Amy Dunn, Houston Photographer Blog » skin

Always Have a Plan B

amydunn — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:31:30 +0000

This weekend, I really wanted to shoot outside to try more location lighting. Much to my dismay, Texas had some uncharacteristically bone-chilling weather. Instead of complaining, I decided to do a little beauty shoot. Sabrina, a fabulous makeup artist in Austin, had a colorful story in mind and went to town with the hair and makeup.

As Sabrina prepped the model, I looked over some tearsheets to decide what kind of lighting I wanted to try. I opted for a blown out white background and wanted two lights side-by-side to create a fun catch light. But for some reason, the first look did not come together. I wanted strong beauty, but the images looked too commercial and blah. Jaysen suggested tossing up a beauty dish and lighting it like this image here. I liked the dramatic tones and directed the model, Haley, to tilt her head in exaggerated poses to show off her beautiful bone structure.

Even though I had traveled to Austin hoping for a location shoot, and even after my first lighting attempt failed, I held out hope that I could salvage my shoot. I owe a huge thanks to Jaysen for allowing us to use his immaculate studio and for suggesting lighting and retouching fixes. It goes to show that sometimes Plan B can work as magically as Plan A.

Photographer: Amy Dunn
Photo assistants: Jaysen Turner, Jon Slevec
Makeup artist: Sabrina
Model: Haley

Jaysen Turner’s Studio
Austin, TX 2010

Gear: Canon 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM
Lighting: AB 800 Beauty Dish + grid

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Two Photos Added to Macro Section

amydunn — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:45:03 +0000

I finally got around to adding two images from a test I did in May. I did my own retouching here, so you can see I kept the pores intact. Skin is good. Even though it does not look like I did much retouching, I spent hours in front of the computer fixing chips and discoloration in the model’s teeth and “plucking” lip and chin hair one by one. If anyone has a better suggestion for hair removal, please advise.

See more images like these in my Macro section.

Photographer: Amy Dunn
Makeup artist: Erin McCarthy

Gear: Canon 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Hensel Studio Lights

Make Up For Ever
New York City, 2009

New York State of Mind

amydunn — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:38:34 +0000

During my last week in New York City, I got to squeeze in a shoot with a couple of my favorite people: Erin, the monstrously-talented-force-to-be-reckoned-with-artist at Make Up For Ever and Stephen Eastwood, a freaking Canon Explorer of Light as my companion to b.s. with during breaks. Who’s better than me?!

Erin sent me the files from our shoot, and I suddenly felt nostalgic. Over the last two months, I traveled to Europe and spent a good portion of time in Houston and Austin, TX. Many shoots I organized in the listed cities fell apart for some strange reason, and while Texas boasts some serious beauty and talent, the energy is way too laid back here. I would love for someone to prove me wrong.

I originally intended to crash the Photo Plus Expo in NY; however, I must attend a wedding in Texas this weekend and would not miss it for anything. BUT, I found a ridiculously amazing deal at Jet Blue today and will visit New York City next week! My mind keeps racing over the possibilities of shooting there, and I want to explore some of the ideas I intended to test but could not due to time constraints. I definitely want to shoot with Erin because we always get such amazing beauty work, and I will see if I can get the infamous Mr. Stephen Eastwood to be my “reflector bitch” again. He really does fill in a good shadow, doesn’t he?

Photographer: Amy Dunn
Lighting consultant: Stephen Eastwood
Makeup artist: Erin McCarthy
Model: Anka

Make Up For Ever Studios
New York, NY 2009

Gear: Canon 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM
Hensel Flash Unit and Small Softbox
Reflector for Fill