Seeing Red (behind the scenes) by Richelle Swinkels

Seeing Red
Behind The Scenes

by Richelle Swinkels

To me the preparation for a photo shoot is a process with a full range of emotions. For me it starts with a dream or a vision, from there I research images and look for inspiration on the technical aspect. What style of lighting will fit what I'm trying to accomplish, who will be my subject, and what I exactly what I want it to look like. It's as if a coloring page develops in my head, first the outlines appear and I slowly work on deciding how I want to color it in. 

For me personally, some ideas that I come up with are much more obvious about their meaning and what I'm trying to convey. On the other hand, other images are left a little more open for interpretation on an individual basis. 

I had this visualization and then saw some portraiture done by the model I used in this image (Jessica Mumm), which inspired my lighting technique. I used two strip boxes at a 45 degree angle towards the model, to create the two highlights in the eye and a background light to fill in the and make the background white. I shot with my Cannon T3i and a fixed 50mm lens at f3.5 1/200. I used very little photoshop in the image, just trying to even out the white on her skin, smooth a couple lines and turn her eyes red and viola my image was complete and just how I pictured it! Which is one of the most rewarding aspects of the creative process.

Thanks again to Jessica Mumm for being my subject in the photo and Cassie G. for hair and makeup!