Glamour Photography IS NOT FOR YOU!

Well I now that I have your attention. I don't mean everyone, I mean the vast majority of photographers should not bother pursuing glamour aka boudoir aka nude/implied type of photography, unless you know its purely for hobby/fun/fine art purposes. And when I say the vast majority I mean, men... yes men... I know, I know men were the first to photograph women in glamorous ways back in the days, but today's reality where more people can get into photography this allows more women to enter it too. When there is more women specifically working in glamour the obvious choice for more consumers will be a female photographer. You as a male CANNOT compete most of the time. 

Detailed First Impressions: Sigma 85mm 1.4 for Canon

Here's the video version, and the written version underneath it.

Some information may or may not pertain to you. I'll label as much as I can and you can skip to the parts you are interested in.

Reasons why I rented

I rented the Sigma 85mm 1.4 for general environmental portraiture with portrait and modeling type photography. Reasons I wanted to rent it is for

1. One being the obvious, exploring new focal length with the wide open aperture being available. I've shot with a similar focal and aperture, the Canon 50mm 1.4, but I felt it wasn't giving the very much more appealing look I liked in the 85mm focal lengths. 
2. This summer I was primarily focused on shooting and mastering the natural lighting for portrait and modeling photography in an environmental portraiture style.
3. Another reason was being inspired by portrait photographer Dani Diamond. Which he stated he uses an 85mm 1.4 lens on his nikon setup. Since I loved his work a lot why not try the similar style, and a bit more towards fashion with my own twist.
4. I was also advised by colleagues to try the current Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens over waiting for the ART version which everyone was crying over and over for, including myself. 

The Model Release...

I am no legal professional but I study it to ensure I have all my legal processes in check. So for those models and photographers who do not know or have a model release (as a photographer) this blog post could help.

Official Definition

"A model release, known in similar contexts as a liability waiver, is a legal release typically signed by the subject of a photograph granting permission to publish the photograph in one form or another."

WOW SHARE! 28: Frequency Separation Retouching

Check out other WOW Shares! [HERE]

Recommended links for action to download

Photoshop Workflow: How to make a Modeling/Portrait Photo Truly High Key

Check out my speed up photoshop workflow on a photo I shot for PPW wrestlers a few months ago.

Note the video is not from start to finish as it was my first time in a very long time using the capture software so I forgot I was not recording (I know), so its in bites and pieces which ended being a 1 hour 44 minutes+ edit! And then compressed it into a 12+ minute video at the fastest speed I could make it. Plus my computer crashed right after saving the file, and starting up the video capture again as the video capture took way too much of my CPU

After watching that I basically did some masking and filled in the background with solid clean white as my seamless was a bit too small for tag team wrestlers (2 subjects), so I shot it anyways even though I generally don't and would always aim to get perfect shot in-camera, sadly it was not possible as it was on-location before an actual PPW show and bringing only a small seamless than the very large, which I cannot travel with as it is much bigger than my car! 

Other than the white-ing the background I did simple cleaning on the wardrobe and skin with the healing brush mostly. 

Lighting setup was 2 medium softboxes on left and right of subjects and 1 Lastolite Ez Box as the key light

Posing Project 01 - Heather G.

More information about the Posing Project here.

Follow Chris Adval's board The Posing Project on Pinterest.

BTS/Teaser From Last Year's Secret Knight Rider Replica Photoshoot!

Check out the Pinterest Board Here!

Follow Chris Adval's board My Knight Rider Photography Project on Pinterest.

The Posing Project...

This is my very first, long term project (maybe even life time) photography project. 

What is the Posing Project?

This is a project of photographing artistic models, dancers, or other performers. Anyone who can show art within a pose. 

Why do this Project?

I'll admit, posing models isn't my strongest skill in photography. Personally I believe I  photograph model's who can pose themselves very well already, and tweak their pose to my own liking. But those who bring that foundation in posing. This is for any type of photos except headshots of course.

This time around, through this project, I want to learn by showing unique and interesting poses that models, dancers, and other performers can bring to the table. I don't believe in the "barbie" like posing where I put the model/subject's hand, chin, leg, etc., here and there. To me, it does not look natural and generally would create stiff looking models when that type of modeling is done.

My project goal would eventually be  to print a book.

How to Become a Participant?
Simple, as this entire project would be solely a TRADE project. If you're unsure what is TRADE please click here for details on what that is. 

What you'll get are all of the photos I feel are technically perfect, but only release them to you. Which ones you choose to show off to your fans is entirely up to you. The images released to you would have minimal editing, please keep this in mind. The ones I choose to show for my project will be edited fully, but would only be 1-2 photos from each shoot, depending on your artistic poses, to show in the project. Images that are given to you will be high resolution and unwatermarked, but keep in mind I retain ALL copyrights. Please do not sell the images. You may use them for promotional/advertising purposes the same way I do. If I were to sell an image with your face/body in it I will give you 10% of that sale.

Please note I do not normally provide high resolution images in trade photoshoots and unwatermarked images. If I do choose to provide you with the full intense editing, they will be low resolution watermarked images. If you'd like to have some of the images I did not choose for the project edited further,  I do offer $80/per hour for full in-depth editing (based on my  editing style).

I'm willing to travel up to 1-2 hours (drive time) depending on your look and reputation. This may be a location nearby to you or myself, depending if you can make the trip to my area (Hazleton, PA/North East PA region). If you're way outside of my 1-2 hour drive radius simply ask if I'm ever stopping by your area, I do travel time to time. I got plans for Pittsburgh, PA (5-6 hour drive) and Florida. 

If interested simply contact me on facebook.

Here's an index of posts of my previous shoots regarding this project
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01 - Heather G.