day 28 - halo

there's a drawing of a famous architect (whose name i can't remember) where it's a straightforward portrait, but then just behind and above the architect's head the artist drew a big circle, a circle like you'd see in blueprints or a technical drawing, just sitting there behind the architect like a halo.

i've always liked this idea. taking an element from the subject's life and using it in the same way artists in the renaissance would paint halos behind all the important figures in their (mostly religously funded) paintings.

so i was thinking about this...... looking at my beauty dish, thinking about this.......... looking at my beauty dish.....

and so i did it.

it was actually a lot harder to do than i thought it would be. in my head, it was "set up the dish behind, set up a reflector in front, maybe an uplight, done". and....nope. i had to keep adding and moving things, adjusting power levels up and down.... this is one of the most complicated portraits i've done. but i really like the outcome.

in terms of post, i adjusted levels and colors in lightroom, and opened it up in photoshop to do a bit of healing.... my skin wasn't made for light like this. i didn't do a vignette because i like that faded highlight in the upper right corner too much.

here's the final setup shot -- i almost prefer the way i look here to the "finished shot".