Monday was a busy day filled with a series of portraits. These headshots were for the large, lovely group of hair stylists from Hair Culture (hc), based both in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Whether sitting or standing in front of the unevenly painted, heather grey background, each person had one light source, a lamp with an umbrella on a boom (at a high angle and closer to sitter = more dramatic shadows), sometimes accompanied by a reflector. However, what made this particular shoot special, was that the photographer used a Canon 90mm tilt-shift lens. If you do not know what a tilt-shift is, it is a photo manipulated by either a computer (In Photoshop: Quick mask -> reflected gradient -> un-‘quick mask’ -> lens blur -> contrast/curves/saturation) or a special lens. Through this manipulation, the objects in the photo often appear miniature, as if they were part of an extremely detailed toy model set.
Yet, as I had never seen this method before, the use of tilt-shift lens for headshots was truly unique. In this manner, starting from the line of focus (the eyes of the sitter), the rest of the photo becomes increasingly blurred. The result was surprisingly clean.
On Tuesday, we had a quick shoot for … Quaker Oats? At least, that was the brand name on the box Matilda Tao held during the shoot. The lighting reminded me of the first time I saw her, since it was just as evenly-lit as before.
Afterwards, then the following day, and today, I practiced retouching photos. Apparently, I am terrible at it – even though the photos in question were fashion shot, and therefore, not as detailed as, say, beauty close-ups. Oh well – all the more reason to practice (and save up for a large monitor + Wacom tablet!).