Reminiscent of Richard Avedon

[wlotus]

In 1955, Richard Avedon photographed singer Marion Anderson. I learned about Avedon during Studio & Lighting, and I immediately liked his high-contrast, black & white photos done against a plain, white background.

Last night T was grooving to the music mix on WBLS during our photo shoot, and I captured this image of her. I like it, because it captures a bit of her playful side, and because it reminds me of a Richard Avedon photograph.



Taken with a Canon 5D against a white, seamless background, using an off-camera flash and shoot-through umbrella. Post-processing done in Lightroom 2.

Comments

[openscarf.livejournal.com]

I really like this. It seems very spontaneous, soulful, real and very beautiful. I'd buy the record. ;-)

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Definitely spontaneous! That's part of the beauty of it. T has gotten a lot more comfortable in front of the camera in the past two years; when we first met, she did not want to have anything to do with being photographed. Now she's comfortable enough to be playful in front of my lens, and I love it.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

Ooh, great picture!

There was a Richard Avedon exhibit at the SF MOMA recently, but at the time I hadn't realized that I enjoy photography exhibits so I didn't see it.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

His Marian Anderson portrait is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. I want to go back to the Met and look for his photos.

[queen-in-autumn.livejournal.com]

Very striking!

You are really good!

[iswari.livejournal.com]

Really nice one!

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

This is... WHOA. It is an amazing photo, amazing portrait, and, yeah. Richard Avedon is what you've got going on!

[far-gone.livejournal.com]

I love it! This is one of your best yet and I love the parallel with avedon (thanks for the link bc I wouldn't have known the reference!)

What do you think about Lightroom?

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I like Lightroom and use it almost exclusively. So far, my only gripe has been that I haven't figured out a way to make my own watermark, so to make this one I edited the file in Arcsoft Photostudio. (There may be a way to create a non-standard watermark; I need to search the help files.) I especially like that in addition to being able to organize and keyword my photos, I can edit them with much of the same capability as in Photoshop Elements.

[littleblueworld.livejournal.com]

This is an amazing photograph. I think, even, my favorite I've seen of yours.

She looks like a rock star! :)

[tracied.livejournal.com]

Good job! Nice lighting and the spontaneity is great! If I may offer one teeny feedback? I'd take out the shadow in behind T's chin. Other than that I totally love it!

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Thank you! How would I do that?

[tracied.livejournal.com]

you can clone it out in photoshop. Use a small brush set to about 20% opacity at first and go slow so you don't get any of the picture edge cloned out, then after you get the bits close to her face, you can increase the brush size a bit and increase the opacity. If you are worried, make a layer that way you can delete the layer. So make a layer of the background. :D

[rockbirthedme.livejournal.com]

I'd back this suggestions. I think you want the background to fade completely out of existence, and the shadow breaks that up a bit.

Having said which, I think this is a lovely photo of T. She's a remarkably elegant woman, and seeing such an elegant person put some soul into it is pretty powerful.

I hadn't seen that Avedon photo before. You know what I like best about it? It looks as though it's the power of her musical voice that is blowing her hair.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I'm experimenting with cloning out the shadow, and I am getting circles in that area of the image, even when I overlap the cloned areas. Is this simply a matter of trial and error, or is there something I am missing?

[tracied.livejournal.com]

probably have too hard of a brush. Or, you are using the cloning stamp vs the clone tool.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous!