My Most Recent Photo Shoot

My most recent photo shoot was on Wednesday, September 28th. I shot my friends at different locations around the school to get different lighting for my reflector project. I had actually had pictures from the previous week, but they somehow got lost in the shuffle, so I had to re-shoot on Wednesday. There was one major set back though. In order to have a successful reflector photo shoot, there needs to be sunlight to reflect. But because I had to shoot early in the morning, there was barely any sun! I had to use any light possible to make the pictures work. Finally when the sun sort of came out twenty minutes later, I started taking more shots of my friends Catherine and Lauren while my other friend Faith held the reflector. I mostly used the gold side and the diffuser because I couldn't access the silver side due to the zipper being broken on the reflector (this day was not my day). But I had to make it work. The gold worked really nicely because it made the yellow of Lauren's shirt pop (picture of Lauren above).

I first shot Lauren outside in the front of the school to get back light shots, which I got plenty of. I probably took around 20-30 pictures of her just in that location alone. I also took a few picture of Catherine using the diffuser side. Because Lo has a deeper skin tone, the gold side really emphasized that, and because Catherine has a lighter skin tone, the diffuser side made the bright light on her face softer. The first place I shot was by the flag pole to get the sun from the side and the reflector on the other side. The second place was in front of the parking lot with the field behind the models so the sun was completely behind them.

The next location was by the stairs under the shade to get my open shade shots. The gold side of the diffuser worked really well in this location because it warmed up the harsh white of the overcasting clouds and counteracted the artificial yellow light from the ceiling by the stairs. I also took a couple of photos on the tables in the quad. I had Catherine and Lo sitting on top of the tables with the sun in the background, lighting up their backs and using the reflectors to light up their fronts.

The last two locations were upstairs. The first was by the lockers where there is a huge opening to look at the mountains. Here was where the light was hitting Lauren from the front. It created a very bright, white look on her, so I used the soft side to diffuse the light and create a softer look. Next, I took pictures of Lauren and Catherine by the stairs inside where there is huge line of windows. The sun was just rising, so the light was very apparent. In the pictures, it came out very overexposed, so I had to use the soft side to diffuse the light when the sun was direct, facing the front of the models. Then, when I shot it with the sun on the side and from the back, I used the gold side to warm up the picture and reflect the sunlight onto the darker side of the model.