Inspiration and Initiative
This shoot was inspired by Ben Sasso's work! if you don't know who he is make sure you check out his stuff. I love his style, the type of models he chooses, his often odd prop choices, simple wardrobe choices, and his willingness to help other artists like myself, as I attribute 95% of my photography knowledge from pestering other photographers.
Fort Adam's and Her Siren
Fort Adam's was built in 1798 and named after President John Adam's and was active in five major wars. Today it's a State Park, has a great vibe and is a great place to shoot (no pun intended). The inner rooms are covered in old shiplap and there are antique couches floating around that are great for creative shoots, wedding shoots and engagement photos!
I'd been wanting to shoot at Fort Adam's ever since we helped load film for John Abbott as he photographed up and coming Jazz artist's at the Newport's Jazz Festival or maybe it's been since my best friend got married there back in 2015 (truly a unique wedding venue!)
Since we are mostly in the wedding photography game it's rare that we get a chance to get to work on purely creative projects but it's always a joy when we are able to. This was the first time I had shot Briana and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. She was perfect for the fort and brought the exact energy to the shoot that I hoped she would, although as hard as I persisted she would not play that trumpet (or bugle, not pictured).
Frequency Separation
For photographers...
For the editing I used Ben Sasso's Heck Yeah Presets (The Bright Pack) with Lightroom/Photoshop and a method of photo retouching called frequency separation. It was my second time working with this method. I originally went with using the first tutorial I found on Youtube here, but wasn't getting the results I wanted. I emailed Ben and he sent over the video that he learned from which seems like an even more time consuming method but I think the results are better (however, at that point I was about 75% through the photos and couldn't start over). That video can be found here.
If you look at the results of the process, it is definitely worth the time invested.
Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 24-70 II / Heck Yeah Presets / Adobe Creative Suite
