RF Cookbook — Michael Redford: Paradise Found

The photo session for this portrait was held in Hilton Head, SC, where Michael Redford and his wife spend several weeks every year working pleasurably by the ocean. They live and work very near Pittsburgh, PA, but every year they book sessions with their Pittsburgh-area clientele who are vacationing at Hilton Head. Some clients are even willing to make the 13-hour drive or two-hour flight just for a seaside portrait.

The Redfords advertise their Hilton Head trips—usually scheduled during the months of June, July or August—via direct-mail postcards, sent approximately six, three and two months in advance. Over the past 10 years, they’ve been able to book one family or individual portrait session every evening they’re at the beach.

The location for “Paradise Found” was chosen primarily for its beautiful leading lines, which draw the viewer’s eye up the walkway to the most important element in the image: the client. Positioning her in the upper right quadrant of the image provided maximum impact, while color-coordinated clothing and a matching beach hat made wonderful compositional elements.

Even more important to the success of a beach portrait is the lighting. Michael always schedules sessions just before twilight, to capture what photographers call the “sweet light,” which usually happens about 60 minutes before sunset. On cloudy days he’s careful because the light may be greatly diminished. On the other hand, clear days provide a longer shooting time. He says of the technique: “We sometimes have to wait for the sun to lose its intensity before we begin. If the light is too bright, clients tend to squint and the background exposure may be one to three stops brighter than the light on the subject’s face, which means I have to work harder setting up auxiliary lighting. I would much rather photograph without auxiliary light during the sweet-light period.”

A week or two after returning to Pittsburgh, Michael sets up sales sessions for each of the beach sittings. The clients are so happy with the beach portraits, they typically generate the studio’s highest average sales of the year.

This portrait is actually a combination of two images. The sky was photographed five years ago while Michael was visiting the Cayman Islands. It was captured with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II and 150mm lens. The film was Kodak Professional Portra 400VC color negative, exposed for 1/60 at f/5.6. He photographed the subject a year later using the same camera, film and exposure. (Today, he would use his Canon EOS 5D.)

The two film images were scanned and saved in Photoshop CS at 250dpi. He selected the image of the woman and walkway very carefully using Photoshop’s Pen tool on a Wacom tablet, and then copied it into a new 20 x 24-inch document. He added the Cayman Island sunset on a separate layer and lined up the two layers to create the final image.

You can find out more about Michael Redford as well as see more of his photos at www.michaelredford.com.