Fashion at WIS

Today I have a selection of photos from my first independent production / fashion shoot, with the lovely Liora. 
I wanted to start simple with one model and one photographer. I wanted to do a shoot in Weizmann Institute of Science for a while now. Only recently did I have enough time to actually go ahead with it. It has been about a month of editing the pictures and selecting just a few from the 150+ I ended up with was not easy. 

Model: Liora Finkelshtein
Make up artist: Shirli Castro
Styling: Chen Haver Asulin (from Lolipop Vintage Fashion) 
Director of photography: Keren Shalev

Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope the images were worth the wait... 




Liora, our model, has got such beautiful hair we hardly needed to touch it. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/125 sec @ f/4 ISO200 

Shirli gave her some light make up and Chen provided us with vintage style skirt and blouse for the first part of the shoot. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/160 @ f/4 ISO200

All images in this shoot were taken with the Nikkor micro 105mm f/2.8. The sharpness, the bokeh and the tight view angle makes this a great lens for portraits. This also allowed me to take some quick close ups:

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/8 ISO 200 + off-camera flash, handheld

Below is a composite using the Brenizer method to get really creamy out of focus backgrounds. This image has a depth of field equivalent of a f/0.8 lens:

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/160 @ f/4 ISO200, flash+umbrella stand. 20 image panorama. 

This also allowed me to shoot rather wide with a 105mm lens. If I had changed lenses for this the background would not have remained as soft as it is here. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/160 @ f/4 ISO200, flash+umbrella stand

For the next image I tried to play around with new styles for retouching images. In this case I used one of Lightroom's built in cross-process filters. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/160 @ f/4 ISO200, flash+umbrella stand

Another panorama, that looks like it was taken with a 22mm lens. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/160 @ f/4 ISO200,  flash+umbrella stand, 29 image panorama

For the next location we changed blouse and did Liora's hair up with flowers. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand

The new location had some interesting geometries and some fallen leaves around. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand

Another composite image:

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand, 9 image panorama

The last composite for this location. I think it is also the best one:

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand, 5 image panorama

The winding path offered some interesting perspectives:

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand

A wider view from the same spot, again as a composite. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand, 15 image panorama

For the third location, as the light was getting really good, Lioa changed to a vintage cream-colored dress. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/2500 @ f/4 ISO200

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/500 @ f/4 ISO200, flash+umbrella stand

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/400 @ f/4 ISO200, flash+umbrella stand

Moving inside the trees to get some partially shaded shots:

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/500 @ f/4 ISO200

I had pre-scouted the location so I knew the light would be coming in low above the leaves, so we went back there as the sun went down to look for the perfect hair-light:

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/200 @ f/4 ISO200, flash+umbrella stand

Finally, we made a quick change of outfit for the last half an hour of sunlight:

I like this one because you can see the umbrella stand, as well as my lovely director of photography and me standing in the sunlight. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/640 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand

By this point the light was so good the flash umbrella no longer necessary. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/320 @ f/4 ISO400

In this backlit image I had to get really close to the ground to get the light where I wanted it. The flash in this case allowed me to take this (at rather fast shutter speed) and not get a dark silhouette. 

Nikkor micro 105mm, 1/1000 @ f/4 ISO400, flash+umbrella stand

Thanks to everyone who came and gave up their Saturday afternoon for this shoot. I hope the end result has been worth it!