The Magical Pixel

I’m imagining a new conceptual photographic work. Based on the title “Dreams” I want to create a sets of photo with heavy photoshop editing in it. My Photoshop is very rusty now, I have to attend classes to sharpen it back. But that will not make me stop. I’m going to have a photoshoot to create this dream land photo. So.. I need a model. I dont care how pretty or ugly or fat or skinny or pale skin or dark skin as long as you are willing to enjoy the photography session to the extreme.. then you can model for me.

If you are not too handsome, maybe I can make you my monster or Igor in the scene. That is a very important part, believe me. Nowadays, you can see from the TV commercial, no more pretty faces accept for the shampoo ad. Other than that you can be too skinny or too fat or too ugly it doesnt matters.. world has change.

Below is a few sample kind of photo that I want to produce..

So.. interested? If you do, please email to me at rejim3@gmail.com and dont forget to attach your picture with it.

Payment? no.. no money are involve with this.. everyone involved will get the picture. The model, stylist, make-up artist, photographer all will receive a copy of DVD of the photoshoot. You can do what ever you want with it.. most of the put the photo in their portfolio or send it to talent agency for casting. You might want to do the same

So.. email me ok.

Another kind of project that challenge my ability in photography this year is this Photo Essay project. It’s another project granted by Pahang State Museum to me. The photo will be put in the Tenun Pahang Diraja (Royal Hand Woven of Pahang) book which planned to be launched on September this year.

The Museum team lead by the author of the book Mr. Ahmad Farid who is also the Director of Pahang State Museum are now on heavy task force trying to complete the 400 pages book on schedule.

Myself as the contributor of image are also being dragged in this busyness. Of course busyness means business. So I took the challenge. They require me to produce a set images like Annie Leibovitz, the famous Rolling Stone Magazine photographer who now working with Vanity Fair Magazine. Her photo was amazing. I have to spend time researching her starting from her video interview, books, productions and her post production style and method just to make sure I can get the same result.

You can check out here some of Annie’s work.

Annie's work for Disney Dream Portrait

Annie's work for Disney Dream Portrait

Amazed? yess.. Me too. All of her picture for this Disney’s set are telling us a story. In a single image, we know what’s the story is about. That is Photo Essay and sometime, photo essay come in series of images. It’s like a HDMI quality of comic book. The power of Annie’s photo come from the actor inside the photo are real celebrities besides her angle and post processing.

So, what story did I get fro my photo essay? I have been given a scene by the director of the book Ms. Kassandra Kassim. The scene title is “Girl & her Dragon”… The girl in my photo will dress like a princess in Tenun Pahang Diraja dress and inside the same photo there will be a dragon. The girl is easy.. The background is easy.. The lighting is easy.. But the dragon is a pain in my ass.

Where the heck can I find a dragon? is it like an English dragon? or more like Chinese snakey dragon? So, I’m confused. I ask her and she just asked me to put in an Iguana as a replacement of the dragon.  I tried, but the Iguana looks very.. hmm “manja”.  Well, lets try..

So I called up my friends, Tom Ramzul for lighting, Kirin for Make-up artist and the model Fiza. I also managed to borrow a few Tenun dress from the Tenun Pahang Diraja Butique. We do a photoshoot around Kuantan area. and the result came out like this… oh.. the word “This” can also be scrambled into SHIT!

The Girl & Her Dragon 1st trial..shit!

I have placed this image on a few forum for critique.. and I get a lot. The lighting on the dragon head is not right, the model pose is awkward, the mood is not helping.. btw, I get the dragon from google images.

I’m frustrated. I again do some research on Annie Leibovitz post processing and I had a discovery. A discovery that will change my way of post processing. Maybe it’s not the same like Annie’s but I like it more and the client loved it.

For my 2nd trial, I have again gather my helpfull friends. This time is different, I called it “Punk Tribal” theme. I have again called Tom Ramzul the Lighting expert, Dyana Sofia – a model from Dyana Beauty Academy, Gezzeg – The owner of Gezzeg Photography Studio and two of my bodybuilder buddy Saufi & Zam. I aslo called Wan Ermie to borrow his guitar and amp for props.

This time I shoot 100% in the studio with a controlled lighting.  After the photoshoot (thanks to all my friends) I sat and keep fine tuning the post processing technique and finally… a new achievement for me in post processing.

Scene 1 - Punk Tribal

Scene 1 - Punk Tribal B&W

So, yesterday I show this images to the client and they loved it. So now.. I have to record all the editing steps since I did not follow any tutorial to achieve this. My recce date for location have been set. I’ll go to Aryani next week to look at the location before the actual photoshoot.

So.. it’s worth it. Really worth it. oh I forgot to mention the models name that I will shoot for the photo essay. I’m not sure if it’s confirmed or not but there will be 3 model to model the dress in my photoshoot. It’s Nini Ramlan, Devakhi Nathan and The legendary Iman Abdul Majid.. David Bowie’s wife.