First model shoot
Phew. I am Jack’s sense of relief.
I just got back from doing a model shoot this weekend of some friends for a web project we’re doing on the side. I’m always nervous after my regular shoots, since you’re never really sure if you have a keeper by by simply reviewing them on the 2″ screen on the back of my camera. You absolutely need to be viewing it at 1:1 on a full size monitor if you’re eventually going for large scale prints, or 1:4 if you’re doing something reasonably smaller. My normal shoots are normally of urban landscapes, so this particular shoot was stressful since I was photographing real people that are not only all gorgeous in real life, but also were counting on these photos to be able to use for their project.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot — they’re my friends as well. No pressure Trevin.
The weekend couldn’t have been turned out any worse for shooting conditions. The shoot was set to take place out in Olympia, which is an hour outside of Seattle. Saturday morning started off great, with sunny blue skies. I planned on leaving about 3pm to be there in time for the afternoon sun, which is one of my favorite times to shoot due to the warm lighting and strong shadows I can get. While I’m on the road, I mysteriously see really dark clouds roll in above me pretty quickly as if someone had pressed the button on the weather machine. Go go gadget clouds.
“Hmmm.. not a good sign, but overcast skies won’t be terribly bad. At least it’s not raining.”
Immediately after that thought passes through the vast expanse of my head, I start seeing drops of rain on my windshield, followed by one of the strongest downpours since May. Crap. Not only does this spell doom for the photo shoot, it also causes traffic on the I-5 to grind to a halt with drivers now driving at 30mph. I must’ve really done something wrong to the wilderness and pissed off Mother Nature when I was a tiny boy scout.
To make matters worse, I almost got into 3 accidents on the ensuing drive due to crazy Seattle drivers that have no idea how to breathe and drive at the same time.
The downpour thankfully lightened up as I get closer to Olympia, but it was still raining nevertheless and the cloud cover was pretty dark. After settling in at my friend’s place, we decide to brave the weather and the girls get ready for their shoot. I was pretty nervous when we started off, because I’ve never had to direct people to pose for me since all my previous people photography has always been candids with no planned poses or lighting. As the shoot progressed, I felt more comfortable giving direction to get exactly what I thought would look good and what would match what I was seeing in my head. It made it better that the girls were getting more comfortable with me and less self-conscious about this tiny Canadian guy shouting things like “tilt your head” or “think about sex” 
The absolute life saver in this photo shoot was my 22″ gold reflector, which I coincidentally purchased 3 weeks ago. The gold reflector gave me the much needed warm light that I was lacking due to the pissy weather. It was also great that I had 3 girls to shoot, since I could get one of them to act as an assistant and hold the reflect for me.
In terms of lenses, I primarily stuck to my 70-200 f/2.8 lens and shooting mostly between 100-130mm at f/5.6 so I could sufficiently blur the background out with a shallow depth of field and really make the girls “pop” out of the frame. I’ve only had this tele-photo lens for a month and it’s my favorite lens bar none due to the great contrast. I’ve discovered that the lens is even better in portrait shots since I’m able to stand sufficiently far back to make the subject feel more at ease than if I was standing closer and trying to use a 50mm prime stuffed right into their face.
After taking 567 photos over a 2 hour period and with the light fading, I was keeping my fingers crossed that we had enough photos to choose from and the ones I did have would be sufficiently sharp and workable for what they needed them for. In the end, it doesn’t matter if I love the photos, because it’s what the client loves that matters.
After getting home and going through the photos, I am completely ecstatic at the results. The gold reflector made the shots really warm, and there was barely any post-processing required on the majority of the shots. The biggest work is weeding out the blurry photos and some minor cropping on the remaining ones. This is a huge difference from when I started out on my photography career — my compositions and exposures are already noticeably improving to the point that I’m spending less and less time post-processing. The less time I can spend in Photoshop the better. (Repeat that last sentence twice).
I never liked the idea of live model shoots and posed portraits, but after this experience I’m really excited by the prospect of doing something else like this. I realize now that the quality of the shoot really depends on my confidence, having the right equipment and a set of models that trust you are making the right decisions. The past month has been a really eye opening experience for me, opening up my world to different types of photography and how to really capture the best photographs in each situation.
Unfortunately you won’t any of the photos for awhile until they are posted up by the client on their website. Trust me, they’re worth the wait!
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