Jason Christopher, LA Commercial & Fashion Photographer Bio

This is Elicia from Next Models.  We shot this using just the late afternoon beautiful crisp window light.  Her expression and body language with the necklace make this photo so evocative and maybe even erotic depending on how you as an individual looks at it.  Notice the soft hands that are so important when photographing tight beauty photography. And that is also what makes a photograph great.  If every viewer can take something different from your photo, then it is something special in my book.   Another quality that makes this photo special is that it is all natural with no retouching.

Elicia Perkins : Fashion Model

So since the advent of digital photograhy many fashion photographers have asked me why their photos don’t look like film.  Some of the complaints are that everything is too sharp, too much contrast etc.  Well there are many reasons why these things happen, however the main consideration is that they are using too tight of an aperture.  For example they are shooting at f/11 or f/16 or even f/22.

When shooting with a 35mm DSLR, shoot as if you were shooting medium format.  When shooting medium format you lose alot of depth of field.  Consequently your model or subject is very sharp and the background is out of focus and you get very beautiful bokeh.  The best way to achieve this is to use a long lens.  For this photo I used my Canon 200mm 2.8 on sticks and shot it at ISO 200 f/4.5   1/200th.   I also used my Canon 580 EX II on ETTL.  Now here is where my little secret comes into play.  I bumped up the flash power to +3 stops and zoomed the flash head to 105mm.  I was a good 25 yards away from the model.

I got a great smile out of my model by joking with her, complimenting her and not just sitting there clicking the shutter like a robot.  I connected with my model because I took my time and composed and thought about the shot in my mind before I even thought of clicking the shutter.  Very simple make up and no shoes, great smile and a very beautiful girl in nature make this a very marketable stock photo.

In this next photo I told my model to walk along the log and try to balance in bare feet.  I also directed her to look at the camera and smile, laugh and just be silly.  The important thing to remember here is that she can’t just do all this like she NORMALLY would.  Normally one would smile too big and you would lose the eyes, and / or she would laugh so hard that she would get a double chin.  So directing your model and constantly reminding her to keep her chin up and look at the camera and don’t squint the eyes is of utmost importance.  The result is another very marketable photo that the model can also use for her portfolio.

In this photo again I used my Canon 200m 2.8 on sticks about 25 yards away.  Notice the beautiful bokeh again.   I shot this at ISO 200 f/4.5 shutter speed was 1/325th. I also used my Canon 580 EX II on ETTL, bumped the power up +3 stops and zoomed the flash head to 105mm.  What I did different for this shot is set my flash to high speed sync mode. In high speed sync mode this allows you to set your shutter speed to whatever speed you want.  I set it to 1/325th so I could keep my ambient light down.  Remember, you control your flash exposure with your aperture.  Any questions or comments are welcome !

Ok so you’ve got a great idea for a fashion shoot and now all you need is a great location.  Or your client and you develop a concept for  the ad campaign or look book and you need a great location.  Easy enough right ?  Well if you hire a producer all you do as the photographer is sit back and let your producer find you a location.  However, when you are first starting out you aren’t getting gigs with budgets big enough to hire a producer.  So what to do ?  You get in your car and drive !

Every time I get in my car and go somewhere I am always looking around where ever I go.  Remember when I said photographers have eyes in the back of their heads ?  It’s true !  I carry a little point and shoot camera with me and if I see a place that I think is cool I snap a few pics and keep them in a folder on my computer titled “locations.”

Ok so that is the easy part. Now you have to get permission to shoot on the property.  When I say property I don’t exactly mean a house or a hotel or someplace recognizable, most of the time I am talking about a piece of land in the middle of no where!  Nowadays there isn’t one piece of empty land that isn’t owned by someone or some entity.  It sucks if you ask me.

This ever popular photo was shot in Palm Desert.   I made a few calls and found out the location is actually Riverside County.  So I called the office of Riverside and the kind woman faxed me the papers to obtain a permit.  I faxed those to my client and he took care of the rest.  The permit cost $400.  The price of permits vary from county to county.  The price also varies depending on how many people in your crew, if you are going to use an RV, if your are going to use a generator , if you are going to use fire…. blah blah blah. Now of course the permit is paid by your client NOT by you.  You MUST put that in your contract.

