It’s #anythingcanhappenday and today’s post features the amazing Pam Simpson. This image was originally shot for a Shutterbug lighting review for their print edition but unlike last Thursday’s post, this image, or one similar to it, was published. I think so anyway…
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“You are my fantasy on a cold dark night, my muse during the light of day and the one wish my soul would make”–
A muse is a woman or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist. If you have a friend or maybe yourself who would like to be my new muse or have questions about the concept and would like to schedule a test shoot or interview about becoming a muse, please click the Contact button and let’s talk.
While the wonderfully vivacious Pamela Simpson was never “officially” my muse there is no doubt that during the fourteen years we’ve been working together we;ve produced some great-looking images together and today’s feature photograph is just another example
She’s Always a Surprise
One of the delights of working with Pam was never knowing what hair style or even what its color would be from shoot-to-shoot but at the point when today’s featured image was made during our photographic relationship, she seemed to have settled on one color—blonde—with some slight variations of this style. She has recently gone back to being a brunette and we have a shoot scheduled for next month to create some images of her with that new hair style..
How I made this photograph: Today’s image is from Pam any my twelfth portrait session together. The lighting for this portrait was provided by an inexpensive battery powered monolight that was placed at camera right. Let me tell you about these lights: They were cheap and they worked. Later I ended up selling all of my cheap monolights to a young photographer, just getting started and, to my knowledge, he’s still using them That’s when I switched to using Paul C Buff’s DigiBee 800 and AlienBees 800 monolights. Still not what you would call high end lights but, again, they work. Paul C Buff is not a sponsor of me or this blog. I do not get a single penny from you clicking those links; they are provided just for your convenience.
The light modifier used with that monolight was a 36-inch Glow Octa-R soft box. It has an octagonal shape, which is one of my favorites for portraiture because of the way it evenly spreads light. This particular soft box is made from a sturdy rubberized material and its front cover accepts grids and there’s a zipper cutout for a lightstand, which means it attaches via the monolight’s umbrella mount. No speed ring is required.
The main and only light was supplemented with an inexpensive ($29.90) Westcott 30-inch 5-in-1 Reflector that was placed at camera left just out of camera range and for a long time this was my standard lighting setup because it was simple to use and inexpensive to own. The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/8 and ISO 200.
The background was a 5×7-ft Savage’s Photo Gray Infinity vinyl background suspended on JTL background stands. One of the reasons I like this background is that it’s perfect for color correcting using PictoColor’s iCorrect Portrait. Just click on the background and viola! skin tone is perfect.
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My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. Used copies are $33.65. as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital forma