What do you do when you have a beautiful subject with amazing makeup in front of your camera
and you want to produce a shot that is truly special and it's just not coming together
- the lighting is bland - the camera angles are bland - the sweat is starting to bead
up on your forehead - stay tuned and I'll show you what I did.
Hey gang!
My name is Joe Edelman and my mission is to help photographers like YOU to develop a solid
understanding of the HOWS & WHYS behind great photography so that you can achieve your goals
as a photographer.
Well this would be one way to deal with it - but that's not the solution that I chose.
I like to save my alcohol for when I read the comments on my videos.
This is a fashion portrait shoot that I did to illustrate some techniques for some upcoming
lectures and workshops.
Again the real credit for this one goes to my makeup artist.
Not only did she create an awesome makeup look - but she did it on herself and modeled
it as well.
Believe me - doing makeup like this on your own face is ten times harder than doing it
on somebody else.
It's the makeup artist equivalent of a self portrait - only the self portrait is a lot
easier to do.
My original concept for this shot was to do something very low key - so it would be all
about the makeup.
I had one 320watt second strobe mounted in a 16 x 52.5" strip softbox set on camera left
I draped a black fur collar from a winter coat around Monaes shoulders so that I would
have a little texture in the bottom of the frame and not have a floating head.
Now I know some of you will immediately say - you need separation from the background.
You know what?
That's a bunch of crap.
Let's be clear that there is no rule that says you have to have separation.
Sometimes it makes a huge difference and looks great - others - not so much - in both cases
it is a matter of preference
In this case - I am fine with the lack of separation but I'm just not excited by the
shot.
While I love simple - this was just too simple.
I go to something safe - something I've done before - something that I know will usually
please people.
Notice I didn't say please me - I simply mean people will look at it and like it.
But going back to this safe place let's me clear my head and begin to make some positive
progress and start looking for a better idea.
So my next step was to add some colored gels.
I added two different colored magenta gels to a set of 320watt second strobes placed
about 5 feet behind Monae and on either side of her to create the pink rim lighting - but
I still wasn't very excited with the result.
Next - I moved the softbox to a horizontal position above the camera and slightly to
camera left and decided I would get a little crazy by adding some LumoPro LP180R speedlights
with gels - behind Monae and aimed directly into the camera lens.
I also decided to ditch the fur collar and added some black tulle with sparkles around
her neck- just to put a bit more texture into the shot.
Here are the original files as I added a speedlight - adjusted exposure and then stopped my lens
down to f/9 so that I would start to get the rays of light from the strobes.
I tried some various angles and power settings and was getting some interesting results,
but I still wasn't getting the WOW response in my gut that I was looking for.
Now I was getting a little desperate.
My model / makeup artist had done an incredible job with her makeup and I didn't want to
disappoint on my end.
So I began experimenting with placing the black tulle material in front of Monae between
her and the camera.
This was getting some interesting results but I wasn't ultimately thrilled with having
the texture of the material over her face.
Next I remembered a shot that I had done years ago where I placed a beauty dish high above
my camera and placed the camera high above the model and had her strain her neck looking
up to the camera.
I decided to try a similar concept still using the strip softbox but placing it high and
in front of Monae with my camera just below the softbox..
Next I added another 320watt second strobe on the floor behind Monae with a teal gel
to create the glow that you see here.
And this is where the magic started to happen.
Since I am using the Interfit Honey Badgers with their LED modeling lights that have a
proportional output - I was really loving the soft feeling that I was getting while
looking through the wide open lens so I decided to turn off my flash trigger and I began shooting
with the light from the daylight balanced LED modeling lamps.
At this point I knew I had my lighting and I loved the shallow depth of field I was getting
- something you rarely hear me say in a studio - but more about that in a few minutes.
After all of that experimenting my final shot wound up being lit by the 60watt LED modeling
lamp from a Honey Badger placed in a Medium HalfDome softbox from Photoflex.
Monae is seated on a posing stool about 8 feet in front of a black Savage Seamless Paper
Background and behind her I have two more Honey Badgers mounted one on either side and
above - both with magenta gels in place to create the rim lighting,
I have one more Honey Badger mounted on a Baby Pin floor stand with a 7" reflector
and a teal gel that is set about 3 feet in front of the background and aimed up so that
the hot spot is directly behind her head.
For my last few frames I held a white Walmart reflector just under Monaes face and just
out of camera range for a little more fill in her eyes.
I am shooting from a Benron carbon fiber tripod with an Acratech Ballhead mounted on top.
This makeup design is very symmetrical and also VERY difficult for a makeup artist to
get perfect - especially when they are doing it on themselves - so from the beginning - I
had intended to do a slight turn of her face to help mask any inconsistencies.
In my previous video there was also very symmetrical makeup - but it was a makeup artist putting
makeup on a model so there was less to hide and I was able to photographer her straight
on.
I knew that I would be shooting very close-up and wanted this shot to be ALL about the makeup
so I didn't really pose her at all.
I just asked her to sit relaxed and I worked with the angles of her face.
The important thing that I had to watch for with the slight head turn is her ear.
You can see here that if I only turn the head a little - I now have a piece of her ear growing
out of her head - right in the same plane as her eyes.
Now this is totally natural but it is still a distraction - I can get the same shot by
being careful to turn her head up to the point where I would see the ear but still hiding
the ear - this way there is no distraction and more attention remains with the eyes.
The shot was made with an Olympus E-M1 Mark II and the 45mm f/1.2 PRO lens which is a
90mm full frame equivalent.
The ISO was 200 which is the base ISO for the Mark II and the shutter speed 1/50th of
a second and the aperture was set at f/1.2 - wide open.
I was shooting tethered with the Tether Tools TetherBLOCK and TetherPro extension cables
and using the Olympus Capture software to manage the camera and downloads.
The final image required a bit more post production than usual.
The basics of course - color, contrast, sharpening and removing of blemishes - but since Monae
actually did this makeup on herself it was my job to help clean up the details a little
bit.
It is a situation where if you look at the original shot - at first pass it looks WOW
- but then the longer you look at it - you start to see the few imperfections - so you
spend the time and clean that up in post.
You could do this shot with strobes or speedlights and fake the shallow depth of field in post
production - in fact I would actually encourage you to do that instead of shooting wide open
in the studio - unless you are very diligent about knowing how much depth of field you
have to work with and keeping both eyes in focus.
So what is the best of course of action when things aren't going the way you want them
to… keep going.
Be honest with yourself.
If you need a little break to get your head clear - take one.
You can do like I did and go back to something you have done before just to be able to clear
your head - but whatever you do - you have to keep going.
There are two big mistakes that I see photographers make when things aren't going well - the
first one is I see them give up and settle for a shot that they know simply sucks.
Why would you give up?
What do you learn from that?
The second mistake that I see happen is the photographer puts the camera down and stands
back and surveys the scene.
The problem with that is your brain is having to process all of this information - everything
that is in front of you - not just the part that you are trying to photograph.
Plus while you are standing there staring - your model is realizing that you have no
idea what to do.
The best course of action is to put the camera back up to your eye and keep taking pictures.
This way - you are looking at a picture - we already established it is a bad picture but
it will be much easier for you to evaluate what exactly is wrong and needs to be changed
and you are keeping your model happy because he or she is hearing click, click, click - and
I promise you your model would much rather hear click, click, click than "Oh baby that's
hot".
But the bottom line is you have to keep shooting.
Work the shot - try things - even things that seem ridiculous.
Your model will always respect your effort - you will learn lots of new things and your
photography will head in directions that you hadn't previously imagined.
Generally speaking there's no reason to shoot wide open in a studio when you are creating
a portrait or fashion portrait like this one.
If you have watched many of my videos - you know that I usually shoot between f/5.6 to
f/8 for my studio work and if I want the feeling of some shallow depth of field by having my
subjects ears or shoulders slightly soft - I will create that in Photoshop.
I shoot at 5.6 or 8 so that I don't have to be concerned with depth of field and so
that I can tell my subject to turn their head and not have to worry on each frame if I have
both eyes in sharp focus.
It's not a rule - it's my practice.
Just like having separation from the background isn't a rule - but if you are going to shoot
wide open - pay close attention to what is in and out of focus.
In the case of this shot - shooting wide open wouldn't have made much sense if didn't
have the material draped over her heard.
The shallow depth of field combined with the sparkles in the material combined to create
the dreamy bokeh.
Hey, I hope that gives you some ideas, take this idea and run with it - go create and
show me what you come up with.
Until next time, Please hit that thumbs up and subscribe so that you don't miss any
videos and go pick up that camera and shoot something because your BEST shot - it's
your NEXT shot, so keep learning, keep thinking, keep shooting.
Adios!
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