Maks Danilin - Alvin Booth

This week I chose to play with shadows and light in an attempt to emulate the style of Alvin Booth.  Booth uses a more abstract style of portraiture that uses shadows in targeted  and purposeful ways to highlight or call attention to certain parts of the model.  His abstract style inspired me to use shadows and challenged me to work with materials that would create unique shadows.

 This first shot is of a piece of lace that has been suspended above the models face in order to cast a shadow.  I used the highlight/shadow adjustment to create more of a dramatic shadow effect, as well as dial down the blown out areas on the face.  I did a surface blur on the skin, as I do with most of my models, to create a flawless smooth look.  This shot was taken using natural light, as the sun was going down, which created a heavy glow on the model that I was able to reduce by lowering the saturation.

 This shot was done with artificial lighting and a roll of plastic mesh.  I like how the mesh shadow created a hell raiser effect and how the lines contour to the models face.  I played with the levels to create a heavy contrast and darkened the background, as this shot did not have a backdrop.  I did a selection around the model's face and neck and using levels darkened the shadow lines to create a more dramatic look.

For this shot I was trying to use the model's hair as the source for the shadows.  After playing with the shadows from the model's dreads by moving the light around, I found a shot of the shadows that created somewhat of an optical illusion.  The shadows cast on the models face seemed to divide the expression in a way that gives the model an almost two faced appearance.  Essentially the left half of the model's face is being separated from the right half by a shadow running over the bridge of the nose and lip, which gives the impression that there could be two different faces looking out.  I decided on a silver tone effect, rather than just b/w, because the model was wearing a very busy shirt and it seemed to lessen the contrast.  I used the highlight/shadow adjustment and lowered the brightness of the shadow cast in the middle of the models face.

For this last shot, I played with a couple of poses before settling on this picture which, unlike the others, uses light rather than shadows to draw attention.  I liked how the model's hair slightly obscured his face which blocked out some of the light but allowed certain parts of the face to be highlighted.  I did a selection on the face and increased the brightness, while lowering the brightness on the shirt.  I took away the saturation in the picture however decided to leave a little color in the eyes to draw attention.