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Over the last couple of Months I've been completing the fashion course over at the ACP in Paddington. More and more I've been finding my preferred subject is people and it seemed like another angle I could look at creating images of people with a bit more focus on the styling. I think the biggest thing I have learnt is that I need to improve my 'visual literacy'. Too often I found that I just had no idea exactly how I wanted to pose the model, and relied too heavily on them to come up with the look.

Our shoots have been a little hit and miss, but our final shoot over at Sun went pretty well. These are a few of my favourites from the day. All lit with a single 140 parabolic umbrella high and camera right behind me.

That course sounds interesting, specially if you
learn how to pose and direct your subjects. Of
these photos, I like them all. Specially 4 and 2.
I am not very keen on 3 because it comes across
to me a bit off centre (one leg close to the edge).
I just don't like the pose in 3; while 1 is good but
I have problem with the shadow disappearing over
the edge, perhaps another light would had solved
this problem.

Looking good there Jon, all very nicely lit and posing is quite good also. I think most people don't realise that probably the hardest part with doing model work is the actual directing, getting the technical side sorted is the easy part.

I like all the images, I particularly like the 3rd, mainly due to those funky stockings, the checkered pattern against the plain back drop is awesome, I would love to see some shots where these stockings are the primary subject or focus point. As zafra52 has mentioned the pose is a bit strange in this, but did I mention the stockings make it all good?

The face shot is a solid performer which you have nailed, the only thing that draws me away is the uneven shoulders, but that is being picky...

I like the eye shot, however more dof is needed, at the very least I would bump the contrast on it a bit.

Great to see you getting some good experience out of the course, I look forward to picking your brains next time

Jon
That's one very intense, dramatic model with some very loopy fashion gear! She's brilliant. Your pics are excellent and just go to show what can be achieved with one light. Simple and beautiful.

zafra52 wrote:That course sounds interesting, specially if you
learn how to pose and direct your subjects. Of
these photos, I like them all. Specially 4 and 2.
I am not very keen on 3 because it comes across
to me a bit off centre (one leg close to the edge).
I just don't like the pose in 3; while 1 is good but
I have problem with the shadow disappearing over
the edge, perhaps another light would had solved
this problem.

Thanks Zafra52.
#2 and #4 are my favs as well, one thing I am learning is I like to get close. Let me tell you, shooting number 4 got some laughs in the room and requires a model who isn't afraid of having a lens right up in her face!
#3 is a bit of a crop and I can see what you mean. Some more space on the right might be a good plan. The shadow was part of the lighting scheme we arrived at but yes, I'd like it to be softer. We did have a reflector camera left but it doesn't seem to have knocked it back as much as we thought.

biggerry wrote:Looking good there Jon, all very nicely lit and posing is quite good also. I think most people don't realise that probably the hardest part with doing model work is the actual directing, getting the technical side sorted is the easy part.

You're telling me! I think I'd make a great assistant, shite No1 for this type of work. Technical stuff comes easy to me, working out what to do with a model on a blank canvas is bordering on terrifying!

biggerry wrote:I like all the images, I particularly like the 3rd, mainly due to those funky stockings, the checkered pattern against the plain back drop is awesome, I would love to see some shots where these stockings are the primary subject or focus point. As zafra52 has mentioned the pose is a bit strange in this, but did I mention the stockings make it all good?

The face shot is a solid performer which you have nailed, the only thing that draws me away is the uneven shoulders, but that is being picky...

I like the eye shot, however more dof is needed, at the very least I would bump the contrast on it a bit.

Great to see you getting some good experience out of the course, I look forward to picking your brains next time

Agree about the stockings, we had a cool stylist on this shoot which makes the world of difference. Focussing on the stockings would have been a great idea, WHERE WERE YOU!!! No one shot that idea on the day either. Thanks, one for the ideas bank.

See what you mean about the shoulders, I can probably fix that at least a bit.

