RLP Models

Dime Paradise - Issue #4 is out

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:27:05 +0000

Just to keep y’all in the loop. I did publish another issue of Dime Paradise. FOLLOW THIS LINK.

Getting Out of the House

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:13:43 +0000

I do about 90% of my shooting inside of my studio … and that sucks. It sucks because I love being outside … especially when the weather is beautiful like it is now. Shooting a lot of glamour tends to keep me on the inside. I mean, a model in a thong (or worse, a nude model) in a public area tends to cause a lot of commotion.

Anywho, I recently had the joy to do an early morning (8am call) shoot with a new model, Kijonna. We only had an hour to play around til the sun reared its ugly head. I got the shot below. I love it because it’s very understated, yet powerful.

Kijonna

The Art of the Beauty Shot

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:07:52 +0000

Executing a good beauty shot is not an easy thing. I’m still not satisfied with my work when it comes to beauty shots. I’ve got some ways to go to produce the magazine cover shot (even though a lot of that is done in the retouching stage). I’ve found that working with a good makeup artist is essential. I was lucky to work with a good artist from New York a little while ago. This is the result:

Asharah

I think that I accomplished a very nice image here.

P.S. Having a beautiful model helps a lot too …

Composition of Chipz Album Photo

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:46:03 +0000

I recently shot another new model named Chipz. The theme around our shoot was albums, as in music albums. I wanted to have the model covering her goods with old LPs. The look was to be very nude in nature but we took some clothed shots, mainly because I lost focus of what I wanted to achieve. The original concept was to have a nude model looking at another album photo of herself nude. The model was in a rush because of her “escort” having to be somewhere. AND NO … I haven’t eased my policy of “no escorts”. Her escort was posing as a makeup artist. This is yet another of the many reasons why I don’t allow escorts … they always find a way to lessen my concept. Anyway, I could go on forever about models who think that photographers are going to kill them … SMH.

I started off by shooting the model holding the album sleeve open with her back to the camera. I used an old KC and the Sunshine Band. I wanted to use an old album sleeve because I was hoping to salvage the wear-and-tear of the album on the finished photo.

Chipz - RLP

One thing that you’ll notice is the floating album in the background. This was used for a different part of the shoot and I thought that it’d add to the composition so I left it in.

Next, I wanted to add in the photo of the nude model that would be inside the sleeve. Well, as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t get the exact shot that I wanted for the insert so I had to settle for another shot that I took. It is a nude shot but it was rather simplistic. To compound on the problem, the photo had the same background as the photo it’d get inserted into. This was very unpleasing to the eye.

Chipz - RLP

So, what could I do to break up the monotony? Place the model into a different background. I went through my library of nature scenes and found one that I felt the model would blend into well. I boosted the contrast of the scenery so that it’d match the contrast used to shoot the model. I manually added some lens blur to the background to give the impression of a big aperture used for the composition of the model in the forest. I then cropped that scenery to match the dimensions of the album sleeve.

Scenery - RLP

The next step was the tedious process of placing the composited work into the space of the album sleeve. It may be hard to detect in the final photo but the top and bottom parts of the sleeve are not aligned straight. I had to employ the VP in PS to fit the photo into the sleeve.

Chipz - RLP

I didn’t want the album to have a clean finish so I did the following:

1.) slightly desaturated the photo.

2.) lasso’d the album sleeve dividers lines (which were black on the original sleeve) and converted them to white lines.

3.) dummied up some white aged lines using the pencil tools. Reduce the opacity of those lines.

4.) added a pattern overlay so that the sleeve would appear to have some texture.

Add that’s it! A lot of work but to a experience photographer/retoucher , it’s sort of routine. That’s what you’re paying for when you hire a professional.

You can see the entire layout from this album concept in the next issue of DimeParadise.com, coming soon.

RLP In the Lab - Thickness

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:02:10 +0000

There are bodies … and then there are BODIES. I got the chance to work with a new model who goes by the name, Mz. Thickness. She had cold feet early on and it showed. Her posing ability was very limited and I had to do some poses to give her ideas. Normally, this breaks the ice because there are fewer things funnier than me doing feminine model poses. But a photographer must sometimes suffer humiliation to get his work done.

Thickness - RLP

The rest of the shoot went well. With a body like hers, she could do big things in the glamour industry if she relaxes her limitations. A lot of good models have stunted their potential with conservative views about modeling. Let’s hope that we see more of Thickness.

Thickness - RLP

Soft Light, Soft Focus

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:47:38 +0000

Sometimes I fall in love with a particular lighting and just use it over and over. One of my favorite lighting setups is the overhead lighting with drastic falloff. It’s great for nudes. Models tend to not like it because their faces fall in the shadows. Of course, this can be fixed with an additional light but I love the shadowed face. There’s an artistic spice about it.

I bought a cool-ass hat recently and wear it every chance that I can. It takes a cool gentleman to wear a hat the right way. My hat inspired me to take some self portraits using my favorite light (and a soft focus filter). Below, are the best.

The Hat and Ray

RLP In the Lab - J Stallion

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:48:48 +0000

OK. I have a pet peeve calling models by their alias … especially if it sounds “strange”. After all, I’m the photographer who wouldn’t respond to a dimepiece model because she insisted on being called “Slimm”. So, J responded to another casting that I posted on Model Mayhem and I was happy to work with her. Now, normally, I have found models on Model Mayhem to be very unreliable. Secondly, I have found that setting up a shoot solely by emails and text messages to be very, very, very risky … as in, the model will flake. But, to my surprise, this shoot came off without a hitch. I had no preconceived ideas on this shoot as I wasn’t sure what her limits were. She had only one outfit but we worked with that.

DP Model - Stallion

This is a crazy robotic image that I caught. It works because she’s got a bangin’ lower end. Looks even better from the side. If we ever shoot again, I’ll try to capture the great transition from her waist to her “booty”.

DP Model - Stallion

This was my favorite from the shoot. Initially, this photo didn’t catch my eye. It’s not one of the photos that the model picked as her favorite either. But the more that I studied this photo, the more that I saw that it captured her true beauty. It is a very strong look and sort of raps up everything that we did that evening.

RLP In the Lab - Kei

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:35:32 +0000

After posting a casting on Model Mayhem, I received a response from Kei. This was a last minute casting and I picked her from a list of 4 other models. She had a pretty face and was “busty” which I figured I could make some good glamour photos. I didn’t go all out glamour with her and I usually don’t explore my better ideas if the model’s not comfortable going all the way glamour. She was very friendly and we didn’t have any hitches during the shoot. Below are some of the results:

This was my favorite photo from the shoot. Initially, it was my second favorite but it grew on me, more and more. She makes great eye contact with the camera and provides an angle that shows off her curves. I managed to achieve the lighting that I was going for, as well.

DP Model - Kei

This photo is a “version” of what was my favorite from the shoot. I took a version of this photo that is a tighter crop. Ironically, this was the last shot that we took for the evening. I had managed to go through the entire shoot without remembering to shoot her in the signature “white shirt”. Glad that I did.

DimeParadise.com - Winter 2008 Issue

admin — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:37:25 +0000

The Premiere Issue:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FULL-SIZE VERSION.

DimeParadise.com - Spring 2008 Issue

admin — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:36:16 +0000

Featuring: Allyssa, Kida, Andreea.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FULL-SIZE VERSION.