Once every couple weeks I’ll be posting some before and afters of my work. Sometimes they’ll be wedding related, sometimes product related, and sometimes I’ll feature some of my old school pieces, such as this one. Scroll through the post to see the inspiration image, behind the scenes photos, a quick video of the editing process, and a before and after scroller.

Here’s the story:

For those that don’t know me, I graduated from Langara’s Professional Photography Program this past June. Part of our final semester included designing and executing our own assignments, so I based mine around fashion/creative shoots, and of course some wedding related concepts. As I was planning I came across a cover photo of Jessica Chastain on W Mag and I completely fell in love with the concept, so I decided to fulfill an assignment that was based off of that photograph. I loved the lighting and the editing, so the goal was to replicate the studio lighting, and then do a massive edit in post production.

Here’s the W Magazine cover image:

This image was featured on the January 2013 cover of W Magazine.
“Musings on a Muse: Jessica Chastain.” Photography by George Condo, George Condo’s Abstract Conversations, 2012, photographed by Max Vadukul, styled by Felicia Garcia-Rivera; W magazine January 2013.

In preparation for the studio shoot, I created the background at home, and purchased paint and linens for our model to ‘wear’. The talented Heather Irvine took care of makeup, and I (somehow) managed to take care of hair. Our wicked model was Rachel Sargeant, and she was seriously a treat to work with. She brought so much life and energy and movement to the shoot, and I appreciated how invested she was in the process. We shot in a Langara studio, using Profoto gear including a Profoto Giant (the most gorgeous piece of lighting equipment ever created), AND A HASSELBLAD, and we were off the the races.

Here’s some behind the scenes images, a one minute video that condenses TWENTY HOURS OF EDITING into ONE MINUTE, and a before and after slider.

XO -M