Cathy – Model Portfolio

This is Cathy who we recently had in for a model portfolio photo shoot.

Cathy was a finalist in this year’s Miss Northern Ireland contest and decided she would like to pursue a modelling career.

I think you’ll agree considering this was Cathy’s first photo shoot that she will have a successful career ahead of her in modelling. Cathy has since joined and models with Style Academy Model Agency in Belfast, and we wish her every success.

Make-up by Catherine Fleming Make-up and hair styling by David Graham, both of Linen Green Dungannon and thanks to both for their talented help.

 

A good headshot or even a selection of them is a must for a model portfolio and Cathy got right into it with a great range of looks.

 

Initially intended to show off make-up, this inadvertently had a real Marilyn feel about it!

 

Black and white and hard light. My new passion in lighting 🙂

 

We finished up in the studio and after some lunch we headed out to a nearby location to continue through the afternoon and early evening.

 

The afternoon started off quite cool and dull but Cathy’s beautiful green dress brightened things up on one of the lake jetties.

 

This one was my crazy idea! Anyone who reads my blog will be familiar with the bubble chair. I’ve had the idea of using it on location and this was it happening. Think of it as the bubble chair on tour 🙂

 

During the afternoon I was joined by another photographer who kindly helped out and he was keen to learn some techniques about flash and natural light. With that in mind we headed for a nearby old stone building which provided an abundance of photographic opportunity enabling different techniques to be employed, from straight natural light, to fill reflector, to fill flash and the different results each achieved.

 

This was the inside back wall of the stone building and in virtual darkness. The wall had great texture and pattern, enhanced even further by this 100% flash illuminated shot. The light was softened and from a shallow angle.

 

Moving to the front window opening of the stone building and the sun decided to put in a strong appearance. With the window opening being so large there was sufficient light to bounce back using a reflector to raise the exposure on Cathy, and the exposure was set to use the strong sun behind as a back rim light. Her hair is a little ‘over’ in the highlights but I like it and the bit I love most here is the delicate rim light wrapping around Cathy’s face at each side.

 

Moving to the doorway and virtually the same principals as previously, but this time the extra depth of the walls allowed me to bring Cathy more towards the inside, thus removing a lot of the very strong backlight from the sun. As can be seen by the grass and bushes behind Cathy, had she stepped back we would have been in a ‘blown out’ exposure situation.
Two for the price of one 🙂
Exactly the same position and just a few seconds after the image above but a whole different approach to exposure and a whole different image as a result.
Here the background has now been exposed for causing Cathy to become virtually silhouetted. The sun backlight did create a great shadow on the floor now which was too good to waste. Here a very directionally controlled flash was added to expose for Cathy while not spilling light onto the floor so the shadow remained strong.

 

Exposure was for the wall behind, and done so to keep it quite dark. This was a dark area and principal exposure on cathy was from flash.

 

We moved back out to one of the jetties for the last series of pictures and this one was natural light only. The sun was in and out and hazy.

 

A two for the price of one again 🙂
Taken just after the shot above with the exposure dropped right down now to well below what was ‘correct’ exposure. Flash was then added to give this lit and more dramatic look.

 

 

 

 

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