I got emailed by Lisa Kalinein, a young model here in San Diego, to do a photo shoot together. After looking at her portfolio, I really liked her look and emailed her about coming into studio. We emailed back and forth a couple times exchanging ideas till we finally got two solid looks that we wanted to achieve. I called my MUA, Kalia White, to see if she wanted to join and she immediately jumped on board.
Looking back at the shoot, I really felt that as a team we all really clicked and came up with some really great images. After having that experience, I wanted to share how you can can achieve a simple, easy but very clean model shoot.
A beauty and fashion shoot cannot be done on your own. You need a great team around you. I always try to get an assistant to help me with lighting as well keep in an eye out for details; like loose clothing or hair out of place. This time, I had Saskia Nelissen come and help me out. She is local photographer in our Photography In Training (PIT) Program, so I knew she can bring a lot to the shoot. I also had my Kalia come to the studio with me to advise on makeup and hair styles. Without Kalia’s help, my images would not be the same. Proper hair and makeup make the world of difference. Your images look more complete which helps with keeping your post processing to a minimum.
A beauty and fashion shoot cannot be done on your own. You need a great team around you. I always try to get an assistant to help me with lighting as well keep in an eye out for details; like loose clothing or hair out of place. This time, I had Saskia Nelissen come and help me out. She is local photographer in our Photography In Training (PIT) Program, so I knew she can bring a lot to the shoot. I also had my Kalia come to the studio with me to advise on makeup and hair styles. Without Kalia’s help, my images would not be the same. Proper hair and makeup make the world of difference. Your images look more complete which helps with keeping your post processing to a minimum.
I am lucky enough to work at a studio where I get to use a 15 foot seamless cyc wall. The wall is freshly painted white but because we are so far away from the wall I am able to achieve a nice grey to work with as my background color.
I also knew I wanted the light to be soft and simple. I decided to use a 48 inch Octabank light modifier. Because of its size, I knew it would give me really soft light. I decided to keep it at a 45 degree angle right in front of the model. I turned it a little inward so it can wrap around her face and keep her face evenly lit. It still left me with some shadow to deal with. I did not want to introduce another light because I knew I would have to worry about balancing both lights. Since I had an assistant, I asked Saskia to hold a 8x4 foot foam board reflector to balance the light on the other side. That made some great fill light. A foam board is a lot faster and easier to move to the right distance and angle to get what you want to achieve than trying to dial in another light source.
I use a Canon 5D Mark II camera. It is a full body camera that gives me everything I need to do a studio shoot. For lenses, I went with my Canon 135mm f/2. It compresses the model very well with very minimal to no compression. My camera settings stay almost the same when I do a studio shoot. I go with iso ISO 100 to make sure I get as the sharpest images as I can. My sync shutter speed with my lights is 160. When I do portraits in the studio, I like to stay around f/8 aperture because I know it will give me sharp images but still give me some depth of field. For a portrait, I light the eyes to be as sharp as possible but I know I can loose some sharpness in the ears to give the photo a little more depth.
I love studio work. Being able to control your environment and your lights to create an image is a fun and challenging way to photograph. If you are looking to learn how to shoot in a studio setting you should check out Local Photo Classes - Studio Light Class. You can learn and develop your skills with shoots like this.
Model: Lisa Kalinein
MUA and Hair: Kalia White
Assistant: Saskia Nelissen
I love studio work. Being able to control your environment and your lights to create an image is a fun and challenging way to photograph. If you are looking to learn how to shoot in a studio setting you should check out Local Photo Classes - Studio Light Class. You can learn and develop your skills with shoots like this.
Model: Lisa Kalinein
MUA and Hair: Kalia White
Assistant: Saskia Nelissen
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