Dominique #31 Processing Series

While I love the new features in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, I do wish that the custom presets I created for the first version could be imported to the new.  The "Grainy Nude" preset I used for earlier pictures of model Dominique was one of my favorites.  To recreate the preset, I started with an unprocessed image of Dominique and went through the processing steps a few times until it matched the other pictures.

A new preset I worked out is one for vintage Platinum prints.

Technical
Camera:	Nikon D700
Lens:	AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 D
Exposure:	ISO 200, f/4.0 @ 1.2s, Auto WB
Lighting:	Two Calumet Quattro beauty dishes
Support:	Gitzo Basalt tripod w/Acratech GP head
Location:	Grand Center Artists' Studios
Dates:	Capture - August 15, 2010, Processed - April 23, 2011
Processing:	Lightroom 3.3, Photoshop CS5, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

Dominique, the Slideshow

Lightroom has a number of features that I have not adequately explored yet.  For instance, I alway skip past the slideshow module and have not had the need to use the survey tool, so I wanted to take out some time to explore them.  I can't claim that I put much effort into this, but I thought the fifteen minute experimental results were interesting enough to share.  The resolution I uploaded is 720p and it took about 20 minutes to process.

The Slideshow Pro Version is closer to a final cut of galleries that I'm assembling for my revamped web site.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/6s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #11

Toward the end of the shoot with Dominique, I allowed much more motion blur than the rest with a 1 second exposure.  Dominique #11 marks the start of the more smeared images.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #9

I was a little undecided about adding this one to the series, but the shot is growing on me.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/2s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #10

Another entry for the Dominique series.  I'm nearly out of pictures!

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/2s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #7 in Sepia

This picture is from the same Dominique #7 capture as the previous post, processed in the same style as most of the other pictures in this series.  

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/2s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #7

Dominique is holding one of her belly dancing veils.  After reading four books about Man Ray, I thought his more subtle solarization technique.  Nik Color Efex Pro provided the monochrome solarization and Lightroom 3 applied my custom split tone develop preset.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/2s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro  

Dominique #6

The Dominique chiaroscuro series continues with this settled pose that immediately followed #5, processed to look like HP-5 pushed to 800 in HC-110 dilution A and printed on Agfa Portriga Rapid #4.  A BIG upside to digital is that you don't have to have a whiff of the HC-110 concentrate.  It smells very much like bad halitosis.  So much so, I would not be surprised if it turned out that "HC" means Halitosis Concentrate.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/4s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro   

Dominique #5

Here is another shot of our intrepid belly dancer, Dominique.  As before, this is really a moving shot, caught between poses.  Just today I realized this series is a stylistic mash-up of Jeanloup Sieff, Ralph Gibson and Robert Farber.  If I could just work in one more photographer, I'd have an influence Bingo!

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/6s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #4

This is another "between" poses picture like #3.  The motion blur here is more subtle, but there is still enough to give a hint of mystery.  I've been working on a "look" for this series that recalls Tri-X pushed to ASA 1000 printed on Agfa Portriga Rapid #3.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/6s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #3

At the end of our session, Dominque started shifting poses very fast.  Rather than have her freeze, I tried an experiment where I shot the between poses, catching quite a bit of blur. Most of the shots were not usable, but I like the tension in this one.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/6s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominique #2

While going through the Dominique shoot, I stumbled on this treatment and decided to do a short series.  This is #2, as the title suggests. More to come...

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/6s, tripod, tethered, RAW

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 

Dominque, Nude #1

Here is another pick from our session with Dominique.  It has quite a few technical flaws, but I like the pose, so I might re-shoot it.  The color here is a split tone develop preset called "Sepia Blue Shadows"

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/6s, tripod, tethered

Lighting: Two Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios GPS

Processing: RAW in Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Nik ColorEfex Pro

Dominique #2, White Veil

This turned out kind of creepy, newly minted zombie look, so I had to share it.  While I was working on another pick of Dominique demonstrating the use of the veil in belly dancing, I noticed the red tips on her nails and decided to use the "Color Isolate Red" preset.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.0 @ 1/50s, tripod, tethered

Lighting: Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios

Processing: RAW in Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Nik ColorEfex Pro

Dominique #1, Fresson

Susan and I booked Dominique, the excellent model and belly dancer, for a sitting at our Grand Center studio yesterday afternoon.  I'm a bit rusty, but we had quite a bit of fun and I feel like I had a good warm-up session.  Here, Dominique was demonstrating her veil manipulation technique.  I can't begin to express the how fantastic it is to shoot tethered.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8 D

Exposure: ISO 200, f/5.6.0 @ 1/8s, tripod, tethered

Lighting: Calumet Quattro Fluorescent Beauty Lights 

Location: Grand Center Artist Loft Studios

Processing: RAW in Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Nik ColorEfex Pro