Rather than simply try and recreate the images we took the elements that we liked the most - bright colours, shadows, directional lighting - and worked out a set around these. We shot two sets, one on the red background and one on the purple as we wanted to ensure that we had lots of bright backgrounds in the images. The model chose outfits that would give a colourful contrast to the red background and would provide a simple complement to the purple one.
We did not try to simply recreate Demarchelier's 'doorway' lighting but we wanted to ensure that the model was framed with light so I used a combination of hard and soft light. Barn Doors were used to create harsh directional lighting and these worked well to bring out the colours of the first outfit while still providing shadows and framing. A small Softbox was then used as fill. A setting of f8 was used on the Barn Doors and the Softbox was set at f4 as this was just to provide fill.
The last set was based around this image and was shot on the infinity curve. The same lighting was used for this set.
Here's our versions - we did colour and black & white versions but I think the black & white ones work the best.
The Model and I were both pleased with how the images turned out and we feel we have created a vibrant set of images to enhance our portfolios. The images will be used both online and in print format and I supplied Maz with retouched images at web-size and high resolution ones for print.
Although the shoot went really well, it was a bit of a challenge to get the shots. A cheap CF Card Reader had damaged one of my cards but I was unaware of this before I tried to use it in my cameras. The result was a bent pin in the CF slot in my 5D MKII and my 50D backup camera.
As I had the studio booked from 8am-11am, it was too early to get a replacement camera from stores and I wouldn't have time to sort out another camera mid way through the shoot so I had to look at other options. I had sent of my MKII for repairs but still had my 50D. I downloaded the latest version of Canon's EOS Utility and this enable me to work tethered to my laptop. This made working quite difficult as the USB lead was quite short and I had to position the laptop near enough to get the shots we needed. One benefit though was that we could both see the images appear on screen to check that they were turning out ok and also the model could check her poses were working well and that we had got the images we needed before moving onto the next set.
Once the final images had been selected I processed and retouched these in CS4.
This was a very successful shoot and we both came away with some good images for our portfolios and the model sent me this email to add to my write up as indication of a successful outcome - please note that the images she refer to are shown at the top of this post:
"My name is Marianna Szomolay, an agency signed fashion model from Preston, and I contacted photographer Christopher Gary Horgan to boost my portfolio with some fresh fashion images. The ideas and looks that I wanted to create are attached to this email.
The images will be for online use and also to make prints which will be added to my book.
I'm very happy with the results we achieved and would definitely be interested in working with Christopher again on future projects.
Regards,
No comments:
Post a Comment