Test Two – Lighting with Grids
Molly again with a Cat Mask.
How I plan on lighting a part of this project is a major task. Getting my lighting just right and repeatable is one of my key goals. Once I am happy with this main lighting, then next come getting the rest of my studio lighting, getting them in proper balance and the shadows working for me. So far it appears that using my largest beauty dish and a grid renders my best main light results. No more layered look to the eyes. I am very pleased with this result.
More to come.
P Thomas Lambert
Our Dreams Site now has a new look and feel
Our new Dreams Site is now up and running. We will be adding more content in the future. Plus our gallery needs to updated with new and fresh portraits.
If your interested and live in the Asheville North Carolina area, go to our site and select the contact portion of the page and let us know you want to be feature in our gallery.
P Thomas Lambert
The Formal Bridal is here.
This is a page from an Wedding Album of a Client who's wedding we captured. And today this is still the way most
Bridal sessions are captured during her Wedding Day. The photographer is only allotted a few minutes to capture these
special images, but still the photographer is not really afforded a chance to be truly creative.Years ago, when I was actually shooting weddings, these Bridal Portraits were called the Formals. Looking back at the weddings I have done through the 1990’s and up to my last year as a wedding photographer, I realized that I was not doing my Brides justice with regards to capturing them with their Wedding Gowns.
Formal Studio Bridal Portraits have long disappeared with the emergence of the Photo Journalism Style of Wedding Photography. I am not stating that today’s Wedding Photographers are not capturing the Bride in her beautiful Wedding Gown, but what is being captured is limited due to time constraints, Bride’s own Stress and Locations.
I will give today’s Wedding Photographers some credit and having been a wedding photographer in the past, I know first hand what some of the struggles are in achieving some of the Bridal Portraits a photographer may want to capture. But let’s face it, during that special day of the Brides Wedding, having the time and the freedom to properly capture a real formal Bridal Portrait is more often not fully achievable.
Another burden on the Wedding Photographer is that they have to haul around more equipment that one would deem necessary. But if a Wedding Photographer wanted to capture that perfect Bridal Portrait, he or she would need to have with them a collection of studio lighting and a assistant to help with setting up those lights and arranging the Bride. Then again, all of this falls back on the amount of time the photographer really has, and the ability to control the time during a wedding day. The reality is your time limits have been set and the photographer cannot control it. Worst yet, every wedding is unique, and the best laid schedule and plans never get followed. There is always something or someone who will alter the Brides Wedding Day Schedule.
This brings me back around to the Formal Bridal Session. I got my start working in a portrait Studio in Silver Spring Maryland working for one of the finest Wedding Photographers in the world. Monte Zucker maintained that a Bride must have a formal Portrait Taken well in advance of the wedding for several reasons. First, there was no pressure or wedding schedule that the bride needed to maintain. Second, it allowed for a more relaxed portrait and gave the photographer the ability to capture the bride in a wide variety of classic poses. Third, the photographer is given full control of the lighting and the environment of the studio, and can further control the drama of the portrait that would best suit the Bride and her Special Wedding Gown. Fourth, these formal sessions also gave the Bride a Dress Rehearsal so to speak with her newly tailored Wedding Gown. She will have the ability to sit stand and be positioned in the studio that would in turn give the Bride a true feel of the fit and form of her Wedding Gown. Back in those days, and I am talking the 70’s and 80’s, a bride after having her formals taken more often than not will return to the Bridal shop and request a few more adjustments to the Wedding Gown, so she can be totally assured that she was going to have that perfect Wedding Gown.
Many Wedding Photographers will argue that there is no need to have formal Studio Wedding Portraits taken of the Bride in her Wedding Gown, but maybe they should ask their brides that question.
Well listen up fellow photographers and Brides to be or Newlywed Brides, I am here to tell you that we are going to give the Brides their chance at those studio formals. I am not going to take work away from the local Wedding Photographers, in fact I want to work with you in providing you with a set of fully retouched and ready to use images for your Brides future Wedding Album. Let me say this and I will only say this once. I’m not shooting Weddings, I retired from Wedding Photography several years ago, but what I am offering is collaboration with the local Wedding Photographers to provide for your Bride the Proper Formal Studio Bridal Portraits that may not be achievable the day of her Wedding. In return for the use of my Bridal Portraits, you would give me the proper credit. And with those photographers that I will get a chance to work with, I will fully promote your services with other vendors and Bridal Shops.
