Photo Skills A: Portrait Shoot

I chose MAC cosmetics as my brand for the portrait shoot.

This was my first time doing portraits in a studio, and it was an interesting experience, from which I learned a lot.

One of the negatives is depending on another person to model for you (as a favour, at this stage), and unfortunately I was let down by my model the night before the shoot.

Luckily, Toni, who was originally going to be my assistant, saved my life by modelling for me instead.

I had to improvise some make up (the previous model is also a make up artist), and it was particularly funny when the fire alarm went off half way through the make over =P Toni was super embarrassed about having to leave the building like that... and I was concerned about how much of my studio time that was going to consume.

As soon as we returned to the building we just cracked on and despite the delayed start, it was enough time =)

I used Canon 450D as usual, Canon 18-55mm lens and borrowed a tripod from Uni, which is more solid than the one I have.

We used 2 Bowens lights, one to each side of the camera, with some massive light boxes on them. No reflectors as I had no assistant anymore and was happy enough with the results.

I was determined to have fun on the shoot too, and asked my model to throw her hair in the air, spin around, jump, all sorts =)

Turns out it's much harder than I thought to get a good photo doing these movements! But it was great to give it a go!

I then decided to swap lenses and borrowed a macro from Uni. What a great idea that was!! I much preferred the photos taken with this lens (I really want a macro lens! Did you hear me, Father Christmas??).