This picture is one of the first where I really went all out on every step in the hierarchy of making a professional photo from two point lighting to lots of photoshop. In addition Karen added to this hierarchy with her jewelry, selecting the clothes and William for make up (hence those crazy eye lashes).
For the geeks, here’s the two point lighting setup explained. One flash comes from the left through an umbrella set at 1/32 and 50mm. Another one with a blue gel is hidden behind Daniela to provide a very dramatic backlight. This one is really close to her so the power is way down: 1/128th and I zoomed it all the way out. The result is a nice rim light around her head highlighting her hair on the left, the top a little and most pronounced on the right.
As for photoshop one of the neat tricks I learned this time was that gaussian blurring the skin makes her skin really smooth and creates a really cool dreamy effect. I’m always learning and love experimenting with different things all at the same time. Every once in a while you get this “aha” moment where you can look back at what you learned and connect all the dots. That’s how I felt as I was creating this picture. I wanted a very graphic and highly stylized image and for this to happen I had to have dramatic lighting combined with lots of photoshop post production. It all came together in this picture.
Note I put a quote on the picture. I don’t know if it adds to the picture or if it’s just distracting. I got the idea from Dustin Diaz‘s daily pictures. Let me know what you think.
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