To the Bride, I will make the process as simple as possible, and make your Bridal Session an enjoyable experience. We will offer with your session makeup and hair, and will even create an arrangement of your wedding bouquet all in silk for your session. We will primp and pamper you throughout your session and the best part; we both get to spend as much time as it takes to get your Formal Bridal Portraits captured perfectly. We encourage you to bring your mother if she is available and of course some of your brides maids who can help you with your preparation and primping. Also this give you and your brides maids a better idea of how you’re Wedding Gown will come together come the day of your Wedding.
Now I know, not all Brides will want a Formal Studio Portrait taken with their Wedding Gown, but then maybe you should ask your mother about that. Many mothers of today’s brides may have their Formal Bridal Portraits in the Studio I worked at in Silver Spring back in the 70’s and 80’s. And they will tell you that their mothers always wanted that special Formal Studio Bridal Portrait and it would break their heart if you said no to the possibility of the a Formal Bridal portrait for them.
You don’t need to have a session before your Wedding Day. In fact we have had Brides come to us weeks after the Wedding to have their formal Bridals taken. In fact, they even have their new husbands in the formals as well. Many of today Grooms will have purchased their tuxedos rather than renting them. As they see it, they can have a proper formal wear in the closet in the event of having to go to a special charity or party. Formal Studio Wedding Couples are making a big come back in Paris and London and we at Lambert Style want to be on that wave.
So what do we capture during your Formal Studio Bridals. We start with the Formal Full length bridal and depending on the Wedding Gown, we will position the Bride to capture both her and the unique design of her gown. We will turn and position her with a wide variety of poses and standing positions to achieve that perfect view of the stunning bride. Next we move to the three quarter sitting poses that is amongst the most popular with the Brides. The Bride will be positioned in a wide variety of poses that will further emphasize her beauty. We will also fine tune our lighting to punctuate the drama and beauty of both the Bride and her Wedding Gown. From there we will move to the head and shoulder portraits and focus on capturing the Brides Charm and Beauty. All of these portraits are taken in the comfort of a complete portrait studio with some of the finest lighting equipment that is available today. And to add, we work with a wide variety of painted backdrops and cloth backgrounds that can further give the Bride a more personally unique charm to her portrait. Besides having a complete Portrait studio, we also have a full changing room with a full Makeup station. During your session, we will offer you and your special attendants a wide variety of refreshments that will keep you and your attendants cool and refreshed.
If you are interested in learning more about having a Formal Studio Bridal Portrait taken or are a Wedding photographer who is interested in working with me, please call us at:
301-898-2192
Better Changes to Dreams at Lambert Style.
There is allot happening here, first we are expanding our Dream Portrait Offering to include our New Dream Bridal Sessions. We will be making a big announcement about a Big Special in the next few days.
Also we have added our Maternal Dream Portraits to the site and will be adding more Maternity Portraits to our Gallery in the near future.
But Please return to our blog in the next couple of days for our big Bridal Announcement and tell your future Brides and Newly Wed Brides to come and check out our Blog.
P Thomas Lambert
I Love my Fairy Cakes and Fancies for the Bath
This weekend we stopped by our one of her favorite shops in downtown Frederick called Tiara Day Boutique.
This past weekend, we visited with Maria Peck the owner of Tiara Day Boutique, a Place Where Girlfriends shop, and picked up some samplings of a new bath soap called Patisserie De Bain, Fairy Cake and Fancies for the Bath. We are planning on giving away these bath soaps to our Pastel Dreams Clients in the near future.
Here is my personal Experience with the Fairy Cake and Fancies for the Bath.
I tried the Strawberry bath fairy cake last night and loved it. You should remove the decoration and bun cover before you put it in the bath otherwise, you will spend a moment searching the floweret and bun cover. They smell heavenly and it melts in your bath releasing the shea and cocoa butter and adds a wonderful fragrance to your bath. My skin felt wonderful and I smelled great afterwards. In short, the Fairy Cake and Fancies for your Bath is a big winner for me and I would highly recommend these Fairy Cake and Fancies for your next Bath from Tiara Day.
Molly Lambert
Anastasia is our latest model to come to our studio.
Over the past eight months, we have been focusing of building a gallery of Fine Art Portraits for our Romantic Dreams Gallery. We run several different studios, actually there is only one studio but we have special pricing and galleries for a totally different type of clients. Our Dreams at Lambert Style is one of our Specialty Studios.
