or trying to, at least. it was a busy weekend. starting friday when I took my car in for servicing and to finally get the winter tires off. and then that evening I had a shoot booked. to tell the honest truth, I was TIRED! but, i’ve shot with this model before so I knew we’d have a good time, regardless. i made sure to put some music on [it’s better than stifiling silence and i have to remember to make some new playlists!]
we started off shooting on white. i was quite pleased to get the seamless to go white with only 1 light on the background and 1 light on the model. i had my ‘blinking’ highlights turned on [everything that is pure white, should ‘flash’ to solid black], so in-camera I was able to check immediately that the background did go white. i believe this feature is only available on semi-pro camera’s and up [in the Canon family]. i knew the models boyfriend would be escorting her, as he always does and that he’s interested in/getting started in photography himself, having a graphic design background – so I happily turned the camera over to him, to let him get his first taste of shooting with a dslr [i was also really hot and tired, so didn’t mind a nice break!]. i know that once he’s got some experience, he’ll be producing some stellar work. he directed the shot of her on white [as well as other work of his i’ve seen] and he has a really good eye for composition.
then we moved to the grey seamless. i now know, that gray seamless is way less forgiving than the white and brown. it seems to much more readily show areas of shadow and highlight. and as i was working with only 1 light in an umbrella, i’ll need to learn to be more subtle with my lighting. as you can see, i ‘forced’ him to also jump in for some shots, as long as some solo ones. he’s actually quite natural behind the camera.

saturday, i shot a birthday party. i’ll come back to that, another day.

then along came sunday and a beauty shoot. my 2nd ever. the first was with the same makeup artist.
but what i quickly noticed from that shoot was how ‘perfect’ every single detail HAS to be, as we’re generally shooting tight into the face. It’s imperative that the models has good blemish free skin, lips that are fairly symetrical and not chapped! chapped lips with lipstick on stop = horrid. Nicely plucked eyebrows and well groomed/set hair. Yes, certain things are ‘shopped’ but it should be as ‘perfect’ as you can get it, creating less work in the end. the challenge with the beauty shoot, is that i had to interpret someone elses vision, producing very specific images. indeed it’s a challenge! from 1.ensuring that your lighting is consistent shot to shot, and it helps to have your model seated in one position for the set 2. to knowing which lens will produce the look the client is after. 3. to directing the model, which i’ve said is my biggest challenge when it comes to un-exprienced model. in this case, it helped that this girl is also an aspiring actress and hostess, so she really invested in each shot, and that the client was right beside me reviewing the images to confirm whether we were on track or not. I think all in all we got some really beautiful images.