New York Fashion Week Photo Shoot in Central Park

Between Shows with Lydia

greggcestaro.com It was a wonderful opportunity to have the chance to work with good friend and model Lydia during this September’s New York Fashion Week. We have been shooting together for some 4 years now in Texas and to work with her again in her new haunt in NYC having been signed by an agency was very exciting. You can see a lot of her stuff in past posts below. Nevertheless, I had a chance, in-between shows at Lincoln Center, to meet up with her at the Bethesda Terrace in the middle of Central Park to do a quick little self styled one outfit editorial. It was a perfectly cloudy day with a cool breeze and the architecture was amazing. It was pretty crowded too, but people seemed to give us space which was appreciated. I had traveled light to the shoot, being already set up for available runway lighting. So, I had to take advantage of the cloudy sky which created an even, no highlights palette which lend itself to soft well toned images. I also shot primarily with my new 70-200 2.8 runway lens which really made the background blur and upfront focus perfect. We started off working the walks and pass-bys in full body street-style at different locations, up and down stairs, and what not. Then we changed it up to focus on her feather jacket used in different ways, closing in closer and closer to get cover worthy headshots. We got tons more shots, but these tell the story. Before I knew it was time to go back to the show, but we managed to knock out a pretty cool editorial at a location, that for me, was a once in a lifetime moment (at least until next year)

 

 

 

Tribeza Fashion Show in Austin Texas.

This gallery contains 24 photos.

Some Highlights from the Tribeza Fashion Show in Austin Texas. These are new local models wearing local boutique fashions styled by Sara Oswalt. Hair and makeup by Propaganda Hair Group. Event proceeds benefit Dress for Success. Photographed for FashionablyAustin.   … Continue reading →

How to Shoot a Cool Headshot Anywhere

This Works for Everything BTW….

greggcestaro.com I recently shot some new lines for Nicole Marie’s new web presence soon to be online, and this above scene was the first set of the day. We did the full body, three quarter fashion from the left and to the right, in all types of poses and activity…just grabbing all the shots we could, when this popped up. I saw her with the flower from a distance and saw it’s potential, and ran into get the right angle. It so different from the other images. The thing for me in the course of shooting (A) is moving around, up and down, lens changes, and lighting changes to get (B). Don’t be static. There are images you don’t know about or even consider until you change your perspective, and you don’t need studio lighting to do it. That was just this case.  And I am really digging on the new 7 foot umbrella, it’s a sail though.  This was the only light I used for the 45 on-figure shots later that day to great effect. It’s well lit and super soft, but bright. More to come…..

By this image at <a href=”http://fineartamerica.com/art/fashion&#8221; style=”font: 10pt arial; text-decoration: underline;”>fashion art for sale</a>

Recent Business Photography for Advertising and Marketing

greggcestaro.com  I recently had a full business photoshoot for a nearby company for their marketing agency. For me, that meant a full day of groups shots, individual shots, service and action shots, product shots, indoor outdoor scene and color palettes and textures. All require different styles and equipment. For the people shots, it was requested that it be shot on white, which I lit up with studio-lit cross-lighting. The service pics were for the most part were bounce lit with one specular back light, the use of my video light balanced with available light was also used in some detail shots. A remote flash on a stand in up angles or light painting added some dramatic lighting for other products and items. The main architecture image was shot in three available light exposures, the sky, the building, and the billboard and were blended in photoshop since the lighting intensities were so different.

Post production was easy as I shot clean from the start, but it generally consisted of facial touch-ups, brightness/contrast, blur and sharpen, and level mods. For me, 3 dimensional lighting is the key to great photos. I wish I shot a Plain Jane on camera flash shot to compare what taking the harder creative lighting vs. the easier point and shoot/iPhone style looks like comparatively and how it benefits the clients marketing needs.

 

Megan Summerville Lingerie ft. Lydia H.

Nostalgic Vintage Lingerie Shoot in Texas

greggcestaro.com This was a shoot I had wanted to do for a long time, and we had a great opportunity to photograph some of Megan Summerville’s lingerie, since Lydia just returned from NYC for some R&R in Texas. From every day basics to luxurious, one-of-a-kind pieces Megan Summerville was named Texas’ Next Top Designer in 2009, and creates lingerie for women of all sizes, and Lydia is Austin’s top mod who is working in New York right now. The location is pretty unique too. Its a western ghost town venue in Manor, Texas that has a lot of fantastic shooting opportunities. The combination of Megan, Lydia, and the ghost town along with Mandy Hernandez hair and make-up and Brittany Thomas’s fashion styling made for a productive and fun day of shooting.

Starting early while cool, and working with available light we went from building to building and piece by piece. I had brought all my studio equipment but power was limited so I went commando with just my camera and whatever light poured in from the breezy cloudy day. I shot with my Pentax K5II with a 28-135 zoom, manual, hand held, cross-process set, and changed angles constantly. Post production included all the burn and dodge, overpaint, and other pixel manipulations though very little post was needed.

