It is that time again… the Vodafone DIT Fashion Show. I will be there again to cover all the fun back stage action along with some front of house action. It is always a fantastic show held in Vicar St. Dublin for the last few year.
I shot the headshots for the models again this year, which you can find below. All the show pictures and current happenings will be going up on my FaceBook page throughout the event: https://www.facebook.com/RichiePhoto
Ray Byrne is back with a bang on the blog. Ray is another DIT buddy of mine. We have seen Ray before on the street and the beach. Now its time to shoot in studio. He came down with his partner in crime, Rachel Kenny for a fun filled day in studio. The main aim of this shoot was to try out try out some different shoot ideas and to update Rays book. He current portfolio on his agency website still only has the old photos form my last shoot with Ray, so these shots should really help improve it.
We done some shots in studio as well as outside the studio to take advantage of the nice weather we had that day. It’s always good to get out of the studio to take some shots out doors. The shot up top is one of my favs from that particular set.
Back in studio, we got down to business trying some portraits and high-fashiony poses……. mostly just messing around, but it was fun. If you follow my work, you will notice that I am not generally into fashion and the art side of shots. My current style of shooting is to keep things simple. However, its is sometimes good to step out ones comfort zone and try something different. The last time I done something similar was with Ricky a few months ago and that turned out pretty good.
After we finished doing the fashion stuff, we went back to spend a few minutes shooting some headshots. Although not an actor, its always good to have some headshots for a commercial book. My style of headshots that I am working on is with a plain background in a horizontal / landscape format. I may do up a post on my headshot techniques at a later date when I have more time and when I perfect it a little. But for now, you can see a setup shot below.
As you can see above, I shoot headshots on a 70-200mm lens, roughly around 100m. I shoot at F4.0 as at F2.8 at 100mm on that lens, the depth of field is so small that getting the eyes in focus along with the tip of the nose is tricky. Another thing you will notice is that I use light panels on the left and right of the face for light. I have a light behind these to turn them into a nice big soft light source, along with creating big catch lights in the eyes.
Thats all for now, don’t forget to get in touch to book your shoot if you’re looking for headshots, model portfolios or general portraiture.
I recently had the privilege of shooting with Patricia Olufemi from Absolute the Agency. It was very refreshing and inspirational to work with Patricia. She has such passion and determination to break into the modeling industry it was great to see.
The shoot came about after Patricia messaged me on my FaceBook Page (www.facebook.com/richiephoto) and asked if I would be her mentor and give her some tips on entering the Irish market. I was very flattered to think that some one would like to have me as a mentor. I said to her pretty much straight away though that I would not be a very good mentor for her as I do not work with in the industry and so would not be as experienced or knowledgable as a fashion photographer. There are many, many other photographers who could be better suited to helping her.
But she persisted and we set a date for a test shoot. I don’t do many test shoots but was a good opportunity to test my new smoke machine some lighting set-ups on dark skin. Also, I had not shot a model with short hair before, so that was a refreshing change from every one having extensions these days.
Patricia arrived down anyway for a planned 2 hour chat and shoot…. which turned into 5 hours or so. You can read her account of the shoot on her Blog Here. Which pretty much sums it all up. We talked about her move from London to Ireland, how that was a negative move in terms of the fashion industry. We talked about her inspirations and what motivates her to be a model. There is a great post on her blog about her attempt to get scouted by Elite in Dundrum. It is a great read and it show her passion and determination very well.
We started of shooting some headshots. I wanted to test out a few lighting setups and Patricia is interested in acting, so it worked out well. I try to start with headshots when possible as it is when I start to coach who ever is in front of my camera and give them some tips on facial expression. Patricia was great at the headshots. She was not afraid to let go and have some fun with it… which is the important thing when it comes to a headshot session for me. Patricia done her own make-up for the day. The looks were pretty natural so there was not much make-up applied.
After the headshots, I fired up the new smoke machine that I got. I got it to be able to do something different in the studio and spice things up a little. I won’t be using it for every shoot, but there comes a time when you need that little something something to make a shoot work. It has a remote control with it, so it means I can set it in the corner of the studio and leave it be, triggering it via the remote control in my hand… while I take the shot. It gives off smoke for a about 30 seconds before needing to re-heat for another minute and then its good to go again.
The trick I found to using smoke is to back light it, making it more visible. I placed a light far back behind Patricia on the left side of the picture, that was pointing back towards her. This resulted in a soft rim light for her and also it added light to the smoke so it could be seen more clearly. Another trick is to not use too much. Once I use the smoke a bit more, I will do up a good post about the in’s and outs of it.
Make sure to check out Patricia’s website http://patriciaolufemi.com/
*Edit* Patricia is recently won the title, Miss Nigeria Ireland for 2012. Well done Patricia 🙂
Here are some shots from a recent head shot session with Anthony Byrne from Product 2 Market. It was a fairly straight forward run and gun headshot session.
Anthony is a graduate of UCD Michael Smurfit School of business. He has nearly fifteen years of experience in Business Development, Sales Management and Business Management, both in Ireland and the UK. He also was involved in the start-up and growth of two successful Irish software companies.
Anthony started his own business, Product2Market, in 2008. The company deals with Sales Outsourcing Consultancy and mainly works with Start-ups, Early-stage companies and SME’s.
Besides being the Managing Director of his own company, Anthony also is a Business Mentor with the County Enterprise Board in Dublin and helps support new and emerging Businesses reach their target market.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anthony_Byrne
We shot around the Guinness Storehouse area in Dublin. The weather was really against us on the day and we were dodging showers of rain in between sunny spells…. typical Irish weather.
Lighting wise, I was running and gunning with an EX580 set up on a light stand with a shoot through umbrella with Pockets Wizards in TTL mode. I still haven’t really gone through the pockets wizards to put them through their paces. I have been so busy with other stuff, but I will get onto it soon.
As it was a bit breezy, the umbrella was not the best idea in the world, but its quick and easy. I kept it fairly close to me for each shot, i.e. close enough to keep my foot on it if a breeze was about to blow it over. It’s time like those when you really could do with an extra hand on a shoot.