Dreams at Lambert Style is our studio mostly devoted to women of discerning tastes. We know that a fair number of women would like to have a special portrait taken for a special person in their life or even for them self’s. But our portraits are more artistically tasteful. We want our Dreams Portraits to be more romantic and well, more dream like. We have studied hard allot of artwork from some of the old masters and some more newer master painters and have found a common thread amongst all of their artwork. We made the bold decision to follow their style and vision and embrace it as our own. The result is our Romantic Dream Line of fine are portraits. We encourage our clients to view our galleries in Pinterest and view many of the paintings that we have in our collections. Then was ask our clients to find three or four paintings that they could possibly dream them self’s being painted in. We then use those paintings as inspiration in creating our clients own unique Pastel Dreams Portrait.
Anastasia, used our galleries of paintings from Pinterest, to select several fine inspired images that lead to the creation of these three images and many other fine images during our sessions with her recently.
Another important item that I need to bring up is the fact that Anastasia is a Model and in the end will be using many of the fine art images that we created during her session for her own portfolio.
We will never use any art work from any of our paid clients on our web site, blog or any social media. And the reason is clear, our clients are paining us to create specifically for them some very personal artwork that they are having made for a very private audience. They do not want to have the more Romantic or Seductive side of them self’s shown in public. The art work that we have created is very private and they intend their art work to remain that way. We will even make sure that our clients finished artwork is seen by only a selected few who are also concerned with our clients privacy.
Keep watching this blog as we announce to formal opening of our Romantic Dreams Gallery at dreams.lambertstyle.com
We are still offering a Totally free session with Makeup Make Over and at least three set changes, valued at over $450.00 in return for allowing us to use some select images in our online gallery or in some cases, in our private “Eyes Only Collection”.
Or if you just want to give someone special in your life something very personal and from your heart, call us for an appointment and lets talk about your Romantic Dreams.
For an appointment call 301-898-2192 From 10:00:AM to 7:00:AM
A Gothic Look for Molly
On the last Sunday before Halloween, our makeup artist wanted to have some new images made for herself as well for our studio. Natasha who I will be featuring later, is a supper talented Makeup Artist and Former Model. When I showed her what Molly came up with for some personal session ideas for herself, Natasha stepped in and took Molly to a new Dimension.
When I finished the photo session with Molly, I started to make my signature corrections, and what emerged was nothing short of Stunning. WOW, Molly just took my breath away.
I am the luckiest man alive to be marrying this beautiful woman, and cannot wait to take more stunning images of her in the future.
And a Supper Special Thanks to Natasha Sriracha for your Makeup Artistry.
P Thomas Lambert
A Fun Project with my Makeup Artist
My makeup artist is among the first person you will meet before we start your Pastel Dream Session, Romantic Figurative Session or even of Enchanted Portrait Sessions. She is fun, witty, and sometimes way out there. But one very important asset she possesses, Beauty, and last Saturday, despite my mouth pain and Molly’s Broken toe, we created some stunning images for my Makeup Artist.
Let me Introduce my Makeup Artist Natasha Sriracha.
When you come in for your Pastel Dreams Session, you will be in good hands with the artistry of Natasha.
Photography: P Thomas Lambert
Makeup: Natasha Sricacha
Studio Assistant: Molly Wietz
Makeup used is by Mary Kay.
Read that Contract Carefully Before Signing.
For those who have experienced a Boudoir session with another photographer, did you consider that your images from that session may not be as private as you would hope they would be?
I am not saying that all Boudoir Photographers would be so bold to put some of the images for your Session on their blog or even on facebook without your permission. But there is a little bit of information that you need to know about a lot of the contracts that you might have signed for the privilege of have a Boudoir Session with lot of Photographers.
Allot of Boudoir Photographers will incorporate the Model Release right in the contract without the option of a right to revoke of the use of your images on the web, blog or even Facebook. Once you sign the contract you have also signed a model release, and the photographer is free to use your images as she fits. Now granted, there are a few photographers that will give a window of 30 days after signing their required Model Release to either revoke the release or modifying it. But far too few clients, ever think about that clause in the contract until it’s too late.
Some caring photographers out there will give you the option of selecting in a check box to revoke the rights of the studio the use of the images from your session. But wait, in the buildup of excitement and the process of having you get ready for your session, a lot of photographers will have you glance through the contract and have you sign it just so get you going on your session. You will get copies of the contract, and the copies will have printed on the Client Copy. But when you get home and realize that you did not check the box stating that You Do Not Wish Your Photos to be Published, you have given the photographer right to use those images. More self respecting photographers will point out your options and will make you select one of the options that would include Do Not Use or Publish. In many cases, the photographer may allow you to revoke the right for them to publish, but you won’t know until you call them.
Now, allot of Boudoir Photographers are either just starting out or trying to refresh their Galleries or Portfolio, and many of them do not have the funds to go out and get Models for these sessions. So they will often give away a complimentary session in return for the use of those images, a very common practice with models call Trade for Prints or Trade for Publish.
Now there is yet another photographer who will offer her clients a massive discount for the rights to use the images from the session, but if you were looking for an inexpensive Boudoir Photo Session and not have the photos published, it will cost you allot more for your privacy.
Lambert Style is no different when it come to refreshing our Galleries. Dreams at Lambert Style will employ the use of Models, but also will offer a free session to many of our clients who are not models and offer a free session with the understanding that we would like to use their images on our web site as well. But here is the kicker, you get to select the images that we use. Besides having a Proper Model Release that is not incorporated into our Contract, we also have very specific consent form that we use with our Romantic Figurative Study for use during the session.
One very special note about the Romantic Figurative Study: Even though, you may sign a Models Release for your session, Dreams at Lambert Style will never publish these images on the Web or Blog. These images will be used in a private Album and viewed only with clients on a one on one meeting with only those women are looking for examples of our Romantic Figurative Studies.
For those women who actually come to our studio for a paid session, our contracts will not contain any verbiage that will allow Lambert Style to use any of the images from the session. In fact we will give you a Non Use and Publish Agreement between our Studio and the Client, but the client must also consent on paper to not publish her images as well. Discovery of the any of the images from her session in use on the web or in a magazine will nullify our original agreement and our studio.
I am not trying to discourage you from having a Boudoir Session, but I am trying to educate you so you can make a more informed decision on whether you may want to use specific photographers based on the how they handle your personal images.
Help Us Fill our Gallery
Our Pastel Dreams Gallery is Empty, and not because we don’t have Art to display, but we do need your help to add new and fresh art to our gallery.
Lambert Style has developed Pastel Dreams Portraits and it is so fresh that we lack any quality art to display. So we need your help in filling this gallery and here is where you get to benefit.
The next few months, we are going to wave our session fees and offer you the opportunity for a complementary Pastel Dream Portrait Session without any obligation to you. Plus we will also give you a free 8X10 or 10X10 gift print and an additional 25% off your Portrait Purchase. In return, we will ask you to give us permission to use your portrait on our online gallery and as a Framed Display Print in our Studio. All of the portraits will be taken in our studio.
We are limiting this offer to the first 20 couples or Women. We hope to be able to create a stunning Gallery with your help. So please contact us at 301- 898-2192 or 301- 524-9459 and say that your interested in our free Pastel Dreams Portrait offer.
And as we start building our Gallery, we will feature our new art on our Web site and many of our images will appear in this blog. Even more importantly, we will be competing many of these images in several respectable Professional Photography Organizations Portrait Competitions.
But if you are looking for more the Soft Romantic and Artistic Style of a Figurative Portraiture, then please contact us and we will setup an appointment to talk and plan your Pastel Dream Session.
Paul
Our Latest Pastel Dream Session
Lady in Red
Several weeks ago we had a spectacular Pastel Dream Session with the gorgeous young lady named Christine. These are only a sample of the images that we created.
Christine was so pleased with the results that she indicated that she would like to shoot another session in the future.
Allot of credit must also go out to my Makeup Artist Natasha who will be featured in a future blog article.
Help Us Fill our Gallery
Our Pastel Dreams Gallery is Empty, and not because we don’t have Art to display, but we do need your help to add new and fresh art to our gallery.
Lambert Style has developed Pastel Dreams Portraits and it is so fresh that we lack any quality art to display. So we need your help in filling this gallery and here is where you get to benefit.
The next few months, we are going to wave our session fees and offer you the opportunity for a complementary Pastel Dream Portrait Session without any obligation to you. Plus we will also give you a free 8X10 or 10X10 gift print and an additional 25% off your Portrait Purchase. In return, we will ask you to give us permission to use your portrait on our online gallery and as a Framed Display Print in our Studio. All of the portraits will be taken in our studio.
We are limiting this offer to the first 20 couples or Women. We hope to be able to create a stunning Gallery with your help. So please contact us at 301- 898-2192 or 301- 524-9459 and say that your interested in our free Pastel Dreams Portrait offer.
And as we start building our Gallery, we will feature our new art on our Web site and many of our images will appear in this blog. Even more importantly, we will be competing many of these images in several respectable Professional Photography Organizations Portrait Competitions.
If your taste is for the other style of Boudoir Photography, then check out AIBP for more examples of their concept of Boudoir Photography, by visiting their Organizations Web Page. If you are into the Pinup or Cheese Cake or Sexual Strip Tease photography, then the AIBP Group will help you located a photographer in your area.
