I’ve been shooting frequently in the studio these past few months so for my most recent personal shoot, I wanted to switch things up and do an environmental shoot. A friend of mine recently connected me to the model Chavi St. Hill and I started to concept ideas to shoot with her. With her beautiful afro, I felt compelled to do a vintage inspired shoot. I decided to build a couple different sets in my home using an existing brick wall and some vintage furniture & pieces I already owned. I collaborated with stylist Let’s Get Flashy and make up artist Emilia Adamkiewicz and Dan Newman helped assist.

For some of the photographs, I put Vaseline on a piece of plexi glass and held it in front of the lens. It helped create a more analog and imperfect look to the shoot. For lighting, I wanted to have a warm and hazy vibe to give an atmospheric effect to the shoot. For my rim light, I used a Siros S head with a P 65 modifier and CTO. If you’ve read any of my other blog posts, you’ll see a pattern that I like to use this rim light setup to create an artificial sunlight. For the key light, I tried two different approaches. For some of the shots, I had a beauty dish bouncing off a ceiling and wall to get really soft and even light to fill the room. For other shots, I used the 5’ Octabank pointed at the subject. By using a hazer, I didn’t need a fill light since they do a great job of filling in shadows.

In the end, I was really happy with how all the pieces of the shoot came together.

Credits:

Photographer: Justin Bettman

Model: Chavi St. Hill

Behind the Scenes video: Dan Newman

Wardrobe: Miranda Banana

Hair and Makeup: Emilia Adamkiewicz