I have a dear friend who is a gifted choreographer at our college here in town. We've worked together on a number of dances where I would suggest, or play, music.
The other day she called and asked if I could take head shots of her dancers. I said no problem, I'd be happy to do it for her. We set up a time and all ten students came at once. We had 45 minutes to do all ten.
I asked her what her dance was about, or the theme, or something to give me an idea where to go with the pictures.
She said, "This dance is about beauty. I would like them to appear as beautiful in the pictures as they do on stage."
I said "okay." And thought, this will be difficult, as they all just came from rehearsal and were wearing sweats and stuff.
I asked, "anything else?"
She said, "yes, I would like the pictures to look like old hollywood photos."
and, she said, " I want them to look like they were on stage when the pictures were taken."
I told her that I wasn't really good enough to do that in 4 minutes per person and she was going to end up with pictures with blown highlights and crushed blacks.
She said, "you mean really contrasty pictures? Perfect. That's just what I want."
So away we went. 10 mostly shy, sweaty and messy looking students who were loaded up right after a dance rehearsal to get their picture taken.
Here is the before and after of one of them. This young woman was terrified of the camera and lights, sat down and just looked at me. I looked in the viewfinder and remember thinking that she was very beautiful, but didn't know it. I took only one picture.
Any thoughts, impression, or criticisms you may have are welcomed and encouraged.
Under the circumstances, I think you've done a fantastic job. The "before" photo has a real "deer in the headlights" look. The "after" photo is striking and almost glamorous. I'd be interested in your post processing on this one.
stevemaller wrote:
I think the photo and the subject are simply gorgeous. Simple. And gorgeous. I am a huge fan of this kind of MacGyver solution.
I am curious: has your subject seen this photo? And what's her opinion?
And (I have to ask), is she aware that you posted it on the web?
Yes, she's seen the picture and loved it. I gave her a copy. And yes, her picture will be everywhere; posters for the performance, the schools website, etc. I also obtained model releases from all the students.
Interesting story and in the end a good way to handle the complexion problem, at least in her case.
Put this in the food for thought category:
A full face pose is symmetrical. If it is overlaid with an asymmetrical lighting pattern with shadows on one side and highlights on the other the net effect is a face which looks asymmetrical and a nose shadow on one side which will distract from the more important eyes and mouth. Butterfly - in the generic sense of a aligning the key light with the nose - is a symmetrical lighting pattern which will complement rather than alter the look of a full face view.
