Trisha Bradshaw - Sin City Version

Many thanks to makeup artist Sarah Lynn and model Trisha Bradshaw, who lent their considerable talents to me today to make some pictures.  Trisha and Sarah did such a great job, I have about 100 picks to sift through.  I was eager to start processing, so I picked, almost at random, this very last shot of the day.  We shot this on the fire escape of the Grand Center Artist Studios.  Light is a mix of ambient and the D700 pop-up flash. I followed these processing steps:

1. Nik HDR Efex tone mapping using the "Granny's Attic" preset as a starting point.
2. Adjusted Levels in Photoshop CS5
3. Some localized color and brightness correction in Nik Vivenza
4. Add the "CSI Miami" glamor glow in Nik Color Efex Pro
5. Applied a "Color Isolate Red" develop preset in Lightroom 3, as well as some burning and dodging.
6. The sepia/blue split tone below was processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

The picture needs some refining before I make prints, but I was eager to share the work in progress.  I was not expecting to channel Helmut Newton, but apparently I can't help it :)  More to come...

Technical
Camera:	Nikon D700
Lens:	AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G
Exposure:	ISO 200, f/4 @ 1/60s, Auto WB, RAW
Lighting:	Ambient night plus on camera flash
Support:	Handheld
Location:	Grand Center Artists' Studios
Dates:	Capture - February 19, 2011, Processed - February 19, 2011
Processing:	Lightroom 3.3, Photoshop CS5, Nik HDR Efex, Nik Silver Efex Pro, Nik Color Efex Pro

Sandy Shaw, 1991

One of the more rewarding aspects of shooting fashion and beauty is finding and nurturing new talent.  Sandy Shaw was my daughter's dance teacher.  Susan and I coaxed her into the studio for a few test shots and our clients loved her.  This picture was part of a beauty series I shot where I had the models scrunch up on a tiny stool.  Lighting is Broncolor strobe,  two heads with flood reflectors on the white seamless paper background and a single head in a special beauty rig I built with foamcore and gaffer's tape to give a soft spot effect.  I was trying to figure out how Irving Penn was able to achieve the stunning beauty light he was using at the time and this picture is as close as I every got.

Technical: Leica M2 from 1961, Leitz 90mm f2.8, Agfapan 25, Broncolor strobes, f/11 @ 1/60s.  Print on Agfa Portriga Rapid, toned in Kodak Rapid Selenium toner 31:1.  My grandfather gave me his M2 and M3 Leicas when his eyesight failed due to cataracts when he was in his early 80s.

Other photographers have remarked about this, too, but I tended to shoot with more DOF with the Leica than with SLRs.  Maybe it is a subconscious distrust of rangefinder focusing.    I can't say that I miss loading film into the M2, but shooting with a Leica is pure joy.  

Diane Leicht, 1980

We had Diane Leicht under exclusive contract for Stix, Baer & Fuller for a couple of years, such was her talent and on-camera appeal.  Since there isn't much to date it, so this shot for bath and beauty products just sort of stayed in my portfolio.  Diane is from St. Louis and went on to some success in NYC and Europe.

Technical: Nikon F2, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f4.0, Kodachrome 25 Professional, f//11.0 @ 1/60s, lit with single Balcar strobe head shot through a silver/white umbrella.  Print on Cibachrome F using my own first developer formula and reversal process.  Copied with a Nikon D700 and Nikkor 50mm f1.4G.

Historical Note: I was pitching some old Camera World magazines, circa 1979, and noticed an article about non-silver photography.  Among the technologies being considered viable at the time, like UV sensitive plastics that could be erased with a hair dryer (I had a sheet of the stuff that I used to make highlight masks), was the "dark horse" of the day, the Charge Coupled Device.  At the time, CCDs were used mostly for esoteric photometry by astronomers and NASA.  To get an acceptable signal to noise ratio, the chips required a bath of liquid nitrogen.  The only dynamic, non-volatile memory available in 1980 was the bubble chip and 1K of single channel memory cost about $100.  The author of the article estimated that for a digital photography system to replace 35mm color gold standard, Kodachrome 25 Professional, would require 15 to 18 million pixels.

Looking at the 11x14 print of Diane, I realize that the Camera World author had it right.  Same size prints from my 12 mega-pixel D700 still fall just short of the Kodachrome 25 resolution.  Nikon's 24 mega-pixel D3x, released Spring 2009, is the first 35mm DSLR to actually surpass Kodachrome 25, a mere thirty years after the Camera World article.

Mei-Li In A Red Jacket, 1992

Don't laugh!  That jacket will be back in style Spring 2010.  Mei-Li Miller was one of the very best models with whom it was my pleasure and good fortune to work.  I wish I had more pictures of her printed, but this one was still in my old fashion book.

Technical: Hasselblad 500 CM, Zeiss 150mm f4.0, Fujichrome 50, f/11.0 @ 1/8s, Broncolor flash on model, Lowell DP with barn doors on background, handheld.  I was going through a flash blur phase; I still like the effect if it is subtle.  Film processed using a modified E-6 kit.  Among other things, I discovered that I got a longer tonal scale with Fujichrome by using real light instead of a chemical fog agent.  Print is on Cibachrome F, using my own formula for the first developer.  Yes, I mixed my own Cibachrome first developer from scratch.  The copy is really flat.