When I work with a newer model for the first time, I like to give them as many different looks, i.e. clothing changes, and different backgrounds as possible during a three hour shoot. This gives them a great variety of shots to choose from for their portfolio. Models usually end up with 60 (often double that) photos they can use.
And I always take time to help them with their posing and understanding of what a photographer is doing/trying to do and why. This goes a long way toward helping them understand their role in the photographer/model relationship. They come away with a much better understanding of what is expected of them and what they should expect from a photographer.
Following are a few of the photos from this shoot.
I usually start out working with the model in a high key setup. For those unfamiliar with this term, high key normally references a predominately white background such as in the photo above. This is created by using a white backdrop with studio lights set to "blast" light at the background that is 1.5 stops or so brighter than the light falling on the model. In this instance, my background was at f/9 and the light falling on Anna was f/5.6. Technically that's only 1.33 stops difference, but that's close enough to 1.5 stops. The other lights I used were a single key light with a beauty dish attached, and a strip box on a boom to serve as my hair light. For those interested in the technical aspects, the hair light was feathered to just add a little extra light on her hair and was set to f/4, one full stop lower than the key light.
After shooting this outfit on high key, I decided this would look really good with a black background so we moved over to a different shooting area. I used only one light for this shot - the one with the beauty dish. This gives a completely different look to the same outfit. Which one do you like better? They both have their uses.
Anna had this really cool leather jacket. I thought it would look good in a more urban setting so we shot her in front of the metal studio door. For this shot I used a strip box coming from Anna's right side and the beauty dish for the key light.
In this last shot we moved back to the high key shooting area, but this time I switched things around a little. Rather than using the beauty dish, I put a 3'x4' soft box on my light in order to give a softer light to the shot. I didn't use a hair light, and I turned the background lights down slightly so I had a little grayer background than I was using for my high key shots. Even though this was shot in the same area as the high key, I can make the background white or shades of gray all the way to black just by adjusting the lights' intensity and the shutter and aperture settings on my camera. The final adjustment for this shot was to change my depth of field by using a wider aperture - f2.8 - which keeps the focus on Anna's face and becomes less focused further into the photo.
Here's the video I produced from this shoot. Enjoy!
That's it for this time around. As usual, questions and comments are always welcome. Take care!
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