My Sunday series about outdoor portraiture continues today with a portrait of Kylene, a young model I photographed once but during two different sessions at a group model shoot in Phoenix. Arizona. Today’s image is from the first session.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Group model shoots don’t seem to be all that popular as they once were and the ones that have survived tend to be well-run local events. The fun model shoots that were once held in Northern Colorado have become bright and shining memories and the big ones, like those sponsored by the late Dave Hall, have changed. You might want to check out AZ Shoots on Facebook (I’m not a Facebooker so I can’t give you a link) or on Instagram for details on their upcoming shoots. For me, it’s a long drive (850 miles) to Phoenix for a one-day shoot but if any readers know of any group model shoots within an easy drive from Colorado, please let me know.
How I Made This portrait
Kylene was a beautiful young model with lots of personality and to tell the truth the whole concept of the Marty Robbins’ song (below) only came to me after viewing this images of her in Adobe Bridge—I love Bridge, do not like using Lightroom— after I came home from the shoot.
I photographed Kylene on a movie set in Phoenix, Arizona where I found this background that matched her look allowing me to create what I hope was a cinematic style that evoked in what’s left of my brain. the lyrics of Mart Robbins’ song, El Paso, “Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina.” But that’s just me.,
The camera used was a Canon EOS D60 with EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM lens (at 105mm.) The lens has been discontinued but you can pick up new and used copies from many sources, including KEH, Used Photo Pro and Amazon. The exposure was 1/200 sec at f/8 and ISO 400 with a plus one-third stop exposure compensation. A 420EX speedlite was used for fill; the D60’s maximum sync speed is 1/250 sec.
To make this image, the first thing I did was crop it using Photoshop’s cropping tool into a 4:3 ratio instead of the D60’s default on 3:2. This was done to tighten up the composition. (When you have time, you can read my Philosophy of Photographic Cropping.) To tell the truth, the 4:3 ratio seems to fit the image better. Next, I did some subtle burning and dodging using PhotoKit’s useful burning/dodging tools that apply layers allowing you to use the Layers palette’s Opacity setting to add or subtract the intensity of the burning or dodging. In this case I dodged part of the left-hand side of the mage, while burning the right-hand side. Next I used Vivenza to punch up the contrast before applying a light layer of Glamour Glow filter from Color Efex.
There are no images of Kylene in my book Available Light Glamour Photography but other models from the same group shoot can be found in its pages. New books were available from Amazon but it’s currently listed as “temporarily out of stock” but you can buy used copies starting around twenty-four bucks as I write this. Kindle copies are $27.12 for those preferring a digital format.