WHAT IS A PHOTO SHOOT?
It is when a "model" whether it is an artist, actor, singer, pet or food, posing for the photographer's lens, it can be in a studio with controlled lighting or outdoors with charming locations with natural light and sometimes with mixed lighting. Multiple photographs are taken of which only the best ones are chosen, thinking about each one of their promotional applications. It is not always done to a single person; it can be a group of people, which could be a rock band, a football team, etc. The purpose of the photo shoot is to promote the product for commercial purposes, through a magazine, posters, social networks, digital or printed press, album cover, among others.
For many people, including myself, it is not easy to get in front of a camera and "simulate naturalness", but we all like to delight with photographs and especially with portraits, because we love watching images of people similar or different to us. I think it is because of that phrase: "the face is the mirror of the soul", because through the images we can "touch" who observes the photograph. Capturing the essence of the person is not an easy task and if we add the concept or purpose of the Photo Shoot it becomes more complex.
The Model
In this case he is a "Venezuelan Musician".
Knowing and studying well our model well is key. Who is? What has been his career? What does he like? All this questions can make you more familiar and closer to the artist and thus the photo shoot will be more comfortable and successful.
DAVID "CHAPIS" LASCA David "Chapis" Lasca. Musician, creator of Lasca, Bassist of Malanga and Gaélica. Grammy awarded. Producer of Vinilo Versus, La Vida Boheme, Los Colores, McKlopedia, Majarete Sound Machine, Los Cañoneros, SamSara among others. Chapis Lasca
Concept of Musical Production.
Knowing what he is currently working on, what he used as influence to make his musical production, is very important, since, the photo shoot must be completely linked and hand in hand with the artist's promotion.
“The concept of Cero (the new album) is based on the one hand on the idea of moving from a negative state to a positive state through Zero, and on the other hand is based on the idea of trying to disconnect our life experiences to facts that marked us in the past or expectations we have about the future,"explains Lasca. "Under this concept, the LP narrates a stage of my life in which I was looking to free myself of some accumulated burdens in order to reconnect with a more spiritual side and thus be able to take new steps.” Source
Photographic proposal for the Photo Shoot.
In the artist's description of what was his inspiration within the concept of the album called "ZERO", he says: "to move from a negative state to a positive state".
First stage:
- Based on this premise I suggested to him to make portraits, where lighting, focus, composition and gestures were dramatic and contrasting, where through lighting we'll could play, focusing on transmitting the positive side through the light and the negative side through the shadow.
- I decided to turn the photographs to black and white, to through the strong contrasts, demonstrate the rawness and depth of the musical production.
Second stage:
- In this second stage the portraits were cleaner, where we could see his full face, with a more even lighting avoiding the shadows, showing that the artist has left the "negative" state, passed through "Zero", and is in the positive state.
First stage:
Floor plan for positioning of camera and lights
Technical values:
Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 70-200mm
Maximum aperture: 2.8
Diaphragm: ƒ 2.8
Sensitivity: ISO 100
Shutter speed: 1/30s
Focal distance: 35mm
White balance: Continuous lighting
I have an audiovisual production company and the lights that we have are for audiovisual productions, where the main light is continuous light. The principal light is positioned in a 90º angle in relation to the imaginary straight line formed by the photographer and the photographed object from the left side of the model, to generate a completely illuminated part of the face and the other part in shadow. And I had another fill light directed towards the black background to give it texture, and subtly delineate part of the face on the right side.
Finding light in the shadows: It is almost impossible to look at the beauty of light without having shadows. The key to getting a great portrait is to focus the eyes, mainly to get shallow depth of field when working with a large aperture.
One light towards the model and another light towards the background: This combination is used as an alternative to the edge light when we need visual separation between the subject and the background.
A light towards the model, another light bounced towards him: The bounce increases the apparent size of light, which softens it. This is a practical combination if we want a hard key light and a soft fill.
Second stage:
Floor plan for positioning of camera and lights
Technical values:
Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 24-70mm
Maximum aperture: 2.8
Diaphragm: f/2.8
Sensitivity: ISO 100
Shutter speed: 1/80s
Focal distance: 50mm
White balance: Continuous lighting
The frontal and symmetrical lighting allows us to avoid shadows on the face. Due to the proximity between the light source and the object, we obtain flat photographs with little texture, few shaded areas and very bright sectors, although as you can see we managed to increase the amount of detail.
This photo shoot was made in 2016, to David "Chapis" Lasca. Some of the photographs taken in the photo shoot were used by the artist in his social networks and press releases for both print and digital media.
The Floor Plans were made by me.
None of the photographs I used as examples in this post have been used previously.
All the photographs were taken by me with a Canon 7D
