The Last Word – Cherie Steinberg Cote: A Girl’s Best Friend

May 1, 2009

By Harvey Goldstein

There is very little down time at Cherie Steinberg Coté’s studio in Beverly Hills, CA. If they have no commissioned assignments, Cherie and her team always have a full bag of ideas with which to experiment; they use models to test their ideas. “We have found that most of the ideas that arise out of our brainstorming sessions are our biggest sellers, so we are always excited when we can try something new.

“On this particular day, we were discussing photographing this beautiful model over lunch in West Hollywood when a couple walked by with their dog, and I knew that our model and the puppy would make a lovely couple. We scheduled the photographic session for the following week. After several exposures, the dog yawned and I captured a great image.”

“A Girl’s Best Friend” has been used by several publications and has appeared on various magazine covers.

Cherie photographed the model and the puppy using her Nikon D200 and AF Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens. The image was exposed for 1/200 at f/8 at ISO 100. It was made in RAW file mode and converted with Nikon NX2 software. Cherie’s lighting consisted of several Dyna-Lites with the CherieFoto Silk Boxes, which are her unique design. The image was worked on a Mac Quad G5 in Photoshop CS3. The only other effect was some minor adjustments with Nik filters.

To see more of Cherie Steinberg Coté’s work, and to see what she’s been up to, visit www.cheriefoto.com.

Harvey Goldstein from Branford, CT, has been in the photographic industry for almost 35 years. He is a former studio owner and presently edits numerous association newsletters and magazines, as well as being a freelance writer.