Before & After | Mike Rodriguez

Yep! Christmas comes early this year with this week's Before & After! Our friend and colleague Mike Rodriguez really pulled out all the stops, giving us a play-by-play of his process and how this image came together. 

Seriously, guys. This is the gift that keeps on giving. Enjoy!

Oh, and, hey! Happy Holidays to you from all of us at LooksLikeFilm! Cheers!

Mike. You. Go!

My name is Mike Rodriguez and I was born in Monterrey, Mexico.

I have always worked in sales; from computers to cars, my last job before becoming a photographer was in a business coaching franchise, then I took the step to become an independent photographer . . . currently 3 years in the making.

Since that day I have always tried to do my best, doing what I love. I now have a studio named Vimedia Photographers, based in Monterrey, but we mostly do wedding photography around the globe.

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

I’ve been inspired by a lot of people in my life, some are photographers while others are not. I’m the kind of person that prefers to follow someone because of their personality and humanity than just their work.

One of them being my friend and neighbor, Fer Juaristi. His work is amazing, but even more so his personality and passion for what he does!!

Sam Hurd, another amazing photographer and one of my greatest mentors.  I met him at Fer’s house during a workshop and his work changed my mind forever.  There’s definitely a noticeable change in me which I like to call the “before and after I met Sam.”

Erika and Lanny Mann have without a doubt influenced much of the work I do today, but I also admire them because they are very professional. They have everything I hope to be in this industry; technique, charisma, the business, the images. They are definitely one of my top inspirations and they also happened to be my wedding photographers :D !!

Gabe McClintock has some of the most romantic and nostalgic photos I’ve ever seen, and I love them. His posts are amazing, too.

But I must admit I am inspired by one special person . . .  my fiancé Monica. She has pushed me to do things that I probably couldn’t have done by myself, she has taken my fears and obstacles away. She has helped me believe in myself, she is just my perfect friend and partner.

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post.

I need to be honest with you guys, I never go out with something specific in my mind. I think that if you try to control things, you’ll only be disappointed. You can’t control the weather, the sunlight, or the moments, so I prefer to be surprised by what’s going on at that specific moment.

But I have to tell you that I am a symmetry freak. When I find a place that’s symmetrically perfect, I have to take a shot, even if that means getting on top of a roof, or down on the floor. I don’t mind getting dirty, so I guess I’d consider myself to be a risky photographer.

I shoot with minimum equipment; this allows me to be more creative and fast when I need to get a shot. I use a Nikon D750, a Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art Lens, and a Nikon 85mm 1.8G. That’s all I carry in my bag.

I do culling in Photomechanic 5, and edit my Photos in Lightroom CC. My favorite presets are Fernwehs C1, C5 and B&W. I use them as a base to start, and then make some tweaks depending on what the image needs.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion.

I was doing a photo shoot for Maria Fernanda in NYC and we were on her building’s rooftop. I wanted to do something where I could show the Empire State Building, but at the same time wanted a good portrait of her, so I tried this:

I was happy with it, but I knew that it wasn’t the best shot I could do in this amazing place, so I decided to sit her in a chair to have more sky and buildings, but pointing towards One World Trade Center like this:

That was the moment when I decided to take a double exposure, so I switched my camera to double exposure mode. I overexposed 1 step to blow up the sky and that was my first shot (the portrait of her). I shot it twice by mistake and this was the result:

At that moment I thought, this is good for a double exposure but I need something about NYC so I decided to look around to find some good spots, and I tried this:

When I looked at the back of my camera I saw the empire state and thought, “I need her to look like she is looking at the empire state to have more impact so the eyes and the empire state have to be in the same direction.” And, my next shot was this . . . . the SOOC Image.

Time to Edit in LR. I used the Fernweh C1 Preset.

The last step was to use Exposure 7 for sharpening, some color correction and grain.

And here are a slew of gorgeous images from this session. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Follow Mike!

Before & After | Beth Wells

We all loved this image; so we had to get the skinny, as they say. So, here goes!

Hey, Beth! Everybody was awestruck by this image. So gorgeous! How'd you make it happen?

This photo was shot during the golden hour on top of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, NM. I wanted to photograph the model, Sachi, in this beautiful Free People gown. I also made the eucalyptus crown. Hair was done by Max Sanders and makeup was by Kata Baron.

Gear?

Canon 5DMIII & 35L.

Settings?

f/1.4 | ISO 100 | 1/1600

preset? 

Alien Skin Exposure Fuji Provia 100

SOOC?

final edit

Ready for some more off-the-charts gorgeousness? Check out the rest of the session here.  

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Before & After | Daniel Alonso

Need more to be thankful for this holiday season? Feast your eyes on our latest Before & After with Daniel Alonso.

It's a veritable cornucopia of visual deliciousness!

Tell us a little about yourself, Daniel.

I’m absolutely inspired by cinema. It was my visual school since I was a kid. I always try to imagine how my favorite cinema directors or cinematographers would shoot a wedding. That’s a huge freedom of possibilities. In this way, Terence Malick, M. Night Shyamalan, David Fincher, Emmanuel Lubezki, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan… are references for me. 

Your influences. Who are they? 

And talking about wedding photographers: Fer Juaristi (my main reference), Jonas Peterson, Jeff Newsom, Sean Flanigan, Samm Blake, Roberto Ramos, Sara Byrne… And such much more. 

Do you have a vision before shooting a wedding? Tell us about your workflow - how your vision comes to life while shooting and in post.

I have some of my own rules when planning a shoot that makes it “my style”. Basically, my priority is emotion and good light. Finding these two things is my obsession and I try to make them come together in the same frame. But, I always try to be in an open-minded state and think like a cinema director, like I said before. 

This photo is and example of working outside of my own rules. 

My workflow is as follows:

1. I shoot almost 4000 photos per wedding. I select 800. I re-select 150-200 of this 800. I use Photomechanic for the selection. 

2. I edit that 150-200 with LR. Always with Portra 160++ as a base. 

3. I end the final look with ASE. I use Fuji Reala. 

4. I make a slideshow with these photos. 

5. I edit the rest of the 800 photos using the same post-process and catalog that as the first edition. 

This process takes me 2 to 3 days.

When posting the wedding, I try to tell the story even if I have to “lie” in the order of the images to make it more cinematic. 

I studied cinema scripting in college and it helps me to try to tell a story. 

Now, tell us all about how this magnificent image came to be.

The story of this photo is the story of a photo that I didn't want to take.

We were coming from the ceremony to the venue and taking some time for the portrait shoots. I had in my head some shoots that I planned the day before and we were running out of time.

Suddenly, on the road we saw all the sheep in the country field.

In my head, I saw that great pictures could come from this. But I didn’t ask the bride and groom to take them. I saw a lot of difficulties. Just in my head: how can I ask them to stop the car on a side of the road, get out the car, get into a dusty and dirty country field to try to get a good shot? It was an internal fight for me. I didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable.

“OK, let’s do this” I said to myself.

And we did it.

The final image that I wanted to take is this one.

But in the process of getting this, I asked them to take a walk up the hill while I was shooting that sequence.

And then it happened.

The post-processing was as follows:

1. SOOC

2. I use Portra 160++ as a beginning with and warm tone on shadows and pink tone in
highlights.

3. I decreased the highlights and the saturation of reds, yellow and oranges.

4. I opened the photo on Alien Skin Exposure. I applied the Fuji Reala and used the bokeh
tool to give a little tilt effect just on the below zone of the photo, just to avoid that the
stones get the attention.

5. It’s done. :)

Now, dear viewers, Feast your Eyes upon the whole sequence!

Follow Daniel!