My hot friend, Monica Renee, and her kick ass dude, Jason are a couple of THEE coolest people I’ve ever met. So, when they asked me to come up and do a shoot with J’s 69 Chevelle, how could I say no? I mean seriously…hot girl…sweet ride…automatically makes for some sweet photos. :) So I [...]
My hot friend, Monica Renee, and her kick ass dude, Jason are a couple of THEE coolest people I’ve ever met. So, when they asked me to come up and do a shoot with J’s 69 Chevelle, how could I say no? I mean seriously…hot girl…sweet ride…automatically makes for some sweet photos. :)
So I headed up to Temecula for the shoot. Funny story…we had the cops called on us.
Now, it wouldn’t be an Aaron Riveroll photo shoot adventure if the cops didn’t show up…so we can definitely tuck this shoot under that category. But the cop (who was a lady) was a little confused as to why she was called since, after all, no laws were being broken. She gave us her blessing to continue our shoot…so we did.
“It’s not against the law to take pictures in your front yard in a bikini…” the cop informed us.
Tell us something we don’t know. :)
Monica even helped out by sharing,”My clothes have been on the whole time!”
The cop just sort of looked at us, not amused. :)
Anyway, it was fun…and we got some great car washing shots…but if you will notice, Monica got a tad bit wetter than the car did…actually, I don’t think we got even one drop on the car…
J’s uncle, Tim, was kind enough to let us shoot at his place…and he has the house and backyard decorated pretty sweetly…complete western theme, with tractors and a faux outhouse which he built himself. So we had to do some sexy western shots…
Anywho…for the nerds…did some standard glam lighting in these shots…
For instance, the ones of the car, I used the typical two-light deal…threw a third light with a blue gel under the car…used the 6 ft octa as the key light.
The western shots were pretty simple too…high key light angled down and then a light on the door of the outhouse, un-gridded.
Now, a lot of you know I’m a booty guy. I also am a brunette guy. However, sometimes brunettes are difficult to shoot in front of a dark backgrounds because their hair blends into the background. You need to have some separation otherwise it just looks funny. If you have the means and the gear, by all means use a hair light. Duh. But if you are a minimalist, or limited by your gear or circumstances, a tip is to rock your light up a little higher and angle it down. You still get coverage on the front of your subject…but you also get coverage on your model’s head, thus giving you a little separation between her hair and the dark background.
Enough said. Enjoy the shots…and hope everyone had a rockin’ and safe Halloween. :)
Very good tips! I agree – many photographers don’t realize sometimes what models have to endure while they get the shot.
Something I learned when giving feedback during a shoot – take your face away from the viewfinder when speaking to the model. It’s hard for them to hear what you’re saying when your mouth is blocked by the camera body and she’s standing on the edge of a cliff with the surf crashing around her.
I use breaks to show the model samples on the laptop or netbook (wireless transfer using WFT-E1 or an Eye-Fi Pro) of what we are getting, so she can see what we’re trying to accomplish.
I also bring a small cooler with bottled water, sugar-free Red Bull, and granola bars for the model.
Wow, more good tips! Yeah, the one about stepping away from the camera to give feedback is a good one. I have a tendancy to forget…quickly followed by a, “Huh?” :)
Also, very good move on the water and snacks. Very smart! ;)
Aaron, when you do shoots at the beach, do you still have music playing during the shoot? If so what do you use?
I do try to have music even on the beach…even if it’s just music playing from my iPhone. It can be a little on the quiet side…but if the model can hear it, then I let the model set the rhythm of the shoot. I also have a portable ipod Dock that runs on batteries that I take with me. I know the crashing of the waves can be a little loud sometimes, though. :)
And regarding feedback…good call on bringing the laptop out to shoots…I think if a model can see how the shoot is going and what they are doing, it can really help you both conceptualize and help you get that shot! Even if you just roll through the camera and let your model see the shots in the back of the camera.