Here’s a video presentation of four makeup transitions as Colleen creates a ‘Pinup’ look.  The 3rd slide is subtle, but one of the interesting techniques i’d like to point out is the use of Talc under they eyes before she applies the mascara.  Specs of Mascara can be the most troublesome to remove and a thin dusting of Talc prevents this.   One caution with pinup is that makeup artists tend to use very Red lips.  I have Colleen lean towards a more magenta or orange shaded red. Careful with pure red as it is very hard to reproduce on press and tends to ‘Block up’ unless you are using specific pantone colors or Printing in Hexachrome.

The Pinup artists that inspired this look  are Art Frahm and J. Frederick Smith.  Both their styles are  a little ‘edgier’ while most of the other artistis of the time painted with softer lines.

Lesley came to me about a year ago with a body cage and a big furry carpet.  Luckily i had a funky space gun ( It’s actually an airbrushed toy gun from ‘Star Wars’) which gave it a ‘Red Sonia’ meets Battlestar Galactica feel.

I was sitting in front of this image for a few days trying to come up with a concept to ’spice’ up the body cage and ‘gun’  . . . Voila!  a southpark episode just played with a parody of the classic cartoon ‘Heavy Metal’ . . . yes some inspiration comes cheap!

Besides a lot of airbrush work,  I gave this image a little more of a ‘cartoon’ feel by using the ’smudge’ tool set to ‘darken’ and brushed through the hair to remove ‘whispies’.  The layer was duplicated, given a small gaussian blur and set to ’soft light’ at about 60% (this raised the contrast, saturation, and smoothed the skin – i did erase around the eyes, gun and some areas that i still wanted to apprear sharp.

Sometimes i wish i was better with Wire frame creation, but for now i’m using some stock images from Istock photo.  Here are the images that went into this file. . . can you spot where all the suit of armour pieces came from?

Follow up email:

I totally love it! The armour looks so cool and I have never looked better! Great ideas, I’m  really excited.  Thanks,  Lesley

What can i say,  these two rock!  Alyssa and Abby are best buddies and  think they had a ton of fun ‘playing’ together on this shoot.  I went on the road last year to shoot in my home town of Edmonton.  That week was anything but easy,  I forgot about the windstorms, dust storms,  sudden thunderstorms. . .oh and did I mention storms?  Well here’s the day that everything worked out,  including the sun!

The bottom right pic is them in front of a 1 million BTU burner. . . When i say it was hot in there with the door open,  that is an understatement!

It took a bit to get permission, but i managed to get into the concrete plant in Edmonton.  It helps when you don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.  When i shoot at locations like these,  Everyone including the models signs a ‘Liability Release’ . . . this makes it much easier to get on the properties with the owners knowing we won’t hold them liable if someone falls into the concrete shredder.

I was rather amused when the foreman starting cleaning up the shop for me. . . I picked this location specifically for the  dusty windows and abundance of grease.  He didn’t understand why i wanted a dirty shop to shoot in and kept trying to clean, so i gave him the hose and asked him to keep the girls misted for the photo. . . maybe a little over zealous or too excited, but he sprayed them in the face and almost ruined the makup!

The lighting from this image came mostly from an open garage door to the left and a silver blanket on the ground.  The light was a little strong from the bottom and i needed to retouch a little bit of shadow under their eyes,  but overall i think it worked rather well for all natural lighting.  Normally i would be adding an accent light to their bodies, but space was constricted and i liked the darker outline in this instance.

If you’re curious about the subtle look of this one,  I selected the highlights on the channels layer (Apple + click on RGB layer) Selected the inverse (shift +Apple+I),  clicked back on the layers pallet,  copied and pasted, and set the new layer to ‘overlay’.  Everything was then desaturated slightly.   The image was expanded with a white border, the outside edges were selected and the ‘chalk and charcoal’ effect was used.

It had the makings for a classic biker magazine cover:  A sexy blonde, an amazing custom Harley and a greasy bar.   Klarinka approached me with the idea of shooting in the Lynwood pub in North Vancouver.  This place had certainly seen its days of bar brawls, spilled beer and inebriated patrons. . . it was perfect!

We had to make due with low ceilings,  but i had just enough room to get a silver umbrella overhead and a small softbox below.  I normally use an egg crate grid on the soft box, but the reflections are not as appealing in the bike.  It’s always a compromise to favour the girl or the bike as they each require different lighting,  but since Klarinka was paying for the shot,  i figured i should make her look best.  A few reflectors were scattered around to help with the bike highlights.

