Copycat project

I’m taking an advanced class and workshop this winter to keep my skills sharp through the slow season and this post is my first project for my class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  We were assigned to choose two photographs and try to recreate them as much as possible by matching lighting, subject matter and composition in camera, and then by matching tone, saturation and cropping in post-production.

So, being a wedding photographer, I was instantly drawn to two photographers I recently learned about in Professional Wedding Photography: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers, published by Amherst Media.  The first image is from Chenin and Doug Boutwell of Boutwell Studio in Southern California.  For the wedding photographers out there, Doug is the guy who put together Totally Rad Actions.  I knew his name was familiar…  This couple is a great team and it was interesting to see their own Photoshop actions on their work.

So here’s the image I scanned from my book:

And here’s my shot at it:

Many thanks to my dear friend, Kelly, for modeling for this project.  She was brilliant and even laughed on cue!

The second image is from Jen and Stephen Bebb of Bebb Studios in Vancouver. This husband and wife team is awesome and they have over a decade of experience in the business.

Here’s the scanned image:

And here’s my take:

The lighting in my image is less soft and more directional. It was about 7 p.m. when we were shooting, so I relied on my speedlights the best I could, and while the lighting is not a match, I kind of like it!