Jason Christopher, LA Commercial & Fashion Photographer Bio

So last Sunday at 2pm one of my assistants calls to tell me he just got a tip from a make up artist that a model friend of his from Spain is in town for 3 days and asked if I would like to test her.  As soon as I saw a few photos that he emailed me I jumped on it.  This is one of  the shots that I converted to B&W in post.

Ok so why the title of the post ? Because the ONLY light I used was the natural light coming in from the bedroom window.  I metered with my handheld meter and shot my ass off.  It is a little blurry on purpose. I was hand held  standing above her on a matress.  Lens was my 85mm.  Settings were ISO 800, 1/15th shutter speed, F/2.2.  You guys like ?  *QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS WELCOME*

natural lighting for fashion or beauty

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.

actress crystal allen

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.

Macro beauty photograph . Shot with one small Photoflex umbrella.

An example of celebrity photography this is Samantha Harris the host of Dancing With the Stars. Shot this at BelleVarado studios. Working with celebrities can be fun and also a challenge. They are not models and the photographer must remember that. Celebrities are not always comfortable in front of a still camera. So it is the celebrity photographer’s job to help them feel confident and calm.

One of my favorite shots. This was in Palm Springs where the temp was 115 with a steady wind of 50mph. The model was a trooper as was my crew. Shot with a Mamiya 645 AFD and a 17 mega pixel back.