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Diary of a Fashion Shoot - part 6 of 1 2 3 4 5 6

by Mark Cleghorn Published 01/04/2009

When detail is so important as with this part of the collection, the aperture of light from the pillars gives a direction to the light source which makes any fine, material detail jump out of the photograph, whether it is a full-length shot, as in this image, or close-up. My exposure is always taken towards the light source from the subject's face, with a light meter, so as to accurately set the exposure manually on camera. In this case 1/200 at f2.8 for 100 ISO.

6.15 Shoot finished
After a long day, with all the shots in the can, it was a quick 'thanks and good-bye' to the client and off to the train station to drop off the model and stylist.

7pm Download at the studio
Even though the day was done for everyone else, I spent the next three hours downloading, editing, processing, backing up to DVD and then proofing to disk for the client. Very little work is done in proofing, only the odd tweak in exposure to compensate for slight changes in the sunlight or when tracking with a reflector. The images were changed to monochrome via a pre-set in Adobe Camera RAW, so the client was able to start making their selection the very next day.

Post Shoot Finishing
About four days after the shoot I had the first order from Angela and it's then I really tweak any slight flaws in the image and the dress sample, like a crease or a seam.

If I feel I need a little more detail in the dress at the order stage, I will open several copies of the same image from RAW with less and more detail as required, by adjusting the exposure of each. This is a bit like an HDR technique, but by hand in Photoshop where I will use the detail from the different exposures of the image from RAW to bring back fine detailing.

So that's it, a diary of a fashion shoot - the world of material and hair is a glamorous place to work, at least for the first few years, but unless you are the principal photographer you will soon get fed up with airports, hotel rooms, the early starts and very late finishes. For the past 15 years, with the exception of a few of my old clients, like Angela, fashion is now no more than a portrait session with a stylist and assistant(s) not forgetting a good-looking guy and/or a beautiful girl, both of whom need none of my attention until the shoot starts and none of my time when the shoot is finished. This year we will be filming the next Blue Shoot for PhotoTraining4U.com and I can't wait!

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1st Published 01/04/2009
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:18

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