I always seem to forget how cool available light can be and it should really be my start off point before adding to the scene. I generally have several levels of studio lighting….the ultralite set up which is a basic flash, remotely fired, with a small blow up diffuser on a stand that I place in areas needing fill or extended like 8ft in my hand, painting, while I shoot with the other. Its great for lite on the run stuff when you don’t want to be burdened with tons of stuff. This is how I ran doing BTS for Fashion Week a couple of months ago (see 1 2 3 4) Likewise, there’s the medium lighting which would be a larger battery charged monolight with umbrellas in combo with the smaller flash, there’s also a set of 4 150ws monolights (my first kit), and my big second hand Norman 1980’s power pack with four flash heads that can light a football field. Nevertheless, absent all this, available light without any additional lighting modification yields interesting results especially with cross-processed imagery. That was a big thing for me starting out too, the need to have studio lighting to be a professional photographer.  Sometimes it best to keep it simple. But would rolling up to a Vogue shoot with just a camera around your neck be the thing to do?

Archived Fashion Relooks and Photo Redux

Going Back Through Old Shoots and Overlooked Images

greggcestaro.com My process of editing is to first quickly go through the sometimes thousands of photos as soon as I get home while the notion of things I liked when shooting are still fresh in my mind. I sit back in a darkened room with some Skrillex and a frosty beverage and hit the buttons as the images fly by on the big screen. For me, its a lot like looking through a magazine… if I stop on an image because it interests me it gets a star while the rest the images are not even really looked at a second time. The stars are filtered out and set aside and looked at in detail, post-processed with best results in mind and those images are sent off as finished product. Occasionally, when I am bored, I revisit an recent shoot and look at the ones that didn’t make it the first round. Sometimes, with a new eye, judicial cropping or flipping or rotating the image it changes for the better. Other times additional design elements can round out the picture altogether. These two are images that recently got a second look. The resort wear shot was originally a vertical oriented 3/4 by the pool. What I liked was Brits profile, jewelry, glasses, and hair but the rest of the shot was just OK. A 90 degree left rotation and tight cropping in on the very essential elements with high key bumps change the image completely into an Ad worthy shot. A magazine styled design element helps place it in the genre. The lingerie shot was good on its own. It was shot on the fly with my Canon G11 point and shoot while my other bigger camera was doing vids. I feel that the French design script elements, scrolling, and L’Ermitage tag really take the image up a notch. Canvasing and worn edges creates a very vintage feel. Sometimes there is a second chance to make a good impression and it is good to go back and revisit earlier images. I think I would like to go back and check stuff from way way back but those are all archived in huge binders of sharpie inscribed CD’s, so maybe, if I got a lot of time on my hands!

Austin Fashion Week 2014-Distill’d Rose Fashion Mash-up

Our Fashion Mash-up Photo Contest Image

Please Vote for our picture here http://www.fashionweekaustin.com/distilld-rose.html

Well, this is our third year doing the awesome fashion photo contest for Fashion Week. Looking at my older austintxphoto.com posts below, you can see our previous award-winning photos. This one is especially our fave, since we had to do much better than last years image and the competition this year is fierce. We were inspired by Katherine Micheal’s vintage and sexy fashion designs which we saw on last years runway and Steven Meisel’s Vogue spreads. We decided to do three models for increased complexity and for more than one design and pretty face to be shown. The light whimsical and airy painting picnic scene was chosen so that the models could be engaged in an activity that made sense. We want to capture an image that romanticized fashion editorial as it could have been before the camera, when painting people on French easels was en vogue – as if painted by some impressionist back at the turn of the century. The fun, feminine, fashion approach to this was something we thought would be fun to do. Location was important as well. I guess in retrospect a flowered field could have been just as affective, but I wanted some period looking architecture, especially a staircase to set the scene. Our first choice was the late 19th century staircase at Laguna Gloria in Austin Texas, but that was unavailable on the day of our shoot. At the last-minute, I happened to stumble upon this meandering staircase at a guest ranch in Fisher Texas that seemed period, and even better appeared to look like some rural French or Italian hillside village type of place. We had all the best elements and people in one place at the day of the shoot with exception of the weather. That day the last gasp of Arctic air blew in bringing constant 20mph winds, rain, and ice – far from the airy springtime fanciful scene I had envisioned. We were initially forced to shoot indoors in the big great room of the main guest house, which although pretty with a great hill country panorama below, the combined glass windows, dark skies, and large panel lighting reflections made for a rather dismal series that was neither appealing or award-winning. We tried different angles and set redesigns, but I wasn’t impressed. Finally at about 5:30, there was a slight break in the weather that afforded us the opportunity to shoot the scene we all wanted. It was still windy and icy, but it stopped raining so we all scrambled to set up all the accoutrements as models huddled in indian blankets waiting for the green light. Everybody did well with their skills at this 11th hour crunch time. We broke and ran inside to look at the photos and decided to do it again with some adjustments. Finally, we gathered again to review, and there was literally just a couple that stood out, but I really wouldn’t know until I got home. I was very concerned that we may not have gotten a shot and wasted everyone’s time, and was thinking about the impossibility of a reshoot. I wanted to get home quick, although icy conditions and accidents made a 1 hour drive into three. When I did make it home, I went through all the photos on the big screen and it was the very last series of 20 images where the images began to pop, and it was this photo that really spoke to me. The dark overcast skylighting ran bluish while my super toned down panel lights were warmer, but at least the two types of lighting were equal enough in regards to intensify. I don’t remember what my ISO was, I reckon I would have set it to 100 or 2oo for best pixels, but I do remember that I was shooting at my widest aperture of 3.5 and was concerned that my 15-40th/sec shutter speed might introduce blur, but it balanced the lighting which was my biggest concern. Canvas flip, equalization, burn and dodge, and saturation control rounded out the post production. I shot wide at 28mm, on a low tripod. This was the best crop I felt to tell the story and set the scene. Check out all the other mash-up teams and please vote for our image for “Peoples Choice” at http://www.fashionweekaustin.com/distilld-rose.html Thanks!
with PHOTOGRAPHER: Gregg Cestaro
HAIR STYLIST: Lorie Newman
MAKEUP ARTIST: Mandy Ray Hernandez
APPAREL DESIGNER: Katherine Micheal
MODEL: Sarah C.
MODEL: Callisto G.
MODEL: Susan P.
WARDROBE STYLIST: Sandra Antoun
with Special Thanks to April Skinner at Vintique Rentals and Ranch Mirando in Fisher, Tx

