It’s been yonks (literally years) since I creatively collaborated for my portfolio, and although I’m loving shooting stuff for my clients, I’m inspired to play again for just, well me! So let me know if you’d like to play!
Here are some awesome images by other talents that are inspiring me:
I’m a sucker for glowy skin, and this set up is how I get it – working in conjunction with my make up artist (see below).
1. Large Softbox on background – to blow out the background, set this light head to a higher output than your key light.
2. Small Softbox as key light – To get shiny highlights on the cheek bone, jaw, shoulder and nose, place the key light close to the model, at a lower output to the background light to keep that background pure white! At this point, I usually take a test shot, and ask the make up artist in the team to add more shimmer or highlight to the parts of the model I really want to shine. It’s super important to collaborate closely with the make up artist even while shooting.
4. Camera settings – Shutter speed 1/160, aperture f5.6, ISO 100.
A common lighting set up for beauty photography – bright and balanced.
1. Large softbox as key light – Placed to one side of our model Kelly, you can see how the large softbox is throwing a soft even light on the left side of the image.
2. Smaller softbox as fill light – Placed at a slightly closer distance on the opposite side of the key light, the smaller soft box balances the light from the larger softbox giving a bright image that really shows off the make up and colours in the image.
3. Camera settings – Shutter speed 1/125, aperture f5.6, ISO 100.
Happy lighting!
Some Second Life images I’ve shot that I’d love to replicate in Real Life…
One of the easiest lighting set ups with the most dramatic and moody effects.
1. Large softbox as key light – Placed very close to the side of our model, you can see how the large softbox is throwing a soft even light on one side of her face shoulders and arm, and creates hard deep shadows on the other side. Deep dark shadows create drama and contrast, and help create an alluring effect. Note: the closer the light to the model, the sharper the shadows.
2. Camera settings – Shutter speed 1/160, aperture f5.6, ISO 100.
Happy lighting!
This lighting set up is a common one I use for clean beauty shots against a light backdrop.
1. Large Softbox on background – for a pure white background with minimal retouch in post processing, set this light head to a higher output than your key and fill lights. I like the spill back from this light on Laura Ann’s neck, but to avoid such light spilling back, place the model further forward, closer to the camera and further from this light.
2. Beauty Dish as key light – Beauty dishes seem to be like Marmite in the photography industry, and I’m one of those who love them! I like the soft even light they give, and in cases where the model has her eyes open, I quite like the round catch lights they create in the eyes.
3. Small Softbox as fill light – I prefer some shadows in beauty imagery, and not totally even, clean, bright (and in my opinion a little boring) light. So for a fill light, I’ll use a small softbox, further away from the model, and at a lower output than the key light. Here it helps cast evenness to the main part of her face, but enables depth on the cheeks, and definition to the jawline.
4. Camera settings – Shutter speed 1/160, aperture f5.6, ISO 100.
More lighting set ups to follow each Saturday for the next few weeks. Hope that’s useful to a few folks 🙂
My new Epiphanie Stella bag arrived today – and I’m freakin’ loving it! What’s not to love? Lush pink colour – check. Ample camera equipment room – check. Looks like a gorgeous designer bag – check. Cute metallic and diamante camera charm – check. AND IT’S PINK!
Ok, so after a few deep breaths, I collected myself again, and have taken some shots of it to show you the quality and detailing. It holds an SLR body, and has room for up to 6 six medium sized lenses / flash guns. With 2 front pockets, 2 side pockets, and a back pocket, there is plenty of space for batteries, smartphone, business cards, ipad mini etc.
I’m glad there are products geared directly towards the female photographer market, and this is definitely worth the investment. My only critique would be the white interior (I know I’m gonna get that grubby!), and I’d have preferred black or a deep grey, but hey – did I tell you how gorgeous it looks AND IT’S PINK?
You can grab yourself a Stella too from Epiphanie.
I get asked a lot ‘how do you get that hazy summer look to images?’… Here’s how to without post processing:
1. Forget all the usual rules about the light facing your subject.
2. Check when the sun is rising or going down – and get yourself out around 40 mins before that time.
3. Place your subject between the sun rise / sunset and yourself, with the sun behind the subject.
4. Play around with your settings to achieve the type of haze you want – the above image was taken around 20 mins before sunset in Paris, with a shutter speed of 1/125, and f5.0 and no flash. You could use flash to achieve a more halo effect around the subject, or increase your ISO to create a bright ethereal effect.
5. Have fun breaking the rules! Shoot using the settings YOU like the results from 🙂
Happy shooting!
None of us like to carry lots of gear, so if you don’t have a light meter handy, fear not! It’s likely you can use your camera’s auto mode to gather a basic idea of the settings you need for a decent exposure. Take a shot in auto mode, and hit info to gather the shutter speed, ISO and aperture settings. Copy the settings into manual mode, and using the light metering indication (usually looks like the diagram below):
You can then shift individual elements like shutter speed, sensitivity, aperture etc. to get the aesthetic results you are after – negative on the exposure scale will yield darker moodier images, and positive on the scale will create brighter, lighter images.
Once you get a feel for your camera settings, and practice enough, you’ll start to be able to ‘read’ the light in your scene and will come to know which settings work for which types of end results.
Happy snapping!
I’ve been shooting for Jazelz girlswear for a number of years, and I was proud to be present at the very first Jazelz catwalk show at the Asian Wedding Exhibition @ Wembley Arena in London. I was also chuffed when designer Jaz Jutley asked my little daughter Lana to model for her also :
Atomik 