Beauty Shots

I am continuing my quest to become a better photographer for beauty shots.

As always, I'm a makeup artist first, but I've really enjoyed the idea of learning photography and

being able to take beauty and headshots for models and actors.

Today, I got a new lighting kit!!! This will just be in addition to the lighting kit I already have... so bring it on models!

Here is a recent Beauty Shoot i did with a model named Angel Nikole.

She was a fabulous model and just a sweetheart! Doubling the fun, she has a big interest in makeup and is currently in Cosmetology school so we used the session as an information learning session for her as well! In fact, I've had a lot of student contact me lately, so hopefully I will be able to provide more information for them as well as other readers thru my blog in the upcoming months. I had no idea so many students followed my blog! It's great! I love to teach!

Ok, back to the shoot... We were really focusing on tight shots. You know, the kind you'd see in a makeup ad. These were shot with my Canon T2I camera with a 85mm 1.8 prime lens.

I love this shot! It really shows off the eye makeup without being a closed eye shot. Angel Nikole already has great bone structure for days! For makeup, I used my airbrush and Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics for the foundation. Blush is Garb by MAC. Lipgloss in Pout by Smashbox. and nails were painted with Pink-Ing of You by Opi.

Eyes as always were a mixture of many eyeshadows. Mac Skintone 1 (the gold tone), Mac Ricepaper for a bit of highlight. Stila Go Lightly and Barefoot Contessa for the darker shades.

As you can see in the above shot, I really focused the darker tones just above the crease as opposed to inside the crease. This is because I wanted to enlarge the eye and really show the depth of the crease tone without loosing it behind the falsh lashes in the more opened eyed shots. Her eyes were lined with a black gel liner with a fine point brush and NOT smudged.

Her lower lash line was also lined but was smudged for a softer look.

After the above beauty shots we taken, we decided to play a little bit more!

I added some brighter blue and green tones right on top of the existing makeup. To make sure the blues popped, i did layer some cream based blue to the outer corners. This helped for the blues to stick and have more vibrancy than if i had just added them to the top of already laid brown shadow. Shadow colors used, shimmermoss by MAC, Waternmyph by MAC, Blue by Ben Nye , Gold Luminess by Ben Nye.

She looks like a dancer to me here! I love it!

I did change her cheek color a bit to a more vibrant pink (i THINK it was hush by OCC) and changed her lipgloss color. I also added some half lashes to her lower lash line.

Then playing even more... we had the addition of some super fun feather lashes to her upper lash line! And shadowed under her lower lash line even more with the blues to compensate for the extra weight on her upper lashes.

Below is the same makeup but with a white background put up and a beautiful scarf wrapped on her head. She was channeling JLo from the American Idol show the night before. :D

I love how such subtle changes can really change the look.

What ideas would YOU like to see me create and shoot! Send me an email at Makeupbykatie@yahoo.com or put a comment on my facebook fan page; www.facebook.com/cottonrouge