Nichole

I finally got the chance to put the studio through its paces last week when I did a photo shoot with Nichole (above). Because I'm new to the studio photography thing, I need to develop a portfolio and Nichole wanted some photos of her so she could begin her portfolio. Perfect. She choose the clothes, did her own make up and hair - all I had to do was push a button and help her with posing as she had never posed before. After you see some of her shots, I'll bet you would have never guessed that this was her first photo shoot.



Nichole took to posing like a fish to water. Before we started, I walked her through a few basics in terms of her hands, feet and body positions and after a few shots, she began to relax and have fun. Occasionally I would ask her to lower her chin, turn her head, mover her hands, or bend from the waist but most of all, simply by telling her to just move about as I changed positions and fired was all it took.

The whole shoot was done with a white backdrop that I extended all the way down to the floor and then out towards me. To Nichole's left (my right) at a 45 degree angle I used the Bowen mac daddy monohead with a 4'X7' softbox dialed down to 1/8 power. To Nichole's right (my left) I set up one of the Photogenic 1500's with the 2'X3' softbox at a 45 degree angle, dialing the power down to 1/8. Because of the different watt/s ratings (the Bowens is 1000 W/s and the 1500's are 600 W/s) that gave me the light ratio I wanted. Behind and above Nichole was my hairlight, one of the 160 W/s JTL Versalights with a honeycomb and barn doors pointing at the top of Nichole's head. The other Versalight was my background light. Both of these lights were dialed down to 1/2 power. With this set up, my flash meter gave me a reading of f8 at 1/60th second, ISO 100.

The coup de gras, so to speak, was a shot I had envisioned from the day I found out Nichole was a professional ballerina. Nichole brought her pointe shoes and I asked her to do an arabesque on the white floor. In my head, I marked the spot where she had stood and brought in a white pedestal that I had in the studio as a prop. I then shot the pedestal on the spot where Nichole's toe had been. A little Photoshop layering of the two images and you can see the finished product below.

I knew I would enjoy studio work but I never imagined I would enjoy it as much as I did. Shooting in the studio gives me a way to really explore some creative things that are much easier to do in a controlled environment. If you would like to see other images from Nichole's shoot, visit my Facebook page and look for the gallery. There are well over 40 images from the shoot posted there.