Spring Season

By Ariniko O'Meara   |   Posted April 28, 2014   |   Previous Entry   |   Next Entry

This year's schedule is starting to fill up quickly and I am super excited about it. Last Saturday I brought in a client and her two adorable children. It was part of my spring shoot special. Her session lasted for about an hour and we were able to get two different indoor poses and an outdoor set. I haven't had too many studio sessions since taking over at AA Creative Corridor. I have been extremely busy scheduling other photographers who rent that space and booking parties and events there but too busy, in fact, to book for myself. I took last weekend for my own.

My first set up was using clearance Christmas lights. Each strand was going for about $40 right after the holidays. I picked up 6. It was a pretty good deal for lights I thought. Remembering to get great deals post holidays helps me build up my props. I also got some pretty good deals on fluffy blankets. The purple one in this image was $7. It has two distinct colors on each side, which makes two distinct props.

To create the bokeh effect I pulled the subject more than 10 feet away from the lighted wall, shut off all the lights and then placed the umbrella lights to the left and right at a 45 degree angle to the face. This lit the subject but kept the back wall dim. If the room had a little more natural light I probably would have tried to go all natural which would have created more of a softened bokeh effect.

For the next set I pulled the client to a gorgeous blond brick wall inside the studio. This wall creates a more contemporary urban feel. It also had great natural light as it's next to a west facing window. Had it been evening and sunny there would have been a fantastic orange hue that creates warmth on the subject like in this photo:

It was a little bit chilly outside still but the whole family was willing to head outside for some shots against the graffiti wall which is right next to the studio. The wall is painted in such a way that you can get an entirely different feel and color scheme just by moving up and down the wall. It's too wonderful to ignore.

As much as I love shooting on location in a natural light environment, I am really liking and adapting to shooting with lights, backdrops, reflectors, and diffusers at this new studio space. I think you'd like it too.