Another popular photo was shot at Sycamore Beach in Ventura County.  Now listen to this.  You’re gonna laugh.  The permit to shoot on the beach during the day is $65.  It goes up much more if you are shooting your look book or ad campaign at night.  A park ranger MUST be there at all times, so that is an extra cost.  The model was in at least ankle deep water so we had to hire a lifeguard !!!!!  HA HA HA !  California is in so much debt at this time, you will get charged for EVERY little thing.  We had a really large RV so that added to the cost.  So the total cost of the permit came to $1,200 !!!!!! WTF ? !!!!  Now obviously I don’t have to pay for this but that affects my fee, and everyone else involved with the shoot.  The client has a fit and suddenly everyone’s fee is questioned.  The solution ?  Get to know someone who lives on the beach so you don’t have to mess with all the bullshit.  That ranger and lifeguard had the easiest job that night they will ever have.  We started hair and make up at 7pm and started shooting at 8:30 and ended at 3:30am.  Ya fun friggin night.  Really glamourous, uh huh………

I recently learned something new in my fashion photography career, yes even at my stage of this business I am still learning.   I won’t say the client’s name however, I am really upset and also upset with myself.  Here is what happened.

I shot a very high profile person/celebrity and the shoot went great.  They had their own retoucher do post.   The contract covered everything so I thought.  I left out one phrase.  That phrase is :  Photographer shall receive all digital retouched files. I didn’t include this in the contract because I have never had to.  The clients always send me the retouched high res files without me even asking !  But what I learned this time was that every client is different and some don’t realize that it is common courtesy to give the photographer his retouched files.  Legally the client does not have to hand those over, however it has never ever been a problem.

So long story short I have been going back and forth with the client trying to work something out.  It’s not just me that needs those files, it’s my team, hair, make up, wardrobe and the models !  The bottom line is that in our business there are no set contract terms.  Everything is negotiable except for the fact that the photographer owns the rights to the photos.  Their reply was that I have the photos so why do I want the retouched photos ?  Well you would think that is a “duh” kind of answer however, they don’t see it that way.  Will I end up getting them ?  I don’t know, but I sure as hell am trying.

Outdoor fashion lighting can be a problem with some photographers.  We have the elements to deal with, the hot sun, the constantly moving sun, wind etc.  Add the fact that if it is a test you can’t afford to hire an assistant to lug heavy lighting gear around for you.  Most of us don’t own a Profoto 7B pack because they cost around $4,000 to $5,000.  So what does one do ?

Outdoor Lighting With a Speed Light

I shot this fashion photo with one Canon 580EXII and that’s it.  No bounce cards or any attachments to the flash and it was attached to the hot shoe, not off camera.  The time of day was 1:25 pm.

As you can see the sun is facing the model.   Many photographers would think you don’t need a flash, the sun is hitting her.  Well that all depends on the look you are going for.  I like to use flash no matter where the sun is.  In this case the flash brings out the details more and gives the image a crisper look.

So I put my flash on the camera I was standing about 6 feet away from the model on a wide lens, 44mm so I could capture the entire scene around her.  I set my flash to hi speed sync mode so I could shoot at 500th shutter speed.  Why shoot at such a high shutter speed ?  So I could capture a nice blue sky and not blow out the background.  My  fstop was 6.3 ISO was 160.  Now when you use such a fast shutter speed you obviously need to demand more power from your flash.  Also using an fstop of 6.3 demands more power.  So I set my flash exposure compensation to plus 3 stops !  I also set my zoom head on the flash to 80mm instead of letting it set itself to 44mm automatically.  As you can imagine I was asking my flash to do alot and demanding a ton of power.  So I had a Quantum batter pack attached to it to give the flash the extra power it needed.  And that is really all I did with this shot.  I didn’t haul out the Profoto 7B with a beauty dish and another light for her hair.  I positioned her so that her hair was lit by the sun and my key light was my flash.

This situation is why I cannot stress enough that you MUST  know your fundamentals.  If I had put the camera on auto then this shot would look nothing like you see now.  ** This and many other photography fundamentals are techniques I teach you in my fashion photography workshop. It’s a two day workshop and you come out knowing MUCH more than you did when you first walk in.  Check out the workshop page for more info and please feel free to call or email me with any questions you have concerning  the workshop.**

If you have any comments or questions about this post, ask away ! 

I recently got the chance to use a Photoflex 5 foot Octabank and am very pleased with the results.  In this photo I attached an egg crate fabric grid on the front ( not visible in this pic) and boy do I love it.  The grid directs light only on to your model and keeps it off the background.  I put a 30 degree grid on the back light aiming it right at the model as well as into the lens so I could get some flair for effect.  Now I wanted to show you this because this is in my condo.  It’s not a huge place.  The shooting space is about 500 square feet. You don’t always need a huge professional studio to create photographs.

Photoflex Octabank

Fashion Photography Workshop

The photo below shows the result.  Notice in the first photo you can see I am using gray background paper.  With the grid attached to the octabank it keeps all the light on your model.  It’s a much more dramatic look.

So this is the lighting diagram I promised to show you for this image of our model laying back on the log.

