Sandy Shaw #2 Process Variations

This is a digital copy of a Cibachrome print from my 1990's fashion portfolio.  The model is Sandy Shaw, with makeup and photo styling by Susan Page.  Sandy was our daughter's dance teacher.  The picture was made with a Leica M2 and 90mm Elmarit f/2.8 on Ektachrome 64 Professional.  Lighting is Broncolor Flashman and Pulso heads.

By accident, I opened the picture in Nik Silver Efex Pro (not the new 2), and stumbled on this preset I made to simulate print solarizaton.

In the late 80's and early 90's I occasionally made alternative print processes, like this cyanotype.

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.