, high contrast, black and white (like some of my recent nudes), of her neck and throat from before her surgery. She wondered if I had something from previous shoots that might be processed into this look.
After some searching and some experimenting with Photoshop, I felt that we'd be better off with new images but shot so the scar from the surgery was not visible.
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| Kimberley #2 |
We did not have much time on this particular visit to do a proper photoshoot but I wanted to try to create a couple of images that I thought would look like Kim's idea or at least would help me to see and understand what she was imagining. I set up my lights quickly and tried a number of settings and a number of poses. Kimberley #1 (above) is one of the first images we created. I was happy with the look excepting a couple of small details. But it was not what Kim was hoping to see.
We thought we might have about fifteen minutes available to shoot before her girls would start to go rangy from being ignored. I was able to create about ten to fifteen images in that time.
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| Kimberly #3 |
Image #2 would have been near perfect, in my mind, if we had thought to tie her hair back out of sight. And I think it might be the closest to what Kim had in mind. As it is, the hair completely draws our attention away from the fine detail of her profile. And I am not happy with the strap of her top in any of these images, it is distracting.
Then a few weeks after Kim and I created these images, another friend asked if I might shoot a portrait of her and maybe a couple of head-shots she could use. Cher has a very lovely profile and I was immediately eager to try this technique on her too. She did not mind my experimenting a little at the end of our shoot.
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| Cher #1 |
I am pleased enough with these images that I want to try to develop the technique further.
As always, I am looking for people willing to sit for me and let me experiment and practice. In exchange, I'm pleased to offer copies of the better images and even do a more "normal" portrait in exchange. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you are interested.
