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Creating the Photograph

Creating the Photograph: Adam Baron’s “Tico’s New ‘Do”

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/16/2014
3 Mins read

Tico's New 'Do

Creating the Photograph is an original series where we interview photographers about a photo that they shot and how it was achieved. The results are some knowledge passed on to you. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com

When Adam Baron showed us the photo above that he had been working on, we were immediately intrigued. Adam is a featured artist in the book “Adobe Master Class: Photoshop Inspiring artwork and tutorials by established and emerging artists” Plus, his work has been featured in newspapers and magazines. So when he talked to us about the pure creativity behind this photo, we were eager to share it with you guys.

Here’s Adam’s story.

The Concept

lighting-diagram-1392262821

I started the project with the idea of playing around with light painting, a technique I had never bothered to try before. After having come up with the concept of a model whose hair was to actually be made up of trails of light, I knew I needed a bald female model. After much hunting, I found the beautiful and bald Tico Armand. I also hired Erika Mendy, an MUA I had worked with before, who knew the extreme look I was going after. After about an hour in the makeup chair, she was ready to shoot.

The Gear

– Nikon D7000

– Nikon SB-910 and SB-700

– Umbrellas

The Shoot

Behind the scenes

The model sat on a stool in front of a black background and I had the studio very dark. First I would trigger the shutter to open then I would take a small led key chain light that I could trigger by squeezing and I would make the “hair-like” motions starting from just above her scalp and proceeding upward. I had a dark sock over my arm so none of my arm would register from the reflected light. I would then walk away from her and countdown from three which was her cue to make that face while I triggered the shutter to close. As I was using rear curtain sync, just before the shutter would close the flashes would fire. I utilized an Eye-Fi wireless SD card tethered to my iPad so I could show the model her face after every take, and she could adjust accordingly. After trying different “hair patterns,” I settled into a curly-cue motion that seemed to work best.

Post-Production

The Contact sheet

When I had several good takes I decided that they would look best if they were composited together to give the illusion of a neon wig. First I took the best “face” and used that as the base layer in Photoshop. I then took the best takes of the hair and imported them as layers above the head, with the heads masked out. Through the use of masking the multiple layers, I came up with the best overall balance and placement of “hair.”

The one thing I remember the most about this shoot was the accompanying scream she would make every time she would make the face. I can only imagine what the neighbors must have thought!

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Adam Baron camera light painting umbrellas Photography
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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