I'm going to start a theme that I'll return to every now and then called Documenting The Shoot, where I'll show you what went into a shoot, what didn't work, and then what did with the final image. A before/after, if you will. My model was kind enough to give me her time to work on a personal project (thank you!), my 52 week project on Flickr, where each week I explore a different topic resulting in a weekly image. This particular week's topic was "Getting from Point A to Point B" and I decided to set up a fashion-type shoot featuring an amazing pair of boots and some fun cross-lighting techniques. We shot in my, shall we say, petite/cozy/tiny home studio which has low ceilings but works great for headshots. Full-body stuff is more challenging - I have to shoot from the very corners of the room, practically Spiderman-style, to avoid distortion. And you do not want distortion when photographing a person's legs.
Here are a few "before" images - you can see a few test shoots against a crappy dark background that shows off lint beautifully. I was trying to get some angles that showed off the boots awesomeness, my models great legs, and a sense of movement as well. I had Audrey walk around a bit, but what worked best was to have her stand still, point her feet exactly as directed, and hang on to my ceiling for dear life (man, in hindsight, I really wished I shot that - next time!). The angle that looked the most "natural" was highly unnatural, but man, she was a trouper. I had a softbox behind her on the ground highlighting her shape and the laces, and an LED panel in front of her - really close - less than a foot, for detail.
I knew it when I got the final image in camera the moment I hit the button. So all I had to do was go into Lightroom, get rid of lint, and burn out the light walls of my studio in the background. And here's that final image:
Let me know what you think of this series and if you want more!