Paco Romero Blog

Camille and her dogs

pacoromero — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:08:43 +0000

I had an opportunity to photograph my friend Camille and her two dogs near her house in Plano. There is a pretty trail near her home and we went there to get some images. I located this green space, canopied by mature trees with enough room for her to walk the dogs towards the camera. I really liked the framing effect of the trees and the natural setting. Here is one of the images from the session in this location:

Camille and her dogs

Photographing friends at home

pacoromero — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:58:15 +0000

Stella invited some friends over on Saturday to watch the Olympic games and have a potluck dinner. I set up a small studio to create portraits for fun. I used a large 8×4 ft foam board “book end” with a large Photoflex softbox and a white reflecting umbrella as fill. The board ended up being too small for families, but I didn’t feeel like hanging seamless paper and deal with that for just fun portraits. Overall the images are cute, spontaneous for the most part. I have attached one here below, Alan – I loved his pose and decided to give it a modern look – you can see the rest of them here.

A portrait of Alan

The post-processing for this image was done using a special setting of the Portraiture Photoshop plug-in, and then adding a vignette. I also did a bit of desaturation to add a more interesting and contemporary look.

Session with Gina on Sunday

pacoromero — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:47:04 +0000

I had a photo session with Gena this past Sunday, 7/27. We got together at the Makeup Academy studio and create some clean, casual images for my stock library. She had nice, colorful outfits, which look very natural and fresh on a white background. Julia from the Academy did the makeup and my wife assisted me. I am pleased with the images – here is the set we used and one of the images from the session.

I enjoy shooting against a white background, which is sometimes tricky to do well on camera – fixing it later in photoshop is no fun. The most difficult technical complexity is getting a pure white background when doing full-body shots – next time I will try extra lighting on the reflective boards I use on the floor; this time I didn’t have enough light reaching it to achieve a white-without-details look. It takes more practice!

Gina was a joy to work with, she was very flexible on set, had a very slended yet curvy figure and a broad range of expressions to contribute to the images.

Shooting on a white background

pacoromero — Sat, 31 May 2008 03:28:08 +0000

Last weekend I did a photo shoot for my stock library. I asked my wife Stella and her friend Holly to be manager types for me, and I shot against a white background. I enjoy the simplicity of isolated portraits. The lighting was conventional, with my Photoflex HalfDome Q39 softbox high and in front of the models. I used two monolights to light the white seamless paper independently and a fourth one with am umbrella as fill. The white background required some minor post-processing to get it to be completely white, it’s to be expected. The images are already available for sale on a microstock site and I hope they are good sellers.

Michelle was the makeup artist, and you can see her below working on Holly:

The images can be seen here. Here is an example of Holly looking like an accountant… and no wonder, she IS an accountant!

My digital workflow

pacoromero — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:03:17 +0000

My digital workflow – This Powerpoint slide deck describes at a high level the set of steps I follow to process my digital images. This is called a digital workflow, and is done on a computer. I have enhanced it recenty after attending Jeff Locklear seminar at the Kerrville TPPA seminar. If you’re trying to define your workflow, take a look and you may find a couple of helpful ideas.

Kerrville and jazz

pacoromero — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:37:02 +0000

I haven’t made an entry into my blog in some time! It’s July 1st and I am back from the Texas Professional Phtographers Kerrville Workshop. I really love the Hill Country and this seminar was excellent! I participated in two day-long seminars, plus a couple of mini-sessions. I was also exposed to the print competition and learned a few things about what it takes to win an award. I am thinking of submitting a print to the Dallas PPA later in the fall.

I also have done a couple of TFP shots in the last few weeks. One was with Cecile, a pretty girl from Cameroon, as part of my African series. The other was last Saturday with Marshall, and I am pleased with the results. In both cases I worked with Pam Reeder, a make-up artist, who came with her husband Don, a photographer himself.

Tamara and Africa

pacoromero — Mon, 28 May 2007 21:46:25 +0000

On Saturday May 26th I invited a local aspiring model, Tamara, and a make-up artist, Toby, to create some images with an African theme. It was Tamara’s first time doing studio modeling, although she had done runway before. She came with Kris, her boyfriend, a really nice guy and a terrific designer. We all enjoyed the collaboration and we ended creating some pretty cool shots. You can see them here. Tamara and Toby have portfolios on ModelMayhem.com – cool site where photographers, models, MUA’s and other professionals network and have fun.

My mother

pacoromero — Fri, 25 May 2007 05:36:20 +0000

Last week my mother came from Spain to visit. She’s in her late 60′s and lives in Seville, Spain. She was very excited to return to the US to spend some time with her two grandchildren. My plan is to take several images of her, alone and also with the kids. She was kind enough to help me test some lighting ideas a couple of nights ago; most of the pictures weren’t that good because I was experimenting. At the very end of the session I took this image where she looks natural and beautiful. The original image has a bold warm red background, which I was testing for a shoot this Saturday with an African theme. I decided to convert to B&W and use a Platinum toning effect to add more elegance and simplicity to the image.

My studio

pacoromero — Fri, 04 May 2007 04:58:59 +0000

In case you’re wondering where I create my studio images, here is a picture of my garage converted temporarily into a studio. You can see seamless gray paper as well as a couple of lights. I normally use no more than three lights at the same time. The big white board on the left is a 4×8 foam core board that I use as a reflector. It takes me a while to set-up and tear-down, but I have enough space in the garage to do what I like to do. The only problem is that it’s not air-conditioned, so I am still wondering how I am going to work during the summer. Perhaps I will shoot on location more!

Pablo’s jump for the camera

pacoromero — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:38:01 +0000

Children are unpredictable, and they can jump! Here is a picture of my son Pablo in my home studio. He was really enjoying posing and going a little crazy in front of the camera. It wasn’t until I saw this picture that I realize how high he was jumping! I’ve got a long way to go before I can approach Lois Greenfield, but it’s a start! Pablo is going to be a wonderful model!