Behind the shoot with Hannah

A few days ago Hannah stopped by my studio to do an ecommerce photoshoot for my Cherosi summer fashion designs. It took using all my creative channels to plan the photoshoot and this is how I handled it start to finish:

Three months before

I was in designer Chelsea mode, staying up all hours of the day and night creating pieces. After dozens of failed attempts I came up with a few final designs. I called around for a pattern maker and had the patterns for my designs made. Soon after the samples were made it was time to start planning for the photoshoot.

The week before

I was in stylist Chelsea mode, I had several Cherosi designs to style and needed to find a top or bottom for each as well as shoes and jewelry. It took me a week of scouting my favorite stores in Tampa Bay to find a piece for each design. My go to stores for casual photoshoots are Dillard's (if you live in Tampa the one by USF is a clearance store and always has a sale going on of at least 65%off on major designer brands), Nordstrom Rack (another good one for sales on Designer clothing) and the Thrift store.

The Night Before

I was in photographer Chelsea mode. I set up my lighting which was the easiest part because my plan was to use only one large octobox for Rembrandt lighting. I charged up all my camera batteries, cleared my memory cards, and set up my computer for tethering. I set up my main camera for capturing the images as well as a smaller camera for capturing video on a tripod. 

The day of

I started off in Photographer Chelsea mode, when Hannah arrived I had her put some oil on her skin. Oil on the skin for photography creates a sort of HD effect. I recommend this technique to other photogs because the camera alone is usually unable to pick up the complete dimensions of a subject and oil will make the skin shine at its high points creating dimension which will make it easier for the viewer to decipher the high and low points of one's skin. In simpler terms, its like contouring. 

During the shoot

I got in designer Chelsea mode, wanting to make sure each paired piece complemented my designs well. When you buy things they may look good in your hands but you never truly know how they might look until the model tries them on. I was lucky enough that Hannah fit into each outfit quite perfectly and brought my vision for each design to life.

My other concern as a designer was with posing. As a photographer I tend to let the model bring her personality to a photoshoot but as a designer I realized I had to be more strict about the posing and how it would bring out the magic of each garment. I also had to become aware that the model's body movements, hand placements, and such would not cover the designs.

After the shoot

I started on preparing a model release after I sent Hannah her payment. Then I went to Whole Foods and bought a jar of Justin's Vanilla almond butter which I would use as a dip for a pack of honey crisp apples. I was in Retoucher Chelsea Mode and with a full night ahead of editing I knew I would need the protein and the sweet flavor of the apples to pull me through. I was determined to edit all pictures within 24 hours and I did. Using photoshop and Lightroom I colored the images as well as did some flaw corrections. Luckily everything came out mostly flawlessly due to my extensive preparation so the job was much easier than it might have been had I been ill-prepared.

Overall

The photoshoot went just as I imagined with only a few misses. Hannah was and always is a wonder to work with. We talked and laughed and the shoot had a pretty positive energy which is what I think attributed to Hannah's wonderful expressions. I find that models' (or everyone in fact) expressions and poses tend to reflect their comfort level and happiness in their enviroment.

I had fun incorporating most of my creative mindsets in one photoshoot and I can not wait to take on more projects such as this one.