When the light’s just right…
One of the great things about my job is that I never know who is going to walk through the door and book a shoot. Last week I got a call from one of my team saying that (a very lovely) guest had come in to book a shoot, and that she had a huge pile of ideas and cuttings that she had as inspiration.
And when I got the big stack of papers, I could feel the grin expand from between my ears…this was going to be exceptionally good fun.
Unlike most of the families that come into the Colorbox Studio, Charlotte did not want pictures of her beautiful daughter, Sandra, with the cobalt blue Bajan sky and deep turquoise of the Atlantic behind her – far from it. They were after a more high-fashion look, with bleached tones, soft light and lots and lots of buttery bokeh…I was more than happy to oblige.
We started off with a few shots in the studio, and then headed out into the grounds of The Crane. Luckily, Sian was free to help assist with flash, and the weather played ball too. Normally, when the clouds are overhead and the skies are a little grey, guests are, naturally disappointed. But when that sun is out and glaring, it makes my job much, much harder. The sun here in Barbados is incredibly strong, and it makes creating soft, flattering light very tricky. Luckily, for all parties concerned on this shoot, the clouds were out in force.
A little about these shots…
[Mega boring photo nerdary – please skip if this is not of interest!]
Charlotte was adamant that she wanted that creamy out of focus for these head shots…which is quite tricky out here in paradise. Why?
Light.
In order to get that depth of field, you need to shoot at a long focal length for maximum compression (blog to come) but you also need to shoot with a wide aperture. A wide aperture means you need to shoot with a faster shutter speed – all of this is fine if you are shooting in ambient light, but if I plonk Sandra in the Bajan sun (clouds or not) she is going to end up squinting like mad, and the contrast will be unbearably strong…so what do I do? Control the light. I shoot my flash through a whacking great big umbrella. But this then throws up another problem – shooting at 2.8 in Barbados, you need a shutter of well over 500 to beat out the sun, but my flash will only sync at 250. So the game comes about of looking for nice ambient light (like shady spots) that I can then introduce my artificial, soft flash, to bathe the beautiful Sandra in…and, sometimes, like today, it all just comes together.
I can’t tell you how refreshing and exciting it was to do a shoot like this. It is very different to the usual stuff we shoot. For the first time ever, my job wasn’t to show idyllic Barbados – scenes to make friends and family jealous of what they missed during the holiday of a lifetime…my brief was to get a high fashion look. And when you’re working with someone as beautiful as Sandra, that job is made so much easier.
These two shots are, without a doubt, my favourite of the day. The light is just perfect. The wind was kicking up and unhelpfully turned the umbrella inside out. I asked Sian to bounce the light off the grass a few feet in front of Sandra, and the shots we got were stunning. I love the classic – almost 30s feel to these shots – both in lighting and in Sandra’s expression…awesome.
After 45 minutes or so, we headed down to the beach to finish up – I will leave the final pictures to do the talking.
Thanks for reading guys – more photos and adventures next week!!
For more info on the Colorbox Studio – please visit our Facebook Page, or head to www.colorbox.co.uk 🙂 Also, keep an eye out for Green People – they are suppliers of organic beauty and sun products…and Sandra may well be on her way to being the face for them!
Great work Ferg! Loving the the muted colours. Like you said, very different from the usual blue skies and white sand. Must have been great fun!
great clicks Freg… I too once had this rare ocassion when had to balance with the ambient vs flash, aperture vs depth of field stuff. Though not able to remember what I did that time. 😀
Thanks Mayur 🙂 Yes, I regularly fight with the sun, and bokeh vs blue sky is always a little tricky! Just glad that these guys didn’t mind blown out skies 🙂 Thanks for the comment, and the read as usual 😉 x
Wow, wow, wow!
Thanks Carissa – kind as always 😉 xxx
Ferg they were fantastic photo’s what a lovley model. Jean was looking at your and Sian’s wedding book and asked if she could have a photo of the large group. The one on the second from last page. She also said she would like to see your blogs can you include her.I dont know if you cac scan her the photo. her email Rjirons@tiscalli.co.uk
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Another tough day at the office!