*Begonia Blossom*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford Delta100
Model: Claire
Texture: Begonia Hocking Lambada
One thing I haven’t done too much of is play on scale. Sure, leaves in Photosynthesis images are often much larger than they are in real life scaled up to the model, but that’s not often the first thing you think about when you see the image. Here, I feel like that works. It’s as if Claire was literally blossoming from within the leaves.
*Faint*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford Delta100
Model: Cath
Sometimes, either because my exposure levels are off or because the contrasts in the original texture scene were hard to find, the textures only imprint very faintly. Then I end up with images that are borderline classic nudes. It’s the case here, but hey, I find this one beautiful anyway, so sue me…
*Brushstroked*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford Delta100
Model: Siuding
When walking around looking for textures, the eye is naturally attracted to high contrast leaves or interesting shapes. But sometimes it’s the simple ones that, combined with careful lighting, deliver the best results. I love how delicate this looks, as if it had been carefully painted on.
*Verdant*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford Delta100
Model: Chi Chi
I love it when the inverted treetop technique still delivers a lot of detail in the texture. Because the technique relies mostly on contrast, it’s not always possible to get both the burned sky and the detail in the texture.
*Euryale*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford FP4+
Model: Mathilde
Texture: Himanthalia elongata (?)
Lately I’ve been trying double exposures with seaside textures and while most of them were not very successful, the one that worked really well was the one I least expected: these dark seaside algae were so dark that I exposed them at nominal instead of underexposing like I normally do, and they turned out a lot more contrasty than expected. Gives Mathilde a kind of « snakes in the hair » look…
*Weed Bath*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford FP4+
Model: Mathilde
Texture: Wollfia arrhiza
When I shot these tiny weeds at the surface of a pond, I honestly didn’t think they would work as a texture. But while the leaves may be too small for any recognizable features, they create a pointillist effect that disaggregates Mathilde’s silhouette in a really convincing way.
*Flowers in mind*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford FP4+
Model: Mathilde
This is another example of what I call « small » textures working really well. The accumulation effect, the fact that the detail is minute really contributes to a particular effect that I find compelling.
*Back in winter*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford FP4+
Model: Mathilde
In Hong Kong I had very limited access to bare branches. Due to the sub-tropical climate, even in December / January, very few trees lost their leaves entirely. I was quite please therefore to be able to shoot forlorn, leafless branches here in France, which work so well as quasi-tattoos on branches.
*Imperial Camouflage*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford FP4+
Model: Mathilde
Texture: Begonia imperialis
When I first walked around the Nantes botanical garden, I entered the tropical greenhouse and stumbled upon this leaf which I’d never seen before. Hugely contrasted and quite wild. I knew it would work fantastically on a silhouette double exposure, and our studio session with Mathilde proved me right. I’ll definitely be revisiting this one.
*Dodge and weave*
Canon EOS300 + Ilford Delta 100
Model: Ela
I normally reserve small, well-defined leaf textures for close-up shots of faces, I find that the combination works really well. However, I have tried lately to do wider portraits with these small textures and I quite like the effect. The details are a little lost, but the overall feel is one of hatching or minute drawing. I really like it.
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