I did have one complaint during this shoot:  The bar opened at 11 and we had to start at 7am.  I think most women will agree when i say ‘it’s hard to look sexy at 7am’. . .but I’ll say Klarinka did pretty well!

I also want to thank max for donating his bike to the shoot.  Sorry for putting all the bum and breast prints all over the chrome!

I haven’t done much with fire, but it’s definitely a fun medium to play with. . . just make sure a fire extinguisher is nearby.  Miko does a fire show and wanted to bring in her batons and fire fans and see what we could come up with.  I shot the fire fans and twirling batons, but i think my favorite effect came from the fire poi balls (fiery balls at the end of chains).  This image came from two exposures: the first she swung the ball around while slowly lifting and tightening the spiral during a 2 second exposure.  The 2nd was with flash exposure mimicking the final pose without fire.  The composite was then finished in photoshop.

This is a raw 1.5 sec. exposure.  Getting the exposure on the flames was quite the task as speed affected the brightness and as the fuel burnt off, the flame started turning blue.

I’ve shot Hailey now going back 5 – 6 years and we’ve done lots of variety but seem to keep coming back to ‘pinup’ as one of her best looks. . . i guess she was born in the wrong decade!   Hailey figures this is her last professional career shoot cuz she thinks she’s getting ‘old’, but i think there’s lots of sexy left. . . the pictures don’t lie!

Its amazing how it just takes a couple simple ‘era’ props to give that pinup feel.  These are in the ‘Alberto Vargas’ style with minimalist sets and furniture that blend into the background.  I love the dark features of a brunette against a high key look!

in contrast here is our first shoot together when she was a blonde. . . would you have ever guessed it was the same girl?

Here is a fun pair . . . Kelsey and Lola booked me for the week with their friend and did a series of solo, duo and trio photoshoots ranging from pinup to High Fashion.  This is an excerpt of one of my favorite pics. . . it still needs a name, but i was thinking someting simple like ‘picnic’

As an afterthought i added the radio with one of  Marilyn Monroe’s famous quotes.   To achieve the pinup quality was thanks to some of Photoshops new filters. . .especially ’smart blur’ which maintains nice edge detail and softens everything else.  This is followed with using the smudge brush to remove additional detail in the hair and some highlights.  The whole layer is duplicated and set to ‘overlay’ and this starts getting you closer to the final look.  Then i select the hilights duplicate the layer and set to ‘Vivid light’.  Highlights are selected again, filled with white, and set to soft light. . . Done . . . simple eh?

In this Closeup, you can see how much subtle detail was removed which gives it an overall ‘painted’ effect.

Here is a girl close to my heart. . . Callie.  Ideally i would have put her with a horse and some daisies in a big grassy field next to a delapidated barn.   Since it’s a cold and wet Vancouver fall,  we did a studio shoot and thought i would go the complete opposite direction.    A little pam provides the shine, and a ‘hard’ overhead light helps emphasize the specularity.  

Follow up email: 

“Your an amazing photographer and I really enjoyed the shoot we did together. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be thanks to your great skills and attitude. My friends are in awe and totally jealous! Hope to do another shoot with you one day!”

I am willing to bet that these are the most expensive jeans to ever hit the market.  Two custom pairs were produced with details such as emeralds, diamonds and custom bling produced by Bloodline.  There are only two pairs available, so Rush down to Leone’s and make your order,  the ‘gold’ and ‘white’ pair are only a cool $250,000 ea! (yes… 250 thou!)  Check em out at http://www.dussaultapparel.com/250denim/

Brandon was again the poster child for the new clothing line . . . there are so many cool new shirts he had to model this year, i think he was starting to get chaffed from all the clothing changes. . .He just went shirtless at the end!

Heres a fun one we threw in at the end. . . This was Britts’ first time modeling.  I just threw her in the fire and she did pretty well. . .  A little ’stiffness’ came through in her form, but nothing a couple martinis can’t help with for next time!

Introducing Topaz. . .one of my favorite models!   I can’t say that we’ve ever had a bad shoot together.  She has developed exceptionally over the years and always brings a great body and creative concepts.  We started out years ago with alley shots and a pink wig,  and although we’ve done a range of looks,  i think currently she is looking her very best.  

I’ve recently had an open house and this is one of the images i now have presented in my hallway.  I really like the simplicity of this one!  Wind adds such an organic feel to a shoot. . .  you really just have to work with the random movements of the fabric and wait until it compliments the pose.  I love coordinating colors to backgrounds and her outfit and fabric were a perfect fit.  The reflection was created in photoshop with one of my favorite filters ‘flood’ from the creators ‘Flaming Pear’  . . . yea, thats really the name of the company!