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
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.
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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!
And it’s a wrap on today’s shoot. A quick shoutout to Sarah Hartshorne and Holly Corsano for always making it too easy for me — you girls are the best, but you already knew that. This time I also wanted to thank our inspiration figure for this whole clean commercial shoot — Jen St. Jean, owner of the delightful Itty Bitty Bag Company, based in Darien, Connecticut. Jen’s bags are adorable to say the least; the colors and patters are so much fun, we had to match them with the right concept.
A word on the concept Sarah played out so well tonight. This a very girlie girl and obviously a color junkie. She wears pearls, picks her unique handbag’s pattern based on the mood she’s in and carries herself like a true lady. Our girl is so perfect that even when she jumps, her hair stays perfectly coiffed (OK, Holly’s skillful hands might have had something to do with this one 
). She also plays croquet, wears her bold color sweaters around her shoulders and drinks overly expensive coffee. Stay tuned! There will be lots more to come and you wouldn’t want to miss it.
I will include a word on the lighting setup for my photography affectionado readers, but it’s time for bed right now.
Once again thanks to Holly, Sarah and Jen for an inspiring photo shoot.
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!
This is the beautiful Kenda. Kenda is a truly amazing girl, obviously, but the real star at this shoot was our own MUA extraordinaire — Holly Corsano. Yep, Holly was definitely the driving force behind this entire shoot — from styling, to make up, to hair to general direction, it was all her. After working with somebody for years, you just kind of learn when you can take a back seat and let them hold the reins– Holly did it flawlessly.
A couple of days before the shoot I showed Holly who we have coming our way and she just had a vision. Kenda’s flawless skin tone needed that extra special touch to make it pop. Some extra fancy airbrushing and cucumber based clear body lotion later and we have shine Perfection. It’s “reflective,” to quote Holly herself!
We also wanted to keep the eyes clean and muted and contrast this with the dramatic black lipstick.
The result is clear as day — sheer genius!
Kenda also did an incredible job of taking my direction and interpreting our vision. The look in her eyes is so deep and …..soulful! As I said while shooting, “I can see right into your soul!!” And look!! Pretty hands. Pretty, pretty hands. Well done, Kenda.
The perfect shoot– a great end to a busy week!
(Here’s a link to the large format image for a closer look at all the shimmery, glittery details.)
Here’s gorgeous Caroline. Lots of fun!
Make up and styling by Holly Corsano.
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We are so excited to announce that the look we did with Sarah a couple of weeks ago was featured at Fashion Maga-Zine. Please check out the link to the article here and don’t forget to vote for it!
Fashion Maga-Zine is a great online publication that keeps its finger on the pulse of the hottest global fashion and beauty trends, so make sure you have their page bookmarked! Also, make sure you register so you can see the large image, it’s definitely worth the 15 second it’d take you to do so — Sarah looks absolutely stunning in it and you just have to take a closer look at that make up job!
Click on the image to access the article.
We wanted to give awesome Samira at All About Models a shout out for doing a great job at keeping her keen eye on emerging talent at key markets across the globe. Just take a look at her selections and you’ll know what we mean– she obviously knows potential when she sees it. Keep up the great work Samira!
A sample post from our new favorite daily blog.
No final selection yet because literally 90% of the shots are drop-dead-gorgeous, but here are two more we are considering for the submission.
Model: Sarah Hartshorne; MUA: Holly Corsano.
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Yes, I said it 100% raw shot, no retouching. Just finished shooting and it’s way too late to post process aaand the team made things too easy for me.
We just wrapped up two concepts both for magazine submissions with model Sarah Hartshorne and MUA extraordinaire– Holly Corsano. By the way Sarah was our favorite contestant on America’s Next Top Model, Cycle 9!! A gorgeous girl with amazing eyes that tell a story. More from the shoot in the days to come — nightie-night time!
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