Have I told you that Herb Ritts is my all time favorite photographer? I have always been inspired by his use of light and shadow, his ability to utilize water to add interest to his work, and his mastery of black and white photography. He had a way of capturing the human form with such grace and beauty, sometimes it makes my heart ache when I look at his images.
When I started thinking about what I wanted to do for today's photo session, I decided to pay homage to Herb Ritts and do a black and white, wet hair look.
I wanted very strong features for this session since I knew that I would be doing high contrast black and white photography.
I used my Cover Girl foundation to even out my skintone,
bronzer to darken areas of my face that I wanted to minimize; the sides of my forehead and temples, my cheeks and neck,
Mauve lip color on the sides of my nose to minimize my wide-ish nostrils and contour the sides of my nose. You can see that I didn't get the line exactly straight on the right side of my nose, and it shows up in the finished images. Do'h! (Good thing I don't claim to be a make-up artist, eh? LOL )
white cream make-up to add highlights under my eyebrows, in the inner corners of my eyes, my cheekbones (I didn't do the greatest job on this part, unfortunately), the bridge of my nose, and my cupid's bow.
dark bronze eye shadow on my lips to really darken them (made a boo boo by putting some vaseline lip balm to make them softer and it smudged the color all to heck and I had to reapply the bronze.
and
mascara on my eyelashes, as a smudger under my lower lashes, and on my eyebrows.
As you can see in this picture, the results are a nightmare for color photography. Really hideous!
Next I wet down my hair. In this first shot, my hair was very wet. I like everything about this image except that I'm not smiling very much, just a tease at the corners of my mouth. A bit more would have been perfect. Oh well.
Let's talk about posing for a moment. Note how my left hand is gently scrunching my hair and not pressing on the side of my face. Relaxed hands are important! My right hand is shielding my double chin and acting as an anchor for the image to balance out the use of the other hand. In a tightly cropped image such as this one, having one crazy hand or a few random fingers can ruin the shot.
Retouching: My allergies have been acting up a lot these past few days so my eye area is extra puffy. I minimized the under eye lines and puffiness, and softened my skin overall. I also brightened my right eye.
This next image is when my hair had dried somewhat but was still damp. This is a tiny bit drier than the hair should look for a session like this in my opinion, but I like this shot anyway.
Retouching: I softened my skin, minimized my under-eye lines and puffiness, and softened my lips slightly. I also brightened my right eye. I could have chosen to remove the curl of hair on the tip of my nose, but it doesn't bother me. I actually like it.
What do you think?
Do you like the black and white wet hair look?
Tech info:
Canon EOS 60D
ISO 100
Fstop: 22
1/250/second
Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 Image Stabilizer
Focal length: 18mm
Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII
ETTL
Zoom 24mm
Power 1/2
Tilt: 75º bouncing light off the (9 ft. white) ceiling as well as soft light from the front of the flash.
Flash modifier: Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce
When I started thinking about what I wanted to do for today's photo session, I decided to pay homage to Herb Ritts and do a black and white, wet hair look.
I wanted very strong features for this session since I knew that I would be doing high contrast black and white photography.
I used my Cover Girl foundation to even out my skintone,
bronzer to darken areas of my face that I wanted to minimize; the sides of my forehead and temples, my cheeks and neck,
Mauve lip color on the sides of my nose to minimize my wide-ish nostrils and contour the sides of my nose. You can see that I didn't get the line exactly straight on the right side of my nose, and it shows up in the finished images. Do'h! (Good thing I don't claim to be a make-up artist, eh? LOL )
white cream make-up to add highlights under my eyebrows, in the inner corners of my eyes, my cheekbones (I didn't do the greatest job on this part, unfortunately), the bridge of my nose, and my cupid's bow.
dark bronze eye shadow on my lips to really darken them (made a boo boo by putting some vaseline lip balm to make them softer and it smudged the color all to heck and I had to reapply the bronze.
and
mascara on my eyelashes, as a smudger under my lower lashes, and on my eyebrows.
Not pictured: mauve lip color
As you can see in this picture, the results are a nightmare for color photography. Really hideous!
Next I wet down my hair. In this first shot, my hair was very wet. I like everything about this image except that I'm not smiling very much, just a tease at the corners of my mouth. A bit more would have been perfect. Oh well.
Let's talk about posing for a moment. Note how my left hand is gently scrunching my hair and not pressing on the side of my face. Relaxed hands are important! My right hand is shielding my double chin and acting as an anchor for the image to balance out the use of the other hand. In a tightly cropped image such as this one, having one crazy hand or a few random fingers can ruin the shot.
Retouching: My allergies have been acting up a lot these past few days so my eye area is extra puffy. I minimized the under eye lines and puffiness, and softened my skin overall. I also brightened my right eye.
This next image is when my hair had dried somewhat but was still damp. This is a tiny bit drier than the hair should look for a session like this in my opinion, but I like this shot anyway.
Retouching: I softened my skin, minimized my under-eye lines and puffiness, and softened my lips slightly. I also brightened my right eye. I could have chosen to remove the curl of hair on the tip of my nose, but it doesn't bother me. I actually like it.
What do you think?
Do you like the black and white wet hair look?
Tech info:
Canon EOS 60D
ISO 100
Fstop: 22
1/250/second
Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 Image Stabilizer
Focal length: 18mm
Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII
ETTL
Zoom 24mm
Power 1/2
Tilt: 75º bouncing light off the (9 ft. white) ceiling as well as soft light from the front of the flash.
Flash modifier: Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce
