Fashion & Portraits

Juha is the bartenders and one of the owners of the bar Soolo. I had to get this portrait after the initial shoot was over. The dude designd tobe  behind the bar…

Hmf.. what can I say. We had a photoshoot at the bar solo.

I was sweating like a pig but it was worth it. Got some very beatufull frames. We have something very cool to install for you, but you have to wait until Eero gets a new computer.

A huge, huge thanks to Joonas and Eero for assisting, could not  have done this without you! And of course  to Mira for modeling and being great as usual. If a photog manages to get a bad picture of her, well.. then he or she should quit!  I know, as photogs  we attend to suck..

As I already mentioned numerous times I almost blew the dancer portrait shoot thoroughly. Maiju had a some suggestions that worked seamlesly with the orginal consept. One of them was this pose.

I would have never thought this. Now Im sic to my stomach that I did not bring the strobes out to this one! It would have been a killer shot with a better light. Just another example how photogs fail..

Here is something NOT to do if you are working with a paying client,  someone in a  hurry, someone you photograph for a first time or someone who is not comfortable in front of the lens.

Thank god Maiju was nothing above! I’ve shot her before, she had something to dance to and was patient and ultimately her ideas and willingness to do this properly this saved my ass.

I figured I would do things differently this time and shoot with out  the strobes. Just to get me out of the flash sync speed range.  And ofcourse I can take a few silhouettes. How hard could it be? I’ve shot silhouttes before! Unitentionally, but still..

Yeah right..

We shot in four different locations which is three  more than usually. I shot 220 frames which is  a 100 too many comparing to what I got to on with in photoshop. None  from the firts location. I was not working consistently as I jumped between the scenarios.  I used a lens not worthy of the assingment. I forgot model complitely. I made all the mistakes I could have made. This shoot was the exact opposite of the nature photog portrtait.

Last night I was going through the images in the lightroom. My mood changed. When we finaly rapped the shoot I was ready to smash the camera to the pavement.  During the evening I found some pics that had something going for them. They are horrible pics if any rules of photography is considered but they can be regarded as the “start here-images.”

The picture may be shot by mistake or went to hell for other reasons, but to put that pic on the baseline and build from there could be worth the effort. Using the same elements but balancing them more evenly and correcting the mistakes with attention making them work for you!

The first with no flash, and the second one with a sb800 1/1-power through small softboks to even out the ambient.. Non of these are worthy of a term photograph. There are no tones, the range is off the charts but theyt givesme an idea to build from somewhere..

One more to the ‘hobbiest series.’

Maiju apart from being a wonderfull  photo subject, is a dancer / teacher at dance studio Move. Even I’m not stupid enough to let this kind of a portrait to slip through my hands.

I tried to avoid using strobes today and I was terrified that I would not have a one decent image to work with. I bailed on that and pulled out the sb’s at some point. Still I had less material than normaly after shooting 200 frames but its not that simple.. More on that on later posts.

Image under is done with sun and golden reflector.

I can not  thank Maiju enough for being patient today. I was too busy kicking my own ass that I forgot her totaly. Im sorry for that, but she did so well! Who needs model directing anyways.. ?