My wife suggested the “Tricky Tuesday” theme as a way for me to share some of the tricks, tips and techniques I’ve used when creating glamour images in the studio. Today’s featured portrait is of the always amazing Pam Simpson.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“See, the night doth enfold us! See, all the world lies sleeping!” ― Giacomo Puccini
Before this site underwent it’s last major redesign, the About section had a part called “Things you might not know about me” and included this statement: “I love classical music, especially opera and especially Italian opera.” For reasons I don’t recall that section is gone ostensibly being replaced with a series of posts called “Things I Promised Not to Tell.” These days, if you want to find “Things you might not know about me” that’s the place to look. Some of the content of these posts, maybe most of them, is funny, at least I think so. Back to my interest in opera; Here’s how it all began:
Un bel dì vedremo
When I was in high school, I was interested in music and the new emerging technology called High Fidelity. Like any red blooded East Baltimore kid I liked Rock & Roll but an older friend played some classical music for me on his high-end high high fidelity system and it opened my eyes. At some point, I was given an album of classical music that included the aria Un bel dì vedremo (“One fine day we’ll see”) from the opera Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. Listening to it changed my musical life forever and, for me, remains the most beautiful piece of music I’ve ever heard. Even today whenever I hear the aria on the radio, it almost brings tears to my eyes.
What’s music got to do with photography? In talking with many photographers, I’ve noticed there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between music and photography. Under the surface of many a musician, you’ll often find a photographer and vice-versa. Ansel Adams, who played the piano, once said that, “The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance.” All of which brings me to a shoot I did with superstar model Pam Simpson when she was, more or less, wearing an authentic Japanese kimono.
How I made this portrait: Today’s image is from the last portrait session that Pam and I did when she was still a blonde. One of the delights of working with her over the years was never knowing what her hair style or even its color would be from shoot-to-shoot. She’s a brunette today. As you can see in today’s featured image, her hair is also much longer than in some of our previous shoots together and more pale in color.
The above image was shot in my 11×15-foot home studio. Lighting was provided by two Paul C Buff DigiBee 800’s and one AlienBee 800 lights. The background was a hand painted Carbonite muslin from Silverlake Photo Accessories. The image was made using a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with an image stabilized Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 (at 26mm) lens that I purchased from a camera store in Japan via eBay. The exposure was 1/125 sec at f 10 and ISO 200. The final image was lightly retouched and slightly enhanced with Vivenza.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
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. New and Used books are available from Amazon starting around ten bucks.as I write this. Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.