But if you are looking for more the Soft Romantic and Artistic Style of a Figurative Portraiture, then please contact us and we will setup an appointment to talk and plan your Pastel Dream Session.
Paul
The Figurative Study
La Grande Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1814
So there is no back lash from the members of the AIBP, I am not going to talk Boudoir here.
No, we are going to talk about an art form that is taking off in Europe, but one that has been around for thousands of years. It is more commonly called the Woman Figurative Study, but not to be confused with Figure Study. For an example, a painted portraiture of the 19th century, exemplified by the famous French Artist Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingress, portrayed the likeness of the subject, but subtle stylization also conveyed the standards of beauty of the time, and this is classified as a Figurative Study.
Julianne Moore, after La Grande Odalisque by Michael Thompson, for Vanity Fair, April 2000
Today Artist such as Rob Hefferan and Steve Hanks have taken the Figurative Study to new levels.
I have been studying the Women Figurative Studies of these artists and others and have included a broad selection of these artists artwork in my Pinterest Board called Figurative Studies. The direction and path for my Pastel Dreams will include the Figurative Study for my clients and will be only available in my Monochromes and Pastel Canvas Portraiture’s.
The other studies that we offer include Glamor Cover, Pastel Dreams, and Romantic Liaisons. And over the next few weeks, we will explain and provide examples of these other Pastel Dream Portraiture’s.
Most important aspect of our work is that we do not shoot Boudoir or what other photographers would refer to as Boudoir and so we will never use the term Boudoir in our work even though most of our clients clearly tell me that my work is truly a more Romantic form of Boudoir.
Help Us Fill our Gallery
Our Pastel Dreams Gallery is Empty, and not because we don’t have Art to display, but we do need your help to add new and fresh art to our gallery.
Lambert Style has developed Pastel Dreams Portraits and it is so fresh that we lack any quality art to display. So we need your help in filling this gallery and here is where you get to benefit.
The next few months, we are going to wave our session fees and offer you the opportunity for a complementary Pastel Dream Portrait Session without any obligation to you. Plus we will also give you a free 8X10 or 10X10 gift print and an additional 20% off your Portrait Purchase. In return, we will ask you to give us permission to use your portrait on our online gallery and as a Framed Display Print in our Studio. All of the portraits will be taken in our studio.
We are limiting this offer to the first 20 couples or Women. We hope to be able to create a stunning Gallery with your help. So please contact us at 301- 898-2192 or 301- 524-9459 and say that your interested in our free Pastel Dreams Portrait offer.
And as we start building our Gallery, we will feature our new art on our Web site and many of our images will appear in this blog. Even more importantly, we will be competing many of these images in several respectable Professional Photography Organizations Portrait Competitions.
If your taste is for the other style of Boudoir Photography, then check out AIBP for more examples of their concept of Boudoir Photography, by visiting their Organizations Web Page. If you are into the Pinup or Cheese Cake or Sexual Strip Tease photography, then the AIBP Group will help you located a photographer in your area.
But if you are looking for more the Soft Romantic and Artistic Style of a Figurative Portraiture, then please contact us and we will setup an appointment to talk and plan your Pastel Dream Session.
Paul
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A Garden Visitor
We have been experimenting with Painter and trying different paint brushes for our Pastel Portraits. Some of the results look great enlarged but for the web, well the jury is still out.
While I am on the subject of Pastel Dreams:
Our Pastel Dreams Gallery is Empty, but not because we don’t have Art to display, but we need your help to add new and fresh art to our gallery.
Lambert Style has developed Pastel Dreams Portraits that is so fresh that we lack any quality art to display. So we need your help in filling this gallery and here is where you get to benefit.
The next few months, we are going to wave our session fees and offer you the opportunity for a complementary Pastel Dream Portrait Session without any obligation to you. Plus we will also give you a free 10X10 gift print and an additional 20% off your Portrait Purchase. In return, we will ask you to give us permission to use your portrait on our online gallery and as a Framed Display Print in our Studio. All of the portraits will be taken in our studio.
We are limiting this offer to the first 25 couples or Women. We hope to be able to create a stunning Gallery with your help.
So please contact us at 301- 898-2192 or 301- 524-9459 and say that your interested in our free Pastel Dreams Portrait offer.
Thank you
Paul
The Pearl Choker
As our Pastel Dreams start to come to shape, we have added a special gift bag for the ladies who come and engage in our Pastel Dreams Session.
We have hand selected a number of items to be included in our gift bag including this charming Velvet Silver and Pearl Choker made for us in an UK artist called Penny Lee who is an independent artistic and calls her line Twirly Trinkets. You can find more of her jewelry on Etsy.
Enjoy.
Paul
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