I had the pleasure of doing a second studio session with Erin Brady, Miss USA 2013 and cast member of ‘Startup U’: ABC Family’s Silicon Valley Series. When I get to work with Erin, it’s always a true pleasure. Erin is incredibly talented, she’s enthusiastic and more importantly she’s as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. This shoot was conceptualized by Naomi Martinez of Naomi’s Salon who visualized using make up that was representative of the Pantone colors of the year. Other team members were Danielle Aspinwall who created the beautiful head pieces and jewelry, Tonya Valentin who to this day is one of my all time favorite hair stylists, and of course, I was the photographer and lighting designer for the session.
For beauty and make-up shots, I usually use a Hasselblad as my go to camera. I just love the large format sensor and the color, tonal transitioning and wonderful skin tones that is so characteristic of the older Hasselblad CCD cameras. However, for this session, I decided to leave my comfort zone for the day and used a Sony A7r2 as the camera. It was mounted with a Sony/Zeiss 135mm 1.8 lens (via an A mount adapter) and deep into the session I switched over to the Zeiss Batis 85mm lens to test it’s performance as well. For headshots, I’m still a long lens guy – my preference is 135mm, 150mm or a 200mm focal length depending on the camera body and the shape of the model’s face. However, once my shot list was accomplished, I gave the 85mm Batis a whirl and I must admit that I was quite surprised just how nicely the 85mm performed in this situation.
Regarding lighting, I wanted to be sure I had gear that was flexible enough to move around and adjust quickly as the team typically varies the creative elements throughout the day. I’m pretty much a broncolor enthusiast and will often use a range of their Para modifiers from the 88 to the 133 and occasionally some even larger. I’ve worked with this team before and it isn’t uncommon for us to cycle from a flattering clam shell lighting to a more edgy look with defined shadows and then cycle back to beauty lighting again, all in a single day’s session. Thus, I decided to keep the lighting setup a bit more manageable in terms of the sizing of the modifiers and stands necessary to support them.
As my main light, I used the broncolor Beautybox 65 modifier (with grid) and by the end of the day, this modifier won me over. It’s reasonably priced, lightweight, easy to handle, and most importantly, the light quality is superb and can be varied with slight adjustments in distance and position — it’s very versatile. For headshots, I usually use a 2×2 soft box from underneath but for this session, I used a Westcott Eyelighter for the sole purpose of softening the shadows when warranted. I also used two broncolor 1×3.9 soft boxes with grids for rim lighting from behind. For some images, I even added a 4th Broncolor light with a 70mm reflector covered with a blue gel (e.g. blue color background on ICE images not posted yet). I also used two black flats, one on each side of the model to give some definition to the models cheek bones. If you would like more information about the specific lighting equipment or techniques, camera settings, etc., feel free to leave a comment and I’ll respond with the Details.
Behind the scene photo courtesy of Tonya Valentin, hair stylist for the session.
About Paul Tortora
Paul Tortora is a Connecticut based photographer providing value added services that extend well beyond the creation of images. His expertise lies in the area of carefully crafting his imaging, and infusing it into web based and print mediums that range from portfolios, editorials, advertisements, web sites and email marketing. Paul combines his years of photographic experience with an extensive background in web development, graphic design, marketing and visual technologies. This combination of expertise provides him with the necessary background to assist with most aspects of a client’s media rich project.
