Friday, March 11, 2016

Forest photoshoot


This was one fun shoot. There's much to say about the gorgeous Einav, but you'll see enough of her after the break. What I've really learned from this session is how much fun and value you can get from doing a "model test".

This isn't what you're thinking of: a studio session in black and white where the model is wearing jeans and a tank top. It could be... but there's much more to the "test" than that. Somewhere between the fashion shoot, the portrait session and the editorial style shoot there's this weird encounter where model and photographer have sort of a job interview.

The photographer gets to see what this new model knows, what her good sides are, what expressions she can pull off and what poses she can handle. The model gets to know the photographer, too. What he can do, if she can count on him to be professional, and to supply the final image. Most of all, the shoot isn't bound by the need to get all the sets done, or by wanting to get all angles of a location or concept.



Model: Einav Fleischer | Makeup:  Iris Roizen Feinstein

So we already knew the location. It was a small forest a few minutes drive from home. Einav also lives near us so we kept everything in the area. We first drove to Iris, our makeup artist, for some natural makeup that doesn't look too heavy.


Then we drove down to the forest. We had made a short stop there before joining the rest so we could go over the different locations. We decided on the order of places to shoot, going from one side to the other, finishing in an open space where you can see the sunset.


Because we wanted to keep things simple and focus on the model we didn't get any stylist or clothes provider for this shoot. Einav got some things that fit the style of the shoot. This is something I hadn't been sure about until this session. Models can definitely bring their own wardrobe. It fits them and they feel comfortable in the clothes.




My wife / director of photography wanted to do something a little more hip-hop so Einav went to the second set of clothes for the tree shots...


We did everything with one flash balanced with ambient. For this location we darkened the background a little to make it more dramatic.



Einav has that rare quality for a model, besides just being very beautiful, but she can give you very different looks if you just take a slightly different angle and expression.


It's almost like having five or six different models all in one:


Sunset was approaching so we changed to something more romantic, with the forest and orange beams of light coming through the trees.


For the actual few minutes (between 2 to 4 minutes) that the sun was crossing the horizon we made another quick clothes switch (yeah, we ended up doing a bunch of sets just for fun). Then we jumped location to a clearing that wasn't that beautiful on its own but had a better view of the western horizon (it is really useful to already know your location in advance).


Here, once again, she looks like another person altogether! The flash made all the difference now, and we did some cool portraits in the last rays of sunlight.


I certainly had fun, and I am sure we will be writing about more shoots with this girl in the near future. Also, I've decided to go on and do a few more model tests - they are fun and productive sessions on their own - and it helps to figure out what model will fit what grand fashion project that I have planned.  One more smile to go:






No comments:

Post a Comment