Detroit Michigan Commercial Photographers Mary DuPrie
So I had another Meetup on Saturday night, Photographing Models with Mary DuPrie Studios. A smaller group of photographers and we did just this one setup. I normally have a concept in mind as far as lighting. I wanted to overexpose the background and use neutral density gels on my main and fill so I could shoot wide open.
Michelle Woolcott did Andreas makeup, I met her through the Meetup before and had her stop by. Before confirming our shoot she mentioned she doesn’t do hair… what!? Sorry, but in small markets makeup artists are required to do hair, that’s just the way it is. Most budgets don’t allow makeup artists and hair dressers. If you want to move into the more lucrative commercial market you’ll have to do both. It’s kinda like photographers have to shoot and do Photoshop, it’s just the way it is.
It’s extremely hard to describe what commercial makeup is to a makeup artist that is use to doing internet glam makeup. My taste leans towards more commercial, it’s about the model not the makeup. Well blended, eye shadow close to the eye in the brown family and no frosted products.
This reminds me of an email I received from a participant who wanted to know what would be the proper way to retouch his photos for the model industry. The images he sent me had a heavy handed grain/noise applied to them. I was going to mention not to do it, but then I thought about it further and realized it’s not that you shouldn’t, it’s just not like he did it.
In model photography you can do anything… all’s fair.
In the wrong hands it’s wrong, in the right hands it’s right.
My studio is 60 ft in depth but most folks don’t have that much depth, so using ND gels can be useful to be able to shoot wide open. I used my 5 ft Octa, minus the baffle and diffusion for the main and a large strip diffused for fill. A 7″ pan reflector is lighting the background. I normally shoot during the day for a shot like this but this was actually taken at night. I don’t shoot in a darkened studio very often so it’s takes some getting use to.
I have a rack of nothing but black dresses and I found this little hidden gem. I’ve never used it before and it was probably about $6. at Salvation Army. Looks to be 80’s for sure!
I’ve been working on a new project this week that’s been great. I have four sets of old mirrored bi-folds doors that I trashed picked. Around here when people remodel they throw them away, so they’re not that hard to find. I already owned several sets of beaded mirrored curtains that I cut up to use the pieces. The square beads always got tangled up so I stopped using them. Before you buy beaded curtains you need to pretend you have a model using them. These beaded curtains were impossible to untangle so I finally gave up.
I finished one and you can see it in the set on the left. I love how they turned out. It took 620 pieces for the one set. So I need to glue a total of 2,480. pieces all together. Mirrors are my favorite backgrounds to use because of the variety they give you. Folding mirror screens are all but impossible to find. I used Goop glue to attached them. Always something to do.
Modeling Photography Workshops Mary DuPrie
Via Email
Via RSS