Special thanks again for everybody involved for all the hard work that got us 5 complete looks, 6 featured itty bitty bags and lots of color! 
Model: Sarah Hartshorne
MUA: Holly Corsano
Styling: Holly Corsano
For the Itty Bitty Bag Company 2010 Spring Line. Owner and creative director: Jen St. Jean
OK, so I am catching up on some of those “lost” photo shoots from a few weeks ago. Lost only because things got a little busy around here; slowly but surely I will give every shoot its fair share of love.
This is Shannon. I am persuaded your eyes will actually start hurting if you stare at her long enough, her beauty is truly breathtaking. So nature gave her the foundation, that’s fabulous, but she also knows how to model. A win-win and a very very happy photographer. Can’t wait to have Shannon back with us in a few weeks actually, so be on the lookout for more from her.
Shannon’s beautiful face and hair were carefully enhanced by our own resident magician-slash-make up artist, Holly Corsano. As you may notice, we played with a more natural look and then a bright red lip and a stronger eyeliner.
Just when I thought Shannon is the perfect-est model ever, she showed us two more reasons to absolutely love her ( as if we needed them) — she reads W and she brought us cheesecake….no, wait, she brought us cheesecake and she reads W.…or she reads W and brought us cheesecake…Can’t quite figure out which one is more important, but I’m sure you got the general idea. And now here are some pics..
Did you notice the dominant bottom lighting in the image below? Strange, right? Yes, not too many faces can handle that, actually, but guess what — Shannon’s can!
Cheesecake + W = a very good day
Frame number 2 of the Itty Bitty Bag Company photo shoot is now ready. After 4 hours of careful retouching, we have a close up look that is alive with color. I dare you to click on the small image below and take a look at the 40% proof.
Click to enlarge
And here’s a comparison of the before and after shots. Please note that commercial retouching is a very delicate process; one that usually comes at the expense of my eyes! 
Seriously, though, please note that Sarah is just as gorgeous in the left frame as she is in the right (or “After”) frame, the only difference — she has been um, commercialized in the latter. Nothing about Sarah’s stunning facial features has been altered, I have just used what’s already there to turn a human being into a commercial standard image. Naturally I can’t take all the credit for the polished look on the right –without the correct foundation of Holly’s work on Sarah’s face, which includes airbrushing, cheek, forehead and nose contouring, blush, eye shadow highlighting and lowlighting, etc, etc, my efforts would’ve been useless.
Click on the image to enlarge
By the way, what you are looking at is realistically about 35% of the real picture. The real difference between the raw shot and the finished product comes out in the print. A good quality print at a decent size is the medium that will truly show off a job well done.
As for the retouching method used, no rocket science here– just the industry standard “dodging and burning,” using the healing brush and some cloning here and there. All that and a large dose of patience and hour after hour of staring at the pictures that you care about. Hair is definitely one of the peskiest elements to deal with when retouching and one that requires a lot of attention in the typical headshot. See those iiitty biiiity strands of baby hair on the left side of Sarah’s forehead (camera right)? — those put up a fight for sure but I prevailed in the end!
More soon…. I have also been reminded that I need to catch up on a couple of January-February photo shoots that never made it onto the blog. Will do!
That’s right, we have a very special shoot scheduled for tomorrow. All my shoots are special to me; if you know me, you probably know that very well, you’ve seen my eyes get bigger from excitement and have heard me spit out 1,000 words per minute explaining my concept and plan of execution ( if this sounds familiar, you can go ahead and raise your hand, it’s OK ), but anyway, my point was what we have tomorrow is an extra, ultra, mega special shoot!
We have done retro, why not go preppy now? Actually I can’t seem to find anything in this style in my recent portfolio, which is probably partially why I am so extremely excited about this. And while I am on the subject, other reasons for my excitement — umm, let’s say Sarah Hartshorne and let’s say I am throwing a curve ball at her tomorrow that she doesn’t know about ( Sarah, if you are reading this, well…expect the unexpected tomorrow! ), um also, we have Holly bringing out a brand new look for Sarah with a hairdo to match the clothing style. Let’s just call the planned makeup/hair style just “polished” for now. You’ll know what I mean when you see the images. And last, but certainly not least, we have a talented and skillful accessory artist that we were lucky enough to cross paths with. I am not going to give away this mystery figure yet, as not to steal my own thunder, but her fun and bright creations are what inspired the whole theme of the shoot.
We shall have some humor in this shoot too. Some of that tongue-in-cheek humor that I am sure you will enjoy seeing. It’ll be subtle, but you will see it.
And lastly, well we shall have COLOR! Lots of it and it will be bold..and beautiful! Not something I do everyday for sure (see, here’s another reason for this shoot being extra special!). I’m finishing up with a snapshot of our style table for tomorrow. Look at those bright colors! FUN! Haven’t heard of a style table, but you’ve heard of s style rack, huh? Well, they are very similar, but the table adds a personal touch to our work flow. Just kidding, I am just feeling too lazy to go fetch the clothing rack and I do have a lighting setup to build!
Stay tuned for more soon.
Our preppy "style table." Fun colors galore!
It’s been so busy that it’s been hard to keep up with the blog. I just returned from New Orleans where I shot with a couple of other photographers and good friends of mine and a couple of girls. The model I worked with is Mallory and I swear I could have sworn she is Alessandra Ambrosio’s long lost twin sister. Take a look for yourself…
click to enlarge
And our setting — the gorgeous New Orleans. The buildings are so unique and such a great resource as backdrops! Fellow photographers Reny Ramos, Dave Contreras and Arthur Alikhanian (from left to right) and Mallory.
Just browsing around on some NY modeling agencies for a girl we need to pull off a specific look and came across the online port of a girl we tested with not so long ago. The images in the red frames are the product of our collective labor – Ren picked Buyana for the test and her choice was just perfect!
Buyana is the type of model that would do anything (including floating in a pool for more than an hour) to get a good shot. Great discipline and awesome attitude. So, book her for your next project! Personally recommended.
Here’s the link to the page for more images of her and booking info: Race MM/ Buyana Bayasgalan.
MUA for this shoot was Michelle Abbruzzese.
Here are a couple of the shots –don’t forget to view the larger size (just click on the image to open the new window).
Still working on the whole collection. Too many gorgeous images — thanks girls. The designer will get some great use out of these.
Well, well, well…100% preferred Color in today’s poll. What a perfect segue into this fun image. Had to over saturate the colors on this one –the strong make up and matching background were practically begging for it.
Model: Ineabell Diaz
MUA: Greg Campillo at http://www.gregoriocampillo.com/
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