MICHELLE HERRICK | the blog

Wow…pinch me…

I am beyond excited to finally show you what I have been working on and keeping wraps for the last couple of months.

TwoPennyBlue
SPRING/SUMMER 2013 LOOKBOOK VIDEO

model // Eden V [The Agency AZ]
hair&makeup // Rosie Reed
behind the scenes video footage // Bridgette Balmes
directing, editing, & video production // Michelle Herrick

I had the amazing experience to be able to work with the talented crew of TwoPennyBlue to shoot their Spring/Summer collection as well as creating a video component to the shoot. The day was long, but the reward is unmeasurable.

So excited to see the full collection launched later this week…but if you head over to the TwoPennyBlue site now you can see a great sneak peak of some shots from the shoot.

And of course…what great and grand shoot isn’t complete without a little BEHIND THE SCENES video…

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For kicks and grins I thought it would be fun to go back to some old beauty shots and go a little deeper in the retouching and editing work.

:: BEFORE & AFTER BEAUTY RETOUCHING ::

The most noticeable difference is her lip color. I did a quick mask in PS and using the curves adjustment layer altered each R, G, & B curve until I achieved the desired color/tone. Then the rest is just a series of careful dodging and burning…around the eyes and cheek bones mostly. Did some spot healing under her eyes and with some stray hairs as well as random spots on her skin. Finally I did a quick touch up of her hair and a little more burning to clean it up a bit.

Wha-laa.
And PS…it is EXTREMELY helpful that my model had such flawless skin to begin with…makes these quick edits so easy…and fun!

xo

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Just released yesterday is the latest issue of Emma Magazine and it is FANTASTIC! Those gals never cease to impress and find the coolest things and ideas EVER!

In this month’s edition you have got to check out the super fun kids fashion feature I shot…absolutely adorable, good stuff…and of course working with kids means it is never a dull moment.

Get the full scoop HERE.

And peep just a few of my favs from the shoot that didn’t make the cut…

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Believe me, it’s not lost on me how amazing it is that I get to work with such FANTASTIC people and clients and publications and the latest issue of Emma Mag definitely reminds me of this.

Once again I am so blessed to have a few features in this awesome publication…and not just any features, a cover to boot!

Peep this beautiful, and tasty, issue of Emma Magazine and all the eye candy inside!

Love, love, LOVE working with this gorgeous gal…Stephanie Neiheisel!

And the funnest feature that I’ve had the pleasure to shoot for Emma Mag, to date, was working with this beauty, Ms. Summer Bellessa! Such a sweetheart and so down-to-earth and just fun to chat with. Check out her adorable web-show [the Girls with Glasses]…it’s absolutely the cutest!

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Man am I LOVING this amazing collaboration with the crew and peeps over at Emma Mag. Seriously feeling super blessed! And in this month’s edition I have not one, but TWO features. I’ll be posting about the 2nd one (and it’s NOT a fashion story…can you believe that?!) on my Facebook page so be sure to ‘LIKE’ it so you can get all the details and see the pics.

So, here it is, my latest fashion feature in this month’s Emma magazine…the Leather Jacket. Our model, Meilan, was beyond fantastic and sweet AND…my age…I’ll let you noodle on that one. But for reals, the entire crew killed it. Love these peeps!

model / Meilan
wardrobe / Mallory Jensen
hair / Zach Glielmi
makeup / Lillian Fogel
photos / me
Team Emma / Sara Hubble, Shelly Sazdanoff & Alejandra Armstrong

And of course here are a few extra of my personal favs!

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When it works, IT WORKS! And when you surround yourself with incredibly talented and amazing individuals it most always WILL WORK!

I recently shot a fashion story for a new magazine called EMMA…in fact it was for their debut issue. The shoot was for a segment called Three Ways; in this spread we shot a Chambray shirt which could be warn (dressed up or dressed down) three ways. Pretty cool, huh?!

Here are the final three looks that made it into the magazine…

…and a few of my personal favs…

The shoot style inspiration was that of a clean, simple, JCrew style lookbook. Knowing the background had to go all white I had 2 AlienBee lights aimed at the white wall set on full-power but I also had them flagged with black foam core to prevent any light spill onto the back of our model…I was going to get enough of that from the wall. I then had a single AlienBee light (set to a little less than 1/2 power) in a 60” umbrella to get a good even spread of light across the front of our model. That tile board the model was standing on is seriously a LIFE SAVER…I use it for so many things.

xo

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night walk // nous magazine
model // paige pacheco (ford/rba)
hair & makeup // rosie reed
wardrobe & styling // whitney helmich

Seriously, I am beyond grateful for a team just crazy enough to ask how high when I say jump. This shoot was way outside of my traditional comfort zone, but if nothing else it just made it that much more exciting and worth every bit of the challenge.

And for a few more of my favorites from the shoot…

And for the geek’d out deets… I used a 1600 Alien Bee with a 22” beauty dish that was probably set to around 1/4 power. Shooting at night and working off of the battery pack (in this case I have the Vagabond II) can be tricky. Because the strobe is not connected to a direct outlet or electrical source you CANNOT use the strobe’s modeling light as it will just drain the battery. Thankfully I knew all this going into the shoot…always good to be prepared…since shooting at night with no light source using Canon’s sucky auto focus would have been a BIG problem. Solution: I always carry a small LED flashlight in my camera bag [like these]. Other than just being a good thing to have no matter what, it’s the best little (and cheap!!) tool to add some light to your subject in order for your camera to lock focus. I just had an assistant (aka our model’s mom or someone else on set) shine it in the direction of my model’s face, but not directly into her eyes (no need to blind her )

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