3 Time Beard Champion Portraits + My First Homemade Painted Canvas Backdrop **new photos added

[DanOstergren]

This week I worked with the very talented hair/makeup artist Sarah and my bearded friend Madison to create some photos for an award that Sarah has been nominated for (Best Men's Hairstylist in the NW). I also got to use my new canvas backdrop for the first time, which I made myself a few weeks ago. The main focus of this shoot was hair, but I also wanted to make sure I got some good portraits of Madison as well.

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Also some BTS shots.

For lighting, there was a large window to camera left with open sky (non direct sunlight), and the hair/makeup artist randomly brought a constant ring light that I used with a gold diffuser to add another layer to the lighting.

My best friend works in a high end paint store and is able to give me a veeeery generous discount on supplies, so I plan on making many more backdrops like this one. It has three coats of primer, and various coats of greens and greys. It took me a a full day to make from start to finish, and I'm able to roll it up and store it in a big PVC pipe that I capped on both ends. The cost of supplies for this one was roughly $140, but there is plenty of leftover paint, primer and other materials leftover that all I would need to do is spend about $45 in order to make the next one, which will likely be about 4 feet longer on the long edge. This one is 6ft by 9ft.

 

[zulu42]

Very Nice! Seems like the mixed lighting brought out more nice tones in the hair and beard. I like the backdrop. Hard to tell from the photos, is it one color or is there some gradient to it? Is it a cotton canvas? Thanks

 

[Derrel]

Good Lord... now that is one impressive beard!

 

[SquarePeg]

Yes great light on the hair and beard - bravo!

Love the backdrop colors. It goes well with your usual warm skin tones. Is that a painter's drop cloth that you used to make this?

 

[DanOstergren]

Very Nice! Seems like the mixed lighting brought out more nice tones in the hair and beard. I like the backdrop. Hard to tell from the photos, is it one color or is there some gradient to it? Is it a cotton canvas? Thanks

Thank you. The gradient was caused by the warm lighting from the ring light. It has a grey undercoat, and I painted green over the grey and then wiped a moist t-shirt rag over the green paint before it was completely dry in order to create texture that allowed some of the grey to show though from underneath. I used high quality cotton canvas that I purchased from an art supply store.

 

[DanOstergren]

Good Lord... now that is one impressive beard!

I would have thought that he'd have cut if off by now, but he just keeps letting it grow!

 

[DanOstergren]

Yes great light on the hair and beard - bravo!

Love the backdrop colors. It goes well with your usual warm skin tones. Is that a painter's drop cloth that you used to make this?

Thank you so much!

When picking the colors for the backdrop I specifically made a point to see how each individual color looked against mine and my best friend's skin.
For the canvas I went to an art supply store and bought some of their highest quality cotton canvas. I took every step to make sure this backdrop would be high archival quality.

 

[DanOstergren]

Bump, added new photos (and removed the original)

 

[AlanKlein]

Great beard, great shots.

 

[jcdeboever]

Excellent set. His beard has grown in ft. since your last shoot. I love it that you use an older camera body and one lens. You are an impressive photog Dan.

 

[SquarePeg]

As portriats, #1 and #8 are my favorites. Eye contact makes them much more compelling for me. For showcasing the beard and hair, I like #5 or #6.

 

[Trever1t]

Great work as always and wow, a really nice job on that backdrop!

 

[DanOstergren]

Great beard, great shots.

Thank you so much!

 

[DanOstergren]

Excellent set. His beard has grown in ft. since your last shoot. I love it that you use an older camera body and one lens. You are an impressive photog Dan.

Thank you!
Thank you so much! I'll use this camera until it dies. I love my 85mm lens too, but I'll likely be picking up a 50mm or 35mm to add to my gear bag soon.

 

[DanOstergren]

As portriats, #1 and #8 are my favorites. Eye contact makes them much more compelling for me. For showcasing the beard and hair, I like #5 or #6.

Thank you! Those are a couple of my favorite portraits as well. It was actually really difficult to choose favorites from this shoot, and there are so many more than I posted that turned out really great.