Studio Portrait - Christy Yan (7-Jun-2010)

[chin]

This was the first I took pictures in a photo studio. This was also the first time I have a semi-profession model pose for me.

It was an interesting experience, because the lighting condition is about as perfect as I can get. So technically many pictures went well. But the major challenge of studio portrait is to find interesting compositions or moments. Since there is no background to add any interest to the picture, it's tough to get interesting shots.

The model Christy did make lots of different poses, but many moves were just too "artificial" (for the lack of better word.)

[chin]

She was very professional. Before I figure out how the lighting works, she just stepped up to the white background sheet, and started to pose.

There were 4 of us, and somehow she figured out quickly who was about to press the shutter, and would look into the lens.

[chin]

Out of the 4 of us, oo8 and I were first time in a photo studio. We were not very sure what's acceptable, whether we should make request for any particular pose, etc...

So after perhaps 15 min of very quiet shooting, we were kind of bored with Christy just changing poses. Then one of our friends who had done this few time before started to looking for props. And asked her to use the props to add interest and different elements to the portrait.

[chin]

Besides props, Christy untied her hair, and added some more "diversity" to the pose. 

[chin]

Before more pictures of Christy, here is how it looked on site.

[chin]

From viewing my friends previous studio pictures, I knew that the model would sometimes change clothes during the session.

I was wondering about if we should ask or not. Then the guy who runs the studio asked her if she had other clothes. She went into the changing room, and came out with this.

[chin]

When we arrived at the studio, the guy who was manning the studio, Peter, was listening to some Japanese jazz and drinking wine.

So in the middle of the photo session, I asked Christy to use Peter's wine glass as a prop. I asked if she drinks any wine, and she said no. Initially she was holding the glass very high near her face, like holding other props.

We had to tell her to pretend to smell the wine, asking her to find blackcurrant or other fruit aroma in the glass. Then we asked her to swirl the glass. It took her a few tries to get the motion going. 

[chin]

I know these two pic kind of look alike. But I couldn't decide which one to give up.

I used a 85mm/F1.4 lens to take these two pictures. This lens used to be my favorite lens for taking pictures of my kids. Now that they are older and not very willing to let me take their pictures, so I had not used this lens much for for a long time. When I first use this lens in the photo session, I was very happy to find that this very sharp lens was above to resolve the very fine details, like the special contact lenses Christy was wearing. I will show an eye close-up picture later.

The only regret here was that we should have somewhat cleaned the wine glass first. It does not look to "crystal clear". Or the next time I will bring my own nice Riedel.  

[chin]

Tired?!

[chin]

More "behind the scene" type of shots. 

There were 3 flash lights - 2 at the back (or front of model) with diffuser to make the light soft. One at the back that was pointing to the background sheet to add a bright spot so the background was a bit more interesting.

By now we were more relaxed, and start to making changes to the lights. For a while, we made the back light pointing directly at the model from the back/side. It was interesting for a few shots but too strong for general lighting purpose.