Liz Ashley
“Wow…” That’s what I said every time Liz changes her pose. It’s been about a year since I first saw her work; ever since then, I’ve been patiently waiting for her return to the bay area. Well, she’s worth the wait. Liz Ashley – an amazing southern belle from Houston, Texas. She is a really versatile model; just check out her portfolio. Her immaculate skin requires virtually no retouch; together with her mesmerizing eyes make great combination for beauty and head shots. Her statuesque physique and her great posing skills makes her a fantastic fashion model also. Last but not least, her fabulous curves and eye-catching proportions make her perfect for glamour and artistic nude work. What’s more amazing is that Liz is such a sweetheart to work with.
A few months ago, I had a chance to play with Westscott’s parabolic umbrella. I was surprised how it makes the model’s skin glow. When placed on-axis, parabolic umbrella focuses and wraps light around the subject. To me, it has similar effect to butterfly (clam shell) setup. Setup for the picture above:
- Einstein with Westcott parabolic umbrella. Behind camera. On axis.
- Einstein with gridded beauty dish. Slightly to the right of the camera. Pointed at Liz’ face.
By the way, color of the background is originally pastel blue with green tint. I didn’t like it very much. For some reason, green just doesn’t go well with skin tones. I shifted the color (took out most of the green and added blue) during raw processing with Nikon Capture. I think it brings out Liz’s skin and eyes’ colors.
Fabulous, isn’t she?
Setup for dark-gray background series is pretty much the same; except I didn’t put enough power on the parabolic umbrella. Therefore, Liz’s body was actually about 1 to 2 stops darker; this made it look like she was wearing stockings. I fixed it by bumping up the exposure on a separate file, then overlaid it on top of the correctly exposed face.
I am impressed how Liz can change her look by simply tossing her hair to the side or holding it up. Amazing.
