aknacer's photostream  

Strobist Info: White Lightning X1600 cam right into 22" gridded beauty dish @5.6. AB800 above model as hair @5.6. WL800 cam left into med stripbox gelled green @f/4.0. WL800 behind camera @3.2 for fill.

Special thanks to my amazing team.
Amelia Fletcher - Art direction and production
Yvonne Wallace - Makeup
Danielle Catalano - Hair - Siren Salon in Chicago, we HIGHLY recommend her!
Hanna Rivera - Model

This image was meant to be viewed on a black background, you may click on it to view it on black

We are getting back into production mode here in Chicago. Settling in after a big move means losing an amazing team back in North Carolina, but we are building a new team from scratch here.

This shoot is inspired by the Raven.
I love the way light plays on the feathers of these birds. They are ugly at a distance, and seem a dull black. Looking closer you can see their feathers reflect light in an amazing way, casting purples, greens, magentas, blues, and every color imaginable.

The idea was to turn a person's skin into doing the same, this actually proved very difficult.

I started off by making her skin completely black, and adding colors back into the highlights, basically hand painting all the color in this image. There are a lot of subtleties in color that are beyond me, so getting them right was a long process.

Going desaturated in the shadows and bringing up the saturation in the highlights worked well for this image, as it kept it out of the "crazy photoshop colored" range.

Our model Hanna had never done a conceptual shoot before, and she did such an amazing job. There is always a period of time at the beginning of a shoot where everyone is a bit uncomfortable, but if you can shoot past that, it makes getting the right shot a lot easier. People loosen up and tend to get into character more, as was the case here. We took around 1,000 images on this shoot, and this was image 985. If we quit at 984, we would not have this image.

I am just one piece of an amazing team, and they all deserve just as much credit, as there is no way I could do something like this on my own.

Lighting: WhiteLightning X1600 Cam right into gridded beatutydish@f/11. WL800 cam right into Large silver umbrella cam right with BD for fill, f/4. WL800 below cam into med softbox @f/5.6 fill. AB800 behind model into BG for accent. Canon 580EXII cam left into hair @1/64 -rim. All fired via PW II.

A very special thank you to a great team of people who helped make this shot possible. Kim, Amber, Scot, Syed, & Zach. Everyone came together for a really great time, and a great learning experience.

This is actually something we threw together after doing our first shoot, which was conceptual. We had some time left over, and an amazing crew, so we decided to do a "beauty shoot".

We tried a few different ideas, and wound up grabbing my house plant and covering Amber with it. We also had a fan blowing on her to give her hair some movement, and somewhere between all of that and her contacts, her eyes started watering up.

No one could really see that she was crying, and she didn't say anything, because she was being so professional as a model. I only noticed her tear when going through the images afterwords. Something like that, had to be paid attention to. Beauty and Sadness.

Strobist Info: WhiteLightning X1600 into 7" reflector. sub left @5.6 fired via Pocketwizard.
Check out a larger version on my portfolio site

Thank you so much to the Phamily who helped create this image, you are as much a part of it as I am.

Phlearn.com

Jenny Su – A wonderful look on lighting and composition. A lot of things I would not have thought to do.
Paul L. – Brought up the idea of story telling, which is huge. The Story should be very clear in a photo.
Mark ODonnell – Spent a lot of time and energy analyzing the photo and gave some great insights.
Pat Mateos – A great look on composition, and suggestions on how to make the image FLOW.
Rochelle Marquette – Did a great job making clear the thoughts of the group and her own.
Sam Spratt - Color and Composition Control.
Darya - Fairy

The most special part about this image to me is that for the first time ever, I opened up an incomplete image to a wonderful community of people, who helped to coach me through it, as well as give amazing constructive criticism. Where is this community? Phlearn.com. If you are curious as to what this image looked like 1/2 done, check out episode 173. I also provide the complete PSD for you to download, so you can take it apart layer by layer.

Strobist: WhiteLightning X1600 into parabolic reflector above model @f/5.6. Fired via PW Plus II.

Yes, I totally realize in every way how this title is obviously promotional. I am totally ok with that, and you will be too. Because Phlearn is FREE.

I make 5 videos a week to help people get better at photoshop and photography. I put my heart into making every episode great. So it is with no shame that I promote something I know will help you.

phlearn.com/

About this Photo.
This photo is based on the concept of the Phoenix. In its beginning I wanted to go a lot more literal with a woman rising from the ashes and turning into a FireBird. As I got deep into my sketching and research, most of what I saw and drew looked way more comic book than what I wanted. The concept is important, but I wanted to add an element of fine art into it.

The model's name is Darya, and she has been through a lot in the last few months. She just moved to Chicago, and things didn't play out exactly as she'd hoped. Darya is strong. She doesn't let circumstance control her life. She is in the middle of a change, and like a Phoenix, she is shedding her old life, and bursting forth with a new life.

Note. This is a panorama, about 60 MegaPixels. Because Flickr is better suited to portrait vs lanscape orientation, it looks really small. You may view it larger on my Portfolio site if you are into that sort of thing.

Strobist: In the photo. WhiteLightning X800 cam left into 7"reflector w/20 degree grid @f/5.6. WhiteLightning X800 into med softbox cam left @8. Fired via Pocketwizards.

A little bit more went into this photo than might be apparent. I decided 2 weeks ago to learn how to 3d model and render. Boy it is a ton of work! I am learning my way around zbrush for modeling, Cinema 4d for scene set up, and Vray for rendering. All these programs are so powerful, it is amazing to have anything I want at my fingertips.

Right now I would say I am still at a very amateur level, but it will be great to get more experience 3d modeling & rendering. Once I have a better grasp on the process I will teach it for free on Phlearn.com. It is a great time bringing in polygons, and turning them into a finished photo. The color on this is so delicate, It seems to be right on about 2% of montiors.

I teach Photoshop and Photography FREE, DAILY Videos. Our goal is to help everyone be the best they can be. phlearn.com/