I come in early at 1:30pm to set up my workstation. I learnt from the last time that I need to give myself more time to make sure that I've set up ok. Justine is bang on time which is always good. I hate running late. It also gives me a bigger margin for error (forever the pessimist)
The make up application goes really well. I had wanted to make sure that the skin had a nice glow to it so I mixed up the Illamasqua Satin Primer with Revlon's Photo Ready Liquid highlighter base and DAAAAYUM did her skin have a lovely glow. I gave her nose light powdering because we don't want a shiny nose.
The liquid liner needs some assistance from Harriet because I got the shakes really bad and with a team effort we get it done.
As soon as I put on the red lipstick I knew that Justine was the perfect model for this shoot. All the Givenchy models ooze class and elegance and she was nailing it.
Harriet asks me what equipment I need from the Hatch and she nips off to get it. I then get a message not even 10 minutes later:
Well crap. I've gotten used to using my nice 550D...not today. I managed to snag a sync lead, so it wasn't all lost. At least having an 85mm wasn't so bad. I think that if it had been a 60mm lens I would have had a mental breakdown. We'd shot with it before and it hadn't focused to well.
I come into my studio and the girls have worked their magic. I grab one of the white boxes for Justine to lean on and somewhere to rest the roses.
After a few test shots to work out the lighting, I discover that I'm having real difficulty to get the right exposure. I think it's partly because Justine has very fair skin and I'm shooting on a white colorama.
The shoot starts off well. I'm thinking my photos are mediocre. I ask my amazing bestie Peter to come and have a look at them. He tells me to move my model away from the colorama as it's casting a shadow. I hadn't even thought of this. Peter works some magic and helps me get my exposure right and then off he disappears.
I continue my snapping away, always taking note of any minor adjustments that need to be made. Like, moving stray hairs, lipstick touch ups, adding more highlighter.
Something I've learnt is that shooting with hands touching the hair or face can be one of the most awkward things in history. Sometimes they can just look so unnatural, it's in these moments you try and catch the model as they are moving their hair in between posed shots.
I nab Chris and ask him if he thinks that my images are OK, he's says they look OK, so I'm pretty happy. Chris tells me to shoot further back, he opens up the curtain next to my studio and tells me to stand there and shoot. I have to admit, the photos that I took after this looked cleaner somehow.
I managed to do the shoot in a little over an hour and this is a new record for me, I normally take forever. Better be safe than sorry. You know what I mean.
I'm really happy with these photos. I'm just praying that I got the brand ethos right.
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