After The Camera: Digital Transformations For Conceptual Nude & Portrait Photography

128 Pages·2016·82.376 MB·English

by  Rouse, Thom

After
the Camera
Digital Transformations for
Conceptual Nude & Portrait
Photography

Thom Rouse
Award-winning fine-art photographer
To my wife Jeanne, who is in every way responsible
for my career. I hope someday she can forgive herself.
Copyright © 2016 by Thom Rouse
All rights reserved.
All photographs by the author unless otherwise noted.
Published by:
Amherst Media, Inc., PO Box 538, Buffalo, NY 14213
www.AmherstMedia.com
Publisher: Craig Alesse
Senior Editor/Production Manager: Michelle Perkins
Editors: Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt, Harvey Goldstein, Beth Alesse
Associate Publisher: Kate Neaverth
Editorial Assistance from: Carey A. Miller, Sally Jarzab, John S. Loder
Business Manager: Adam Richards
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ISBN-13: 978-1-68203-004-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015953686
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1 . Infinite Turtle Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 . Wild Ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3 . Firebird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4 . Shhh- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5 . Andromeda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6 . The Ones We Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7 . Dance Within . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8 . Electra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
9 . Angelic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
10 . Country Girl Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
11 . Snapshot of a Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
12 . Masked Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
13 . Balancing Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
14 . Twisted Sister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
15 . Portrait in B Minor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
16 . Cubist Blue Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
17 . Mirage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 28 . Balthus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
18 . Escape Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 29 . Venus in Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
19 . Etched in Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 30 . Megan and Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
20 . Gravity’s Consent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 31 . Catherine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
21 . Grief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 32 . Economic Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
22 . Haiku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 33 . Zebra Ass Hand on Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
23 . I Dream of Fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 34 . Isis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
24 . Urban Mermaids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 35 . Kandinsky Tattoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
25 . Alone on the Planet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 36 . Thanks Ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
26 . Mistake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 37 . Particulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
27 . Butterfly Torso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 38 . Leap of Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
contents 3
39 . Let the Dead Bury the Dead . . . . . . . . 82
40 . A Breeze in the Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
41 . Oceanides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
42 . Oracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
43 . Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
44 . Persephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
45 . Debra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
46 . Lilith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
47 . Ophelia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
48 . Charles Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
49 . Hidden Desire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
50 . High Stakes Chess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
51 . Exile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
52 . Serious Moonlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
53 . The Fisherman's Daughter . . . . . . . . 110
54 . Sisters of Mercy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
55 . The Unbearable Lightness of Being . 114
56 . Wood Nymph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
57 . Time After Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
58 . Windswept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
59 . Side Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
60 . Symbol Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
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About the Author
Thom Rouse (M. Photog. MEI, CR,
CPP, F-ASP) began his career as a
portrait and wedding photographer in
1994. Based near Chicago, he now divides
his time between commercial, fine art,
and commissioned fine art images with his
clients as the central subject of his pieces.
His conceptual fine art images utilize real
world photographs blended and manipu-
lated to create an alternative to real world
perception. Thom also lectures and teaches
workshops on topics ranging from Photo-
shop as an artist’s tool to visual literacy to
and lighting and posing for figure studies.
Thom holds the PPA Master of Pho-
tography degree, the Award of Excellence,
the Master of Electronic Imaging degree,
and the Photographic Craftsman degree.
He is a Fellow in the American Society of
Photographers and a member of XXV. He Masterpiece Awards. Thom’s work has been
has 54 PPA Loan Collection images and has exhibited throughout the United States
won the ASP Gold Medallion twice. He has as well as Canada, China, Japan, Korea,
received five Diamond, four Platinum and and Europe.
one Gold Photographer of the Year Awards. To learn more, visitwww.thomrouse.com
He has received the Kodak Elite Award and or contact him at [email protected].
the Canon Par Excellence Select Award, as
well as numerous Kodak Gallery and Fuji
intRoduction 5
Infinite Turtle Theory
1

