What You Don't Know About Women... (pics)

Some friends of mine have a theater production company called Madair Productions.

They're currently rehearsing for their next opening called 'What You Don't Know About Women, and Shouldn't Ask' or something equally long.

They asked me to shoot some press photos for them. Space was very tight, and all I had for lights were two 60watt 'natural' lightbulbed clip lamps (clipped to tripods), two 500watt halogen outdoor worklights (mounted on their own tripod) bounced off the ceiling, my 580EX, and the makeshift Lightsphere type diffuser I posted about recently (strangely gaining popularity - picked up by 'Make' magazine - I should call Gary and explain...). Most shots were taken with the Canon 50mm f/1.8, but a couple of 20mm shots taken with the Sigma 10-20mm f/4 snuck in for good measure (I love that lens).

We had some fun, and I quite liked these 'in-between' shots of the girls goofing around.











These are a few of the contenders for the final shot.









From left to right:
Heather, Melani, Rene, Candace, and Amy.
Amy lives with me, and she's the piano player, so they rehearse at my place.
They're pretty fantastic.
Can't wait for their show to open.

The final say is obviously up to the girls, but I quite like the second to last one.

Thanks for lookin'.
C&C always welcomed and appreciated : )

--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Stofen Omnibounce
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud

Bags:
National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

I like the top two photos best. The blonde has the most personality showing through in the shots. I'll bet she was the most fun to be around.

the posing and framing is great but its way too blurry from your photoshop

nice try though!

keep at it!

Love the shots, I did not see a problem with how you handle the pp of your shots. Great images.

the phone numbers of the girls are not listed in the Exif!!!

just kidding ofcourse, very nice job!

Rob.
--
shoot!

Wow, that's some extreme NI/NN usage.
Try not to overprocess the photos that much.

--
Lasse Uusilehto, Finland.

At least for my taste. My opinion is that you should go a lot easier on the smoothing of the skin on their faces. Sure you want the skin to look nice and blemish free but you want them to look like they actually have skin. As they are now they look like they never learned to put on makeup and ended up way overdoing it.

Just my 2c

Greg

--



http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

...I rather like the look of the processing, especially the B&W shots. Kind of an illustrated look to some degree. The processing may be more appreciated on the retouching forum. Maybe a link to this thread? Nice work.

--
Andy (Critiques Always Welcome)
FCAS Member #120
http://imageevent.com/ajrphotos

great fun- I'm betting the women will love the unflawed look of your processing, esp. for this type of purpose- love the posing- one thing, the 6th photo- there's an awful shadow on one of the girl's face. You might want to fix that. IMO, most women LOVE to be portrayed how they feel they look, not so much how they actually look. ;-P

Looks like they went through some heavy post process. Did you use any ruthless noise reduction tools?
The girls actually look like WAX dolls rather than real people.

The photos are great, but the post-processing has killed them.

I know Rene and Amy the best.

You get this many girls together in one room, you're either going to have a really good or really really bad time.
Lucky for me, all of these girls are champs.

--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

Thanks for the consolation.
I gather by 'blurry' you mean that the skin is overprocessed.

i agree to a degree (hehe - rhymin'), but the girls just love this look. And since 'the' shot chosen will be used for a magazine type press kit, super high contrast/saturation and super processed skin is what gets the most attention. Right, wrong or indifferent... it's just the way it is.
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

Call my house.
Amy will hook you up with anyone other than Melani.
She's all engaged to be married or something lame like that.
: )
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

Extreme NN, indeed.
I'm afraid I tried to do exactly the opposite of what you suggest.

I generally don't PP this much, but the girls love this look. And a couple of them have been doing this for a long time, and know what works, and doesn't work.

It's a bit overly done for my tastes as well, but how can you argue with such faces?

--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

That's theater for ya...

--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

There's always at least one person that likes what everyone else dislikes.
That's why the earth is so great.

Leaves room for things like vegemite, low fat mayonaise, Hyundaes, and bald cats.

Thanks.
Thanks for liking my Hyundae. : )

--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

There are a lot of things wrong with a lot of these photos.

They're not particularly hard to spot, either. And I'm in total agreeance (is that a word?) about the shadow, as well as any other flaws you were thinking about (I know you were!), but kindly decided not to mention.

I'm getting to a point where I'm trying to be less fine detail oriented (see: 'technically anal') about my shots, and just trying to see the overall feeling of each image. It's hard. And I can see how hard it is for some people who are infinitely more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am. But when it comes down to it, it really is about how the subjects feel about how they look in the shots. And all five girls were pretty much 'hoorah' for these shots. Technically perfect or not, I love these girls, and they love the shots. Hard to go wrong.

Cheers.
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

Massive amounts of Noise Ninja. MASSIVE.
We were going for 'plastic', but I guess 'wax' is a good alternative.

Thanks for posting.
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

Another believer in the plastic look.
Good on ya, mate.

I know these aren't technically great. But they're fun to look at, nonetheless, no?

I mean, look at how much fun the girls are having. Well, they ARE actresses, but you can just see they love this stuff. That's what I like about these photos.

Thanks.

--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Camera:
Canon EOS 30D

Lesnes:
Sigma 10-20mm f4
Canon 50mm f1.8
Canon 70-200mm f4 L
Vivitar 100mm f3.5 Macro

Lighting:
Canon 580EX
Canon Omnibounce for 580EX
Cary Fong Lightsphere II Clear & Cloud for 580EX

Bags:
Bogen National Geographic Explorer Medium Backpack
Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW

Digital Darkroom:
15' 2.16ghz MacBook Pro
iPhoto 6 (for importing and organizing)
Adobe Photoshop CS2

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
http://www.jasonahn.com
http://flickr.com/photos/potatomato

PeaceFrog said:

At least for my taste. My opinion is that you should go a lot
easier on the smoothing of the skin on their faces. Sure you want
the skin to look nice and blemish free but you want them to look
like they actually have skin. As they are now they look like they
never learned to put on makeup and ended up way overdoing it.

Just my 2c

Greg

--



http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

Click to expand...

agreed, i always get creeped out by the photos that make girls look like some sort of robotic skeletons with plastic stretched across for skin.