Taka タカ model practice shoot

Model - Taka タカ

Taka is your average lad, and it is his first time doing a photography session. In the beginning, he was a bit rigid, but after some good photos, he wasn't as tense and was able to be his usual self

Gear

5D3
- 24-70mm 2.8, 85mm 1.2 (ND8), 50mm 1.4
- Speedlite 600EX-RT with ST-E3 radio trigger
Lighting
- 2 lights without modifiers
- As its a practice model shoot, I was keeping the lighting setup to be as simple as possible. Thus, most shots are shot with
  - 45 degrees facing the model, top to bottom when space allows
  - I'll add in the details if the lighting setup is different along the post

Theme

I wouldn't call it a theme, but in general, cool, guy pictures, with an essence of the bad guy

Tarumi 垂水

Started as a bright sunny day, but the clouds came in later which helped a lot.

Photo - 2 lights together from the right @1/1 — 2 lights together from the right @1/1

Changed the batteries and everything was normal again. Normal meaning near 1s charging time as I was shooting at 1/1 against the sun

Photo - 2 lights @ 1/1 from left — 2 lights @ 1/1 from left

Photo - 2 lights just below my shooting position — 2 lights just below my shooting position

Photo - 2 lights from left — 2 lights from left

Photo - Shoot-through umbrella from left — Shoot-through umbrella from left

Photo - 1 light left , 1 light behind model legs — 1 light left , 1 light behind model legs

Photo - At this point of the day, the clouds came in which really helped! — At this point of the day, the clouds came in which really helped!

Photo - 1 light from the right, behind the stone ring — 1 light from the right, behind the stone ring

You can see where the light is coming from the shadows

Photo - Cropped to give that poster feel — Cropped to give that poster feel

Tarumi was a good and fun place to shoot! Especially with the bridge at the background. Time flew real fast... Wish I had more time there

Photo - 1 light, walking while assistant follows along at a 45 degree angle — 1 light, walking while assistant follows along at a 45 degree angle

Photo - In the car heading towards our next location — In the car heading towards our next location

Arima Onsen 有馬温泉

Tourist locations... people! Most of the time we had to wait for people to pass by and luckily while you're in Japan, the locals are kind enough to wait and have fun looking at the photo session

Some of the places were really tight, and my assistant had a difficult time hiding herself. Luckily though, its a tourist location, my model and assistant ended up looking at the attractions which really helped tense things down

Taka was getting used to modelling and was posing automatically without much directions

Photo - 1 light on the right behind the wooden door — 1 light on the right behind the wooden door

Photo - 1 light from right. Power of the 85mm — 1 light from right. Power of the 85mm

Photo - 1 light from left — 1 light from left

Photo - 1 light from right and 1 from behind — 1 light from right and 1 from behind

1 backlight, 1 light from right. Really really tight

Photo - 1 light from right — 1 light from right

Photo - A quick break. 1 light from left — A quick break. 1 light from left

Photo - 1 light behind leg, 1 light from left. Hi-speed sync — 1 light behind leg, 1 light from left. Hi-speed sync

Photo - 1 light from left. Again tourists waiting on our shoot — 1 light from left. Again tourists waiting on our shoot

Photo - Light from right — Light from right

Photo - 1 light from right, 1 light below the cherry blossoms — 1 light from right, 1 light below the cherry blossoms

Photo - Same lighting, different angle — Same lighting, different angle

Tip on dark locations

Taka was getting tired and I tried my best to finish this last scene. This is a rather dark place to shoot in. Assistant was holding an iPhone with its LED lights turned on to achieve focus and then turning it away before the shutter press

Manual Focus

A nice tip during dark shoots where your camera has problem focusing on the subject's face, is to use Manual Focus

The iPhone LED lights are used so that you can see in the dark

Another way is to use your camera's live view. As you focus on the subject, the live view will compensate for the dark scene and try to shoot a bright photo. It's 50-50 chance that the focus hits correctly, let alone focusing on the eyes of the subject. Better than nothing

Using Live view mode on any camera drains the battery real quick, remember to turn it off!