My friend Nicholas Golden Karnick (yes, that’s his real middle name), asked if I’d be able to shoot some photos for his girlfriend, Danielle this weekend so she can put a model card together. I obliged, and these photos are the result.

I struggled somewhat in my head in deciding how to light these photos. I’ve seen enough model cards to know that if you get too dramatic or complicated, you can’t tell what the model really looks like, and thus the card won’t get any clients, but also enough to know that if you make it too bland or flat, you also tend to just sink into the crowd. I tried to strike a pleasant medium by keeping the lighting soft, but not necessarily flat. This was essentially accomplished by placing a softbox overhead (and to the side) to make sure her hair was properly lit, and an umbrella placed at a medium distance away from her, to keep the light from being totally enveloping (by moving closer), but also from being harsh (by keeping it at a distance). Where needed, I also added a bit of reflection fill on the right side of the frame.

If perchance you are looking at my site and would like to contact her for modeling work, go ahead and use the contact button in the drop-down menu and I’ll get you in touch with her.

Enjoy.

Shooting day at work today (besides loads of other fun). Photographing some bottles of St. Croix cologne. I like this kind of project because it rarely comes with a very clear expectation of what I need to do. I get some leeway to be creative, and so I do.

As you’ll see, I opted for a spotlight approach for these photos. It was a single strobe overhead with a 30º honeycomb to direct the light. For the first two shots, where the boxes are included, I placed the light directly overhead, and used a bit of my on-camera 580ex to both fill in detail on the boxes, as well as trigger the strobe. For the second two shots, I wanted the bottles together to contrast the first two, and so I moved the same strobe back, and angled my 580ex so has to have no effect on exposure. Whereas initially the light spots the “ground” that the bottles sit on, the second two then have the light spotting the back “wall”, and thus silhouetting them quite dramatically.

Enjoy.