Credits

Photographer: Matt Haines for One Thousand Umbrellas
Wardrobe Stylist: Jennifer Margolin
Makeup Artist: Naz Madaen
Hair Stylist: Joey Villegas
Model: Katie M. with LA Models

Comments from Jennifer and Matt follow the images. Click on any image to see it larger.

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Styling comments from fashion and wardrobe stylist Jennifer Margolin

When I got the call to style this photo shoot, I was excited to work with Matt again.  For this shoot Matt already had a theme in mind, and he sent me two reference photos to review. He was looking to do a “sexy but casual” shoot (his own words) all with the model lying on different rugs.  Once Matt got the rugs that he planned to use for the shoot, he emailed photos so I could see the colors and textures.  After reviewing Katie’s portfolio and specs along with the other images Matt had forwarded, my work began.

I knew that Matt wasn’t looking to do a lingerie style shoot when he used “sexy” as a description.  I immediately thought of Katie in “boyfriend” inspired clothing, cozy sweaters delicate lace and boy shorts.  I did some additional research on my end before I came up with a rough idea of the wardrobe I wanted to pull.  I chose to keep the color palette simple, using neutral colors, so the clothes wouldn’t compete with the rugs.  I wanted the wardrobe to give that cozy feeling of sitting by the fire in a borrowed t-shirt from one’s boyfriend, all while exuding an understated sex appeal.  I put Katie in a fitted vest with an embellished rhinestone closure to “glam” up one of her looks.  The jewelry I wanted to keep minimal, but it added just the right pop to the photos as needed.   Katie was easy to dress and great to work with.  She knew exactly how to move to get the right light and make the clothes look good. I had fun dressing her as everything just worked on her.

Naz did Katie’s makeup for the shoot and experimented with my jewelry while Katie was shooting.  She found one of my gold cuffs with jeweled colored stones and had an inspiration for an additional look.  While Matt and Katie were working, Naz, Joey (the hairstylist) and I all collaborated on the additional look. Naz loved the colors of the stones and wanted to have streaks of those colors on Katie’s face. Joey took Katie’s sexy bed-head hair from the shoot and piled it on top of her head.  I had the perfect plum-colored Alexander Wang one-shoulder dress that completed the overall look.  As you can see from the images, they turned out amazing.  Matt was a great sport and loved our idea for the final surprise look. It was such a fun shoot, because everyone just fed off of each other’s creativity. It’s great working with professionals who are passionate about what they do.

Photographic comments from fashion photographer Matt Haines

As Jennifer mentioned, I had some very specific ideas about the final look of the images, based on some inspirational pages I’d pulled from magazines. For this shoot, I wanted little shorts, cozy tops, and the model would mostly be reclining on blankets or rugs. With a concept like this though, it’s important that the model not go over the top and turn it into something cheesy or “pin up”. They key was to keep the model expressing anything but sexy: anger, sadness, melancholy etc. This would create subtle layers rather than just a one-dimensional image.

So I kept telling Katie to “give me stink eye”. I should no better, but I say this a lot. And it often gets the model laughing rather than the intense look I had intended! That’s what happened with the lead shot above. I waited until Katie stopped laughing and then caught her while she still had a twinkle in her eye.

This shoot did give me an opportunity to try out a variety of lighting techniques, including some I hadn’t used before. The set up shot below was used to capture the lead image. While Katie was laying on the ground, it was still important that I light her face from a pleasing angle. In relation to her face, the light should come from the front and above, possibly off to one side. But since she was lying down, this meant suspending a light on a boom over her head. From the position you see below. I eventually moved the beauty dish camera-left to put the light source ‘above’ her, as seen in the image. This gives a nice nose shadow and shadow under the chin. Meanwhile, the light you see firing in the set up shot is aimed directly up at the ceiling. This was the fill light, which was bounced off a ceiling that was coated with metal sheeting of some sort. It reflected well, diffused a little, and gave me nice shadow detail. I shot from a ladder for most of this shoot, which you can see below. The beauty dish has an Alien Bees 800 in it, and the fill light is an Alien Bees 1600.

For the last image above, with Katie standing up, I simulated some window light. I placed two very large, black V-cards close together with a gap of about one foot, to simulate a wall with a window in it. Behind it I set up a diffuser panel, and fired a strobe through it to light the model. The strobe was about four feet from the diffuser for an even coverage, and slightly higher than the model’s face. A simple, one-light affair.For the image above that, with the tank top and silver bracelet, Katie is giving me her best “stink eye” interpretation. The post-production on this image is intentionally dark and a little cool-toned, to give it a moonlight-through-window feel. It is however the same strobe-through-diffuser-panel technique as mentioned above, but without V-cards. There is also a slight fill light, camera left from “above”, i.e. from the top of the frame.

My crew were apparently conspiring together while I was shooting. When I thought I’d finished the shoot, it was made clear to me that I had at least one more look to do! And it was a nice addition to the shoot too. Messy up-do, funky makeup stripes on her cheek, and a purple dress…it’s a different look than the rest of the images, but well worth doing. It pays to be flexible and listen to ideas! (My wife is probably thinking I should take that advice more often.)

Set up shot for "furry blanket" image (top of post).

Naz and Joey getting Katie ready for the shoot.

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