First time shooting fashion/modeling

[Corey Jenkins]

This was my first shoot shooting this style. I enjoyed it a lot. Please let me know what I could improve on! I'm about to send these off to them (there just friends from school so its not to big of a deal if something isn't right) Neither of them are actually models, they are just into fashion so I asked if I could take some pictures of them.

Here are a few photos from the shoot that I think could use some crit

1.
http://coreyjenkins.smugmug.com/photos/543463564_vBynk-L.jpg

2.
http://coreyjenkins.smugmug.com/photos/544161524_oZvKA-L.jpg

3.
http://coreyjenkins.smugmug.com/photos/544161139_pCvTM-L.jpg

4.
http://coreyjenkins.smugmug.com/photos/544162178_oTRDw-L.jpg

5.
http://coreyjenkins.smugmug.com/photos/544163302_iVvvr-L.jpg

A few more

6.
http://www.coreyjenkinsphoto.com/photos/544541892_Yey4f-L.jpg

7.
http://www.coreyjenkinsphoto.com/photos/544542795_Xhhkq-L.jpg

[Matt Timmons]

Ok Corey, you've got the first lesson of beauty/fashion photography down--use beautiful subjects. Half the work is accomplished when you have gorgeous subjects to photograph and they are. After that, I personally would maybe fill the frame a little more when shooting against a blank background. It's a good high-key setup, but boost the background light at least one stop higher than your subject so that it really blows that background out white. Once you get into some more shooting experience, direct your subjects so that they are doing something interesting, especially with their expression. Modeling isn't portraiture, it's creating something cool where as portraiture is just standing around having one's picture taken (I did read and understand that you all were just playing around and experimenting, which is cool, so take that advice just for later). My favorite is the last shot. You've got the fan going, she's got a beautiful expression and it is a good capture without anything to do with lighting techno-jargon and all that "photography skill" stuff- it just came together and is beautiful. They will be very happy to have these I'm sure. Always make sure to have your model sign a release under all circumstances btw!
So now that you have some pretty subjects- let's see some of that creative skill like you displayed on the sports photos eh? We know you've got it now so turn it up! Cheers, -Matt

[Corey Jenkins]

Thanks man, I'm looking forward to doing more stuff like this. Maybe some on location stuff would make it more creative. I was just trying to figure out what might look good and what wouldn't. I was using two rim lights, but I guess I didn't have the ratios on them high enough with the darker clothing. In some the 2 edge lights look great on there face/hair but it doesn't show up on there clothing at all haha I was shooting the lights through umbrellas so maybe a strip light would give a little more even light spread?

[Matt Timmons]

Yea those umbrella things are kinda old school and don't offer much flexibility. Soft boxes for subjects, open strobes for backgrounds (or small off-camera flashes work too).
Like I said, both girls are beautiful, but in my opinion the one in the red has real potential for commercial print work and enhancing your portfolio. Next time push to get more than two expressions from her- oh and she should also have heels on, even for catalog type stuff. Flats are "unflattering". :)

[Corey Jenkins]

Sounds good, I'll work on what you said.

[Nick Saglimbeni]

Hey Corey,

Your instincts are correct with these models. Go ahead and blow out that white a little more, and punch in tighter so you don't have so much headroom, and these could be straight out of a Target catalog. Nice work.

-Nick

[Corey Jenkins]

Thanks Nick, that means a lot. I got to work on doing more straight white background stuff, I didn't want to get flare off of it, my studio is in my garage so they would be 4-5 feet away from it. I'm going try and find a magic number to make it white and not come back at the model as harsh. Would diffusing the background light help at all?

[Matt Timmons]

Just flag the background light.

[Nick Saglimbeni]

Hey Corey,

If you're worried about it "coming back at the model" too harshly, that can only mean one of two things: overexposure (flare) or the models are too close to the background. In either case, these are easily controllable by dialing down the backlight until it's just below clipping. However, the place where I will differ from some conventional wisdom is if you are not an avid Photoshop user (not heavy into post-production on your pics) then you may actually want to let the background clip, just make sure it's uniform (all across the background) and just barely off the charts. Make sense?

[Corey Jenkins]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they were to close to the background, shooting out of my garage so its sort of hard to get a decent distance haha I messed around with opening the garage door and that helps a lot, I can also shoot with my 85 1.8 which is really sharp. Thanks for the info though.

[Jphilly]

Great Shots Corey.