Steph's Headshots

This will wrap up me talking about Steph's session. I've shown you the sassy and trashy shots, the lensbaby shots, and now its time to show the shots she came to me for.

One thing I love about my studio's location is the surrounding neighborhood. It would be easy to stay inside and just change lighting set ups, but outside my door are so many great shooting locations. The three shots I'm going to show you were all shot within 300 ft. of the studio, in a little alcove on a neighboring building.

The texture and color of the wall played really well with Steph's hair color and clothing selection. Because most of the colors are in that brown beige "wheel" it really brings attention to her blue eyes. They really pop out at you and draw your focus in to her face... where it should be.

This first image was my favorite shot from the day. The smile, the pose, the colors. I think it would make a glorious headshot. If I could make a "perfect world" improvement on the shot, I would retouch the 2 stray hairs on the left side of the image that just push into her smile. Easy fix. Maybe in the coming weeks I'll post some before and after photos to show just what's possible in post processing.

 

These next 2 images were Steph's final selections and have gone through final retouching. All these images are clickable to reveal a larger version. Would love to hear your feedback on these headshots.

Greg Inda

The Lensbaby strikes again!

So you may remember a few of the lensbaby pictures I posted earlier in my blog here.  Well since then I've been using it off and on, but never in what I'd consider ideal circumstances.  Usually I'll have it on in a dark bar or during a burlesque show.  I've been pleased with those results, but I've also felt a bit handcuffed by the big apertures and high ISO.  On Monday after Steph and I finished our headshot session, she was kind enough to let me try some lensbaby shots with her.  Let me tell you with light shining, a model, and time you can do some wonderful things with this lense.

Click for larger versionClick for larger version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would love to hear your thoughts.
Greg Inda

Sassy and Trashy

I had the pleasure this past Monday to photograph one of the first friends I made here in Chicago.  It was around 9 years ago we were both taking improv classes at the Annoyance Theater.  We both had dreams of "making it" and while I found my calling in photography, she continues to work as a singer/actress/model.  And she's a damn good one.

Steph just went from red to brown hair so she needed some new headshots to match her new look, so I set up the lights and scouted around for some good locations that would highlight not only her brown hair, but also to draw out her blue eyes. 

But its not those shots I want to show you.  After we finished with the more traditional headshots, Steph wanted to get some fun shots being Sassy and Trashy.  I'm really pleased with how these turned out.

Now thats sass!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And thats trashy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now she's throwing stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty great ideas that Steph totally brought in to the shoot.  We worked through all of this on the spot.  Looking for trashy spots to set up poses (we have one with Steph literally laying next to a dumpster), looking for poses to bring out this character.  Was a total blast.  After we finished this part of the shoot Steph and I moved on to shoot some lensbaby stuff that I'm really happy with.  I'll be posting that in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, remember I love comments.  So if you like these images or hate these images let me know!

Thanks for stopping by,
Greg Inda