Guestblog Stephan Bollinger
Today a very special guestblog, a video…. 🙂
Watch the video “models are made” by Stephan Bollinger and I think there is some interesting stuff in there for everyone. Visit Stephan at http://www.stephanbollinger.com
MODELS ARE MADE
Thank you very much Frank Doorhof, for the opportunity to be one of your guest bloggers.
For us, who work in the photography industry, the process of makeup & hair, photography and post processing, is second nature. For many outsiders however, it is still a mistery, and their perception of beauty and fashion images is quite different to ours.
Many young girls compare themselves with the glamorous images of models they see in advertising, in magazines and on billboards. During a recent fashion photo shoot, we discussed what impact this has to some girls, and how it can influence their self confidence, self image and self esteem.
We decided to create a short video, showing what steps our models go through to transform from regular girls to amazing fashion models, and to help those not familiar with our industry to understand, what we do to create the perfect illusion.
A big “Thank You” to our gorgeous models Caitlin Holland, Courtney Thorpe, Gabrielle Harland and Jess Somerfield, who have agreed to record the “before & after”, which was extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. Also a big shout-out to my amazing make-up artist Tracie Weaver, and Begitta Stolk for her styling and fabulous designs.
I believe this is very wrong to say, “every image you see today is retouched”. This is a very bold statement without any proven statistic! This may be true about most fashion and editorial photography in magazines, advertisements and some folios but not all! If the intention of this fellow photographer is to give self confidence to younger girls or anyone, he can clearly state that these steps goes to such style of photography to make models look unrealistically glamorous to sell products! That is not portrait! That is fashion meaning the intention is to make you buy their clothing and stuffs! “You only look that glamorous if you only buy their cloth!” This is maybe what the society, media and market demands! Unfortunately, the damage is done! Now, try to make a natural portrait! My point is, not every photographer do the same thing to his photographs! Dodging and burning is something but making the skin look like plastic and using liquifying tool is something else! Just my 2 cents!
He CLEARLY stated, some images only color corrected, some more.
And that is right, I know of no photographer that doesn’t manipulate his images in no form what so ever, getting the color balance right in Photoshop is also working on the image… so I don’t see anything wrong with his video to be honest.
You are right that not everyone does a lot of retouching, but fact is that most images I see in magazines are heavily retouched 😀
I totally agree with you Frank. I just wanted to point out that when someone says, “all images are retouched” it just makes people think everything they see is “heavily” retouched. That was my point 😀
Excellent video Stephan! One of the reasons I love working as a photographer is the “WOW” when I project their inages for the first time onto the “Great White Wall”. It truly is the FULL package of great stylists and skilled photography that can transform people’s self-image!
Great post Stephan! I reminder to all that strong photographs and models are made.