Photoshoot Jessica (testsession)

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At the moment I’m hard at work to find some new models for the Dutch workshops.
I often use sites like ModelMayhem, Dutchheaven etc. to find the models and of course sometimes we just find someone on the street. Jessica found the casting call on ModelMayhem and send me some images and her ideas and to be honest I loved her images, so I invited her for a so called “testsession”. In these testsessions we do a few setups and see how the models pose and perform in front of the camera. If I need a lot of coaching the model is often not so perfect for the workshops, which by the way does not mean it’s a bad model, but posing in a workshop is something else than in a 1:1 session with a photographer.

Well to make a long story short, meet Jessica.
Jessica will be one of the new models for our workshops, she will start out with the fashion workshops and perhaps in the future she will also get into the glamour workshops.


Let’s also just for fun look at the gear used.
I shot this serie with the Canon 5DMKII with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS L
For the second image (the one with the gold) the Elinchrom 1.90mtr Octa was used, aimed down at the model. I was standing on stairs to shoot down. I love this modifier for it’s incredibly soft light quality and the light fall-off is very even over the complete area of the softbox. Also a good tip with this one is to remove the front diffusion material and get a very nice “snap” to the image.

This is a setup I also love to play with, it’s very easy to create but the model has to make the shot.
For this setup I used the Maxilight from elinchrom with a custom grid (taped this on the maxilight), I still hope Elinchrom will make a grid for this awesome reflector. Good tip for this one : if you shoot outside with the Quadra or Ranger add this reflector and get an incredible amount of extra light output. And the quality of light…. well that’s just great 😀

This is actually the first image of the set.
Most of the time I will start very simple to let the model loosen up and of course see what she/he can do while watching the light. I used the Elinchrom Deep Octa with the lighttools grid and as accent light the Chimera strip (also with a lighttools grid)

The following portrait was shot with the same setup but now cropped (in camera).

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6 replies
  3. Geoff (Hawk)
    Geoff (Hawk) says:

    I had a credit at amazon.com, otherwise I’d have bought from B&H. bought the maxispot!

  4. Wesley
    Wesley says:

    Totally love your website and all the insider info and secrets that you’re willing to share with us.
    But their is just one thing i can’t find and i’m dying to know.
    Why do you use/prefer the Chimera stip, since it seems like most of your other equitment is Elinchrom?
    Can you share some info about how the quality of the fabric the influence the quality of the light ? (sort of cheap vs expensive strip)

    • Frank Doorhof
      Frank Doorhof says:

      Hi,
      The chimera is slightly smaller in width and longer in height.
      At the moment however I would advise the indirect from Elinchrom which are great.

      Thanks for the compliment about the blog, please share the link 😉 so we can make it even bigger.

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