Krystal is an Institute of Art and Design at New England College (formerly known as the New Hampshire Institute of Art - (rest in piece) as well as a friend of a young lady how was interning for me for a semester. We were going over some lighting practices and Krystal served as our model as we did some light exercises and stuff. She did fantastic and I instantly fell in love with her hair which was simply gorgeous.
More images of Krystal after the cut:
I first met Krystal a few weeks prior to this portrait session - she came with her friend Daniella who was spending a semester with me going over portrait lighting and other work study/intern-related things. When Daniella brought Krystal in with her we immediately set up a light so I could make a few quick portraits of here while she was here
I have somewhat of an obsession with hair that can be teased and puffed out. It’s so photogenic. It’s so gorgeous. I love photographing volumes of hair. It isn’t something I get to do often, so when the chance presents itself, I have no shame asking someone if they could make there hair puffy for me.
Krystal has been in front of the camera many times before, so she had no problem lining up a portrait session date with Daniella and I that would take place a few weeks after this first visit.
When Krystal arrived for our 2nd portrait session her hair was glorious. So much volume and it was dyed a deep red/auburn color. I couldn’t wait to get started.
The setup we did was using a reflector I have. I don’t incorporate it much into my workflow, but I wanted a more “fashion” look for these - something crisp and using either the silver side or the gold side of the reflector set up behind Krystal would kind of give me a frame within a frame. The circle from the reflector surrounding her, mimicking the roundness of her hair. Circles inside of circles. Repeated patterns.
From there the next setup was similar but at the same time the opposite. We did silver on a white background, now let’s try gold on a black background.
A quick change of the backdrop and a flip of the reflector and we got something just as fetching in color and tone:
There is so much I love about this image; her hair, the furry coat, the silver loops hanging from her ears, her eyeshadow, it all comes together and gives me what could be an album cover. The square crop of the image and the gold circle and her silver loop earrings - we have shapes and frames inside shapes and frames.
From there I decided I wanted things to be a little more moody. More dramatic. I took out a dappled background that I occasionally use and moved the light around to the side of Krystal.
The light here is lighting her face and also reaching a little bit of the backdrop and it makes her back go nice and dark in shadow. Right about this time I new exactly what I wanted to get out of this lighting setup. I had Krystal turn so her back was facing the light and I had her angle her head down a tiny bit - as if she was looking down towards the floor. As soon as she did I knew I had my shot of the day:
I love everything about this image. I love the light falling on her red hair. I love how the light illuminates the back of her fur coat and then goes dark as it wraps around to her front. I love that you can see a tiny bit of her earring dangling down. And I especially love that even through her face is in shadow, you can still see just enough of her face. It’s all there. It’s all here in this photograph; mood and drama and feeling and some lovely tones. When photographer Don Giannatti saw this shot he commented “Not only is it a gorgeous image, but it is a technically excellent photograph as well”. A fantastic comment about a fantastic photograph.
Because I love square, album-cover inspired images, here is the same image, cropped to a square, as if it was getting ready to be an album cover:
I hope Daniella learned a little from our session with Krystal. I tried to show her that you can do lots of things with just one light if needed. But most importantly I tried to show her that it’s okay to play around. Photography, especially portrait photography, is an organic process. Playing and trying things and experimenting are important. Try things. They might work, they might not work, but ultimately it will help you get to where you need to be with the session. My session with Krystal was building up to this frame. This moment. This sliver of time. And I’m so happy that I was able to create this portrait with her.