Porschia and I met up this morning at the Westin in the Domain to kick off her official modeling career. Our goal was to work through 3 great outfits and to provide a variety of looks and lighting to start off her portfolio with a diversity of looks and styles. We started off with a gridded and snooted speedlight with a full CTO gel on the speedlight to match the warm tones of the Wine Cellar room. The first outfit and textures called for restricted, harsh lighting to help create the mood. While still in the Cellar we also used our Orbis Ring Flash to create a hard fashion light in a closeup portrait.
For our first outfit and location change we went with a “Porschia is Donald Trump” attitude. I lit this differently than any photo I have done. The hair light is behind Porschia and a bit high. The light itself is a fotodiox daylight balanced video light aiming toward her right ear. The key light is a speedlight bounced into the silver side of circular reflector to mimic the sheen and specularity of the fabric to Porschia’s left. I think it has an interesting feel to the light. Going to work this that setup again to see how far we can push that technique.
The fourth photograph was also special because we used the giant window light as a scrim. No flashes! Very rare, but when the light is good the light is very good. Porschia looks like she has been doing this all her life, but no, just the first time!
And lastly we come to my favorite photograph of the day, #5. To me, it should be on a billboard or movie poster, just a great moment with super cool lighting mix of ambient and another 1/2 CTO gelled flash in a Westcott Apollo Orb. The best part is the yellow light behind is the background that the Westin staff check in guests at. We had just a tiny sliver of working area to photograph in and Porschia just nails the Hollywood feel. And that’s how we ended the day.
Which one is yall’s favorite?
–JB
Josh loves a good adventure and some of his favorite wedding and engagement shoots have involved “getting crazy” or going somewhere special to the couple.
Josh is a Texas native and long time Pflugerville resident. He started his photography business in 2009 and has never looked back. His photo business even allowed him to be daddy-day-care before his two sons reached school age. Over the years his business has expanded to include just about every type of photography including automotive, editorial portraits, corporate events, sports and food. Through it all, he has continued to love wedding photography for genuine moment, the fast pace and the diversity of subjects it offers. Josh is a co-founder of North Austin Pfoutographic Society and a resident instructor at Precision Camera & Video in Austin, Tx.
