It’s one thing to view an image, whether that be a painted representation or a photographically-produced image. It’s another to know the story behind the scenes. In this post series on “Intimate Portraits” we’re going to go behind the scenes of a few of my most favorite, and most liked Instagram portrait images. It’s personal, and as you might know, there is always a story.
The search continues…
While working with the model I used in “Intimate Portraits III” we continued with wardrobe changes for almost an hour when she mentioned she had a dress she would like to try out. It was a simple cotton dress, as you can see (image).
Initially, the stool was off to the side so she could sit from time-to-time in between posing. Prior to this pose she was just sitting with two feet on the floor and holding the hat, which we were going to use in the next set. Once I saw her, however, I knew what we were going to do
I said that I would like to use the chair now, so she moved it to the center of the studio, a bit of a way out from the backdrop. She then resumed her previous sitting position and looked to me for direction. I suggested a few poses, but then she simply pulled up the hem of the dress to cool off. It was the middle of summer, after all, and fairly warm in the studio.
I had just changed lenses to an 80-200/2.8 and went to the back of the studio get get some full-length shots. Once the lens was attached to the camera, I looked up and said, “Hold it!”
She was looking straight at me and I suggested she put the hat on. After a couple of straight shots with her looking right at me I told her to turn her head to the left and look down a little… voilà! That was it!
After the shoot, I downloaded the images to my computer and didn’t do anything with them for a couple of weeks. I had recently begun a new series, “Indigo Dreams,” and was looking for appropriate images to use. I had already worked with a few images from other shoots for the series.
My process for doing this when I come up with a new series is to go through my collection of images, alphabetically by model, until I come up with a group of images that deserve at least a look, with the new series in mind.
For the new series I knew I wanted something different than I had ever done. It took almost a whole day before I came up with a finished product. I worked with several different model’s images, first. Once I had settled on a post-production flow to create the images for “Indigo Dreams,” I knew the shoot with my new model would work well for that series. The final result is what you see.
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to just let images sit for a while before they “tell” you they are ready…