model portfolios

Beauty with Shannon

On 02.22.10, In beauty, black and white, color, model portfolios, photography, portrait, By Kristina

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..

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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!

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Cheesecake + W = a very good day

Tagged with: model portfolio • portfolio

Itty Bitty, frame 2, and a word on retouching.

On 02.19.10, In beauty, catalog, color, commercial photography, model portfolios, photographer portfolio, photography, post processing, retouching, By Kristina

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!

Tagged with: commercial photography • retouching

We’re Bringin’ PREPPY back…

On 02.17.10, In business, color, commercial photography, model portfolios, photography, By Kristina

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!

Tagged with: commercial photography

A Retro Look for Sarah H.

On 02.16.10, In beauty, fashion, model portfolios, photographer portfolio, photography, portrait, By Kristina

Here are the photos we recently did with Sarah Hartshorne in a vintage 30s-40s style and a dramatic red lip. I knew that if anybody could pull that look to my satisfaction, that would be Sarah. Sarah is just such a gem and a true inspiration to any photographer. Her facial features are truly stunning and I find it hard to find a bad angle of her any time I go through her frames. Not one! Now that’s impressive. Her shots go from good to better, to best, really.

What is even more amazing about Sarah, though, is her intelligence and personality. There’s an aura of unapologetic confidence about her that any photographer can find motivating. Sarah models intelligently; I can literally see her drawing on references from movies,music and history in her head. Where I usually have to push a model to get into character and try to channel a certain famous figure or style, Sarah does so all by herself without me ever having to start painting pictures for her. Simply put, working with her on set is energizing.

A word on the hairdo, courtesy of the one and only Holly Corsano – I started emailing Holly images of the hairstyle I wanted a week or so before the photo shoot. I think she took a quick look at them and just picked the hardest one and that was the look she did. What a showoff! But in all seriousness, this exquisite creation took a total of 3 hours to do, including the ever-so-perfect makeup. Sometimes, when I am not off planning my shots and setting up my lights, I like to sit with Holly and our model and watch her work – Holly is a perfectionist just like me, which is probably why we get along so well. Watching her fiddle with a strand of hair until it does exactly what she wants it do, curls exactly as she wants it to, and shines exactly as she wants it to, is mesmerizing.

And the rest is pictures. I am starting with my absolutely favorite in a bunch of great photos. Please click on the smaller images to enlarge.

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Click to enlarge

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Tagged with: portrait • retro portrait

Meredith @ Bella Agency

On 02.14.10, In fashion, model portfolios, photographer portfolio, photography, portrait, By Kristina

Just noticed two of the shots we took with Meredith in her online portfolio with Bella Agency in New York. Meredith is such a charismatic girl and a true natural beauty. Ah, we can’t wait to have her visit us again real soon.

MUA for this shoot was who else but Holly Corsano @ www.hollycorsano.com .

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Tagged with: fashion • portfolio

Supah’ Shine or Why Holly Rocks

On 02.07.10, In beauty, commercial photography, fashion, model portfolios, photographer portfolio, photography, By Kristina

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.)

Tagged with: portfolio • portrait • portrait photography

Fashion Photoshoot with Meredith and Holly.

On 12.16.09, In fashion, model portfolios, photographer portfolio, photography, portrait, By Kristina

The images from our latest fashion photoshoot. These were all done in the new studio in Stamford!

Model is Meredith Howard @ Bella, NY; MUA is the one and only Holly Corsano @ www.hollycorsano.com. Results are amazing! Take a look.

click to enlarge

Tagged with: CT photographer • fashion • fashion photoshoot • Stamford • Stamford photo studio

Difficulties of NOT posing

On 12.10.09, In Behind the Scenes, model portfolios, By Ren

So, Kristina and I had a shoot this past weekend. Surprise, surprise Except the difference between this shoot and all of our other ones was the fact that my body movements which always work towards my advantage, worked towards my disadvantage this week. Let me explain. I have never had a problem with positioning my body- holding a pose and creating lines without any hardship or much explanation has always been my strongest point when it comes to photo shoots. Body movement excites me, which is why I tend to get bored at beauty shoots. I have always been aware of my body, and throughout my modeling, the face expression & eyes have been the one thing that I have worked on. Well this shoot required not so much posing of the body, since it was supposed to be more of a natural shot- for example- me laying on the bed, or looking out the window…well believe it or not, when I move around the house or do normal things even without Kristina’s camera in front of me– I don’t just slump around. So Kristina and I were having a hard time making me look un-posed..If that’s even a word…listen I can’t help it if I do everything very methodologically (Kv was that the word you used?) in my own head. I am a Capricorn we do everything planned. So no matter how frumpy I tried to look, lol…it still looks like I am posing, but my body movements come so natural to me that I don’t even notice it….and the results of this shoot are me trying to look as un-posed as possible..Sigh….I guess I have to work on my un-posing abilities P.s I love making up words!

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Tagged with: model portfolio • natural • posing

A Girl with an Eye for Emerging Talent

On 12.08.09, In Uncategorized, commercial photography, fashion, model portfolios, By Kristina

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.

Tagged with: fashion models • models • new faces • portfolio • testing

The promised beauty shots with Raquel

On 12.07.09, In beauty, fashion, model portfolios, photographer portfolio, photography, portrait, By Kristina

Well, I really wanted to do these right, so I did take my time with them. This second image took 3 hrs to edit, but it was all worth it. As any experienced retoucher will be happy to tell you — there are no silver bullets or shortcuts in quality retouching, there are no magic tricks, there’s only dedication, hard work and time…lots and lots of time.

Again, make up and hair thanks to the one and only Holly Corsano @ hollycorsano.com. The pink lipstick!!! LOVE the pink lipstick!

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And here’s something different for me. I thought she looked so menacing that I found the dark tones very appropriate. I asked for attitude and attitude is what I got!

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And switching gears again..

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Tagged with: commercial modeling • commercial photography • CT photographer • greenwich • kristina v photography • photography

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