I had a blast photographing Bethany in the city of Atlanta at night. She was a beautiful and fun model who even had a few call backs with the TV show, America’s Next Top Model. But besides having a fun and beautiful model, creating high-caliber images in this type of environment is very difficult on many levels.
However, it’s that higher level of difficulty that makes the entire shoot extra fun for me because I feel a surge of creativity when things are technically difficult. That’s because I value photographs even more when I know that other photographers wouldn’t be able to create them standing in the same setting. Therefore creating superb images in difficult situations makes the images all the more valuable to me.
On this image above, I love the play of warm and cool tones (warm in the foreground and cool in the background), creating a lot of depth and impact!
Shooting in a city is fun at any time of day because I have to create backgrounds from the environment, and make them balance and play with the subject correctly. Everything in an image has to work for the portrait or else it works against it. Most photographers don’t take into account how lines, shapes, and colors in a background affect the foreground subject. But I am a stickler about the details and won’t take a shot unless everything looks great — including how the background interacts with the foreground. I will continue to change my setup until things work.
But then when you add night to the mix of shooting in a city, you add another layer of difficulty — LIGHTING! Lighting isn’t used to create an exposure, but rather to specifically sculpt a subject. Therefore it must be used specifically! It must come from a very specific angle depending on the model, despite any surroundings. And at the same time light has to balance with the background in both intensity as well as color temperature to avoid creating images that are too dark, flat, or dull looking. An image, even when created at night, should instead seem 3-dimentional and have pop!
So with that in mind, Bethany and I had a great time just creating images on this city block. Her style was cute and fun, and we got a lot of variety.
I love this smiling close-up above, and this serious expression in the image below. Both created in the same spot. The vertical lines in the background above play off her angle and her soft hair, while the curve of the sidewalk in the image below leads your eye back to her and adds balance to the left side.
I really like the shadow of a the figure off camera in this next image below. It helps create a mysterious mood. It was created by some stranger walking by, and I liked it and waited to take the shot once the shadow moved into the open space of the image where it wouldn’t visually touch and compete with the rail in the foreground.
I used the effect of light color temperature to create different moods and looks throughout the shoot. I love the color, the angle, and her expression and stance on this image below. The hair softly blowing at an angle really makes this image work!
I ended the shoot with a light up close, sharp, and at a hard angle to create deep shadows. The mix of vertical and horizontal lines of the background, and light and dark areas are all broken up by her pose — making it all work together beautifully!
It was really fun meeting Bethany and creating these images. We had a great time and I hope that she does well in her career.
If you’d like to built your modeling portfolio or just get some wonderful fashion portraits, or perhaps if you’re a high school senior and want a fashion style session for your senior portraits, then give me a call! NO ONE creates images like me! My shoots are so much fun and I know just how to make you look great, beautiful, feminine, and sexy — without being risqué or cheesy. And overall, you will LOVE your images!
Give me a call to schedule your appointment. 801-728-3317. And feel free to browse my main website, BryCox.com and my blog at BryCox.com/blog.
Dallin did the Senior Mix Session, which includes both Color and B&W, both indoor and outdoor portraits using a number of sets, and multiple clothing changes. We mixed looks and created images that show his interests and hobbies.
Watching Alex, I was inspired to do a time lapse photography video. He has one he did that is now the opening sequence of SNL, and it gave me an idea. Sunday morning, I mounted a camera to the side of my car, and created a time-lapse video of me driving to Salt Lake. Here is the result.
We then switched it up to Scott playing his electric guitar, again with selective focus before moving outside.
We then went on location to one of my favorite places because it’s so far from anywhere. As far as you look on the horizon, you won’t see civilization. We are really in the middle of nowhere, and the colors and textures are so great! I really like the lines in this particular image, and how they all work with the guitar’s neck.
We ended the shoot with Scott walking away, feeling that this could perhaps be the back of the CD or a foldout page inside. It gives room for text and design work.