Photo that demonstrates lighting for photo shoot on the beach

This is a lighting diagram of my lighting

So as I said in a previous post I was right under the soft box and sometimes I was standing with my legs really wide to capture her at the perfect angle.  The soft box was roughly 8 feet up on a C-stand and tilted up so I didn’t blow out the log and also to throw some light on the beach sand in the background.

So as you can see a one light set up is all that was needed.  Pretty friggin easy.

Another successful fashion photography workshop. This time photographer Ken Davie came up from San Diego ! Super nice guy and very eager to learn. I LOVE when I get photographers in here who want to learn ! So with Ken his main issue was that he was intimidated when directing the model, make up artist and wardrobe stylist. Basically he needed to learn how to take charge of his own shoot which is not as easy as one might think.

We started off day one with Ken just observing me. He observed how I handled the photo shoot from start to finish. Started off with the make up process, discussing concepts for wardrobe and lighting.

We shot in studio and outdoors on location. Day two of the workshop I took Ken to an outdoor location. Obviously the best time to shoot outdoors is the last couple hours of the day. Well, when shooting an assignment you don’t have that luxury to only shoot in the last two hours of the day. When you have to shoot a catalog, editorial or advertisement you shoot all day. So I showed Ken how to shoot great photos at anytime of the day including mid day when the sun is at the worst possible position. By using scrims and placing the model in certain areas you can achieve great lighting at any time of the day.

Ken had come from a background of shooting product and he wants to make the switch to shooting people, a MUCH different process. Here are some results of Ken’s workshop. I have video but I am trying to learn how to edit it. If anyone would be willing to offer their service to edit please contact me.

High fashion photography

Beauty photo from my fashion photography workshop

My recent fashion swimsuit photography shoot at the beach was amazing.  I happened to get my hands on some behind the scenes photos taken with a cheap point and shoot but they give you the idea.   Now when I say we had a 100 foot RV I didn’t measure it but as you can see it was damn long !  We had the art directors, model, make up and hair artists, crew etc. all fit in quite nicely.  When shooting on location where you know it will be uncomfortable for the models, your crew and everyone you really need to rent an RV.   A well fed and warm crew is a happy crew !  In one of the photos you see me standing there with a stand in while the model stayed warm in the RV.   Unfortunately no one took any photos of me shooting        LOL  the story of my life.

RV used for our night photo shoot

Art Directors for the photo shoot

fashion model getting her make up applied

When planning a photo shoot the art director and photographer will make a story board of each scene to be shot.  In this story board you see a photo of the location, the swimsuits that the model will wear and the accessories such as jewelry.  Everything is planned out days before the photo shoot so everyone knows exactly what is going to happen.  You end up with a photo shoot that runs smooth with hopefully very little problems.

storyboard for night swimwear photo shoot

Then when it comes time to set up the lighting you need to have a stand in.  A stand in is very helpful because you can get your light set up pretty close to perfect while the model is getting her make up changed and changing clothes.

Stand in used for setting up the lighting

Just remember the more prepared you are the smoother your photo shoot will go.  The end result is a very pleased client that will call you back for another photo shoot.  If you like this post and think other photographers or anyone else associated with the photography business would find this helpful please click on the share buttons

Had another great private photography workshop last weekend with a super nice guy who came allllllll the way out from Ottawa Canada !  He also signed up for three days not just the two days !

The first day of the workshop I went over portfolio set up, size of prints, how they should be organized etc.  I say “they” because you should have a portfolio for each one of your specialties.  Dave has only been shooting for 4 months and he is very good.  Aside from being creatively talented you must also know the business and how it works.  I explained contracts and what should be included.  We talked about how to get real models to shoot for your portfolio, how to direct them etc.  I also covered tax write offs and most important I taught him about usage !  USAGE USAGE USAGE !    Dave had no idea he should be charging usage fees.  So I really covered many areas on the business side that will increase his business sales.  I then prepped him for the shoot with the model on the second day.

Most photographers these days when they are just starting out will build an in home photography studio which is a great idea.  But many really don’t know how to go about it to make it practical and useful for everyone on the team, make up artist etc.  So instead of renting a studio we shot in my home studio.  We started the day with showing Dave how to direct a make up artist, what looks good with certain outfits.  My make up artist explained about the different foundations etc.  Dave gained a wealth of information seeing how I have set up my studio and how I have made it work for me.  So I shot the model first.  It was a great way for Dave to observe how I direct the model, what I say to the model, and basically how I conduct a fashion shoot.

So now you can see my in home studio.  Obviously for large commercial shoots I rent a very large photography studio in LA, but for workshops, head shots etc. you’re in home studio will work perfectly !

You can see that we used a two light set up.  That light that is facing Dave is for the flare.  And here is the final shot not retouched btw.  Dave did a great job and absorbed everything I taught him.  Stay tuned for the third day !