Jessica Alba, au Naturale
Okay, I guess this is officially magazine night here on Strobist.So I am in the checkout line this evening waiting to pony up for my Diet Mountain Dew and Baked Ruffles. I'm looking at the People Magazine 'Most Beautiful' cover story because I am way too cultured to look at the National Enquirer. Unless it is a really good issue.
Drew Barrymore? Most beautiful? Please. I mean, she's not repulsive or anything. But c'mon. I see her as high 20's, tops.
Given the photo up top, Drew is not even the prettiest person on this page.
But right in the middle of the whole Beautifulness package, there was something of interest. They shot 10 celebs for a spread without makeup or Photoshop.
We have looked into the retouching thing at length in the past. This no-makeup-no-retouching stunt flies in the face of all we hold dear in celebrity photography today.
It's almost communist, if you ask me.
So why do we give a rat's butt? Because PopPhoto Flash got the skinny (heh) on the techniques the photogs used to cheat Mother Nature (or at least Father Time) when shooting the celebs without a net.
Yes, folks, utilizing techniques like this, you can make even Jessica Alba look good.
Seriously, there are some very good tips that you can apply to your own subjects if they don't quite crack the Top 50. Check 'em out here.
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by David, at 9:46 PM.
11 Comments:
Everyone should study the Myspace pics phenomenon. Most people post pics that are not properly exposed or blurry, soft focus or in extreme angles.
A lot photographers will dismiss this as casual photographers not knowing how to use their cameras.
But from my er "research" people prefer to post their "bad" pictures because of the exact reasons shown on the pop photo. In that "bad" camera techniques will often obfuscate a lot of flaws.
I read none of this post. Why? It's late, I am still @ work and Jessica Alba is mmm...umm gorgeous. I'll read the post in the morning, until then; keep posting more pictures of her. Please.
It's not all overexposure and motion blur that counts toward capturing beauty (as the popphoto article seems to only concentrate on). Expression goes a long way in hiding flaws. Getting a subject's presence to jump through should come first and foremost for a photographer.
There's so much emphasis on hiding - I would much rather see focus on bringing personality out. I mean shoot, look at Alba and her smile, who's gonna take away points for a zit or a wrinkle? =)
Besides, she's a Warriors fan. I love her *smooch*
From a woman's perspective, if that makes a difference - I agree with Mike.
The article was a tad harsh, not recognizing that there may indeed have been more than overexposure and trickery going on. There was some serious bias in there, kind of sounded bitter?
On a separate note, I saw an interview with Katherine McPhee (also in the no-makeup section of the 'infamous' People), and she talked about some oils, moisturizers and sprays they used on the shoot as well.
Thought I would throw that on the pile. :)
Don't Be A Drew Hater!!. She isn't the prettiest person in the world based on looks. But if you look at the whole package, she is. She's cute, kind, cute, happy, A PHOTOGRAHPER, and very cool. Jessica alba just has the looks as far as I know. But that's a good thing.
Like Jessica Rabbit said
I'm not bad...I'm just photographed that way..."
The worst thing about that article is that they couldn't even be bothered to properly thumbnail the images and just used code to resize the originals... so they look terrible. Lazy.
Would the B/W shots also be using a filter (red?) to suppress skin blemishes?
Hmmm... very attractive celebs looking more like your neighbor next door, or the barista at the corner coffee shop? Cool! I know many beautiful women that compare themselves to the airbrushed, blemish free stuff they see everywhere, and feel terrible about themselves, I liken this to the Dove campaign. I dig it, but I also dig the article from Pop Photo on how-to
The use of B/W is also nice because it hides color irregularities in the skin. Also the use of a red filter makes the it even smoother as much of the skin defects are in the blue and green channel.
In photoshop using the channel mixer to conert into B/W allows you to simulate a red filter.
B/W also seems to make a blurry or soft image less apparent for some reason.
It's a good article but would be very interesting to see the images in a large format..
- www.photographyvoter.com
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