Studio portraits

Last Friday in photography class we played around in the studio. One of fellow photographers, who earns her pay as a model, had brought in two models for us so we could totally focus on set, lighting, pose and such. Above is model 1. For the first picture I chose a top light with an almost side pose to create a silhouette. The photo on the right is taken with a softbox on the right and a reflection screen on the front left to fill in the shadows on her face.

We were asked to bring in some props for dressing up the model. Our inspiration was Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens who creates historic portraits by simply putting a plastic bag on the head of his model. The girl who brought in the models was also very creative in bringing props: she made a headdress made out of plastic cutlery.

I brought in some colourful bras, we filled the cups with transparent plastic bags to make them stand out. But, beginner as I am in a photo studio, the plastic was not entirely covered up by the bra so I had to cut that off the photograph. Big bummer, because it otherwise looked great! That is a lesson well learned: look carefully at the whole image before you start shooting.
By the way, model 3 is one of my fellow class mates, Joke. Even though of the mishap with the bra, these last two photographs are my two favorites of the day: they are very direct and I love seeing all the lines and softness in her face.