Friday was another afternoon in the studio, or rather the hallway just outside the studio as it were. As you can tell from the lighting test above, i used the wall of lockers as a backdrop for a quick, but fun shoot. Keep reading to see some images, find out how it all went down and maybe learn a thing or two about what goes on in my head…
First, technical info for the shoot, then the story…
One Profoto D1 w/ a strip box camera right as key. One Profoto D1 w/ spotgrid as rim light and background light. Pretty easy set up, i wanted the strip box so that i could illuminate her in full length and have a very quick fall-off because i wanted the lockers to go black as they went further back. In the narrow hallway i didn’t really have room to use a bigger softbox and flags to control the light, so i went this route. The spot grid, which is about 8′ back gives a nice highlight to her form and the lockers as well. Ok, enough of that here is how it happened.
My friend/colleague Claire Tran, who is an amazing photographer and who i have modeled for in the past, was having a casting call on Friday morning at the studio, since i had nothing else to do and always like to see how other people work, i went and sat in on the session. I made a few contacts and will possibly have some people to work with for future shoots. While i was there my neighbor Kayla, who is enrolled in the color portrait class (by far the best class at NAU with the best professor at NAU) stopped by for some help on a shoot she had planned. I showed her how to use the studio lights and after her camera died on her (it was a canon) i let her use mine (a nikon). She had a cool model with a good look, i was jealous, as i didn’t have anything planned to shoot for the weekend, and told her i was going to steal her model. However; Elizabeth was booked for the rest of the weekend and had only an hour left after their shoot until she had to work that afternoon. Time to think fast…
I asked her to put on the last outfit she had brought, a pencil skirt and black top(actually her work clothes), and i would get set-up. Claire was long gone and the studio was overrun with some chaotic shoot that involved making a huge mess of the lights and spilling sickly-sweet smelling smoothie drink all over the floor, so the infinity sweep was a no-go. I was pacing in and out of the hallway and studio when i thought to shoot against the lockers down the hallway, it would be something interesting and give a good sense of depth to the photo. I grabbed two lights and a strip box, a book, a pencil and a ruler.
Kayla, who is a great assistant, helped style Elizabeth and helped some with posing as well. the whole thing from concept to completion was ~45 min. (not counting post production time).
I like being able to pull something like this off with almost no notice, but i don’t like the feeling of being rushed by such short time constraints. Still though, i think the images came out well; there are of course things i would do differently if i shot in that location again, but that is always the case.
Check out some outtakes and alternate versions in the client access area of my portfolio site…password is…capstone
Taylor Mahoney Photography 