Viva La Orchid

By Michelle Zuzek
Stylist: Sandra Antoun
Make-up and Hair: Mandy Ray Hernandez
Photography: Gregg Cestaro
Model: Susan Perry

Want a pop of color for 2014? Color yourself pretty with the color of the year-RADIANT ORCHID. Many boutiques in Austin will have this fab color that will look good on almost all skin tones. However, if you’re looking for that one-of-a-kind piece, a full ensemble, or a single piece to brighten things up, places such as Buffalo Exchange, Moss, Feathers and Prototype can add that perfect “Austin” touch.

They say that April showers bring May flowers…although; in Austin, we may be a few months ahead. Spring is right around the corner and fortunately for us, Spring 2014 collections are in stores right now. For most of us, Spring is a time of refresh and renewal. Over the years you may have noticed that we tend to revert back to whites and pastels and fortunately for us this year’s “IT” color falls right within those guidelines. Not all shades of purple are created equal – periwinkle, grape, violet, lavender, aubergine, eggplant, and lilac simply won’t cut it this year.

            “Not all shades of purple are created equal”

Radiant Orchid, the pantone color of 2014 is assured to influence both fashion AND interior design. With that said be on the lookout for some new faux velvet wallpaper while dashing your closet with a few orchid color pieces to add to your wardrobe. It’s fair to say that everyone looks good in this color and if that isn’t convincing enough take a stab at wearing a subtle accessory with that orchid underlay and see what the response is, you just never know, this pantone color of the year may flatter you more than you expected. Viva La Orchid!

FUR SHOT Details

Hat – Dandy’s  Skirt – Brandy Melville

Socks – Rene Geneva  Shoes – Old Gringo “Grannys”

Blouse – Ann Taylor    Fur – By Lucah & Micah Stylist lineBelt – D&G      Vintage Bracelets – Ball and Chain         Pearl Necklace – Vintage

 

CADILAC SHOT Details

Bright Pink Dress – Vintage    Boots – Old Gringo “Grannys”

Bracelets – Ball and Chain

 

MAKE-UP Details

Nails– Jenna Hipp’s “On The List”

Face- Nude lid, soft pink cheek,  Black liner under lashes and in water line. and a pop of color on the lip. The lip is the emphasis.

Lips- Bobbi Brown’s Rich Lip Color “Cosmic Raspberry” and High Shimmer “Electric Violet” gloss.

Monica Fine Arts Favorite Wildlife- The Koala Bear

Introducing my wife, Monica’s first blog about her Wildlife and Pet Portraits!

MonicaFineArts.com Wildlife and Pet Portraits

Koala-Nite, Nite
My husband, Gregg Cestaro, is a fantastic photographer and has taken numerous photos for me to use as references. We were at the San Diego zoo where my family heard me say-take a pic!- about a zillion times. 300 some pics later, I had lots to work from. This is one such piece. Koalas are most everyone’s live teddy bear. This one was sleeping in the tree and I thought it would be a good piece to do. I used watercolor paper and did a wash with watercolor pencil then used gesso as an underpainting. For the koala I used watercolor pencil and acrylic. The tree and leaves are watercolor pencil, color pencil, acrylic and conti. Using short strokes I layered the color on the fur to make it look fluffy.

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