Jason Christopher, LA Commercial & Fashion Photographer Bio

I just received the photos from my retoucher of my new beauty shoot. These by far are the most eccentric, out there kind of shots I have ever done in the beauty category. I felt I needed to break the mold of what I usually do. Sometimes it is easy to just keep shooting what you are used to and what is “safe.” So every once in a while I like to just “create” freely.

So for this editorial I used two light sources. My key light was a medium size strip bank placed below the model about stomach high aimed up at her face. My fill was a medium soft box placed above her head about 2 feet above. There is a slight ratio but not much. I wanted it to look eccentric and not traditional. The model was placed about 10 feet from the background as I wanted the background to go black. Other than that, there is nothing else to the shot.

Shot this is Palm Springs. Horrible heat — 115 F and major wind, we did not use fans. It was blowing so hard that at times it was difficult to take a step forward.

*QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS WELCOME*

Ok I want to share these shots with you because this is a great example of how one can achieve very nice lighting that looks like it was shot with a very expensive set up like Profoto or the likes thereof. The reality is that I used my Metz 55 mz-4 attached to my Canon off camera shoe cord. So let’s go over how I accomplished this look.

First of all I was alone. Yes I had a make up person but this was an experiment that I wanted to do and I purposely did not get an assistant. Many times we can’t afford an assistant when we are just starting out. So we are left with having to be resourceful, otherwise the shoot cannot happen.

1. Attach your off camera shoe cord to your hot shoe on your camera then attach the other end to your flash unit. The underside of the end that you attach your flash to will have a threaded hole that will screw onto either a light stand or tripod.

2. Now you place the flash where ever you like and adjust your exposure accordingly. With these shots I back lit the model with the sun and used my Metz as my key light. I wanted to achieve a bright crisp look so I over exposed with the flash. I did use my lens hood as I was pretty much shooting straight into the sun. My camera settings were: 250th @ F/11.

Ok so at this point I am going to split this post into two separate lessons. I am still feeling this whole instructional blog thing out. If you would like to learn more about this shoot please say so. Without your feedback I can’t give you what you want or need.