Often I’m asked where to point the meter when metering.
You have to realize that the light meter is an incident meter, meaning it meters the light falling on the meter…. so if you know which part of the subject you want to be lit correctly you hold the meter in front of that part. In the studio this often means you meter towards the light source, however sometimes you don’t, like in this shot that I took during the Photokina.
Often people struggle with getting that little bit of extra out of a portrait, now I never claim to be an expert on this (I think no-one really is), but over time I found out that it often helps to let the model “act”, in fact I always describe photography as acting on 1/4000 of a second.
This is our model Bertrie and she is going through several expressions, by converting the images to BW I added a little bit of extra mood, which for me works very well with these shots.
When you’re shooting a portrait try to work through different emotions with your subject, some can be subtle, some can be extreme, but keep playing. Now some people will say “my subject doesn’t have any emotions to go through” and I disagree, of course she/he may not be as expressive as this model (and many others) but there is always something you can squeeze out of your model. It often helps to first play around with them, have some fun before the photoshoot, make some jokes, make them laugh, but most of all make them feel relaxed.
A good photoshoot should never feel like a photoshoot, it should feel like “fun” or “acting” in other words a “flow”, as soon as you let your subject pose too static I often find the results lacking and “boring”. So the next time you do a shoot make sure to COACH your model, and I think you will be surprised.
Modelphotography on location is always a nice thing to do, you can play not only with styling and posing but also with the available light, and this can give you some amazing shots. One of the things I love to do is find the sun in the frame, adding a little bit of strobe on the model to boost the contrast and let the model stand out and you have a formula for a shot that a lot of people like.
It does help to use a modifier like the Elinchrom maxi light that will give you some extra light output, because winning from the sun…. well that’s rather difficult.
Let me first share a version without the sun.
One of the things that’s always a guarantee for a good shot (or an interesting shot) is using reflections.
Reflections can be seen in many surfaces, but also in water of course.
So when you’re shooting in a location where you see some pools of water make sure to figure out a way to use it in at least some of your shots.
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