Agree on the DOF for the eye. The way these shoots run we each take turns with the same light setup on the clock - we got about 6 mins per outfit. At the time I didn't even think about DOF and just kept shooting at f8. I should have upped the light to get f16 and set it back for the next guy.

Yeah it was fun, though we also had some crap shoots. Feel free to pick the brains, though you may not find much there!

Matt. K wrote:Jon
That's one very intense, dramatic model with some very loopy fashion gear! She's brilliant. Your pics are excellent and just go to show what can be achieved with one light. Simple and beautiful.

Yeah she was wonderful to work with. She actually has some meetings with agents in London so good chance she is going places.

Thank you for your kind comments.

Also, here is a more 'normal' pose from the second outfit that people might prefer.

the first shot is a bit of an odd pose the outfit doesnt look flattering and the pose doesnt say much but the model looks unconfortable
the 2nd is a finely done image i would desaturate the skin tone more so she doesnt look too orange

the 3rd is the best because the model has a bit of emotion with the pose which looks spontaneous and not so contrived
the off centre issue is easily fixed

regardless im impressed with your work the lighting looks just fine and you have a great model

was this class run by Hamish Ta Me?

dawesy wrote:
Agree about the stockings, we had a cool stylist on this shoot which makes the world of difference. Focussing on the stockings would have been a great idea, WHERE WERE YOU!!! No one shot that idea on the day either. Thanks, one for the ideas bank..

rofl, i would have missed it on the day - hindsight rocks!

wendellt wrote:the first shot is a bit of an odd pose the outfit doesnt look flattering and the pose doesnt say much but the model looks unconfortable
the 2nd is a finely done image i would desaturate the skin tone more so she doesnt look too orange

the 3rd is the best because the model has a bit of emotion with the pose which looks spontaneous and not so contrived
the off centre issue is easily fixed

Thanks Wendell, great to get input from someone as qualified as yourself.
Totally agree on #1 but is was my best with that outfit - is struggle a lot with posing and finding positions that are both flattering and that the model I have at the time can do. Sometimes I have a great idea with a model I can't get to pull it off, sometimes a great model and a blank mind - this was more the latter.

Thanks re #2, I was just saying on the weekend that up close is where I am comfortable. The tip to ditch some orange, thanks.

wendellt wrote:regardless im impressed with your work the lighting looks just fine and you have a great model

was this class run by Hamish Ta Me?

That's the one, we finished up this week though I missed the final class. We organised ourselves an extra shoot with a few class members as well, pix to come!

biggerry wrote:rofl, i would have missed it on the day - hindsight rocks!

Hindsight haunts me!! Like a series of shots I shot yesterday one stop under because in the 2 seconds I tweaked my settings, 1 stop under from f8 somehow became f16...

What really did my head in when you mentioned it was I saw a shot recently that used similar stockings as a focus point - I had a perfect opp to use that and take it to the next level!

These are very well done!

I don't have much to add to what's being said already. [I learnt a few things myself from some of the others critique )

Can I ask why used a parabolic instead of a normal softbox or umbrella? [Is there a difference?]

Also you could light the background to make it more seamless but I am just nit picking!.

Can't wait for the next installment.

surenj wrote:These are very well done!

I don't have much to add to what's being said already. [I learnt a few things myself from some of the others critique )

Thanks!

surenj wrote:Can I ask why used a parabolic instead of a normal softbox or umbrella? [Is there a difference?]

Also you could light the background to make it more seamless but I am just nit picking!.

Can't wait for the next installment.

In part, because we could. The pack/head/parabolic combination was about 25K worth of gear all up an isn't something you get to use every day so Hamish (the instructor) kind of led us in that direction and the gear heads among us followed with gusto. The idea was to use that directional light and the large studio to give that feeling of large space behind her, hence the lack of bg lighting and the fall off of you see in the full body shots. The light itself was a long way from the model, so we got the directional quality, but being such a large source the model still looks softly lit. That's the id at least.