Infinite Turtle Theory is an image for The central subject in a vintage dress has
which the title came first and the visual her right palm raised toward heaven, and her
concept later. I have a number of such im- left palm turned toward Earth in the tradition
ages, and I keep lists of titles that I review of Sufi dancers. In the background are subtle
when I’m stuck for inspiration. It seems images of an angel and of Buddha. The many
that many visual artists have taken inspira- symbols resonate differently with individual
tion from writers, while at the same time viewers of the image, which is completely in-
many writers have taken inspiration from tentional. We seek to create an experience for
visual art. The Greeks called it ekphrasis; the audience of our images, and using widely
the description of one art form by another known symbols is an effective way to elicit a
through words. But we make images be- viewer’s experience with an image.
cause for some things there are no words. The central subject was photographed
The origin of The Infinite Turtle Theory on a medium gray background (see bottom
is uncertain, but it has been used as a meta- left of finished image) allowing a variety
phor in many philosophical and scientific of textures and objects to show well in
discussions with a variety of meanings. The various layer blending modes. The model
base of the image has a turtle, on top of a stood with one foot on each of two stools
turtle, on top of another turtle and implies that were removed in postproduction and
that it’s “turtles all the way down” as it is replaced with images of ceramic garden
stated in many of the stories of the Infinite turtles. No turtles were harmed in the mak-
Turtle Theory. ing of this image.
 straight out of camera
 several of
numerous
incorporated
elements
 the infinite
turtle theory,
finished image
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AFteR tHe cAMeRA 7
Wild Ride
2

The image Wild Ride was composed Safeen was photographed with his owner,
using three images taken from wildly Kerri, at a nearby stable. The late Safeen
different places and circumstances. One of was a beautiful horse who loved to perform
features I love about Photoshop as a fine art for the camera. Kerri simply released Safeen
medium is the opportunity to use images into the corral, and he began showing off
without regard to the time and place of and performing, always keeping an eye on
their origin. In my work, an image from a us to make sure we were watching.
decade or more ago, and from thousands Like many of my images, Wild Ride was
of miles away, might be paired with some- conceived of while touring the contents
thing from a session yesterday just down the of my hard drives and letting the concepts
street. Photoshop is an opportunity to cre- from various images bump into each other
ate an alternative history with photography. and commingle in my imagination. The
Each component of the image was cap- technical work was simply to select and
tured in a separate place and time. Wild Ride composite the images together, but the
was composed from an image of a park in an image was the product of imagination not
eastern residential area of Venice. The model, technique. I think we are wise to remember
Anne Duffy, was a traveling model touring that technique is in service to our creativity
the US from Australia. Anne was photo- and not its source. It’s the very fact of hav-
graphed by window light in the studio with ing nothing in mind whatsoever, that has
the pose just as it is seen in the final image. made this technique of randomly searching
The horse, Safeen, was a beautiful hard drives work for me.
Arabian owned by a photographer friend.
 Wild Ride, finished image
 A park in Venice  Model Anne duffy, studio capture  A safeen, an Arabian horse
8 AFteR tHe cAMeRA
AFteR tHe cAMeRA 9
Firebird
3

Su Miller is a model and costume de- studio against a painted background and the
signer who has designed and created location is from the floor of Death Valley.
everything from her own wedding dress to With a single texture layer over the top of
historically accurate reenactment costumes the figure and the background, there is no
to, in this case, a firebird ensemble cre- manipulation of the image other than mask-
ated entirely from her own imagination. Su ing the three layers into each other.
was photographed by window light in the Knowing when to stop working on an
image and determine
it as finished is perhaps
even more important and
difficult than knowing
where to start. When we
begin crafting an image,
there are almost infinite
possibilities and nearly
as many opportunities
to reach dead ends and
retreat to an earlier stage
of development. By
definition there is only
one finish for the im-
age, and it requires one
final choice from among
the many possibilities.
Because we have so many
tools available to us in
digital image-making,
the options are over-
 Firebird, finished image
 the studio capture (top)
 death Valley (bottom)
10 AFteR tHe cAMeRA