B&W Hair Images

I've been slowly working on some new images, getting round to retouching them when I can. They will form part of a series of black and white hair images. I'm building the series up over time. Whenever I'm in the studio, shooting something new with a model who has long blond hair I try and grab 10 minutes at the beginning of the shoot to rattle off a few of these images to build the set up. I think I've got another couple that need retouching and another couple of shoots planned.

Just retouched another one today (top image) 

Model: Catriona - Boss

Hair & Make-up: Claire Salter

Model: Erica - Boss

Hair & Make-up: Claire Salter

You can see Claire's work at www.clairesalter.co.uk

New Card....

ok, to update from yesterday, it looks like we've completely changed our minds about the images that should be on the front of the card, meaning I didn't need to spend all that time at the computer on a Sunday afternoon!

Oh well, not image looks great!

Have been ringing around a few of the printers to get a couple of new quotes for A5 postcards and just need to finalise the images for the back of the card now.

New front of card shot.

Just spent the afternoon redoing the retouching on the shot that we think will be the main image on my new card. I've attached the finished image below...

Just basically spent about 5 hours listening to this afternoon's football whilst paying close attention to the blending of the image. I know that I rattled through them all at the beginning as they were being illustrated over so they didn't need a huge amount of attention. However they are lovely shots just on their own and so with it being front of card and going out to some pretty influential people I thought I'd better put a bit of effort in!! ;o)

Behind the scenes video from LA rooftop shoot

I had wanted to drop the finished versions of the images into the video but a backlog of work has meant that I haven't been able to get the shots finished off. So whilst waiting to get the chance to finish I thought I'd get the video up for people to see.

Behind the scenes video from LA rooftop shoot

Twitter

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Find me on the following link

www.twitter.com/jameslightbown

look books...

Was sent a couple of really nice fashion look books through the post today. Beautiful quality printing and photography too, very nicely put together. It's really nice to see look books well presented with a bit of thought put into them. There's the odd occasion when clients are too eager to simply rattle through the shots and get a look book out there as they are too focused on their product (after they've spent 6 month producing it's a little understandable) But too often you see plain and boring images with no thought behind them... I think it's really refreshing when you see companies taking a really innovative approach to their look books and they're a joy to work on as well. 

A couple of season's ago I shot a look book for Playful Promises Lingerie which needed a mirrored box building and shooting into... lots of headaches in the production but a really nice feel to the finished look book, especially as the mirrors meant that you could virtually see all of the product in one image, which Emma, (the client) was very happy with!  (see below)

Client: Playful Promises, AW08 Look Book

MUA: Lucy Mckeown

Model: Rachel Sylvester

Been a busy week or so!

Most of last week was spent editing and retouching the first story from LA, which was the roadtrip shoot which now has the working title of 'California Dreamin'. It's now finished but is being pitched out to a few magazines at the moment, so is being kept under wraps for a while, apart from showing it to a few ad agencies with whom I've been making a whole bundle of appointments for next week. 

I went to see Mark at Dinosaur in Manchester on Wednesday which is always a pleasant trip as they have some pretty darn cool offices!!! I'm enjoying getting back out there and showing the book about especially with the chance to talk about the LA trip to anyone that will listen!!

I've also managed to retouch the shots that I did for Emma's book on the rooftop of the Bendix building. You can one of the images below... It was quite good fun as I don't normally get the models jumping around a lot, I normally shoot quite posed and still, however the huge amount of light meant I could play a little using faster speeds.

Plus I've finished choosing the pics from the shoot with Michelle, have started retouching those (the first one is to the left) Rather than in the bright sunlight I concentrated a bit more on the lovely light that was in the shade of the building which has come out with a really lovely soft feel to it. I'm really looking forward to finishing the series off. 

I've also edited the 'behind the scenes' video which is just waiting for me to finish all the images so that I can drop them into the video. Will post it when it's finished.