This shot is one of a series Doug Coulter did in Huntington Beach Ca. as a campaign for a high-end group of hair salons. In the past years Doug has developed a preference for shooting real people as opposed to professional models. Doug comments and shares his inside point of view on the shoot.
'It’s a risky choice and you don’t always know what you’re going to get. In my mind, however, that’s more and more true of the pros as well so why not take the risk? I think in the end, I’ve gotten a higher percentage of shots that I just didn’t end up using, but every now and then you stumble across someone who’s perfect in their own way.
"This model had a thing about her…kind of a graceful, French actress thing. At least that’s what I saw in her. I remember shooting her and thinking that I wished I was shooting some old school black and white film. Expression came so easily to her. It seemed fitting to put her in a film still. Having originally been a film student, many of my shots end up looking like film stills, but this scene seemed to even more so.
It’s also worth mentioning that the light in Southern California is amazing the way it bounces from building to building creating an endless amount of soft light sources. I love shooting there! Hair and Make-Up did a great job, but this shot was really all the model. In the end, this shot was retouched to hell and back. It was printed billboard size on a large glass front of a retail building. I’m showing it here basically how it came out of the camera."
