Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“That’s different,” Levi smiled at her warmly. “You don’t rock that Little Red Riding Hood vibe. You’re scary.” —Rainbow Rowell
Inspired by Gary Bernstein’s book Burning Gold, I decided to publish a different portrait of the same model, in this case Pamela Simpson, off-and-on over the next who-knows-how-many Sundays.
During this time I’ll be featuring a different image of her that was made over the six years that I was lucky enough to have photographed Pam and showcasing all of her many, many looks in many different styles. This is from our eight session together on July 18, 2013 and had a Little Red Riding Hood theme, but with a sexy twist.
How I Made this Portrait: Lighting was provided by Elinchrom’s D-Lite RX One/One Softbox To Go Kit. I placed two Elinchrom monolights with a 26-inch square softbox mounted on each light at approximately 45 degrees to the subject. When I originally made this portrait of the indomitable Ms. Simpson, the Elinchrom kit included two 26×26-inch square softboxes; it now includes one 26×26-inch softbox and one 22-inch Octa softbox.
Output from the monolights was adjusted to be at approximately one-quarter power, providing almost instantaneous recycle no matter how fast this subject changed poses. The background was a Savage 5 x 6-foot Collapsible/Reversible Monsoon background; think cloudy, stormy day, with one side being darker than the other. I just leaned the backdrop against the Savage 5 x 7-foot Infinity grey vinyl background that was hung on my falling apart JTL background stands.
To make this portrait, I used a Canon EOS 60D and EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens (at 53mm) with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/11 and ISO 200.
Gary Bernstein’s book Burning Cold is long out of print but new hardcover copies are available from Amazon for $23.98 and used copies for $20 and used, paperbacks starting around four bucks, as I write this. Ms. Simpson is featured on the front cover and several inside pages of my book Posing for Portrait & Glamour Photography. New copies of my book are available from Amazon for $29.95 with used copies starting around 19 bucks, as I write this. Kindle copies are $26.41 for those preferring a digital format.