Recent Beauty Shoot - ICON Models

Did a recent beauty shoot with a great team.  I wanted to experiment using a mirror as a reflector placed at the base of the model.  Clamshell lighting or butterfly lighting method.  I've seen mirrors used before on beauty shoots to provide contrast.  It can be used in different degrees of intensity depending on the size of the actual light source (key light).  I wanted to go for a more 'blasted' look where I could really pale out the skin after in PS with very little work.  I must state that actual retouching work only took me 5-7 minutes per photograph.  Lighting, makeup and skin type were great! Made my editing work much easier.  Less editing work...the happier Nadia is.

People involved:
- Models: Sara J and Allana C (ICON Model Management)
- MUA:  Rhia Amio
- Hair:  Carlos @ Spellbound
- Assistants:  Khalid Mutlaq and Robert Boic (such great guys!!)

Yes....two assistants.  Funny how that worked out, but I have to say having both Khalid and Robert there was great!  They were so helpful and honestly made the workflow much easier for all of us.  I can't thank them enough.  They also both assisted in blowing the hair around on both models.  Two fanners for one model.  Sounds strange I know, but to have a proper movement of hair and for directionality it helped having one person using the actual electric fan and another person fanning using a foam core board.
I must say... the models never complained about how cold it became for them while shooting.  Such troopers and true professionals.  Never showed it in film either.  I did take breaks in between shoots to allow them to warm up.  I tried to shoot as quickly as I could so as not to torture poor Sara and Allana with all that fanning around.  Great work ladies!

This is also where I used the Canon 5D to shoot with and a 90mm tilt/shift lens.  Yes a true tilt/shift lens.  If you note any blur in the photographs it's caused by using the tilt/shift.  It's completely manual focus so it was tricky, but once I got the hang of it I have to say that I absolutely loved shooting with it.  Not just for the tilt/shift factor, but also because this lens is tack sharp.  I normally like to sharpen the eyes in my photographs, but I didn't have to after using this lens.  If you zoom in on a full resolution photograph you can see that even the liquid in the eyes are shown with such clarity that it's truly impressive!  Will be doing future shoots using this lens that's for sure.

Unfortunately I don't have any BTS shots from this shoot, but like before I'm going to share with you before and after shots.  Hopefully that'll sate your cravings a bit ;)  Rest of the photographs can be seen on my flickr site.  Only two shots from that shoot will be placed on my actual site.

All images are copyright.   Nadia Cheema © 2010  www.nadiac.com

Fairy Tale series

.....Back in November of 2009 my styling team and I got together to do a shoot based on the Fairy Tales series.  We decided on three stories....1) Snow White  2) Rapunzel and  3) Red Riding Hood.
We were going to try doing a fourth one (Cinderella), but we didn't have enough time.  This shoot alone took so long just the styling alone!

I have to say though everyone did a fantastic job.
Following people involved were:

Model:  Asha Di Paola (Ford)
MUA: Rhia Amio
Hair:  Fabio Persico
Wardrobe:  Cisya Paramita
Assistant:  Lorena Lorenzo
Cute doggy:  Kuma

Yes.... for the Red Riding Hood story we actually had a black german sheppard play the part of the big bad wolf!  Although he's so cute I don't think he knows how to be fierce.  He even got spooked by the lovely Asha because of her height!  She's 5'11" minus the heels.

It was a veeeeery long day.... we were all tired by the end of it, but it was a successful one.  Quite happy with the results.  Now unfortunately I don't have any BTS to share with you good people so I decided to show before and afters of some of the shots.

All images are copyright.   Nadia Cheema © 2009  www.nadiac.com

All edits are done by yours truly.  I don't like to spend hours on one photograph.  I'm not a retoucher by profession.... plus I don't believe in creating 'plasticky' skin.  It's just not natural nor real!  Asha has great skin to begin with so I didn't have to do much (thankfully!).  Plus Rhia did a great job with the makeup so that saved me a ton of work as well.

I'm planning on doing more creatives in the coming months....so stay tuned!  I just have some meetings to look forward to and I hope they will help me get further in the commercial world.

Gotta start planning!!