It may seem a little odd, but it's not unusual for me to not see the person or a picture of the person I have been booked to photograph until they walk into the studio for their portfolio or portrait shoot. And that's quite fine with me. Sometimes however, as in the case of Hannah's portfolio shoot there were quite a few pictures for to me to see as Hannah has already been modelling for some years. It was Hannah's mum who booked the shoot and sent me through some of her shots, along with the information that they were about a year or so old and she needed some new ones, ones with more edge to them. So what I knew from seeing those pictures was that I would be photographing a lovely, fair skinned and blue eyed young woman in those fast-changing and oh so important mid to late teen years.
And as I do before most of my portfolio shoots, Hannah and I spoke a few days before about what she was bringing, and what looks and styles she was thinking of for the shoot. As we style from the models own wardrobe it is important to make sure we have covered all the bases with shirts, dresses, shoes accessories etc. and better too much than too little.
On the day of the shoot, after laying out the clothing, creating the first looks and establishing a creative direction for the pictures and the Hair and Make-Up. I then take a simple 'Digital' or 'Polaroid', a completely natural picture of the model like the one below which was also as it happens taken in natural light. its then time to start on the hair and make-up for our first look which typically takes about an hour. We always start with the simpler, more natural looks and then build on those with ever more elaborate H&MU changes. For this shoot we started with sporty look, moved into a natural sophisticated look, the comp card headshot; went a bit biker/rock chick with the black jeans and white tee, then onto a high fashion swimwear look finishing with a sleek contemporary look in the orange long sleeve knit top, black skirt.
All in all our fashion and modelling journey took us about four hours and created just under 400 files to choose from; with a lot of good shots or 'keepers' as we say. Of course what we are after is not just the good shots but the best of the best! Here is my selection from this shoot and there could easily have been many more. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed creating them.
Hannah - www.spectrumagency.com.au/
Hair & Make-Up -
Nikita Lauren
Photography - Kent Johnson
(61) 0433 796 863
kent@artcommunication.com.au
