As a full time wedding and commercial photographer, my work schedule tends to keep me pretty busy. Between shooting, editing, and all the other administrative tasks that fall in between, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine. In many ways, this is good. Routines create structure, and structure is what helps keep focused on the multitude of daily tasks required for running a business.
In other ways, too much structure can have a negative effect. If we get stuck focusing strictly on the administrative tasks and nothing else, we can rob ourselves of the opportunity for creative growth, which is arguably the most valuable aspect of our profession. As photographers, it’s important that we continue challenging our minds, pushing the creative envelope, and leaving opportunity for spontaneity. For this session, that’s exactly what we had in mind.
While it’s typically preferred to plan your locations ahead of time for paying clients, on-the-spot location scouting is a great way to train your eye and to help you think on the fly. This is especially useful as a wedding photographer, as the fast pace schedule of weddings often require you to make split second decisions and think quickly on your feet. To help reinforce this skill, my girlfriend, Agnes, and I decided to grab a few fun outfits of hers, hit the road, and see what we could find.
After a few laps around my home town of Crown Point, we decided on a beautiful set of blooming trees, which was right off the side of a booming intersection. At first glance, this location could have been easily dismissed, as it’s surrounded by passing cars, sprawling power wires, a bank, a gas station, a Dunkin Donuts, and all sorts of commotion. But for me, this was exactly the type of challenge I was looking for.
The challenge is to see a location for what it can be, not what it is at first glance. The key is to isolate a small section of the location in your mind, and imagine how your framing will allow you to isolate out everything else. This is particularly useful when shooting weddings, as we don’t often have the luxury of doing laps around town, looking for that one perfect spot. In this particular shoot, even with as much clutter as we had surrounding our location, the framing and choice of aperture allowed us to keep the vast majority of the unwanted surroundings hidden. But let’s be honest…with a beautiful face like that, no one’s worried about the background, anyways.
Aside from location scouting, another personal goal on this shoot was to challenge myself to rethink the way I balance light. When using flash, it’s a natural tendency (at least for me) to darken down the background, and then brighten up the subject with the flash — as seen above. This is a sure fire way to really “see” that flash at work, and gives a very distinct look to the image. This is a great look, and works wonderfully in many cases, but doesn’t always portray the appropriate mood for the scene.
To help set a better mood, I decided to play around with a few different ways of balancing the light. Primarily, I was aiming to make this look a bit more “naturally” lit, while still using the flash to provide a clean light on Agnes’ face and body. After achieving something closer to the mood I was aiming for, I decided to bounce between the two lighting styles, giving a bit of variety for the finished product.
In terms of lighting, everything in this shoot was lit incredibly simply. The main light was a Flashpoint XPLOR600, which was placed in a small umbrella style octobox. Since Agnes’ hat had a tendency to create a heavy shadow, the light was placed at the same height as her face (see the catch light in her eyes), and was either placed off camera left, or camera right, depending on the orientation of her body. Instead of using a second off-camera flash, we simply used the sun as a trim light on her back/side, as seen below.
Working with someone like Agnes really is a photographer’s dream. Not only is she stunning, but her personality makes her a breeze to shoot with. Not to mention…it’s impossible for this girl to take a bad photo.
After 12 years of shooting, I still find it amazing how a little bit of selective framing and creative lighting can completely change a location. Comparing the wide shot of this location at the top of the post to the final photos, you’d never have a clue that this was photographed in Crown Point, Indiana on a busy intersection.
Huge shout-out to my incredible girlfriend, Agnes, for being a dang supermodel.