Jason Christopher, LA Commercial & Fashion Photographer Bio

high fashion lingerie photo shoot

This is a recent fashion lingerie advertisement that just came out.  Notice I posted this in the photography lighting on location section.  We shot this at the Bissell  house in Pasadena California.  Originally when the designer and I scouted the location we planned  the whole lighting scheme a certain way referenced from tear sheets she pulled from various magazines.  So I went over all the details with my assistants days before and brought all the gear we needed based on the ORIGINAL lighting design.

So we get to the location on the morning of the shoot and the designer decides she wants a TOTALLY different lighting design than what we had originally planned.  Well of course this is where your photography fundamentals come in and you better know your fundamentals otherwise you will never advance in this business.  I pulled my assistants aside and we discussed the changes that needed to be made in order to please the client.  Remember this:  at the end of the day pleasing your client is what will get you the call again for another shoot.

Long story short we made it happen and it didn’t take long to figure it all out.  Notice I placed this post in the lighting on location because it is on location and not just a studio where everything is controlled.  You have ambient light to deal with coming from windows and the sun is moving throughout the day.

Now in response to Stikman’s comment, yes you can go wrong even though you have great models.  Models are just objects to hang the clothes on to make the clothes look great.  Well if you don’t know how to light your models wearing the clothes, the designer will not be able to sell their clothes to buyers.  Buyers want to buy clothes, not models 

I decided to post this photo in the Lighting On Location section because location doesn’t just mean outdoors.  Many times I like to use the available light that is in the room.  In this instance it was a bathroom.  Now  this is something I learned from Helmut Newton.  When he first started shooting he couldn’t afford professional lighting.  He was very poor.  So he used the lamps in his house as his lighting source.  Of course back then he used film and did all his color correcting in the darkroom or used the correct film for such lighting conditions.  But I have come to like the warm color cast that results from NOT white balancing my camera.  This is the original shot.   I was on a tripod using

available indoor photography lighting

a very slow shutter speed and a high ISO.  The model has to keep very still OR even a little blur is ok.  It makes it more artistic.  Again, remember there is no right or wrong UNLESS the client doesn’t like it.  In this case my client, Deliverance Poker did like it.

Now I also wanted to try something else so I made the image black and white in Lightroom.  I also cropped it much tighter.  I like both versions.  I just want to show you how you don’t ALWAYS have to use additional lighting to capture a great shot.

This is the black and white cropped version.

black and white conversion photo

They both look great.  I would love to know your thoughts and opinions.

I thought I would share these with you guys.  There aren’t many shots of me in front of the lens.  This was a shoot for a lingerie company.  We shot at the Bissell house in Pasadena.  The former owners were the Bissell’s of the vacum cleaner company !  It is now a bed and breakfast.

thinking about the shot

setting up the shot

Shooting on a ladder

And this would be one of the final images used in the campaign.

Fashion lingerie campaign by Jason Christopher of Los Angeles