Projector Test 2, 2022 - BadleyMichael.co - Projector Photoshoot - Indianapolis, In
Wow, what an incredible project.
You’ve been waiting…
But before I show you the images, I’d love to speak a little bit about my art. My goal for this portrait experience was to create a 3 sets of themed images per model. We had 3 models in total on the day.
We had the absolute pleasure of working with Arianna Finuf, Danielle Baker and Emily Perry-Braun for this experience. I also had two photographer friends on hand as well. Matty Manning and Jason Carroll.
Matty also provided skills in post with some of the images, adding just the most amazing CGI elements into the shots. You’ll see in a minute.
The goal here was to use the projector but use strobes to overpower the projector so we didn’t just have a black background and projected skin.
Traditionally, that’s how most normal people use projectors.
But we aren’t normal.
It was a challenge for me as it required very precise light placements to make it work.
The biggest trick is balancing the levels of light so that you overpower the projector but now blow out details within the images.
I have probably 80+ hours into these projector projects to get them close to perfect.
Without further ado, enjoy!
These are gorgeous shots, and first and foremost I want to say Emily did an awesome job!
Not only with modeling but she’s just incredible to work with. Brings great energy to every shoot, and I have been blessed to call her a friend as well!
I can’t get enough of the colors, what kind of blue would you say that is anyways? Matty Manning made the visual FX for the bubbles in the foreground, which I thought tied this whole set together beautifully. Matty is working with us under our new brain child “Studio-NB”, and is bringing a lot of really impressive skills to the table.
Seriously, just incredible.
Matty did these beautiful 3D rendered Koi fish over the top of my projector image. As well as some more bubbles. The caustics from the projector even fall on the fish, just amazing.
Probably one of my favorites from the set, I just love how soft these really feel. It reminds me of a perfume ad or something like that. Emily again just did an amazing job on these. I rarely pick 4 similar poses but these were too good to leave behind.
Don’t even get me started on these lol. It’s like a magical galaxy oasis. The beautiful purple and blue tones really bring the whole story together. I love the softness in these compared to the last set.
It’s a style I have always consistently enjoyed, but I also follow NASA and SpaceEx on all of their social media accounts.
So I may be biased.
These might look familiar.
You saw Matty edit one of these earlier on in the blog. These are the edits I did with them without any CGI. Y’all know I can be a bit of a purist, but lately I’m enjoying the compositing and leaving the all in camera world.
There’s not much to say other than these images scream confidence and attitude. I love that!
The model is Arianna Finuf, and she’s been a client of mine for a long time now. I’d say at this point a good friend.
She wanted to rock this outfit and we said of course!
But I knew she was gonna bring it so I went for high contrast bold imagery to project that would mirror this strong Queens vibe.
I won’t deny it, this backdrop gave me at least 3 headaches. And the worst part was trying to color balance something this trippy. I was seeing rainbows in minutes.
Then I just realized, lean into it. So here you are a slightly off tint color balanced visual eye melter. I really dig it, the subtle pinks and greens really speak so loudly against the contrast of white and black. Bonus points we were able to not get Arianna’s eyes in shadow.
These are also just incredibly fun, they have a strong 90’s vibe happening but im obsessed. Color correction was a nightmare due to sloppy ISO usage lol.
This next set is with the etherial, whimsical, and beautiful Queen Danielle Baker. Absolutely incredible person as well. I have been blessed with the most incredible clients and friends, I am beyond grateful for that. She brought this beautiful dress and I just had to try and turn this into a sort of “Alice in Wonderland” theme with her falling into a painting. I even added some butterflies to bring the illusion in more on the last one. I’d of added to every photo, but time isn’t unlimited. That being said, I like that it is one off.
I would say as far as color balancing goes this was the most difficult set of the day. I came to realize at this point I really should of calibrated that projector first. However, I still found an incredible color tone with some time behind curves layers and my handy Wacom Tablet. Her dress was pretty fun and colorful so I figured again lets lean into it. Im obsessed, I did add sand around her hands in the second image.
I love these, like a cinematic moody candy and sugar themed Katy Perry video. Genuinely just a fun idea.
I gotta say these projector shots have been coming out better than I ever expected and I am so happy to have great friends that helped me create the gallery I dreamed of so I can continue to make art for all of you.