Heather photoshoot

Shoot date: October 17th 2008

Another video of the shoot, this time shot by my assistant and sister, Cassidy Steele. Note: Cassidy was holding my mini-flash during most of the shots, so that's where my second light came from, if you want to reverse engineer my setup. I don't talk a whole lot during my shoots, as you might be able to tell from my video; I'm not big on giving a lot of direction unless there's something very specific I want. I prefer to let my models do their thing, and I do mine.

This shoot was planned to be something completely different, but the stylist I'd booked cancelled at the last moment, so this was what came out. I'm pleased with the results although of course I'd have preferred my original plans. Alas. The model in this shoot is the wonderful and gorgeous Heather with FORD/RBA . We shot on the grounds of my city library in Chandler, AZ (since I was back in Arizona for a family vacation and figured I'd make the most of it.)

Heather wanted some more natural looking shots for her portfolio, and since the library grounds had an abundance of greenery (natural background, ha ha) that provided some lovely shade, since it was very sunny outside. As long as I made sure her face was shaded, I could add a little light from my Vivitar 285HV through my standby white umbrella (which desperately needs to be replaced and I just haven't gotten around to it) for a soft, natural look. I like using artificial light even in natural situations, and usually prefer to be in complete control of the light, but that's just me. Occasionally my baby-flash Quantaray MS-1 fired and I got an extra hair light, but that wasn't particularly reliable.


We got a few bystanders and apparently, a creepy guy hanging around to watch. I never seem to notice these things but my assistant Cassidy (little sister) and Heather commented on it as we changed locations. We went into the Community Center courtyard, a nice shaded area, and went up the stairs for a different look. There was a lot less light here so I was better able to control what i was going for, and decided to play with a little lens flare. My assistant Cassidy held the little light so it just entered my frame of view, and it was gelled for some color effects. Then, of course, my white umbrella was at camera right and a little forward of me for my "signature" light.


Questions? Comments? I'd be happy to answer.

Post processing, Photoshop

Recently I've noticed that, as my photography skills improve, people comment more and more often about my Photoshop use—usually that I use "a little too much." So I wanted to clear up some misconceptions. As I get better as photography, I've started to use LESS Photoshop, not more—and people usually pick my most (and poorly) photoshopped photos as the very opposite.

So some examples: original on the left (straight from the camera, not even cropped) vs. final on the right.

Model: Kim Baker

Also Kim Baker

Model: Heather H

Posts on the recent shoots (whence came the first and third photos) coming this weekend.

Evelyn shoot, October 4th 2008

Model: Evelyn

Makeup artist: Nikki

Assistant/videographer: Whitney

There were two sets in this shoot: the purple-y images against my white wall, and the silver images against the fabric background. The wall, of course, was easy; the silver fabric was, too. It's crinkly silver lamé (I think), and overtop, some gauzy grey stuff embedded with rhinestones. It provided exactly the starry, textured look I was going for, although I forgot to iron or wash the rhinestone fabric and so I had to photoshop out the fold line. No big deal.

The setup for this shot was easy, an old tried-and-true method. I had my Vivitar 285HV into a white shoot-through umbrella for my main light, and my Quantaray MS-1 baby flash as a rim light. In the purple shots, I had the baby flash gelled, and in the silver shots, I had it farther back and angled so that it raked across the background to create some texture.

I have a new video camera, so I've put together a video of some of the shoot. My sister's cat Maggie decided to get in on the fun, which you can see in the clip. Another note: toward the end, we had put on Dane Cook to help Evelyn get some emotion out of the shots, which is why everyone is cracking up.

Questions? Post them in the comments.