Black mask

I like masks and outdoors photography.

I took these photos last year, in a private area near Great Falls. The lighting and the environment were perfect, and the model helped a lot during the session, recommending poses and following my recommendations. Continue reading “Black mask”

Dark veil – experiments with high contrast and motion

During the photo shoot of  the Dark Queen mask, I decided to play with a dark veil given the strong wind of that day.

lucuella-conceptual-art-photography

I actually wanted to experiment with wind and capture motion in other photo shoots, but unfortunately weather didn’t help that much, but the scenery, the weather and the concept was shooting this time were perfect. Continue reading “Dark veil – experiments with high contrast and motion”

Indigenous Deity

When I was building the Dark Queen mask, I made an ornament with some leftover pieces, designed to be worn in the forehead. Initially, I intended to utilize this ornament in a dark concept, but when the model wore it, it looked more like an avant garde version of an indigenous plume.

Avant Garde Indian Deity

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Dark Queen – Mask

I wanted to experiment with new props in my photo shoots and decided to create a mask, out of a cardboard. The process was empiric and improvised. It was like practicing origami in the beginning, creating volumes by cutting and folding the cardboard, and then giving shape to the mask by incorporating the leftover pieces that I was cutting out.

This is how the foundation looked like when I got the shape done.

Process to create a mask - foundation

Then, I started the second part of the process, which consisted of bathing or dipping little pieces of paper in glue mixed with water, and then pasting them in the foundation.

This process gave the mask a hard finish and texture.

Process to create a mask - details

Finally, I used gold acrylics to paint the whole mask.

I realized that I needed a special dress for that mask, so I went to a fabrics store and bought 3 yards of velvet-like fabric to simulate a cloak, which made a perfect match.

The mask didn’t work quite well for the model who wore it, though, it didn’t fit her well and she had trouble to see behind it, in great part because the holes for the eyes have the measurement of my face (I build that!), so I’ll keep that in mind for the next mask I design.

Dark queen

I took these photos at around noon. The sun light was coming from the top and it created high contrast in those areas where it was hitting directly, and also projected harsh shadows of leaves and branches over the model.

Dark queen

I decided to explore different angles and move around while the model stayed at the same spot.

When you work with natural light, the only way to change the lighting is by keep moving and take photos from different points.

Dark queen

In order to give a feeling of being deep into the woods, I intentionally included some out-of-focus branches and leaves in front of the model.

Dark queen

I’m very pleased with the outcome of this photo shoot. The model did a great job, she was very patient and stayed cool wearing that mask, and was always open to explore different poses and angles during all the session.

Dark queen

This photo shoot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and a 70-200 mm lens.

Silueta y movimiento

Hace algunos años hice las siguentes fotos como ejercicio de iluminación y movimiento. Para ello, ubiqué una lámpara halógena de 500 vatios detrás de la modelo y otra de frente con difusor, o tela delgada en frente de la luz para atenuar la intensidad y hacerla más suave.

experimentacion-fotografia-movimiento
Continue reading “Silueta y movimiento”

Ejercicios de iluminación artificial

Revisando mis archivos de fotografías encontré este estudio experimental con luz artificial, en el que usé una lámpara halógena de 400W y una luz direccional de 50W. Una amiga, Luisa Agudelo, me sirvió de modelo, y me colaboró muchísimo con el vestuario y los props.

La gran ventaja de la iluminación artificial sobre la luz natural es que el fotógrafo tiene el control sobre la configuración de las luces, pero la gran desventaja es que se pueden cometer muchos errores si no se tiene experiencia.

En las primeras fotos de este estudio usé una iluminación muy clásica, usando la luz principal (400W) frontal en un ángulo casi de 45 grados desde arriba y la luz direccional desde atrás como backlight. También utilicé una tela negra como fondo.

fotos-modelos-calenas-lucuella

Poco a poco comencé a variar la iluminación para dar resultados más dramáticos, como usando la luz principal mucho más frontal, lateral o desde bien arriba para generar más contrastes.

como-usar-flash-en-fotografia-lucuella

Continue reading “Ejercicios de iluminación artificial”

Silicon Corpses – Digital Photomanipulation

Probably 10 years ago I started experimenting with digital painting and photo manipulation. At that time, I attended a short drawing course of Manga comics and discovered a great Japanese manga artists – Tsutomu Nihei, and his collection of manga books titled Blame! which became a great influence in a photo montage project I titled Silicon Corpses.

Based on Blame! and NOiSE books, I created a some sort of garments with wire and surgical fabric. I asked few friends to pose with those garments, I took some photographs using as reference some drawings from the books and then finished the work in the computer.

Hace 10 años comencé a experimentar con pintura digital y manipulación de fotografías. En esa época realicé un curso de Manga y descubrí a un gran dibujante japonés llamado Tsutomu Nihei, autor de libros como Blame! y NOiSE, quien me influenció bastante y me animó a realizar una serie de foto manipulaciones llamada Cadáveres de Silicio.

Con base en viñetas e ilustraciones de libros Blame y NOiSE, realicé trajes hechos de alambre dulce y tela quirúrgica (muy barata). Unas amigas posaron con estos trajes para las fotos base y posteriormente terminé el trabajo en el computador.

This is the result of my work:

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

lucuella-silicon-corpses-nihei-fanart

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA