Model Portfolio
I did a model portfolio shoot last week. Since most of my portraiture is done outdoors, I don’t have a regular studio for this sort of thing. So I borrowed the studio/warehouse of a friend of mine, who happens to be an automotive photographer. His warehouse is more for storage than it is shooting, so it worked out very well. It’s nice to stretch out of my normal ‘comfort zone’…
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The model, who I’ll call Nicole (her name disguised because she’s a minor), was a pleasure to work with. While she was very new to modeling, she was professional and cooperative throughtout the session! And her mom was very patient, waiting on the sidelines.
I started by setting up white seamless paper for the above shot. Two sheets of 4×8′ tileboard are on the floor to create the reflections. This whole set up, by the way, is inspired by Zack Arias’ detailed tutorial on white seamless here. The background is lit by two SB-20 strobes, probably set to 1/2 power. The key light was a Norman 200B through a 43″ shoot-thru umbrella. I also set up a foamcore reflector for fill. The chair I found at a garage sale the weekend before (and made sure to wash it first!).
The above shot was done near the end, when we were improvising. I grabbed a 4×8′ sheet of black foamcore as a background, then threw a SB-28 in a cardboard snoot over the back of it as a hair light. The main light is again the Norman in the shoot-thru umbrella. No fill this time. A giant fan was on the right side, to get Nicole’s hair moving (and to cool us down, as it was getting a bit stuffy!). This part near the end got a little tedious for the model I’m sure, because I kept trying to make a 4 foot wide background be something it wasn’t—namely, wider.
This one (above) was done on the seamless paper, but the background strobes didn’t fire (or hadn’t recharged fully yet). So the background is gray, giving a different look. The giant fan was used here too.
And finally, we grabbed a few shots in the back of the warehouse by the garage door. A single SB-28 in a cardboard snoot, no fill. Hard shadows, hard light, industrial sort of look. Contrasts with the young girl and white clothing pretty well.
This was a lot of fun, and it yielded a ton of good images. I’m still sorting through them!
Comments
Man you did a great job on the top portrait! The use of the wall board for a floor is very very nice!!
Thanks Steve! I wish I could claim credit for the tileboard idea, but it’s Zac Arias’ (see link in the post above). One benefit besides having the cool reflection is that you don’t have to try and light the floor, while missing the model. The reflective surface catches the light from the backdrop, making for a more seamless ’seamless’.
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