fashion inn 4us: Red of the Dragon, Fashion Editorial in Papercut Magazine.

Sometimes I have so many ideas I don’t know where to start. Sometimes I feel like I’m grasping for ideas. What I’ve found time and time again is that I truly enjoy some boundaries, but also complete creative freedom. Yes, I know that doesn’t seem to make sense, but it truly does. Let me explain.

When I have a particular theme or goal in mind, this helps give me direction in the shoot. When shooting fashion editorials the magazines typically have themes for each issue. Previous themes I’ve shot for have been “Ice”, “Ever Upward”, “Holiday”, and more. By keeping these themes in mind when planning and executing a shoot it helps me make decision about wardrobe, styling, creative techniques, poses and much more. For this reason I often tentatively title my shoots even before they have been shot. Giving it a title helps me move the entire shoot in a single cohesive direction and helps me better communicate this direction to my creative team. Also, when using a title or a theme it really helps me start to flow creatively as I associate different clothing, poses and other concepts to that main theme. For example, one shoot I tentatively titled “The Raven” and I used clothing that look like bird wings, accessories with feathers, and poses like a stork. That title really help me come up with unique approaches to my imagery.

Red of the Dragon Editorial, Papercut Magazine, Photo by Lindsay Adler

For this editorial I was shooting for . The issue’s theme was “Red”. If you’ve looked enough at my work you know that I LOOOOVEEEE red. Red is such an aggressive, eye-catching color. It is bold and allows me to create arresting imagery. When laying out my portfolio I sometimes use Red as a thread to pull the viewers eyes through the photographic series.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my style recently. When I shoot usually the style comes naturally, but I do keep it in the back of my mind. I like things that are clean, and bold and graphic. I want images that can stand alone and grab someone’s attention.

Because of the theme red, I wanted to do an editorial that “screamed” red to me. I knew already that all of the other editorials would incorporate this color, and I need to have more bold imagery to really capture attention. When I was shooting the editorial it was on the very end of autumn, and the leaves on the trees were bright yellow and some red. This got me thinking… what if all of the leave in the forest were bright red? What if there was an entire autumn where the leaves turned blood red, like a stain of beautiful violence across the forest? I wanted to have a pale model, elegant and pure against this blood red stain. I discussed with my creative team and we also decided upon red clothing to make her pale complexion pop even more.

Red of the Dragon Editorial, Papercut Magazine, Photo by Lindsay Adler

Samantha, our model from Muse, was an absolute sweet heart. She was patient, and excited, and just loved the images. She kept telling me the entire shoot how happy she was that everything was going so smoothly and that everyone was so nice!

I could go on a bit more about the technique of the shoot, but I’ll just give it to you in a nutshell. Basically I photographed the model again solid yellow leaves in Central Park (right outside my apartment). Photographing against solid yellow would make it easier to change the leaves to red in post production. I used only natural light, and used a diffuser and reflector (from California Sunbounce) in most of the shots. In Photoshop I smoothed out her skin and changed the leave red, and her skin REALLY was that pale in real life! Beautiful! To see some of the behind the scenes shots (gives you an idea of some of the pre-photoshop appearance) see the gallery below.

Red of the Dragon Editorial, Papercut Magazine, Photo by Lindsay Adler

Mesh NY Jewelry

I’ve said it a million times, but I’ll say it again. I have the best job in the world. Most of my time spent photographing is either for commercial portraits (athletes, celebrities, etc), magazine editorials, and campaigns for various brands. In December I was asked to shoot several jewelry/beauty campaigns, and I am excited to show you the images (more to follow in future blog posts).

As you likely know, commercial images or advertising images are generally (not always) less creative or avant garde than images that may appear in a fashion editorial. However, creating successful commercial images is extremely challenging many times because you must balance your skills as a photographer with the demands of the clients, and must also appeal to the target audience. Basically you are helping to creatively communicate a message from your client to their target audience, ideally to make their product/service desirable to that target market. Many things must be considered and in the end you must make your image stand out from the thousands of other images we all see every day.

When shooting fashion editorials I am used to selecting unusual models, in unusual clothing, with unusual lighting, etc. Yet for a commercial campaign like this I needed to have more ‘commercial lighting’ (read this as ‘clean’ and not distracting) and to be sure the focus of the image was on the product I was helping to sell.

The client for this particular shoot was , a company that creates jewelry using precious metals and stones. We wanted to show the quality and timelessness of these stunning pieces (that have appeared in most major fashion magazines and on the hands of many celebrities). The pieces truly (unbiasedly!) are stunning! My favorite images was the featured image of this post (top) and then down in decreasing order.

Mesh NY Jewelry photographs by Lindsay Adler

The inspiration I was provided with was very in feel. The images featured striking women, with simple natural light and a focus on the jewelry. The images were elegant, black and white and gave a timeless feel.

The lighting in all of the images is natural light from a large window in the studio. In order to help carve out the model’s features and to give a bit of direction to the light, I used two large black flats to block off light on the left and right of the model’s face and body. By doing this (“negative fill”) you are really able to define the features. Using negative fill helps carve out the jaw line and add more definition to the ‘edges’ of the face and form. In a few images I put a silver reflector beneath the model’s chin to bounce light back into the eyes and give them a bit of a sparkle (you can see the catch light in the eyes in a few shots).

The results were quiet, elegant and provided a focus on the jewelry. Again, the lead photo (first close shot of girl on top) was my favorite, as I felt the model was beautiful yet the jewelry was still the focus of the image. I shot with a fantastic creative team: