This is a great post on Gizmodo by Sebastian Petrovski about how the quality, direction and amount of light on a subject can dramatically change their appearance. I’ve always thought that lighting is the most important thing in a picture. If you can provide great light, you can almost always take an amazing picture. Figuring out what type of light will work best on your subject is at least half the battle, and once you’ve got that, the sky’s the limit.
Hey Melissa,
Sorry for my late response, it’s been a busy week for me. Thanks again for reaching out to me about collaborating, I’m definitely interested in working with you.
Right now I’m really into playing with and manipulating reflections in my work, as well as some more conceptual ideas. Last night I was up late working on a glittery-reflection type look, and I was able to come up with this:
I’m really interested in creating elements in the foreground, middle and background of the image as you can see. I think your look would work really well in something like this.
I have a variation on that idea, where instead of just a single circle with light reflections around it, there’s actually a series of concentric circles or diagonal lines around the center of the image.
And then there’s a third idea, which is more of a model-wrapped-in-fabric like a chrysalis or cocoon…. That one might need more thought and conceptualizing, but it’s another possibility.
I think you’d be great for any of these projects, and if you’re open to a TFP/TFCD situation, I’d like to go ahead with planning the shoot. I have a website at:
http://TimLewisPhotography.com
if you’d like to check out the quality and level of my work. I have several other concept shoots in the works as well, if you’re not feeling these particular ideas or if another model jumps on one of them first.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you,
take care.
Tim
I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman’s. From the Sandman, to his short stories, to his run on “MiracleMan”…. he’s pretty great. And this speech is no exception. Neil gives out advice he wishes he’d had when beginning his career, and mentions a few things that he did know as well.
My favorite part was when he said to break the rules when you’re new and don’t know that they’re there. Brilliant.
I tried to go in a more colorful surreal-ish direction with the post processing on this one, and I think it was successful. Fun to try new things and push pictures in new directions.
Credit:
Model: Tenaya Smith (website here)
MUA: Alyssa Sutton
Photographer: Tim Lewis
I really like this picture of Rod. I was trying for an old-school hollywood type look, so instead of using softboxes or my typical light modifiers I just used straight up work lights. They have a flat, odd quality to them, but if you feather it a bit you can make it look decent. I’m starting to take my usual approach and mix it up more and more. Exciting times.
Another shot from my session with Tenaya on Sunday. This shot just screams model-actress, so I thought I would push it in a more classical black and white direction. I like how it came out a lot. Simple and clean.
One of my favorite new websites is Curiator. It’s a website that lets people link to and upload pictures of art, and then you can put pieces you like into your “collection”. It’s kinda like Pinterest, but for fine art.
I like to get on Curiator and use it to fuel my own process. I find a picture I like, then I ask myself what it is that I’m responding to about this image…. is it the emotion, or the color scheme, or the composition? Once I’ve figured out what I’m liking about it I try and figure out ways to incorporate the thing I like into my own work. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But either way, it kickstarts ideas that wouldn’t have otherwise happened. Here’s my “collection” on curiator so far: link.
To quote David Bowie: “The only art I will study is the stuff that I can steal from”.
