Posted by on Jan 12, 2012 in PERSONAL, PHOTO, RECAPS | 7 comments

 

2011. What a year. It had its great moments and not so great moments. Fortunately the memories of the great moments are what tend to stay with me, and I am thankful for the many good things that happened last year. I am grateful to be able to work with such an amazing group of talented artists who allow me to continue to produce my work. I have learned so much, not only about my art but who I am as a person as well.

Looking back at 2011, I realize how fortunate I am to be able to work as a professional photographer. Celebrities, musicians, and some of the most interesting and philanthropic people I’ve ever met graced the front of my lens. At one point I was even given $100K worth of camera and lighting equipment to play with for a week. More importantly however, I have wonderful friends who continue to show me their amazing support throughout even the lowest of times.

What better way to end the year than to put together a beauty shoot with the person I love to shoot the most. Jade and I called on fabulous makeup artist Anthony Merante who added hairstylist Andrew Zepeda to the mix. We decided to pull a marathon shoot, doing both clean, campaign type imagery as well as more avant garde editorial looks. I kept the crew small and didn’t book any assistants because sometimes it’s good to be able to just enjoy working things out on your own.

For the clean beauty shots, I used a Broncolor Para 220FB hooked up to a Grafit A4. This is really the Rolls Royce of studio lighting setups and just an amazing piece of equipment. I shot mostly with my 180mm 3.5 macro, switching to an 85mm 1.8 when I needed to frame wider.

Unfortunately I can only show an outtake from the editorial shots because we’re in the process of submitting them for publication. Magazines will usually want first publishing rights meaning they won’t use images that have been run anywhere else, including the internet, and understandably so. For this shot I used three gelled umbrellas and experimented with their position and output to vary the degree of intensity and saturation. Gels will have different densities depending upon the color and thickness, and this greatly affects light output and color rendition. For the most part it was really a basic 3-point lighting setup, just with colored gels. To introduce the “normal” colored light, I used a Speedotron Zoom Spot which was set as the key.

We had a great shoot and really maximized our time getting the shots we wanted. I love long days as long as everyone leaves happy.

 

 

 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=505275778 Robert Gordon

    Very cool Sean, glad that you are doing well in the industry, you deserve it and your work speaks for itself. You have been a major inspiration in my own career as well. Did you shoot these with a medium format, they came out great! 

    • http://seanarmenta.com Sean Armenta

      thank you for the kind words, Robert. I am glad that sharing my experience is somehow beneficial to others. No I did not shoot these on medium format, they were shot on a 5D MkII.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kerry.loudenback Kerry Loudenback

    Sean, I echo Robert’s comments below. Sometimes when I look at your work, I feel like a kid playing with tinker toys.  ;-)  But your work does serve as inspiration both lighting and post.

    I got to touch (and pop off a few frames) with that $$$ equipment you mentioned. Rare opp for me, as I doubt I’ll be using that grip in my workflow anytime soon.

    Finally, thanks for being so generous with sharing your lighting and post techniques. In an industry where much technique is guarded for fear of losing a competitive edge, it’s refreshing to have a pro as open and transparent as you are.

    Thanks again for everything!   

    • http://seanarmenta.com Sean Armenta

      thank Kerry for your encouragement. I was watching a documentary a while back and in closing the narrator gave some very poignant sayings which included, “what matters is not what you got but what you gave, what matters is not what you learned but what you taught.”

  • http://seanarmenta.com Sean Armenta

    yes, the black plex was part of the shot. once i am able to post the images i will show its purpose

  • http://twitter.com/SeagramPearce Seagram Pearce

    Have you ever done a tutorial on your skin & especially skin tone retouching before?

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