I got a call from this male guy who needed a photographer in dc who shoots models to take some snapshots. unlike most of my clients who found me through google, he told me that he found about sharpfocus from an ad that I placed on craigslist. he said that he wanted to do a glam fashion photo shoot. I scratched my head and said ‘excuse me?’ I asked him if he could send me photographs to give me an idea of what he was looking for. but he said ‘don’t panic, I’m gonna send you pictures to show you what I want’.
he sent me images of male editorial models in high contrast with light and shade. when I saw the photos, they were no different from the ones that you would see on fashion magazines like gq or whatever. I told him that most of these photos required a lot of planning, styling but he replied that it didn’t need to be exactly like that. he already decided that he wanted white background and some pictures had dark shadows cast on the wall.
at least that gave me an idea of how to plan for lighting. he was in luck. a company that required catalog style headshots, with white walls, booked a studio session on the same day. so the lighting setup was already in place before he arrived. on time. actually ahead of time. since I had so many lights, I experimented with different setups. the shoot was very fast-paced and went quite well. most of the photos consisted of shirtless with hard light casting dark shadows on the wall.
I’m comfortable with any lighting situation as long as I have a clear idea. the deal was straightforward: I shoot the pictures, let him upload the files to his laptop. pay. I used one light with just the reflector at an angle and high. the rest was up to him to do the poses that he had in mind. I suggested one where he was sitting like a rock. it was very powerful. he brought a computer. at the end of the shoot, he uploaded the files on to it, paid. handshake.