5.05.2012

Sessions Twelve: Distortion of the Fifth

Model: Joyce Santos
Photographed by leeabrio
Credits: Uniokeez & Ma'am Jo 











Another session from my back-logs. Sorry guys if I wasn't able to update much on my photoshoot sessions. 
I've been engaged with lots of activities lately. Well aside from my day job I shoot a lot till I can't find time to edit 'em photos. lol. As much as possible i picked those photo's which are easy to edit or which requires less retouching. That's how i do the hierarchy but of course i need to prioritized my client shoot before anything else. I wish i was a full time. haha. 
This wasn't the first time i work with Joyce (model). The first time we've done a testshoot with her was completely a failure (sorry). A friend of mine has just bought his new strobe light @400ws with a battery pack. We were so excited to test it and we used a portable beauty dish on the shoot. We started shooting around 5pm+ but since its cloudy we are getting a dimmer ambient light from the sky. I found it tricky since i can only shoot with an aperture of 2.8 below in order for me to get decent exposure of the background provided i'm @ my lowest possible hand held shoot for shutter speed. I did try few test with the strobe light @ this settings (one light) and i'm getting a harsh lighting on my subject. The light was set to the lowest power settings and I noticed that i can only get a decent exposure of my subject if i shoot with aperture 5.6 and up which will under exposed my background. Too bad that we didn't bring any back-up lights. We did try few solutions like moving the lights away to our subject but i'm not really happy with what i'm getting on the shoot another solution is to put more diffuser on the beauty dish/light modifier or shoot with natural/ambient light. .hahaha.
For this shoot session i used one light and a window light, 50D with 50mm 1.4 Sigma attached. I played around with aperture of 1.4 - 2.8. shutter speed varies on the ambient exposure i want. It is always tough shooting in a group, how you organized a photoshoot, how you deal with your subject/model & co-photographers and how you coordinate with your MUA's etc. I'm not really good at it. Photography is not just taking photo, its not only learning about the aperture,shutter speed, ISO, and proper exposure or lighting. It's more into directing your subject/model to your desired output when you don't have a creative director. How you communicate with your subject, and how to make them at feel comfortable & at ease during the shoot on the set specially when you are shooting in a group. I will try to share some of my insights & strategies on my next post.


-LA