adaptation
one of the most important things i've learnt over time shooting both paid and unpaid projects, is the fact that pretty much nothing ever goes to plan.
i'm the type of person that is most comfortable when i know what to expect. i don't generally like to be surprised or go into a situation that i don't have some sort of control of. when we'd organised our model shoot of a few weeks ago, i had a pretty specific plan in mind.
i knew the location, i knew the types of shots i wanted and and had it all planned out in my head. so it was with a degree of disappointment when i found out that my main location was unavailable on the day and we had to relocate somewhere else.
rethink, adapt and don't be afraid to go with it. sometimes not having a plan gives you the best results.
we ended up planning for a studio shoot with multiple lights and 2 models. but in the end, my fave shots were either natural light or shot only with the modelling lights.
lots of retouching to the skin in this one. her legs and face were lit by different light sources so her face was a lot warmer than the cold tone in her legs. her tight jeans had also left imprints down the entire length of her legs. finally some frequency separation rounds out the digital dematology. one of my fave effects applied to this, the VSCO film Portra 400+. i love how it flattens the blacks.
hadn't planned for a black backdrop either. my fault for not checking with k beforehand but it all worked to my taste as i'm much more of a low key lighting type of guy.
this is a similar to the first shot but with 3 lights firing. the main key light in a beauty dish on the right and a deep octa for fill on the left. the background was lit up with a speedlight covered in red bubble-wrap. nice idea k.
after a quick costume change, we had a few other looks to work with. again, all without planning and going with the flow.
simple 3 light portrait setup. left, right and backdrop. i like the slight frown.
really like the movement in this one. slightly slower shutter speed, slightly lower power on the lights. all seemed to work out.
all these shots were from the second half of the day - when we'd kept Ali waiting for about 2 hours while we shot Nat.
simple natural light with a touch of gold reflector. really worked well with both her outfit and her hair and skin tones.
it's always easy shooting with a professional, experienced model. nat needed very little direction, knew herself really well so posed really seamlessly, which and made it really easy for us to shoot her - makes freestyling like this much more comfortable.
i was going for a club type of feel for this shot - relaxed, sophisticated and sexy. i think we got all three.
back to the black backdrop with nat.
Kodak Portra strikes again. probably my fave shot of nat. i might try a darker version of this one but i like the way this one turned out.
on the subject of experimentation, i decided to give the anamorphic a test run. a first time with artificial lighting.
anamophic fun. tried an edit with some lens flare - i'm only 80% happy with that one but i really like this one.
more often than not, my fave shots have come about from freestyling. it was a long, stressful day but it all worked out. and that's the key really, keep at it, go with the flow, communicate and you'll end up with something cool.