Good photography is about problem solving: Fashion & Portrait

A few weeks ago I was called upon to do a quick fashion shoot.  I had 30 minutes to photograph a features cover on spring fashion and that included setting up and taking down the lights so I could make it to my next assignment. I did not have the chance to do any prep work, scout the location or wait for the time of day when the nice light starts to appear.

This happens all the time to just about every photographer.  So what do you do? Whine and complain.....as fun as that sounds it's not really going to help us get good photos.  So what we really do is "problem solve".

Sometimes as in this photo shoot, I really had very little time to problem solve. so I gathered small and big lights and a few extra light modifiers and quickly drove to the location. From experience of being put in this type of situation before, I also came prepared with a couple of extra extension cords that I always keep in my trunk, gaffers tape, and a few extra light modifiers.

When I first get to the location, in this case a small clothing boutique type store, I look for a power outlet for my lights, and I definitely needed the power cords, and then I look for any natural light coming in from windows and what type of artificial light is in the room.

Based on this, and the time of day I knew I could use a mixture of east window light coming in the shop and a softbox and snooted head on a set of profoto lights.

I wanted to get a couple of different looks, so I varied between using the softbox and available window light and a more complex combination of the afore-mentioned setup.

Also, thanks to our model Kamile Jensen here is three of my favorites from the shoot.

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 left, window light right.

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 right, profoto D1, umbrella, left

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 main fill, front below camera, window light, right, profoto D1, camera left, snooted for face.

Sometimes the problem is lack of time, other it is the location itself and the time of day. I had a recent portrait shoot of an emerging novelist that I needed to take at her home. The location was very small, wonderful and intimate, but didn't leave a lot of room for lights, I didn't want to use small lights for this as I wanted to get a more defined softer look to the portrait, so I set up a profoto D1 left and used a large white translucent sheet of fabric to soften and diffuse the main light. I then placed a second profoto D1 with an umbrella reflector outside of the house on the porch and aimed it into the house to mimic the window light of a different time of the day.

Here are three images from that portrait session.

Just remember, "Good photography is about problem solving"......more to come...