About a pair of green eyes…
Bored to take street shots of candids, buildings and walls, I put an ad on Craiglist New York in order to find people interested in playing the role of top model for the beginner photographer that I am. Much to my surprise, I had several answers, more or less serious at this time, and more or less interesting. Eventually Christy accepted my ad and we agreed upon an appointment in Soho to take street shots. I took a lot of pictures during the session, and eventually found this one very interesting. It was shot on a bench in Soho, the sun light was reflected from a building across the street, giving a soft and diffuse brightness on the face and in the eyes.
The capture was made at 30mm, which is not recommended usually for face shot, because of the distortion it will create : making close elements in the foreground, such as the nose, appear much closer, which might not be very flattering for the model. However, on the other hand, it allows a great deepness of the picture, and emphasize a lot the eyes. So the overall feeling has much more character (who said this is a caricature?) to my eyes than a portrait using a standard 50mm or 80mm. On my humble opinion of course. Here it will mostly depends on the tastes of each one.
I also like the intensity and the brightness of the picture, and the green of the cloths in the background matching the green of the eyes. I like the vantage point and the effects of the light source on her face, her skin has a wonderful light tone that absorbs light rather than reflect it. The catch lights are just enough to give the eyes a sparkle of visual magnetism and attraction.
However the interest of the picture resides a lot more on the “behind the scene” aspect and on the overall experience of the “Making of” in this case.
Preparation
I was obviously very excited before the appointment and started to read a bunch of articles and advise about the way to successfully handle shooting sessions with models. The advices were mostly concerning the equipment, the behavior with the model, and the regulations.
- On the equipment, the advise were not really helpful, I would say that every photographer would bring what he is the most comfortable with (or basically what he owns!). Also various articles recommended reflectors and a bunch of other things. Well, reflectors are cool, if you have someone to hold them!
- In terms of regulation, I learned that I had to prepare a model release form, and that I had to be legally covered (and the model as well), to avoid any awkward trial suit after the session. On this point, I was rather prepared, and brought 2 copies of the release, to be signed by both parties.
- In terms of behavior, the recurring advice was to “drive” the session, animate and motivate the model, be rewarding, while not hesitating apply your point of view, and not the one of the model (you are the artist, aren’t you?). For this, you obviously have to be prepared, and know what you want to do!!
The couple of days before the appointment, we discussed on the purpose of the session, and mostly on the clothes that she would have to bring. Here obviously I deferred to her to find the best compromise. I would think that the model should bring whatever she feels comfortable with, or what she would like to show. On the other hand, if you don’t really know the content of your model wardrobe, you will have to be confident with your model taste and choices!
The shooting session
It was a great fun. Really. We did a lot of things, with different clothes, different poses, different backgrounds, and we laughed a lot. Looking backward, I think people seeing this scene of a photographer lying down, rolling on the ground, jumping on top of a bench or anything the street has to offer to get a different point of view was very enjoyable. The model as well had hard time, posing in different ways, different clothes, etc…
On the model form she had me add some clauses, I never used any reflector nor other equipment other than my camera body and my 18-200mm do it all lens. Also there are a bunch of things on which I was not prepared at all : Sorry, but no, I do not have a hair brush on me for a shooting session. Sorry but no I do not have eye liner with me. Next time I will have to recruit a make-up artist!!
After the session
I counted the total number of pictures taken during the session : about 400… Well, good score, however after reviewing the pics, I noticed that I was all over the place for most of the pictures :
- Either the parameters were not completely right.
- Or The background was not completely ok.
- Or I captured some expressions from the model that were not completely appropriate.
- Or …
Well, I guess this is what distinguish a pro-photographer from a true beginner : the ability to handle the model, the background, the equipment and all other parameters straight away in no time! A lot to learn here of course.
For this particular picture I just softened the skin with a gaussian blur layer on top of the background, on which I progressively, with an eraser set to a low opacity, “removed” the blur to reveal the details underneath. I then applied contrast and balances, and enhanced a little bit the lightness of the eyes. That’s pretty it!
What to learn
Well, the lesson to learn in this case is that your experience and the quality of the pictures will mostly depends on the feeling and the connexion you have with your model. The technics, all the other stuff, are just tools, good to really consider if you are shooting for Vogue, but in the scope of amateur photography, should be put aside. Enjoy the experience, be bold, be creative, dare the different point of view, roll on the ground if necessary, the more you enjoy the shooting session with your model, the more the photo will be enjoyable!!