Posing in Paris
Dipping your toes into unfamiliar territory is a little like, well, performing an Arabesque or Penche without point shoes. Before attending a lovely workshop presented by Jennifer Curry Wingrove, I didn't know the difference between an "Attitude Derriere" or a "Tendu". However, in this illuminating workshop, she not only covered the essentials of lighting these powerful athletes, but presented a crash course on terminology. And she can, because, as a ballerina in her own right, she knows her stuff! Thankfully, having a worksheet to refer to was a definite bonus as we waded through these waters. (It's summer and warm already, so excuse my watery references!)
The images were as lovely as our models. Still, I wanted to explore the potential transformation of what I photographed into its own distinct form of art. Often, I will sit on an image, or explore my endless catalog of images I have collected over the years, a collection of those I shot myself, as well as those purchased through other avenues.
So let's take a look at the anatomy of this photographic painting, beginning with the original image below. (By the way, one critical bit of advice shared by Jennifer was to make sure to show the final images as they are the best critics of their own poses. Even a subtle shift in a leg or arm can deem the image unacceptable from the dancer's point of view). Clearly, the original image is lovely.
Through my Summerana membership, I received an image of the Eiffle Tower and decided to use it roughly as on overlay onto a painted background I created in Photoshop, which is shown below. Alternatively, if you're just after an Eiffel Tower, and can't exactly pop over to Paris yourself, visit Unsplash.com of copyright free images.
After creating the new base for my image, I placed my subjects into the scene. I purposely wanted there to be a great deal of negative space. As I felt the color of the dress was distracting in this scene, I created a new layer in Photoshop over my subjects and changed the blending mode to "color" so that I could brush on a color of my choice, in this case blue.
I was careful to add the appropriate shadows and then repainted much of the scene to blend everything together into a cohesive piece. Due to the many workshops I've attended, as well as my membership with Beyond The Brushes, I used many different brushes to achieve the end result. If you do not have the means to join that community, rest assured Adobe as a large array of brushes at your disposal. It just takes a great deal of time and commitment to explore each one's strengths. They have curated an amazing collection.
In a further example of creating images, I'd like to share another with you, also taken at the same workshop. In this example, I extracted the image of the ballerina (photographed against a black background) and placed her into another painted backdrop, and simply overlayed an image I had taken in Arizona to give it a distinctive Spanish flair. (Again, this involved changing the blend mode of the Arizona image over the background I had painted.) Similarly, I married the image together using hand-painted techniques in Photoshop.
Lastly, I have an example of the same ballerina with the same background, but found a landscape image taken by Ronan Furuta which he made available on Unsplash, as a copyright free image. Yet another example of how changing the blend mode and repainting can yield beautiful results.
It was a joy to participate in the workshop and learn more about photographing ballerinas! If you haven't already, explore one of you local affiliates to see how you can grow as a photographer or artist. If you haven't already, consider joining Professional Photographers of America, another great resource to fabulous classes and programs.
Just keep learning and creating!
6 Comments
Jul 12, 2023, 2:47:17 PM
Irene Bowers - I covered the highlights in the post. For painting techniques, I have learned from a variety of talented photoshop educators. You can look them up. Michelle Parsley, Sandra Shaw Pearce, Kimberly Smith and Richard Sturdevant are a few names that come to mind. All offer their unique educational programs, workshops or online education.
Jul 12, 2023, 2:45:13 PM
Irene Bowers - Thank you!
Jul 12, 2023, 2:44:53 PM
Irene Bowers - Hi! Thank you for your comment. I created a separate blank layer in photoshop and changed the blend mode to "color". Then, I simply chose a blue I liked and brushed on to this layer, essentially changing the color beneath. My guess is if you look up "Blend Modes and color change" you will find many examples on YouTube. Super simple process. But then, after I painted the dress, I added additional flecks of color that might be reflected from the sky, the sun, etc. Glad you enjoy the image!
Jul 9, 2023, 11:41:48 PM
Angela - I would love to learn the process.
Jul 9, 2023, 11:22:31 AM
Jillane Bergeron - How did you change the colors of her outfit to blue?
Jul 9, 2023, 11:18:48 AM
Jillane Bergeron - I love this! Thank you for sharing!