It’s #anythingcanhappenday and today’s post features a portrait of the amazing Erin Valakari This image was originally made during Erin and my thirteenth shoot together.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
thus, Homer’s Odyssey starts with, “Sing to me of the man, Muse.”
A muse is a “woman or a force personified as a woman who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.” In Latin, a shrine to the Muses was called a museum. Artists or poets would call on their Muse to inspire them and a poem itself might begin with such a call.
All About Erin
She is an artist, model and cosplayer who was originally from Texas and is now living in Colorado. She is a sweet and lovely model who is totally professional in her work ethic. What’s more, her hard working style is combined with attitude that make working with her a dream. She’s stylish, talented and sexy. You can follow her on Instagram @valatheartist.
Erin was my muse for several years and because of her career in the non-modeling world, she is not always available for sessions that when combined with the fact that she has moved a 74 miles from Daisy Hill we’re still interested in working together. I have my fingers crossed for having a session with her real soon now.
How I Made this Portrait: I made this image of Erin during our thirteenth shoot together. I was lucky enough to have photographed her over five years while showcasing all her many, many looks in many different styles. On Display today are two versions of the featured image: One in black & white JPEG and the other in color from the RAW capture.
The lighting setup used a Paul C. Buff DigiBee 800 monolight with a Plume Ltd hexagonal Wafer soft box that was placed at camera right. An AlienBees 800 monolight with a 18-inch Paul C Buff reflector covered with a triple layer diffuser sock was at camera left while another Digibee with a 48-inch Dynalite Quad Square black/silver umbrella that was placed in a back left corner of my studio. The background was an inexpensive muslin background suspended from JTL background stands. Paul C Buff is not a sponsor of me or this blog. I don’t get a penny from you clicking those links; they are provided for your convenience.
The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with a used Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (at 45mm) that I purchased on eBay from a camera store in Japan. The exposure was 1/125 sec at f/11 and ISO 200. The image was color balanced with PictoColor’s iCorrect Portrait, retouched using my standard retouching techniques and then tweaked using the Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow filters that’s part of Color Efex.
Why a black and white version? Two reasons: The first is that I have mentioned here many times one of my photographic influences are the movies. And the vibe that Erin is giving me here reminds me of Helen Gahagan Douglas, although, prettier I think, who portrayed She Who Must Be Obeyed in the 1935 film She. The second is I thought the color version might be a bit much for social media but the truth is I might not post either.
The black and white version was created using the Ilford XP2 film emulation of Exposure Software’s Exposure. Then I addled a layer of Glamour Glow filter from Color Efex to add that touch of nineteen thirties Hollywood glamour.
Erin was my former muse; Would you or a female friend like to be my new muse? No experience is necessary. I prefer working with women from 21-49 of any ethnicity and size. Please look at this post that has details of what’s involved. If you want to schedule an interview at a nearby Starbucks to discuss what involved or would be interested in a test shoot, please click the Contact button or send me an e-mail at joefarace at gmail dot com.
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 exposure data for each image. Used books are available from Amazon for $45.08, I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.