Abby Div - 2019.

March 30, 2019

I’m honestly not sure how Abby found me. But I do know we have been trying to work together for at least a year now by my count. After several instances of being in the same place at the same time I’m happy that we finally made plans to work together.

Abby and I captured so many great images in our short time together, far too many to share all of them in this post. Maybe a little down the line after these have time to marinate a little bit more I’ll share a few more.

Until then, give these a look:

If you can’t get enough of Abby, or want to book her yourself, make sure you visit her website. And of course because I’m not ashamed to share projects I am fond of, you can also see Abby (and so many others) in Nikola Tamindzic’s book Fucking New York.

The Fandom Nerdlesque: Infinitease Promo Photos - 2019

February 11, 2019

The time is finally here! For anyone who has been following me on Social Media the last few weeks you have probably heard me teasing these series of images. For you and those who may not have known alike you are all in for a treat.

I was contacted by my friends over at The Fandom Nerdlesque (who if you don’t know are an Atlanta based collective of nerd-themed burlesque performers from all across the country) asking if I wanted to be a part of the marketing push for their upcoming Marvel Themed Show (being performed at the time of this blog post on Friday and Saturday THIS WEEK..HINT HINT…TICKET LINK AT THE END OF THE POST…HINT HINT).

After some very brief talk of concept, we decided that the end goal was to emulate the famous Marvel MCU posters that have been coming out regularly. It wasn’t until we were on set going through photos that I thought about using some various forms of compositing to create artificial backdrops for each character.

**Jet Spiegl - Matt “Daredevil” Murdock**

Final poster design by Evin from Apologue Media. He did a FANTASTIC job of throwing everything together into an amazing final product. Be sure to throw him some love as well!

Additional poster design by Kali Fornication (You can see her link above under her Thanos photo).

Get your tickets here!

For a peek behind the curtain as to how the sausage was actually made, keep reading below.

I’ve done some experimenting with various forms of compositing over the last few years. For more of an expert’s view I would make sure to check out the work of Renee Robyn or Clinton Lofthouse. Anything I have learned was very much learned by watching both of these amazing artists at work.

The first part of the recipe was making sure that the subject of the photo was lit properly. In the case of these Marvel photos I needed 4 lights. A Key in a 3’ Octabox, a fill in the form of a 12” beauty dish, and two 3x5 softboxes as rear kickers.

That setup lent itself to a photo like the below.

by using content aware fill you get one of the following photos below.
One worked better than another:

Screen Shot 2019-01-21 at 10.19.28 PM.png

Spoiler alert, it was this one that worked much better.

Afterwards I roughly followed this tutorial from DIY Photography to mask the image

Click the photo above to read an in depth article that I assure you is WAY less scary that it looks.

After masking its then just a matter of sourcing an appropriate background, and then adding any needed tweaks to it to fit the image at hand, and then several hours of refinements…the process of which I don’t have photos of because I didn’t think to take them.

If you would like to see a more in-depth step by step, let me know. I’d be happy to work something together!

Andie - 2019

February 05, 2019

A lot of the same things that were said about my previous post can be echoed here. I met Andie last year while being introduced to Julie, and we were supposed to shoot then.

I’m super happy that we were able to meet up this year, and I’m glad we had some extra time to talk day jobs and other interesting activities. I don’t want to share too much info to you internet strangers, but let’s just say this, this lady is doing some fantastic work and has really found her calling.

I’ve been trying to get this up for over a week now, but have just been crazy busy. So without any further ado, ANDIE!

Julie - 2019.

January 29, 2019

I first was introduced to Julie a year ago. A friend of mine let me know that she had some friends coming into town for the Days of the Dead horror convention that wanted some new photos taken. After some brief Facebook conversations back and forth we decided to shoot some basic headshots during the convention.

However, it just wasn’t meant to be. A wave of food poisoning hit at the least opportune time, so we decided to push things back. When the convention came to town this year we decided that we would revisit the offer.

We only had about 30 minutes of working time before it was time for the VIP party, but I am still very happy with how things turned out.

This was also the first time I used the portable V-Flat system from V-Flat World. I have to say I am very happy with how portable the whole system is, and can’t wait to learn how to use it better.

Rivers - 2018.

December 31, 2018

If you don’t know Rivers Langley yet, you should.

Rivers is a stand up comedian from Auburn, Alabama currently based in Los Angeles. I was introduced to him through his podcast The Goods from the Woods, which he shares with two other smart and hilarious individuals (as well as a rotating cast of equally funny guests).

After being hooked by the southern-fried podcast, I quickly followed Rivers on Twitter where we occasionally would tweet back and forth with each other. We met in late 2017 while he was home visiting Alabama, and I am happy to consider him as a friend.

This year, he announced that he would be having his usual holiday show, and I knew I had to act while I had the chance. In exchange for the hours of entertainment he has facilitated for me over the last few years, I wanted to shoot some portraits in return.

Rivers and I both loved the backdrop of posters created by the Standard Deluxe team, so we set up and quickly had to rattle off a few shots. I think this backdrop, while a little busy for standard head-shots, creates a unique look for a very unique person.

I’m super stoked to share these photos as my last set of 2018:

Be sure to check out Rivers in the video below, and make sure you follow both him and The Goods’ social media accounts for some great comedy.

And of course, be sure to share the attitude of gratitude, because if you don’t then fuck you.

Big thanks to Scott over at Standard Deluxe for allowing us to shoot in his home/place of business. It was super awesome seeing all of the artwork, and I am stupid-jealous of your library. Can’t wait to be back in Waverly for the next adventure.

Happy new years everyone, see you all in 2019 with more great photos and exciting stories.
-B