Alesha by William Beem
It’s one of those evenings with a thunderstorm outside and I’m sitting here looking at photos I never processed. This one is from a workshop at OMP Studios in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The place had some nice toys, including the Profoto pointing into an 8-foot octabox over my shoulder for this shot on the cyclorama. Alesha is a lovely model who takes direction well, though I was struggling with what direction I wanted to give at the time. Sometimes I just have to work my way through it until some inspiration strikes. I had her stand in front of me with her hands on her hips to start. Not a great look, but it was a place to start. From there, it was just a matter of bending, twisting, and seeing what happened. This shot was the first bend & twist after the dead-on, hands on her hips beginning. I just told her to give me a little angle, kick her hips back and bend her knee.
Editing this shot was easy. I simply used a Cross-Processesing preset in Apple’s Aperture 3. I’m actually pretty content with the results. There are always things that you could tweak here and there, but I’m leaving it as it I see it. She doesn’t need any skin softening, I’m not adding highlights to her hair. Sometimes you don’t need to over-polish a shot.
