The Story Behind the Image - Blog

Hi! Here's the first in what will hopefully be a series of blog posts giving some background into the creation and editing of some of my images. 

The Details - Where, When, Who and How

The image above was taken last year (2019) at the location featured in this behind the scenes video: 

 https://www.patreon.com/posts/33619497 

The model is Solar (Instagram @ solar_ye). Her and her twin sister (Instagram @nibacari) modeled this day and we created a lot of great work. 

This image is taken with a digital SLR and is edited in Photoshop Lightroom. 

The Why

This image was one of several I took after noticing how filthy Solar's hands had become in the very old and dirty location we were shooting in (see BTS video). It's hard to explain, but when you have been shooting for many years, you just recognize a good opportunity for an interesting shot. This was one of those instances. 

I really liked the contrast of Solar's pale skin, the black of her hands and the darkness of her pubic hair. Pubic hair, by the way, seems to be in rare supply these days on models. I find it aesthetically pleasing in photographs, particularly black and white photos which accounts for the bulk of my work.

I had previously edited another image from this series, the one against the wall in black and white. I shot this theme in several different ways, cropping her pubic area in some (with Instagram in mind no doubt) and doing a few against a wall (continued below the image). 

I wanted to edit another of these and really like the full, uncropped, version. I also wanted to do a color version with a dark vibe. I've been listening to some of my favorite 90's industrial bands lately and think that's what created my desire for a grungy/industrial feel. 

I also always try to feature the twin's (Solar and Nibacari) physique as much as possible because they both work very hard at being fit. So I edited the image in a way to feature Solar's abs as much as possible. 

By the way, when I say 'editing' I am referring to making adjustments to the image in Photoshop Lightroom and occasionally in full Photoshop. I typically only make changes that could be made in a traditional darkroom. This would include selective dodging (lightening) and burning (darkening), cropping and toning. I have spent years in the darkroom doing traditional printing and don't have any guilt about using digital tools to edit digital images. 

As far as composition goes, a lot more thought has gone into it than is probably readily apparent. I'm rather a stickler about this. I intentionally centered her so that the second door was behind her head. I think this makes her head and face 'jump out' a little. I also intentionally had her hands placed to hide her breasts as I liked the contradiction and irony of a visible pubis but hidden nipples. Take that Instagram. ( :

The Secret About This Image

Some of you may have already noticed this and if you haven't yet, now it will seem obvious, but this image is pretty completely Out Of Focus! Ha. It happens. Even after 30+ years occasionally I don't update the focus after moving. 

This is taken with an auto-focus lens, but I use what is called a 'back focus' technique which means the camera only updates the focus when I specifically tell it to. I do this because I've never really trusted continual auto-focus, I learned in manual focus days and really would shoot manually if modern lenses easily allowed it. 

I caught this error and the next two shots with the cropped pubis are perfectly focused but for some reason I didn't shoot another image uncropped. 

I still like the image enough that I took the time to create this edit and for online display it actually works fine. I just probably wouldn't do a large print of this, but who knows, it might look OK. 

So there is probably Way more info than you ever wanted about this image. If you made it to the end, I hope you weren't to bored and I thank you!

Lindsay