Internship with Kaela Speicher: Week 8
Assisting Kaela in a modeling portfolio shoot with Jaclyn.
Over the past two months, some big changes have come about in my life. Towards the end of June, I completed finals, wrapped up everything for Portfolio Show at Heinz Field and graduated from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh with my Bachelors in Photography. Needless to say, I've had my hands full with work, which I will be sharing more about in a later post. But on another note, I'll be catching up on posts from projects and the final weeks of my internship.
First up is behind the scenes of Kaela's modeling shoot with the always stunning, Jaclyn. Jaclyn is building her modeling portfolio, so I assisted during her shoot that took place in studio, downtown Pittsburgh, and Oakland. Jaclyn had a variety of classy outfit choices, and Kaela chose the perfect looks for each location. My favorite look may be the final one with the strips of light shining through the columns. I just love that the dress mimics the columns itself. As always, I'm still impressed with Kaela's abilities to location scout for a specific look and stay organized. A skill that is so necessary when it comes to photography and working with clients.
*Also did I mention Jaclyn looks like Angelina Jolie?!
Check out Kaela's website to see more of her fashion work: Kaela Speicher Photography
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Internship with Kaela Speicher: Week 3 (Part 2)
Reveal of Kaela's shoot in collaboration with Mt. Lebanon Floral that I assisted in retouching.
The second part of Week 3 was spent assisting retouching images for a recent collaboration Kaela shot for Mt. Lebanon Floral. From the first intro to retouching she demonstrated, we went over her retouching workflow from start to finish, and techniques that allows her images to look flawless and, ironically, untouched when it comes to editing.
I am so in awe to have been a part of editing a shoot so absolutely breathtaking! Wonderful work and an incredible shoot to everyone involved. Below is a look book created by Kaela with the final images made by an amazing team, listed below as well.
Team Credits:
Floral Design: Mt. Lebanon Floral
Photography and Wardrobe: Kaela Speicher
Retouching Assistance: Leah Schonauer
Hair: Natosha Durr
Makeup: Shana Lohr
Model: Grace Hogan
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Internship with Kaela Speicher: Week 1
My first week interning with Kaela Speicher, and a recently retouched image from a past shoot of mine, edited with retouching techniques taught by Kaela.
This past Monday was my last, first day of a new quarter as a photo student at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Oddly enough, I woke up bright and earlier with a huge smile on my face and excited to go to school. Which, in the rule book of a senior college student, I'm assuming that breaks all of them. Needless to say, I was more than excited to start learning one-on-one with Kaela beforehand. We met for our first official internship meeting Monday morning, covering Lightroom workflow and the beginning of retouching.
Retouching and post-production work 'makes my heart happy' if I can put it that way. I love the complete process of making a photo into another that's entirely new. I like to think that I can see the potential a photo has after I've shot it- not because it's a bad photo, but just how much more it can be elevated with post-editing. Retouching is a long process. And when I say it's a long process, I mean a while back I had to go to the chiropractor to get my wrists adjusted because I spent that much time at my computer. As some people dread the editing process, I highly enjoy having endless possibilities of altering a photo, literally at your fingertips. It can get very extensive at times, but seeing the difference from before to after is so rewarding.
Kaela sent me several photos she had shot, to practice her retouching technique. So much effort and time goes into editing, but the results aren't technically even noticeable, because the goal of retouching is to make it look like the photo wasn't touched. The file she had sent me as a reference she had edited had both before and after, and my jaw literally dropped when I saw how much work had been put into the photo. Her editing is so flawless that it's difficult to find the hours invested in such a beautiful image.
Through the week I have been working on different images, practicing the retouching technique that Kaela taught me. There is oh so much more to learn, and many more hours of practice to come. I came across a shoot from just over a year ago I had done with my sister when I first got my Alien Bee, and wanted to rework the editing and style I had previously. Below are the before and after shots- the straight out of camera image and my recently retouched image.
Internship with Kaela Speicher
An overview of my upcoming quarter interning with Pittsburgh photographer, Kaela Speicher.
Photo by Kaela Speicher
Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to meet with Kaela Speicher, a highly talented photographer based in Pittsburgh, PA with a passion in her styled fashion photography. Her personal work shows her many skills ranging from envisioning a shoot stylistically to the final retouching in post-production. I met with Kaela to finalize working as an intern with her my final quarter at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, going over schedules, itinerary, and goals for this exciting opportunity.
When I first saw Kaela's work, I was very interested in her editing style; her retouching is so clean and hides the many hours of post-production in its natural appearance. Looking at her work, you can see the eye she has not only for each shot itself, but for the vision, styling, and location scouting that comes along with each shoot. Even though there is so much work before, during, and hours of editing after shooting for the final image, she enjoys what she does, and it shows.
See Kaela's fashion work on her website: www.kaelaspeicher.com.
Internship Goals
Over the next several months, I will be sharing updates about the Internship process with a look at what I'm learning, behind the scenes, and current projects. With the knowledge that Kaela has in a photography career, I have many goals for this time in working with her.
1. Retouching. Phlearn is an amazing site that has taught me everything I know about retouching and post-production, but I know I can always improve my skills and learn different methods. With the endless possibilities in Photoshop, there are countless ways to approach editing. My goal is to learn to new ways to retouch for a natural and an "unedited" look. Along with this, getting an effective workflow down would benefit my working process.
2. Reviewing technical skills and marketing strategies. Reviewing the basics are never a bad idea, and sometimes you can learn something that you missed the first round. I want to work my way up in reviewing from the basics of photography to business and marketing strategies, as well as building SEO. Some additional steps I would like to cover are what types of jobs are ideal for my personal style in work.
3. Transitioning from the label "student" to "professional". It's the curse of a photo student. People tend to look down on students and not consider them professional until they have degrees. As we are told by our professors, we are to look at our work and ourselves as professionals, as this is the only way we can be viewed as one. However, the actual transition to the real world from student life is harsh and sudden. It's a huge reality check and will make or break you. Upon graduation, I hope to push myself to use my learned skills in a career setting and keep working to find the job for my work.
4. Keeping organized and scheduling shoots in a successful way. It's easy to become bombarded when dealing with multiple sides of a business by yourself and coordinating shoots between a model, makeup artist, hair stylist, and personal schedules. It's a necessity that I learn how to keep this balanced and keeping some sanity along the way.
5. Developing my final portfolio in my style. I feel that often it's difficult to shoot specifically for a personal portfolio. When you are shooting for other people and their visions, it's easy to push your personal work aside. As I am graduating at the end of the Internship, I would like to gear everything I produce to my final portfolio that reveals my personal style.
Internship Final Project
Kaela also introduced the idea for the end of my Internship to shoot a project, and have her as my assistant in the shooting process. This would serve as a final project to showcase my improved skills over the three month period and shot specifically as a personal projects. Highly inspired by the work of Brooke Shaden, a fine art photographer, and Kirsty Mitchell, a fine art and fashion photographer well known for her Wonderland series, I want to develop a conceptual shoot with the intricate details to produce a surreal and styled environment and look. This will also push me to work with other artists for styling and allow me to use composite and retouching techniques as well.
Next week I'll be sharing more about my Internship with Kaela as it officially begins in the new and my final quarter at The Art Institute. Thanks for reading!
Live by faith & share through fotos.