Eduardo Kong by Yi Chen. Photographed at First Zoom Studios.
For today’s phototip, I’m featuring a guest post by Yi Chen.
When Craig organised a photo walk that involved models and a studio setup, I was initially reluctant to attend. I didn’t have a clue about photographing in a studio. The closest thing I’ve done would’ve been shooting small objects in a homemade light box. Oh, and if could also count the time I was holding the reflector in a corporate photo shoot.
Nevertheless, Craig assured me that it was fine for a total beginner to attend and that he would be there to assist. I thought the worst thing that could happen would be me snapping some bad photos and being ridiculed by fellow photographers. Small price to pay for the learning experience.
When I showed up at First Zoom Studios, the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than I had expected. It wasn’t dominated by pretentious photographers. In fact, some were also studio beginners. This caught me by surprise as I had seen their great landscape and portrait photos on Flickr.
Craig provided some tips, did a quick demonstration and then it was just us beginners in the deep end. A few of us were brave enough to have a go immediately. Others like myself watched on from behind or assisted in holding the reflector (something I was good at).
When it came to my turn, I was both nervous and excited. I shot Eduardo in front of a green screen. I casually yelled out, “I’m just going to do a few test shots.” Where I was actually taking a stab in the dark with the camera settings.
Thankfully Craig pointed me in the right direction, “Shutter speed needs to be under 200 to sync the flashes. Set the aperture to f5.6. And have the ISO between 200 and 400.”
“Phew,” I thought to myself.
I wasn’t sure how to direct Eduardo. At the start, I had him do the cliched poses, “Put your hands in your pockets. Now look up. Pretend you’re thinking. Ok, look at me with a serious face.”
Those poses didn’t work for me. Being a street photographer, I’m use to shooting candid shots – usually involving shooting from the hip or at least avoiding eye contact with my subject.
My first attempt was mediocre. Some of my photos were dark as I clicked too quickly, forgetting that the flash needed a moment to recharge.
My second attempt in shooting Eduardo was a lot more successful. I was less hesitant to give him instructions and decided to just have fun with it. I managed to force him to produce some more candid shots – ironic I know. I had Eduardo throwing pillows in the air, jumping off the couch and explaining how to make a good mojito.
When it came to shooting Eszter the belly dancer, giving her directions was even easier (partially thanks to those belly dancing classes I did years ago).
Eszter Edl by Yi Chen at First Zoom Studios
Eszter did a great job with her shimmies, backbends, hip circles and arm movements. She also danced around with a translucent scarf that produced some very interesting photos. It created a beautiful orange glow as it diffused the studio lights and hit her porcelain skin.
At the end of the day, I had so much fun with the whole experience that I didn’t care about how well my photos turned out. Surprisingly, they turned out great! I was so pleased with the photos that I had no problems self-promoting them to family and friends. Some of them didn’t believe that I had taken them as they were use to my works of scummy alleyways, random people and graffiti.
This was an excellent learning curve for me in photography and I look forward to more similar sessions Craig will be holding in the future!
You can follow Yi on Twitter.
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