Most of the ones I found have a mobile phone upload of themselves in the blurry distance or taken with a disco light shining into the lense. So from the offstart I thought I had no trouble for comparison here.
I had a few ideas, but as the DJ needed some shots taken in a Tux and some in a shirt to look smart, the best idea I thought to begin with was a black background. I've seen this technique used normally on baby photographs as it eliminates any over garrish colour of the skin and gives the picture a more pleasing look.
All my shots were taken in .jpg format as I hadn't used my RAW editor software yet so felt more at ease editing the .jpg directly the one time over so as to not loose too much image detail. But as the photos are intended for 320x320 resolution max I guess there wasn;t much to worry about that.
The hardest part is thinking on how I wanted the DJ to look so as to look professional about his work and look friendly and inviting so as to not scare of any potential clients. Out of the 160 odd photos taken I scrutinised and narrowed down the field to just 42 photos that I was happy with...still giving the DJ plenty of different images to pick and choose to use. Some with mirth, some that looked like out of a James Bond movie and a couple that I was very happy with.
When I took the above photo I knew I wanted a close up to make it into a B&W photo. It meant getting very close to the DJ's face so had to make sure the studio lights were set at a wide angle so as to not get any drop shadow appear. Applied a few adjustment filters using photoshop and voila.
For this one I posterized the photo to using just 7 colours before I applied my B&W effects. And to give it more drama I upped the contrast and brightness and added a slight blue hint via a digitally applied blue camera filter. Maybe a bit much for a corporate DJ, I don;t know. I kinda got my idea from Goldie who played a villain in one of the James Bond movies.
My final image of this blog is one with less editing, simply had some minor sharpness added to it, slight contrast enhancement and sepia effect added. The angle makes it look different from the standard straight on poses I took and it stood out more for me, with the DJ in his Tux and with accessorised bow tie and ear phones, it made the complete picture. Though he could always use it for going into a live sports commentator career.
For more information on DJ Lucci you can view his website www.djlucci.com
