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A few months ago I began a photography series recreating the iconic X-men group with cosplay artists. My first character was the Dark phoenix. After completing this, I went to look for the second hero. Of course that called for another screening of the X-men (this time the X-men 2 movie).
I fell in love with The Nightcrawler – Kurt Wagner – and decided he would be my next project.
Short answer: Some Latex, A hat, cardboard and smoke. Hit the jump for the long answer. Be aware that it is mildly NSFW.
If you looked in my closet you’d probably think “Oh yeah, this guy is a cross-dresser”! Although that would certainly make a more interesting story, the fact is, since my photography is 99.9% of the time a DIY venture (no stylists or hair or make-up), my closets are packed with wardrobe (including a lot of women’s clothes) and props for photo shoots. I do a lot of thrift store shopping and when I come across something that is a great price and I think would look cool for a photo shoot, I buy it and wait for the right concept and model to shoot it. And it’s actually kind of fun if you have an eye for fashion. That’s not to say that models don’t ever bring selections. If a model says they think they may have the right clothes for a shoot, I’ll either meet with them beforehand to look at the selection, or have them send me pics of what they have. Either way, leaving wardrobe to chance on a shoot isn’t an ideal situation for me, so all selections are figured out ahead of time.
I was contacted by an actress – Lynsey Nicole Harris – who wanted to shoot a variety of shots, beauty, editorial, etc. And since she is usually cast in quirky comedy roles, she wanted to shoot something funny as well. So for a beauty shot, I thought I would shoot her in a “Vanity Fair” editorial style. I found this beautiful dress in a thrift store that was originally $225 USD and it was on sale for $30. I thought that dress would work perfect for this shoot. She came over for a fitting and the dress looked great on her! After wondering what kind of shoes we’d use with the dress, I thought it would look pretty to just go barefoot. Then it came to me, we could shoot that beauty shot with a funny twist and combine the beauty and comedy together. Something actress Tina Fey might do.
Photographer Leo Rosas wanted to create a Halloween inspired golf themed photo. And what better way to make to have Jason Voorhees (from friday the 13th) slash away at an innocent golf player?
With the final results quite fitting this weekend, Leo was king enough to share both the lighting setup and the photos before and after retouching. This is a quick before/after/lighting setup article that should be a valuable resource for getting some insight on how photos are made.
Every photographer knows what it’s like to get an idea for a photograph and then struggle to figure out how to execute the shot that’s in their head.
In this case, the idea belonged to photographer Andy Van den Eynde who imagined a heroic band of torch-bearing Gauls venturing into the Belgian forest on a misty, cloudy evening. The challenges came in the form of execution as Andy asked himself questions like “how do I create that glow from the fiery torches?” And “how do I get that dark blue sky during an afternoon photo shoot?”
Andy was kind enough to invite Frank Lambrechts to visit behind the scenes of the photo shoot as he brought his idea to life. While he was there, he got to see how Andy used several Rosco products to enhance his shot. Here is how he did it:
When I was younger, I used to visit the French Brittany quite a lot. Brittany is the Celtic part of France where many wonderful legends of my childhood lived: King Arthur, Broceliande forest, The Holy Grail,… I wanted to organize a shoot in that location for a really long time and looked for a good location and concept. A few months ago, I learnt about an artificial lake, right in the middle of the French Brittany. Being artificial, the lake is emptied every 30 years for maintenance. and what do you know. 2015 hit one of those 30 years marks.
It a lake like no other. The old houses and dead trees are still there, under the water, and after several months without water, the lake dries completely, down to desert-dry level. The wonderful thing about it is that all the scenery is still there, protected from man. This is the perfect spot to start telling new stories.
I contacted 2 models and a costume designer / stylist to collaborate in my story. I found 2 incredible models: a girl with a very long red hair and a guy with a very long barber.
A while back I saw that one of my favorite photographers, mr. Benjamin von Wong changed his profile picture into this great portrait with his girlfriend, Anna Tenne.
I thought it was a great photo so I asked Ben how it was taken. Ben took this photos with the Sony A7r at night but some tweaks were needed to create this photo the way that it looks:
For no particular reason red was never my first choice when it came to planning the colour pallette of a photo shoot, so a while back I decided that at some point I would throw myself wholly at it and try and create some beautiful high impact images. Like with all my ideas it had taken root and I knew that given time it would grow into a concept that would eventually be realised…
Then a few months ago I was given the opportunity to shoot in an aircraft hangar at my local airport, now being granted access to such an incredible location I knew I wanted to plan and shoot an editorial that had a very rich, elegant almost regal feel to it whilst having this emphasis on the colour red. After weeks of planning looks and working with the stylist and various designers, the morning of the shoot we faced a massive problem. The problem wasn’t the freezing temperatures or the snow flurries but that fact that we now only had two hours to shoot as opposed to having the entire day as planned! As a result not only did we have to cut our shoot time but we had to accept that we may not have time to shoot all eight of the planned looks.
As someone who describes himself a “Facebook Enthusiast”, I have a lot of photographers in my timeline. Probably 100 are constantly popping up, some of them are friends, while others are in that list because of their work. Peter Coulson belongs to the latter part, and he is somewhat special even there, because I always recognize his style. Every time he’s popping up I think: Yes, that must be a Coulson or – even better – I would say to myself “wow, that image is awesome” what do you know, it’s Coulson’s.
So I tried to re-create that signature look.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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