Beauty lighting made simple
So I recently shot my actress friend Crystal Allen. I shot this on the balcony of her apartment which overlooks the beach. The walls and floor of the balcony are white. Late in the day the light hitting the balcony is soft and beautiful. I placed her just a bit out from the door jam so that the light from the white floor hit her face and eyes. On an 85mm lens my exposure was f/5 80th of a second. My ISO was 200. Choosing an f stop of 5 allowed the background to blur out. She was standing a good 12 feet from the inside living room so that allowed it to go dark thereby focusing all the attention to Crystal. At this time of day you don’t have very long to get your shots so you need to direct your model very well. Crystal is an actress so that made my job very easy. I just gave her adjectives to act out. For example I would say, give me vulnerable, shy, nervous, strong, confident etc. This image has not been retouched and it really does not need much because I exposed so well. Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions or comment.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
As a beginning photographer, what are easy adjectives I should ask my subjects to “act out”, and how do I carry on a conversation that will allow me to import their personality into my photos?
Thanks, love the site!
June 11th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hi Zoe,
Some adjectives are the ones I said in my post. So I will literally tell the model “ok give me vulnerable, give me vulnerable yet a bit confident.” And you shoot until you think you got it. And to get to know your model what I do is talk to them while they are in make up and hair. Ask them how long they have been modeling, hobbies etc. During the shoot just keep reinforcing how good they look. Say things like, beautiful, sexy, great, amazing. It’s important to say everything with enthusiasm, like you mean it. You will eventually get a rhythm going and it will just flow.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
[...] Jason Christopher wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSo I recently shot my actress friend Crystal Allen. I shot this on the balcony of her apartment which overlooks the beach. The walls and floor of the balcony are white. Late in the day the light hitting the balcony is soft and beautiful … [...]